Tech World

If getting rid of superfluous apps on your smartphone doesn't solve the problem, reinstalling factory stock software likely will. Like rehab -- or the drunk tank -- for our lethargic, wrong-side-of-the-tracks smartphone inhabitant, this operation may sound like a big deal and a lot of work, and unfortunately it is, because you have to reconfigure your apps. One of the disadvantages of retaining a phone after the expiration of a two-year contract -- as many of us do -- is that those older phones have accumulated a few years' worth of digital gunk. They're clogged up like an aging sewer on the wrong side of town. Just like on a PC, bits of app and OS code become discombobulated -- orphaned from the parent program. Onboard digital debris becomes disoriented like a drunk stumbling out of a favored hole-in-the-wall; jumbled lethargy sets in, and the device can take forever to start or become sticky in operation. Well, just like a PC -- or a run-down apartmen...

Determine where best to free up space. Take a look at the Pictures and Videos space used in particular. Look for the numerical value next to the descriptive label. Video and images, unlike music, often don't need to be stored on the device and can be moved. HD video is a major memory hog. Photographs and music are other forms of media that take up a lot of space. It's a good idea to prune an Android device periodically, for a few reasons. A mishmash of apps, some aging, have all kinds of on-device routines running that can negatively affect performance. Worse, some are continually accessing the Internet and eating into your data cap -- unlimited wireless Internet on mobile devices is practically nonexistent these days. Plus, the accumulation of apps and their associated data hogs now limited storage memory. It's common to see no expandable storage options on may current phones. I've written about ways to speed up a slowing phone before. In "Ho...

Today in international tech news: Adding yet another chapter to the U.S.-China cyberstandoff, China calls for increased vetting of major IT products and services. Also: Cabbies vandalize -- and engage in fisticuffs at -- the London office of a taxi app; a German court tries to legislate against revenge porn; and Twitter heeds Pakistani block requests. The ever-testy cyberstandoff between the U.S. and China got a new twist when Beijing announced that it would start "cybersecurity vetting of major IT products and services" used for national security and public interests, according to the Xinhua news agency. The vetting is designed to prevent suppliers from using their products to control, disrupt or shut down clients' systems, or from using the systems to scoop up information. Companies that don't pass muster will be barred from supplying products and services in China. The Xinhua article references both a) Congress' 2012 declaration that...

The most obvious reasoning for Microsoft's establishment of a .Net foundation and further opening up the technology is the continued presence and prominence of open source software -- and openness in general -- in key, fast-moving enterprise IT trends including cloud computing, Big Data and devops. Today, Microsoft continues to reshape its approach to open source. Microsoft recently established a .Net foundation and open sourced substantial parts of the popular programming language, continuing to spread its newfound love for open source software. However, it's another movement -- devops -- that may be more of a driving factor in Microsoft's .Net move. In establishing the independent .Net Foundation and making more key pieces of .Net open source, Microsoft was promoting collaboration and community, it said. Many open source technologies exist for .Net, including the recently released .Net compiler platform codenamed "Roslyn." Microsoft also high...

T he best advocates are often converts. So it is with Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute. Brooks has an important forthcoming book, The Road to Freedom, which I’ll discuss in a minute, but it’s worth pausing over the unusual career of Brooks himself, because it says much about happiness, free enterprise, and the unique American spirit that Brooks has spent the last decade attempting to save. The son of two liberal college professors, Brooks writes that when he was growing up in Seattle, “No one in my world voted for Ronald Reagan. I had no friends or family who worked in business. I believed what most everybody in my world assumed to be true: that capitalism was a bit of a sham to benefit rich people, and the best way to get a better, fairer country was to raise taxes, increase government services, and redistribute more income.” Brooks became a professional musician, playing the French horn with the Annapolis Brass Quintet and with the Bar...

Selecting the right life partner is necessary to lead a happy married life. Here's how you can select your perfect one There are many factors that one needs to consider when choosing a life partner. The most important aspect is to consider things that are crucial to you. Find someone who you can connect with easily It is very important to choose somebody who you can easily strike a conversation with. This way, you can enjoy doing things and talking about them together without getting bored. Potential partner with same interests Selecting someone who shares a lot of common interests with you will work in your favour. Remember that all your interests don't really have to be the same, but some would do. Says clinical psychologist and relationship expert Seema Hingorrany, "When you decide to spend your life with someone, you must look at things that the two of you would love to do together. For example, if you are a movie buff, you would ideally like to be...

A funny thing happened when the cable guy came by to hook up my digital converter box the other day. He asked me out. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a problem: The guy was cute, funny, and fairly knowledgeable about old movies (which I happen to love). But he was also 22 years younger than me. And, yes, I asked. When I told my friends, they were excited. “Go for it!” they told me. “If Stella could get her groove on, so can you!” But I was less enthused about the prospect of dating someone who was born while I was away at college. After all, there a lot of things to think about when it comes to dating outside your decade. Herewith, the good, the bad and the ugly of dating young. The good Dating someone younger keeps you young, says Jane Ganahl, former singles columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle who’s currently working on an anthology about older women and younger men. Plus, there’s that whole sexual-compatibility thing. “If we can believe that nugget that women...