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Showing posts from August, 2026

The 8-Step Tune-Up That Will Bring Your "Slow" Phone Back to Life

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TL;DR : Smartphones don’t usually slow down because they’re old — they slow down because years of untouched settings pile up.  The fix is mostly reversible. Adjust these eight high‑impact settings on iPhone or Android to restore speed and battery life tonight: Identify battery hogs  Kill background refresh  Reduce animations  Free up storage  Restrict location access  Stop background downloads  Restart weekly  Check battery health  Smartphone slowdown isn’t always about age — it’s often the result of settings and background behaviors most people never adjust. With AI pushing handset prices up 13% and supply constraints expected to stretch beyond 2030, a three‑year‑old phone isn’t outdated; it’s simply weighed down by years of unchecked background activity, visual effects, storage pressure, and battery wear. Taken together, these factors create the familiar “old phone” drag — the gradual loss of speed and battery life that creeps in after co...

Senate Probes How AI and Personal Data Inflate Consumer Prices

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Sen. Josh Hawley opened a Senate Judiciary hearing on August 4, 2026 with a warning that AI‑driven surveillance pricing is already reshaping what Americans pay online and in stores. He cited documented cases of companies using location data, IP addresses, and real‑time behavioral tracking to quietly raise prices for individual shoppers. Documented cases of AI surveillance pricing Staples was shown to vary online prices based on a customer’s proximity to competitors. Target’s app increased the price of a vacuum by as much as $150 the moment a shopper walked into a store. Lyft charged 29 different fares to 55 Missouri riders traveling the same route at the same time. Kroger generated over $500 million by selling customer data that fuels these pricing systems. What's AI Surveillance Pricing AI surveillance pricing refers to the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to set individualized prices for the same product or service based on a detailed profile of you as a sp...