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Cell phone in the toilet. Can it be saved?

Q My daughter dropped her cell phone in the school toilet accidentally. Is there any chance it can be saved?

Safe photo sharing tips

Q Can I protect my family photos online so they
aren’t copied or stolen?
A Photo sharing is one of the most popular
activities online, and photos are uploaded to the Internet every
day on social networks, swapped via email and posted on
photo-sharing websites.
How many? Flickr hit the 6 billion mark this year
and grows by about one billion photos a year. Those numbers pale in
comparison to Facebook’s photo stats. The site averages 6 billion
photo uploads each month, and was set to hit 100 billion photos
this summer.
As private as folks may try to be, there is a real
risk that uploaded photos can be used without permission on
inappropriate sites, for marketing purposes or by scam artists. And
while there is no perfect way to protect an uploaded photo from
theft, simple security precautions can help deter misuse.
Avoid using tags. Tagging friends in a photo may
cause the photo automatically to be shared with a larger network.
Avoid identifying tags or even using full names when adding photo
captions.
Double-check your privacy settings. On Facebook,
check photo settings and set them conservatively. Security defaults
can change, so make it a habit to double-check settings every few
weeks.
Make your preferences known. Even if you’re just
sharing with close friends and family, post a reminder that you’d
like the photos to remain private by putting a note in the comment
sections of your photos.
Share in secure social networks. Consider setting
up a photo-sharing site with a very small social network of family
and friends, rather than posting every photo on Facebook or
Flickr.
Upload in low resolution. This usually means your
photos can be seen well enough online, but it would be harder to
make a large quality reproduction if the image was stolen.
Put a copyright on it. You can do this in comments
or use photo-editing software to add it directly to the photo. The
copyright symbol sends a clear message and can usually be found in
the software’s Insert menu under Symbols.
Watermark your photos. Applying a watermark can
prevent your photo from being easily copied. Software is available
at PicMarkr.com and VisualWatermark.com for Macs and PCs.
It is important to remember that digital photos
posted on the Internet almost never can b

A The answer is yes! Water damage is one of the most common causes of damage for mobile phones-and many other electronic devices that end up in the toilet, the washing machine or even a puddle. Before you panic, try these simple steps to save your waterlogged gadget.

•Don’t turn it on. It may be tempting to see if it still works, but don’t press the “on” button. Attempting to power up your device might short-circuit it and cause unnecessary damage.

•Remove the battery. You may notice that there is a water damage sticker that turns color if the phone is submerged.Even if the sticker turns color, your phone may still come back to life if dried out properly.

•Don’t dry your phone out with a hair dryer, microwave or oven. Blot the phone dry with a paper towel to the best of your ability.Then submerge the phone components in dry rice overnight.Rice naturally draws the water away from the device.

You can also put the device in a sealed plastic bag with the silica gel packets that comes in the toes and pockets of shoes and new clothes.

•Do be patient. Phones can take up to a week to dry out completely.

•Wait at least 24-48 hours or as long as you can before reinstalling the battery and turning the phone on.

•Don’t forget to disinfect. Even if your phone landed in a toilet of fresh water, germs may be present. Use a disinfectant wipe to clean the outside of the phone once the device has dried out.

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