Smart appliances, which let you control lights and power outlets via your phone, promise to cut energy bills. But research suggests these gadgets are confusing, and can just as easily raise power use.
Is this an impostor trying to break into your phone with his voice?
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Kui Ren, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
You can log in to your smartphone by talking to it. Current security systems don't protect enough against imitators. The best way to ensure voice authentication is secure is to start with the sound.
Should children under the age of 13 be given access to smartphones?
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Teaching fear and avoidance of technology may protect people from negative consequences. But it also prevents them from finding, and benefiting from, productive uses of new innovations.
How much is too much screen time for kids?
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For decades, parents have fretted over 'screen time,' limiting the hours their children spend looking at a screen. But as times change, so does media... and how parents should (or shouldn't) regulate it.
When smartphone apps get permission to access your location or other activity, they often share that data with other companies that can compile digital profiles on users.
Both paid and unpaid apps can track your data. The apps pictured may not - but it’s hard to know which do and which don’t.
Flickr/Blake Patterson
A simple idea that's surprisingly secure: drawing your own unlock pattern on a touchscreen. Faster and easier to remember than a password, and much harder to guess or crack.
An alternate choice for unlocking a smartphone.
Lydia Kraus et al., 'On the Use of Emojis in Mobile Authentication,' 2017.
Have you ever checked your phone thinking you had felt it vibrate or heard it ring, only to see that no one tried to reach you? One researcher decided to study this phenomenon.
What do you do if a border official asks for your phone PIN?
Ervins Strauhmanis/Flickr
Following reports of travellers to the US being forced to unlock their phones for border officials, here are some steps you can take to prevent your personal data from being exposed.
Does technology shackle us, preventing us from interacting with real people?
'Chain' via www.shutterstock
Anupam Joshi, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
The best way to protect a presidential device is to keep it off the internet altogether. If that's not going to happen, how else can such a sensitive gadget be kept safe?
Mi Zhang, Michigan State University; David Mohr, Northwestern University, and Jingbo Meng, Michigan State University
Using sensors on smartphones and smartwatches can shed light on patients' symptoms of depression, even identifying ones they didn't notice or share with counselors.
Does our dependence on smartphones harm our social fabric?
Alone with phone via shutterstock.com
