Month: March 2021

Verizon tells users to disable 5G to preserve battery, then deletes tweet

Verizon’s now-deleted tweet said using 4G only will conserve battery life.

A giant Verizon 5G logo in an expo hall.

Enlarge / A Verizon booth at Mobile World Congress Americas in Los Angeles in September 2018. (credit: Verizon)

Verizon has spent years hyping 5G despite it bringing just a minor speed upgrade outside the limited areas where millimeter-wave spectrum has been deployed, but the carrier's support team advised users yesterday to shut 5G off if their phones are suffering from poor battery life.

The tweet from VZWSupport, now deleted, said, "Are you noticing that your battery life is draining faster than normal? One way to help conserve battery life is to turn on LTE. Just go to Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data and tap LTE."

While Verizon didn't mention 5G in the tweet, people who responded to Verizon on Twitter and journalists writing stories noted that the effect of these instructions is to shut 5G off. "LTE is active by default as a backup for those times when 5G isn't available. Following these instructions actually has the effect of turning off 5G," Mashable noted. (Verizon's instructions are for iOS, but it's also possible to disable 5G on Android phones.)

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Daily Deals (3-01-2021)

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B.1.1.7 variant now 10% of US cases—and cases are once again ticking up

“Things are tenuous,” CDC director says, as experts fear a fourth surge.

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff participate in a moment of silence and candle light ceremony at sundown with 500 candles for the 500,000 dead from the COVID-19 pandemic, at the South Portico at the White House on Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Enlarge / President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff participate in a moment of silence and candle light ceremony at sundown with 500 candles for the 500,000 dead from the COVID-19 pandemic, at the South Portico at the White House on Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty | The Washington Post)

After weeks of dramatic decline, COVID-19 cases in the US have hit a plateau—and in some places are ticking up. Officials are sounding the alarm in hopes of averting a fourth surge in the devastating pandemic.

“We at CDC consider this a very concerning shift in the trajectory,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press briefing last week. Though cases are down from their astronomical peak in early to mid January, the overall numbers are still quite high, matching averages seen in late October, at the base of the holiday surge.

“Things are tenuous,” she noted. “Now is not the time to relax restrictions.”

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Groko-Partei verspricht Respekt und Fortschritt

SPD stellt Entwurf für Bundestagswahlprogramm vor. Olaf Scholz ist trotz bescheidener Umfragewerte überzeugt, Kanzler werden zu können

SPD stellt Entwurf für Bundestagswahlprogramm vor. Olaf Scholz ist trotz bescheidener Umfragewerte überzeugt, Kanzler werden zu können