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Micheline

The Best Open-Source Alternatives to Android and iOS

These days, smartphones are our most prized possessions! They are always within easy reach, and we turn them on more than a hundred times per day without ever really considering that they deliberately steal our personal data and unabashedly limit our choices because of the operating systems they deploy.

In France, the market research firm Kantar Worldpanel found that in the first quarter of 2020, Google and Apple possessed more than 99% of the OS market share (78.8% for Google’s Android, 21.1% for Apple’s iOS).

However, today’s consumers are becoming more and more wary of the big names in technology. Whether it be a lack of ethics when it comes to privacy or security issues associated with applications, alternative, open-source operating systems and applications are now being sought to regain control of personal data and extend the lifespan of devices.

Back Market put these alternatives to the test.

May 25, 2020 by Micheline

Is Back Market Legit?

There’s this crazy question that’s been floating around the interwebs: is Back Market legit? Let’s help you find an answer to that.

May 13, 2020 by Micheline

What are the Environmental Impacts of 5G?

5G is already operational in countries such as China and South Korea, and is increasingly anticipated in Europe. This new technology is the fifth generation of wireless communication and is the successor to the current 4G. Developed to handle the growing volume of data and modern digital business, 5G will enable greater exchange and storage capacities. In order to do this, this technology will require a hitherto unheard-of millimeter wave bandwidth in the range of 30 to 300 GHz.

In France, the first offers should be launched by the end of the year if current conditions regarding COVID-19 still permit it.

5G technology has been a highly controversial subject for several years now and it is far from being unanimously accepted. The reason for this, aside from the digital opportunities 5G offers, is that it also raises fears of an unprecedented environmental disaster on a planetary scale.

“To dare; that is the price of progress,” said Victor Hugo in Les Misérables. But at what price?

April 30, 2020 by Micheline

A Day at Home with Back Market

So, how’s quarantine going for you? After two weeks, it looks like people fall into two groups: the ones who are getting used to it and think it’s “actually not so bad,” and the ones who are getting a sinking feeling that we may be stuck staying home until summer at this rate.

Either way, sharing our struggles keeps us from getting too lonely, whether our kids are driving us up the wall, we want to kill our neighbors, or we’re about to take revenge on our messy roommates by giving their stuff away to whoever’s walking by. Don’t despair! Come join us for our daily Back Market routine.

April 16, 2020 by Micheline

14 Useful and Fun Tips and Tricks for Your Smartphone

Today most of us are pretty inseparable from our smartphone. But apart from using the phone, text messages, email and social media functions, most of us don’t really know just how jam packed these technological gems are with hidden super practical or fun functions, whether you have an Android or iPhone. We have taken a little look at these different features and included what we considered the most useful or the most fun in this article. Exploiting the full potential of your smartphone.

April 7, 2020 by Micheline

Working from home: tips and tricks for staying efficient and motivated

Before the lockdown, working from home was already widely recommended by the government in general to limit the spread of the corona virus. Today, most businesses (those that can do it) have had no choice but to close their doors and encourage their employees to work from home. While this is a normal routine for some workers, the temptation to become a couch potato and binge watch a few series in your pajamas rather than working can be a real temptation.

To stay focused and productive, you need to have self-discipline and establish some simple routines in order to be effective. Here are the first 5 rules to put in place:

March 19, 2020 by Micheline

All about Co2nscious

Since it was founded in 2014, Back Market, has been focused on battling electronic waste and extending the lives of electronic devices and appliances. The Conscious project is one way that Back Market addresses a challenging aspect of this mission: to begin meaningful conversations with the public around the environmental impact of high-tech devices and, of course, to begin exploring solutions for them (however imperfect these might be).

Here is everything you might want to know about the project in a few lines—the concept, methodology, and even its limitations.

For your information: the project is now finished and we are currently thinking about giving it a new life. Feel free to tell us what you thought of the widget by commenting this article!

March 17, 2020 by Micheline

Why You Should Recycle Your Old Cell Phone

Of the more than 70 million cell phones purchased every year in the United States, only 10% are recycled. What happens to the rest? The vast majority of old smartphones are left to collect dust in drawers, serving no purpose whatsoever. Others are thrown away and end up in a garbage dump or are incinerated.

So where’s the problem? Well, discarded smartphones can cause lasting damage to soils, jeopardize biodiversity, and affect human health. In this article, we’ll look at the things you can do to give your old cell phone a second life.

March 5, 2020 by Micheline

What’s The Impact Of Digital Pollution?

“If you look at its entire life cycle, just sending a 1-megabyte email is equivalent to using a 60-watt light bulb for 25 minutes (Françoise Berthoud, computer technician at the Gricad research center)

Belief in a “virtual” world is probably one of the biggest illusions of our time.The Internet is not intangible, and digital pollution is a very real thing. It’s very easy to forget that supporting Internet requires building and maintaining thousands of data centers to store information, miles of networks to carry it, and millions of computers, tablets, and smartphones to connect to them. Obviously, this comes with a cost.

But how big? And how can we make it smaller?

February 28, 2020 by Micheline

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