We all have plenty of questions about our phones, but where does the truth lie? Is our phone always listening to us? Is it safe to use while pumping gas? Does closing apps help our phone perform better? In this edition of WIRED’s Tech Truths, former Apple store tech David Payette is here to set the record straight.
Check out David’s YouTube channel here:
Director: Trevor Locke
Director of Photography: Rahil Ashruff
Editor: Louis Lalire
Host: David Payette
Coordinating Producer: Kevyn Fairchild
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Shelby Bomah
Production Manager: Eric Martinez
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Casting Producer: Thomas Giglio
Talent Booker: Nicole Ford
Camera Operator: Cloud
Audio: Gabe Quiroga
Gaffer: Cody Blevins
Production Assistant: Caleb, Clark Lea Donenberg
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Graphics Supervisor: Ross Rackin
Designer: Samuel Fuller
00:00 – Tech Truths with David Payette
00:21 – Is my phone listening to me?
02:03 – Are our phones watching us?
02:59 – Do our phones track us even when they are off?
04:20 – Does your phone get better service depending on how you hold it?
04:27 – Does your phone ruin credit cards or hotel room keys?
04:48 – Will a magnet wipe your phone?
04:57 – Do phones attract lightning?
05:07 – Is it safe to hold your phone when pumping gas?
05:15 – Can your phone be hacked on public WiFi or random USB chargers?
06:23 – Is Airplane Mode really necessary?
07:32 – Does dark mode help your eyesight?
08:20 – Is planned obsolescence real?
09:28 – How waterproof are our phones?
10:33 – Does closing apps enhance your phone’s performance?
11:43 – What’s the deal with exploding phone batteries?
12:40 – What’s the best way to charge our phones?
13:48 – How often do you need to clean your phone’s screen?
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Mandeep
May 17, 2023 at 3:59 pm
Wow, this was pretty interesting
Pie
May 17, 2023 at 4:10 pm
How I wish my phone is actually really listening to me so we can talk a lot of things 🥺
living meme exe
May 17, 2023 at 4:25 pm
Downgrading doesn’t void your warranty
Dest1n7
May 17, 2023 at 5:06 pm
This was great!
EPA Sketch
May 17, 2023 at 5:14 pm
I notice there wasn’t an actual answer about if there’s planned obsolescence
hop cfizl
May 17, 2023 at 7:16 pm
He’s Apple worker or former worker so probably still under some sort of NDA.
Alexa Ales
May 17, 2023 at 5:19 pm
and that’s folks why i don’t own a smart phone. i only own a cell phone for emergencies, no need for anything more than that. i don’t take selfies where ever i go and i don’t feel the need to take pictures of my food. since i don’t do social media i also don’t need to check my phone constantly to see if anyone liked my posts. who needs apps??? it’s a very freeing and peaceful life, you should try it sometimes :-).
John Smith
May 17, 2023 at 6:06 pm
My phone is listening to me by choice. Google Pixel 2 with “Always Listening” song feature on. As well as “hey Google”
TN1
May 17, 2023 at 6:11 pm
I liked how he trolled me by saying “Hey Siri” which made all of my devices activate.
Hélène B
May 17, 2023 at 6:19 pm
Bonjour David Glitter!!
🥁
Paillette means glitter in French
hallo
May 17, 2023 at 6:23 pm
Thanks for the video! This was actually really helpful and I learned a lot!
notjustanotherbrickinthewall
May 17, 2023 at 6:39 pm
If my phone can’t track me how did I get an ad for a very specific coffee I was looking at in the morning at the store? Haven’t googled it, haven’t said out loud, literally just grabbed it to look at it and put it away. I had my phone in my hand.
Carmen Smith Aguirre
May 17, 2023 at 9:26 pm
Has happened to me too.
Baleigh Hoenshell
May 17, 2023 at 6:42 pm
owofte o
oune e d
clean y o u
ne’s s c r e e
Steve C
May 17, 2023 at 6:43 pm
Except former NSA folks have said this isn’t true (phones listening to you and can have their mics and cameras turned on remotely). Also apps have been proven time and time again not to be actually responding to privacy buttons. APPLE included. You are a fool if you accept at face value what Apple / Google tell you. They are absolutely in bed with world governments. Also regarding batteries… If you read the study done by Battery University they will tell you that to extend the life of your Li-Ion / Lithium-Polymer batteries you should not drop below 20% State of Charge and shouldn’t charge it past 80%. This extends the battery useable life by ~10x because of the chemical reaction going on inside the battery.
An English Language Learner
May 17, 2023 at 6:47 pm
This is gold! Please make it into series and cover PC too.
hop cfizl
May 17, 2023 at 6:52 pm
You guys forgot to add a label “Sponsorex by Apple” 😂 I get he’s Apple expert but he was always putting Apple first place. 😅
milk grapes
May 17, 2023 at 7:01 pm
Absolutely your phone is listening to you and in the way you think it is
Conor Murphy
May 17, 2023 at 7:01 pm
Just remember that every single tech company wants to store and if it can sell your data.
ismoouu
May 17, 2023 at 7:07 pm
OMG I never see anyone wearing Penguing (the brand). Love it 😍
J Z
May 17, 2023 at 7:11 pm
You guys know wired was bought by billionaires. Between the Saudi’s, the Murdochs basically everyone trying to propagandize you. Please don’t watch this trash anymore . They were good but now they are CNN/fox
Tou Iij
May 17, 2023 at 7:43 pm
What about putting your phone in the fridge?
Nick Lewis
May 17, 2023 at 8:27 pm
This dude looks like mike white.
An English Language Learner
May 17, 2023 at 8:33 pm
Why I press side button and volume didn’t have “findable”, “Medical ID”, “Emergency Call” options? I’m iPhone SE 2.
Kurray Quinn
May 17, 2023 at 8:40 pm
I’m calling BS on it not listening to me. Too many times has a very specific word been “said only” and then a day later both Facebook and Amazon are giving me ads of that very thing. Way too often to be just a coincidence. Unless you have a better explanation of why that’s constantly happening
Hffe
May 17, 2023 at 8:40 pm
This video looks like an AD
JorWat25
May 18, 2023 at 3:23 am
Everyone in the comments who insists their phone listens to them, can you provide evidence better than anecdotes of ‘I said this, and got an ad for it’? Give me a proper study testing this scientifically, or show me the part of the coding that analyses what you’re saying to generate ads, or anything that holds more weight than stories the equivalent of ‘I was thinking about my friend and then he called me’.
Shreyas J
May 18, 2023 at 4:16 am
This is just APPLE’S commercial😮
John Ekow
May 18, 2023 at 4:55 am
FBI paid someone to lie to us. smart move. hehe
kklowd
May 18, 2023 at 5:27 am
He’s cute is he single
Knurz
May 18, 2023 at 5:44 am
Okay we get it:
US Company Apple = Good
Other companies = Bad
Adam
May 18, 2023 at 5:55 am
Lies, Dark mode has been linked to Astigmatism
Kent
May 18, 2023 at 5:56 am
Very informative, love this
Eel Coyle
May 18, 2023 at 6:47 am
I’m sure they use hot words to determine whether they wanna record you or not
JanetR
May 18, 2023 at 7:34 am
This guy has helped me learn so much about my phone. I really enjoy his content.
Payette Forward
May 19, 2023 at 3:26 pm
Thanks so much, Janet! I really enjoyed your comment. 👍🏆
KTL17
May 18, 2023 at 7:41 am
Love the sign-pusher
Browk
May 18, 2023 at 8:27 am
An important note I think most can agree on: it’s not whether or not our phones are listening to us, but whether our information is being intercepted somewhere along the internet infrastructure ie wifi/cell networks.
Payette Forward
May 19, 2023 at 3:25 pm
Sounds like an interesting follow-up!
chuck mcgrucckin
May 18, 2023 at 8:33 am
I love this content but I also feel as if I am being brainwashed.
Olugbenga Ogunbowale
May 18, 2023 at 9:09 am
Very useful. Thanks for sharing.
Dima Lisovyk
May 18, 2023 at 9:26 am
The video was much more interesting then I expected for such a common topic as phones
Payette Forward
May 19, 2023 at 3:30 pm
Thanks, Dima!
MaxwilDG
May 18, 2023 at 9:34 am
snowden showed us that the us government (and other governments) are always keeping track of people, but otherwise good video
Marcus Weinberger
May 18, 2023 at 9:59 am
Even when plugging iPhones or Android into USB cables, just because you don’t see a popup doesn’t mean they aren’t doing something funky! It may be emulating a keyboard for a delayed attack, or even pretend to be a high speed ethernet connection, which means they can spy on all your phone’s internet traffic.
Jean Baptist
May 18, 2023 at 10:00 am
A reminder that the us still uses magnetic credit card
Nicolas Pachon
May 18, 2023 at 10:53 am
Curious that he went around the question about planned obsolescence and answered another thing……… very diplomatic……
Payette Forward
May 19, 2023 at 3:37 pm
😂
The Bull
May 18, 2023 at 12:32 pm
The guy who worked for Apple says your phone is totally not listening to you. Its just pure coincidence that it constantly brings up content unrelated to anything you’ve searched for but only mentioned in earshot of your phone 2 minutes ago.
El Casho
May 19, 2023 at 4:08 am
brings up where
Trio LOL Gamers
May 19, 2023 at 9:33 am
It is like asking a robber if he stole anything 🤣🤣.
With Google and Apple I’ve always that feel that they spy more than others…
Still the most important thing is to keep data safe: Meta for example is well known for losing users important data (1 years ago there were Usernames with their phone numbers all over Telegram… And still the governmnent was like “we didn’t see anything. It all seems normal!”. For God sake, don’t they understand that they makes us vulnerables to cyberattacks?!?)…
Also the fact that it listens only to S is not completely correct. Google in fact lets you look into his data and it sometimes listens to a lot more… The same does Siri, so please, go to privacy and enable auto deleting data after 1 month. It is safer for you not having all your data on their server when you don’t need that.
pr0f3ta_YT
May 19, 2023 at 1:34 pm
That’s google you doofus
Mother Time
May 18, 2023 at 12:42 pm
I still have problems with my right hand interfering with reception and with internet. I will gladly show you it happens.
Chakra Beatbox
May 18, 2023 at 12:58 pm
Didn’t get to see what happened to those iPhones after they stayed in those different liquids 😭😭
Yannis Constantinides
May 18, 2023 at 1:44 pm
Oh look, propaganda!
Whoa Marcelus
May 18, 2023 at 6:00 pm
0:38. WHOA
Dark Pumpkin
May 18, 2023 at 7:10 pm
What a load of crap, unsubscribed -_-
JeskidoYT
May 19, 2023 at 2:16 am
Finally a tech informative video on this channel
Kinetic Mirage
May 19, 2023 at 2:24 am
Paid actor….phone is definitely listening, watching, and tracking
David Palmer
May 19, 2023 at 2:59 am
Riddle me this then why is that if you speak about something with a group of friends, let’s say something you don’t usually do and never googled, e.g. for me scuba diving. Then you get scuba gear themed ads and vacation ads near ocean?
k3tna
May 19, 2023 at 3:11 am
Liked that one.
user1
May 19, 2023 at 3:30 pm
My Pixel 7 is actually listening because it identifies a song without me pressing any button. You can disable it of course.
user1
May 19, 2023 at 3:59 pm
09:00 Samsungs flagships have 5 year OS upgrades
Kal Solo
May 19, 2023 at 7:29 pm
:55 that makes sense, isn’t that how they track gunshots?
James Friend
May 20, 2023 at 12:22 am
i’ve never seen this many conspiracy theorists in a single comment section before looool
ZAWHER NOS
May 20, 2023 at 1:13 am
Bro onno emon used Device er review diyen
Ar google photos e picture quality niye update diyen
Sobai sundor pic dite dite comparison tai mon moto hoi na
Mac McIntire
May 20, 2023 at 2:41 am
Super interesting, thanks!
Apocalypse Wow!
May 20, 2023 at 6:54 am
Play Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2. It will really give you a good insight into what is possible and what’s not.
ruffsnap
May 20, 2023 at 11:03 am
7:42 – I disagree here. Dark mode makes me strain my eyes more, trying to read light text on dark backgrounds. Dark text on lighter backgrounds is a lot easier on the eyes.
Dee B
May 20, 2023 at 1:21 pm
the most important question, does youtube connect to wifi.
popkartiphone
May 20, 2023 at 10:25 pm
Is mmWave 5G signal on iPhone can cover by hand or case? I saw some article says it will weaken really fast.
ThunderBassist Jay
May 20, 2023 at 10:32 pm
Great informative presentation. A pleasure to watch! 👍
s liu
May 21, 2023 at 12:58 am
I love airplane mode
John Peace
May 21, 2023 at 8:03 am
My ex-wife and a friend were joking about adult diapers one day. Her phone was on the table between them. Shortly thereafter ads for adult diapers started appearing in her feeds. The phone was definitely listening
saberline152
May 21, 2023 at 10:17 am
airplane mode may not be mandatory anymore in the EU, but wouldn’t you drain your battery more because your phone could have some difficulties connecting to all the networks in a plane?
Melissa Morley
May 22, 2023 at 12:36 am
Apple watch question, what about water with chlorine or water with epsom salt? Are these an issue for the interior coatings. Or does it depend on the model?
Kane
May 22, 2023 at 2:31 am
Maybe I’m just a bit humourless… but I really wish YouTubers whose job it is to post about technology would stop saying, “Hey Siri,” in their videos. If they want us to watch, don’t give us reason to repeatedly pause and deal with the devices now trying to respond to everything the TV just said. 😖
nwg
May 24, 2023 at 12:53 am
Imagine having it enabled lol
No Name
May 23, 2023 at 7:47 pm
Couple comments on topics I’ve had experience with:
I fly private planes, and my phone gets confused as all get out and the battery plummets very quickly if I don’t put it on airplane mode before going up in the air. Meanwhile, the plane could care less. Commercial planes obviously may vary, but I recon you’re much better off just using the in-flight wi-fi.
Planned obsolescence is absolutely a real thing. I went to college for engineering and planned obsolescence was something they taught all engineers in all disciplines the very first semester. They called it something nicer to try to convince everyone it was a good idea, but it was very obvious what it was.
Victor Rojas
May 24, 2023 at 6:42 pm
What about Amazon echo ?
Cass
May 26, 2023 at 7:41 pm
I’m still using an iPhone 6s Plus. Had it almost ten years, pretty crazy. But I have gotten the charging port and battery replaced! Wouldn’t be useable if I hadn’t.