If you live in the middle of nowhere and can’t get decent internet, you don’t have many choices. I’ll break down what works and what doesn’t.
The tech myths we can’t stop repeating
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Tech myths have a way of sticking around like those 99 browser tabs you keep open, harmless at first, but over time, they slow everything down. They spread in group texts, get repeated by well-meaning relatives and pop up like spammy ads from 2003.
Let’s bust five of the most common myths I hear all the time.
📸 Phone cameras = real cameras
Phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra boast up to 200MP, but megapixels aren’t the full story. Sensor size matters more. Full-frame cameras like the Canon EOS R5 or Sony Alpha series still blow phones out of the water in dynamic range, low-light performance and depth of field.
Phone cameras use computational photography to fake pro-level shots. Great for Instagram, but if it’s your wedding or a professional shoot? Use real gear.
🔋 Always charge from 0%
Nope. Draining lithium-ion batteries to 0% shortens their lifespan. The ideal strategy is keeping your charge between 30% and 80%.
By the way, your phone shutting off at 0% doesn’t mean it’s fully dead. Manufacturers build in a buffer to preserve battery health. But letting it hit zero stresses the battery and reduces capacity.
📡 EMFs from devices are dangerous
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 5G emit electromagnetic fields (EMFs), but they’re nonionizing radiation. They don’t damage your DNA like X-rays or UV rays.
The CDC and FDA have reviewed decades of research and found no conclusive link between EMFs from consumer tech and health problems. Those EMF “shield” stickers and hats? Useless.
You’re more in danger from a scalding Hot Pocket than invisible death rays.
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Not a waste of space: If you’ve been eyeing Starlink for internet access, prices just dropped in some U.S. markets. Residential plans are $99 a month (down from $120), and the Lite plan starts at $65 (was $80), depending on where you live. The dish is now $175, about half what I paid. I hate being an early adopter.
30%
The share of telescope images now tainted by Starlink’s signal leakage. One out of every three cosmic snapshots gets photobombed by a satellite. Researchers spotted unintentional radiation, using 76 million images from the EDA2 telescope. These signals aren’t even part of the satellites’ jobs, they’re just leaking and contaminating data meant to map the cosmic “dark ages.”
🌐 Need a backup for your internet? Check out Starlink’s new $10 monthly plan for existing subscribers. It’s part of the Roam tier, so you can use it anywhere in the world. Sounds good, right? Well, here’s the catch: It’s capped at 10GB. Blow past that, and you’re paying $2 per extra gig. Ouch.
8,000 vs. 120
That’s the USA vs. China satellite count. SpaceX is casually orbiting 8,000 Starlink satellites. China? Still stuck at 120 (paywall link). It’s a space race where one kid showed up on a rocket bike and the other forgot their shoes. China’s grand plan for 27,000 satellites is stuck at 0.4% complete. Talk about taking a red-eye.
✈️ I hate slow Wi-fi on planes: But times are changing. Starlink is now on over 1,000 airplanes worldwide, giving millions of passengers access to high-speed internet in the air. Airlines like Qatar, Hawaiian and United use it. But how fast? Tests show over 100 Mbps. SpaceX says 2,000 more planes are coming soon.
💸 Starlink’s surprise fee: If you’re in Washington or Oregon, you might get hit with a $500 “demand surcharge” just to sign up. That’s more than the dish itself, which costs $349! Why the extra charge? Apparently, it’s to avoid overloading the network in areas like Seattle and Portland with limited capacity. Ouch.
Starlink’s taking over the sky
Musk’s satellites beam the internet everywhere. Soon, your phone will work off-grid too.
🛰️ High stakes laser tag: Amazon just fired its first 27 Kuiper satellites into orbit to take on Starlink, planning for 3,200 total. SpaceX already has 7,200 up there. Hope Earth’s atmosphere enjoys the new bumper-to-bumper congestion.
$0
That’s the price for the dish and router when you sign up for a new 12-month Starlink plan. You’ll save $349, the monthly service fee stays the same, and you’ll have 30 days to return it for a refund. The catch? If you then cancel or change your service address, you’ll have to pay a prorated cost for the hardware.
🛰️ Mark your calendars: Amazon’s finally launching its first internet satellites tomorrow, April 9 at 12 p.m. ET. It’s their shot at taking on SpaceX’s Starlink and bringing high-speed internet to the whole planet. Sure, Starlink already has thousands of satellites up there, but Amazon’s betting it can win you over by cranking out cheaper terminals. Fingers crossed the satellite doesn’t come with “some assembly required.”
United’s getting Starlink Wi-Fi: And it sounds pretty good. The first customer flight gets it by May, and the airline plans to upgrade 40 planes a month, with 300+ jets getting it by year’s end. It’s supposedly 50 times faster than the current painfully slow onboard Wi-Fi. Free for MileagePlus members. Now if only the snacks were this impressive.
🌐 Starlink who? Alphabet’s photonic chip beams 10-gig internet through the air using light beams. Yes, really. It could bring high-speed connections to remote areas (without messy fiber cables) starting this year. It has more bandwidth than a Starlink antenna and costs less. Your move, Elon.
$4.25 billion
Estimated worth of meth seized by the Indian Coast Guard. The 13,227-pound stash was found on a “fishing” boat traveling from Myanmar equipped with one of SpaceX’s Starlink systems for navigation. Police are demanding to know who bought it.
November 16th, 2024
Did Starlink mess with the election? Don’t fall for this wild rumor spreading online. Plus, AI-powered machine guns are now on the battlefield, you can sell your house without a realtor, and Social Security scams are popping up everywhere – be on the lookout!
Find and track Starlink satellites in the sky
Did you know you can spot Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites from your backyard? More than six thousand of them are orbiting the Earth. Here’s how to see them.
Insurers use drones to watch your home
Invasion of privacy? CJ Sveen says his home insurance was dropped after aerial pics were used to spy on his property. Plus, Russian troops smuggle Starlink, Android’s new “Find My Device” feature, and the crazy lengths one hacker went to avoid paying $100,000 in child support.
Remote Amazon tribe gets the internet
Nine months ago, the Marubo people got Starlink — now elders say everyone’s lazy and hooked on porn. Plus, Tokyo’s government launches a dating app, and remote job scams are on the rise.