Technologies

4 Reasons Why Your Phone Shouldn’t Be Face Up on the Table

If you look at your phone all day long, you might forget to pay attention to your friends and family.

Without a smartphone, it would be almost impossible for me to stay in touch with certain people. Phones have changed how I interact with friends, keeping me connected in ways that were once unimaginable.

But then there’s the flip side: I’ll be having dinner with friends, only for the conversation to pause or stop entirely as everyone picks up their phones to check their notifications.

This kind of subtle disconnect, often called «phubbing,» happens more than we realize. Even when it’s unintentional, it can leave the folks who aren’t using their phones feeling invisible. If you want to be more present during hangouts or dinners, something as simple as leaving your phone face down can help you stay focused on the people right in front of you.

I’ve been guilty of paying more attention to my screen than my companion, and I’ve felt bad about it afterward. There’s nothing wrong with replying to an urgent Slack message or pulling up a funny TikTok to share. But I know I probably spend too much time staring at screens (a lot of that time is unhealthy doomscrolling). These days, when I’m not using my phone, I try to be more deliberate about keeping it out of sight and out of mind. If I do need to keep my phone at hand, I nearly always have it face down.

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It can protect your phone screen

I have a few reasons for making sure my phone screen is turned away. The first one is practical: When my phone isn’t in my pocket, it’s probably sitting on a desk or table — which means it’s probably not far from a glass of water or mug of coffee.

As a somewhat clumsy person, I’ve spilled beverages on my phone plenty of times. And even though most modern phones are water-resistant, why take chances? With my screen hidden, I can keep the most important part of my phone protected from splashes and other mishaps.

For extra protection, I have a phone case with raised edges. This helps prevent the screen from coming in direct contact with crumbs and debris that might be left on the table.

My colleague David Carnoy told me about an incident where he was charging his phone on his kitchen counter with the screen face up. Someone dropped a mug on top of it and cracked the screen. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a screen protector on this device (he knows better now).

It could help save your phone battery

Another good reason to keep my phone face down is that it won’t turn on each time I get a notification. That means I can save a little bit of battery charge.

A single notification won’t mean the difference between my phone lasting the whole day or dying in the afternoon but notifications can add up, especially if I’ve enabled them across all of my apps. If I’m in a lot of group chats, my screen might end up turning on dozens of times throughout the day (and that’s on the low side — many teenagers have hundreds of notifications a day).

It also shows that you pay attention

Keeping my phone face down is also a good rule of social etiquette: If I’m hanging out with someone, I keep my screen hidden from view as a subtle way of showing that I won’t be distracted by it. I don’t want incoming notifications to light up my screen every few seconds, especially if I’m in a bar or other dimly lit setting. I want to keep my eyes on the person I’m talking to.

«Eye contact is one of the most powerful forms of human connection. Neuroscience research indicates that when two people make direct eye contact, their brain activity begins to synchronize, supporting more effective communication and increasing empathy. This synchrony can be disrupted when attention shifts to a phone, even briefly,» says Michelle Davis, clinical psychologist at Headspace.

When I’m with the people I’ve chosen to spend time with, I want to be fully present with them. A sudden notification will tempt me to glance at, or worse, pick up my phone in the middle of a conversation.

It minimizes your phone’s presence

I also have a more personal reason for keeping my phone face down and I suspect that other people have had this same thought: My phone takes up too much space in my life.

I mean that quite literally. My phone is bigger than it needs to be. That’s been especially true since I upgraded from my iPhone Mini to a «normal-sized» iPhone. Yes, I got a much needed boost in battery life but I also got a screen with more pixels to lure me into the next news headline or autoplaying Instagram reel.

A small smartphone isn’t something that really exists anymore. My phone is bigger and better at grabbing my attention. It competes against my friends and family, books and movies, the entire world outside of its 6-inch screen. It often wins. But there’s still one small thing I can do to minimize its presence: I can keep the screen turned away from me whenever possible.

It can sometimes feel like there’s no escaping from my phone. Whether that ever changes, or phones evolve into some new form factor, I can’t say. I can’t control everything about my phone but I can control whether the screen stares at me when I’m not staring at it.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Sept. 4

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 4.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s a pretty easy one, but if you need help, read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: National park in the Canadian Rockies
Answer: BANFF

6A clue: Elevator choice
Answer: FLOOR

7A clue: Means of transport in Seattle, San Francisco and New York
Answer: FERRY

8A clue: Unlikely chef in a 2007 Pixar film
Answer: RAT

9A clue: «Honor ___ father …»
Answer: THY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Closest pal, informally
Answer: BFF

2D clue: Text notification, e.g.
Answer: ALERT

3D clue: Jones who sang «Come Away With Me»
Answer: NORAH

4D clue: Number of thieves faced by Ali Baba
Answer: FORTY

5D clue: Loose item at the bottom of a fast-food bag, perhaps
Answer: FRY

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Sept. 4, #346

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Sept. 4, No. 346

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is tough. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: I got this.

Green group hint: Recent rings.

Blue group hint: Dallas, this one’s for you.

Purple group hint: Not a pass, but…

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Haul in.

Green group: Last 4 teams to win a Super Bowl.

Blue group: «How bout them Cowboys?»

Purple group: Kick.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is haul in. The four answers are catch, grab, snag and snatch.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is last 4 teams to win a Super Bowl. The four answers are Buccaneers, Chiefs, Eagles and Rams.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is «How ’bout them Cowboys?» The four answers are bout, Cowboys, how and them.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is kick. The four answers are drop, onside, place and squib.

Technologies

Google Is Bringing Gemini AI to Its Smart Home Lineup, Starting Oct. 1

Goodbye, Google Assistant. Hello, Gemini.

It increasingly feels like Google’s AI assistant is omnipresent across our devices and, starting next month, it could also be in your home.

In a post on X on Tuesday, the company teased, «Gemini is coming to Google Home,» and told us to, «Come back October 1.»

At its Made by Google event in August, the company announced Gemini for Home among a slew of other product announcements, so this has been in the works for a while.

Tuesday’s X post teaser appears to show an image of a Nest camera, which Google last upgraded four years ago, suggesting the security camera could be set for a refresh. An upgraded Nest speaker and doorbell, both with 2K camera support, could also be part of the Oct. 1 unveiling.

Google did not immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment.

Android Faithful podcast co-host (and former CNET staffer) Jason Howell is «optimistic» about Gemini replacing Assistant in Google’s smart home products.

«In recent years, I have witnessed my Google Home devices degrading in quality and becoming far less useful for even simple tasks and questions,» Howell tells CNET. «They’ve become buggy and unreliable to the point where I’ve stopped interacting with them for most things.»

Gemini catches dog red-handed

At the Mobile World Congress tech show in Barcelona earlier this year, Howell was impressed by Gemini’s performance with a smart home camera.

«A smart home camera detected a dog that came into the kitchen to steal a cookie off the counter,» Howell recalls. «Through voice interaction, the homeowner could ask the system what happened to the cookie, and, given the video context from the camera and an understanding of what it saw, the system could tell the homeowner that the dog was the culprit.

«This sort of example empowers users to spend less time looking for answers in lieu of simple voice queries that serve them the answer they are looking for with less effort and less time spent.»

Google announced last month that Gemini for Home will eventually replace Google Assistant in its smart home devices. You’ll still activate Gemini with, «Hey Google,» but the advanced AI tech will be able to better interpret more complex and nuanced instructions and questions.

Maybe you’re stumped as to what to make for dinner, so it could be: «Hey Google, what quick pasta dish can I cook in less than an hour?» or, «Give me a recipe for Caesar salad.» Gemini is also designed to work with thermostats and smart lights, so you might tell it to «turn the temp to 68 degrees» and «turn off all the lights except in the kitchen.»

The market for smart home technology is expected to grow by 23% over the next five years, according to Grand View Research.