Tech For Humans Newsletter
There is one specific task that every business owner tries to put off for as long as possible.
I’m talking about replacing your company hardware.
Buying new computers is painful. It’s expensive, setting them up takes time, and moving all your files over is a hassle nobody enjoys.
While hardware does eventually wear out, most business laptops die earlier than they should because of a few bad habits.
In today’s email, I’m sharing 5 simple things you (and your team) can do to squeeze an extra year or two out of your company machines.
You’ll also find a fun mouse trick to declutter your screen, a scary statistic about customer trust, and a book recommendation that might change how you run your client meetings.
So grab your favorite beverage of choice, get comfy, and let’s dig in.
THE BIG IDEA
5 "Hidden" Habits
That Kill Modern Laptops
A good business laptop should easily last four or five years.
But we often see them failing around the two-year mark.
It is rarely a manufacturing defect. It is usually the result of physical wear and tear that accumulates from how we open, carry, and charge these devices every day.
Here are the 5 most common mistakes that shorten the life of your hardware, and how to fix them:
1. Stop opening it from the corner
This is the #1 killer of modern thin-and-light laptops.
When you lift the lid by one corner, you are twisting the delicate display assembly.
Over time, this torque snaps the hinge or cracks the internal screen layers. Always open the lid from the center, right where the webcam is.
2. The "Hot Bag" Syndrome
Modern laptops (especially those with "Instant On" features) often wake up from Sleep mode while bouncing around in a backpack.
If a laptop wakes up inside a padded bag, it has zero airflow. It cooks itself.
If you are commuting for more than 20 minutes, fully shut down the laptop. Do not just close the lid.
3. The 15% Storage Rule
Solid State Drives (SSDs) are fast, but they need "breathing room" to manage data efficiently.
If you fill your drive to 99% capacity, the drive has to work 10x hard just to save a simple file, which wears out the memory cells significantly faster.
Aim to keep at least 15-20% of your hard drive empty to prolong its lifespan.
4. Relieve the "Port Tension"
The charging port is now soldered directly to the main motherboard on most laptops.
If you sit with your laptop while it’s charging and the cable is pulled tight or bent at a sharp 90-degree angle, you are putting physical stress on the motherboard.
Give your charging cable some slack. If the port feels "wobbly," get it checked immediately before it shorts out the board.
5. Be careful with "Clamshell Mode"
Many people plug their laptop into a dock and work with the lid closed.
However, many laptops vent heat through the keyboard or the hinge area. If you run heavy software with the lid closed, you might be trapping heat that degrades the battery and CPU.
Check where your vents are. If in doubt, keep the laptop slightly open, even when using an external monitor.
These small adjustments cost nothing, but they can save you thousands in premature hardware replacements.
JOHN'S TECH TIP
AI to Tame Your Email Threads
Use AI email assistants built into tools like Gmail and Outlook to generate quick summaries of long threads so you can see key decisions and action items at a glance. Pair that with an inbox‑agnostic AI tool (like forwarding a thread to a general AI assistant) to get concise recaps and suggested follow‑up replies you can edit instead of writing from scratch.
THE LATEST NEWS
💊 AI-Designed Medicine Goes Mainstream
We hear a lot about AI writing emails or faking photos, but the real revolution is happening in healthcare. Insilico Medicine just hit a massive milestone by listing on the stock market, proving that AI-driven drug discovery is a real, viable business. They use AI to simulate how molecules fight disease, cutting years off the research process.
⚠️ The "Scam Center" Economy is Here
A new report lists organized scam centers as a top threat for 2026. The report predicts a sharp rise in "AI-driven" fraud, where scammers use tools to automate attacks on a massive scale. If anyone asks for money or login details urgently, assume it's a scam until you verify it yourself.
📅 Microsoft 365 Updates: Voice & Speed
Microsoft is finally fixing two common headaches for business owners. First, Copilot's "Voice Input" is now smarter; you can dictate brain dumps, and the AI will format them into structured documents automatically. Second, for anyone juggling multiple businesses, the new "Multi-Tenant" update finally makes switching between Teams accounts seamless.
THE INTERESTING STATISTIC
55% of Consumers Would Leave You After a Breach
We often talk about the financial cost of a cyberattack: paying for IT recovery, legal fees, or ransomware.
But the hidden cost is much higher... Reputation.
According to a recent study, 55% of consumers say they would stop doing business with a company that suffered a data breach.
For a business, trust is everything.
Your clients trust you with their data, their plans, and their money. Protecting your network is both an IT task, and a marketing strategy to keep your customer base.
THE GADGET OF THE MONTH
If you carry a laptop charger, a phone charger, and a tablet charger in your bag, you know how heavy (and tangled) things get.
There is a new type of charger tech called GaN (Gallium Nitride) that makes chargers much smaller and cooler.
The UGREEN Nexode 100W is tiny, about the size of a standard phone plug, but it has enough power to fast-charge a laptop and a smartphone at the same time. It has foldable prongs, fits in your pocket, and replaces that heavy brick you’ve been lugging around.
THE BOOK OF THE MONTH
Will Guidara is the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, which was named the #1 restaurant in the world.
In his book, Unreasonable Hospitality, he explains that they didn't get there just by serving good food. He got there by going to extreme lengths to make guests feel seen and cared for.
While the story is about fine dining, the lessons are essential for anyone who deals with clients.
Guidara argues that in a world where everyone offers a "good product," the only way to truly win is by how you make people feel. It’s a great read on how to turn a transaction into a relationship.
DID YOU KNOW?
For nearly 20 years, the launch code for US nuclear missiles was apparently set to just 00000000 so it could be entered quickly in an emergency.
Thanks for reading!
The Transcend Networks team and I put this newsletter together to share tech advice that’s actually useful, and (hopefully) even fun to read 🙂
When we’re not writing these, we’re helping businesses like yours become more secure and stay productive without all the tech headaches.
If you ever need a professional opinion on anything IT related, simply hit reply and let me know.
We're here to help 🙂