Bytes: What’s new in tech

Keeping neighbors off your network

Get your neighbors to quit freeloading on your Wi-Fi, said Lincoln Spector in PCWorld.com. Moochers have a way of “running up your bill as they’re slowing down your connection.” A password for your Wi-Fi network is the obvious first step, but make sure its “a long, random string of numbers, upper- and lower-case letters, and punctuation”—something no one can find in any dictionary. And since “nothing is ever completely secure,” take extra safeguards. “Make sure your Wi-Fi security is properly set up” using not WEP, but the upgraded WPA2 encryption. “If your modem doesn’t support WPA2, use WPA-Personal—or better yet, buy a new router.”

The end of Facebook?

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Facebook’s luster might be fading, said Juliette Garside in The Guardian (U.K.). According to researchers from Princeton University, the 10-year-old social network will lose 80 percent of its user base within the next three years and will eventually die out, “like bubonic plague.” The study, which analyzes Google Trends data, shows that Google searches for the term “Facebook” have been trailing off since hitting a peak in December 2012. The scientists suggest that Facebook usage has spread along the same epidemiological model that infectious diseases do, and that users are building up an “immunity” to the social network’s appeal. Facebook officials have acknowledged a falloff in daily users over the last three months, but say the reported drop in searches may stem from the fact that more and more of the service’s 1.2 billion monthly active users “now only access the network via their mobile phones.”

Apple planning bigger iPhone

Another year, another iPhone, said Lorraine Luk, Eva Dou, and Daisuke Wakabayashi in The Wall Street Journal. According to sources “familiar with the situation,” Apple is planning to reveal a pair of iPhones with larger screens this year. One of the new models will feature a display larger than 4.5 inches, while the second version will have a screen bigger than 5 inches. The move is meant to step up competition with rivals’ larger smartphones, and both of the new models “are expected to feature metal casings similar to what is used on the current iPhone 5S, with Apple expected to scrap the plastic exterior used in the iPhone 5C.” Unlike Samsung’s new offerings, this year’s round of Apple smartphones aren’t expected to feature curved displays.