On an iPhone: Tap and hold on the home screen until the icons wiggle, then drag them around to rearrange or tap the X to uninstall them.

Add Shortcuts for Useful Tasks or Apps

One of the best things you can do is place shortcuts on the home screen to make it easier for them to call or message their closest contacts with a single tap.

On an Android phone: Tap and hold on the home screen and select Widgets, choose the Browse tab, then scroll down to Contacts, choose Direct dial, and select a contact. You can place the shortcut anywhere on the home screen, and they can call that person simply by tapping it. You can add Direct message shortcuts in the same way.

On an iPhone: Use the Shortcuts app. If you create a folder for the home screen, you can potentially add multiple shortcuts. You can tap the plus (+) icon at the top right to add a new shortcut, search for or scroll down to Phone or FaceTime, tap on it again, then tap Contact and pick the contact you want to add. Tap at the top and choose Rename to give the shortcut a name, choose the icon, and Add to Home Screen. You can also tap and hold on the home screen until the icons wiggle and tap Edit at the top left, then Add Widget, and choose Contacts, then select the contact you want to add, but this will require an extra tap when they want to call.

Consider a Simple Launcher (Android Only)

With Android phones, you can change the “launcher,” which determines the look of the whole interface, including things like app icons and font size.

Samsung phones have an alternative launcher called Easy Mode built in. To toggle it on, go to Settings, Display, and choose Easy Mode. There are loads of alternative Android launchers that you can install, and several simplify the phone experience with big icons. Simple Launcher, Big Launcher, or Senior Home are all worth a look.

Increase the Font Size

To make the font more readable, you can increase its size. There are loads of other handy smartphone features for folks with vision loss.

On an Android phone: Go to Settings, Display and touch, and choose Display size and text, then drag the slider to adjust. You can also get there via Settings, Accessibility, then Display size and text.

At the whole genome level, canines and wolves are clearly separated. However, when the research team constructed phylogenetic trees for each of the 1,582 genes, they found that not a single gene supported the monophyly of dogs. Further examination of the mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome phylogenetic trees revealed a complex interplay between canine and wolf lineages. This discrepancy is evidence of multiple rounds of gene transfer in the past.

Imprints on Physique and Personality

The researchers found that wolf genes are linked to a variety of dog traits, most notably body size. Larger dogs tend to have more wolf ancestry, and certain working breeds, such as Arctic sled dogs, wild-dog breeds, and hunting dogs, are more likely to have this trait. Terriers, bird dogs , and scent hounds, on the other hand, were least influenced by wolf genes.

Notably, among large service dogs, the influence of wolf ancestry varied greatly among breeds. The Sarabi Dog, Central Asian Shepherd Dog, and Anatolian Shepherd Dog, which are livestock guard dogs from Turkey and Central Asia, inherited 0.5-1.2 percent of their genes from wolf ancestors, while Neapolitan Mastiffs, Bull Mastiffs, and St. Bernards showed almost no trace of wolf ancestry

On the other hand, even the Chihuahua, the world’s smallest dog breed, was found to have a small proportion of wolf ancestry, about 0.2 percent. These differences speak to the historical specificity of the breed’s evolution.

The personalities of dog breeds also showed striking patterns depending on the proportion of wolf genes they had. When compared with breed-specific personalities described by the Kennel Club, the organization responsible for certifying dog breeds, breeds with fewer wolf genes were more likely to be described as “friendly,” “willing to obey,” “easy to train,” and “affectionate.”

In contrast, breeds with strong wolf ancestry tended to be described as “suspicious of strangers,” “independent,” “wary,” and “territorial.” However, researchers cautioned that these descriptions are based on subjective human observations and that it’s unclear whether wolf DNA is directly related

Adaptive Genes That Support Survival

Wolf-derived genes are not simply a remnant of evolution, but may actually contribute to the survival of dogs. When gene ontology analysis was performed on the regions of the village dog genome that were enriched for wolf ancestral elements, the only significant functional category was the olfactory transduction pathway. This result suggests that gene inflow from wolves may have enhanced the village dog’s sense of smell, thereby improving its ability to search for human food waste.

Village dogs that are not directly cared for by humans generally have a very low survival rate. For stray dogs in urban environments, the survival rate at five months of age is less than 37 percent, with some reports suggesting it is as low as 16 percent. A keen sense of smell may play a key role in their survival in these harsh environments.

The subwoofer is no joke, at about 13 x 16 inches and 18 pounds, but it’s not something you’ll need to move once you get it set up, and it contributes massively (pun intended) to the depth and breadth of the Bar 500MK2’s sound. With a 10-inch driver, it’s more than enough to get to its claimed 40-Hz floor.

Controls on the bar are minimal, with volume and input buttons hidden in the center of the matte black bar, and an included remote that lets you adjust settings. There is a convenient LED screen hidden inside the right front of the grille that tells you in plain English what is going on, which is a nice departure from many brands’ variety of lights and colors.

Jamming On

The impressive 750 watts of claimed total output of the speaker and subwoofer really are a bold departure from any built-in TV speakers. In fact, for a small bar, the Bar 500MK2 filled my testing room with some of the most immersive sound I’ve heard from a bar that doesn’t include rear surround speakers.

It has an uncanny ability to bounce sounds around you in a way that makes it feel like they’re genuinely coming from the sides or rear, especially when playing Gran Turismo 7 on PlayStation 5 Pro.

Dolby Atmos effects in movies are equally impressive. While watching my 4K Blu-ray copy of Ford Vs. Ferrari, cars zipped by my head in such lifelike detail I sometimes felt like I needed to lean out of the way. When listening to music like Agave Fire Pit’s “Goodnight,” I was impressed by how cleanly it is able to render the vocal effects right in the center of the stereo image.