10 Tricks To Make The Most Of Your Smart Phone
Although we tend to believe that we have explored our electronic gadgets to the last button, there’s more to your smartphone than you might think. There are all kinds of hidden features and shortcuts you can take advantage of do more with your handset of choice. The following 10 tricks will turn you into the Steve Jobs of your friends circle.
1. Get On Google’s Cloud
No smartphone is an island, and the vast majority of Android handsets are tied to a Google account. While it is possible to run an Android device without logging on to Mountain View’s services, the assumption from the first-party apps (and many third-party apps) is that using Android means you are using Google.
2. Digitize Your Documents
Thanks to the increasing quality of smartphone cameras, you no longer need a scanner to get all of your paper files up into the cloud. Evernote, Google Drive and CamScanner are three of several apps that can do the job.
3. When In A Hurry, Charge It In Airplane Mode
It switches off all wireless radios inside, and hence the phone charges a bit faster. Just like everyone else you probably want your phone to charge up as quickly as possible (even more so if you’re in a rush). Put it in aeroplane mode and it will use much less battery life and thus charge more quickly..
4. Put Your Contact Details On Your Lock Screen
If someone else finds your phone, will they be able to get it back to you? Put your details on the lock screen to make sure: the option is in Settings on Android, Health on iOS and on Windows Phone you’ll have to edit the wallpaper.
5. Use Your Smartphone Camera To See Things Clearer
Cameras always have perfect vision, so your phone will display a crisp image on screen of whatever is in front of you. Then, hold your phone close, and you are done! So the next time you are missing your glasses try this trick.
6. Zoom On Everything
After going to Settings > Accessibility > Magnification gestures, switch the gesture on. Now, you can triple tap to magnify, two-finger drag to pan and two-finger pinch to adjust zoom level. This will come in handy if you want to see pictures on social media clearly.
7. Get Automatic Weather Alerts With IFTTT (Android and iOS)
Set up a recipe on IFTTT (or the accompanying mobile apps) and you can get alerts sent straight to your phone if the weather’s looking bad – handy if rain or storm means you’ll need to leave for work earlier.
8. Turn Wi-Fi Off With Your Voice
The future is here: Siri, Google Now and Cortana let you turn off Wi-Fi with your voice. Just launch your app of choice and say “turn off Wi-Fi” to achieve the desired result. It works with Bluetooth as well.
9. Fall Asleep To Your Music (iOS)
If you go into the Clock app on your iPhone you can set a countdown timer, easy enough but you can then choose Stop Playing as the option from the When Timer Ends menu to shut off all your music after the allotted period.
10. Snap Photos With A Hardware Button
Sometimes you can’t beat the feeling of a real physical button when taking your snaps, well, good news, because on Android, iOS and Windows Phone you can take photos using the volume buttons whilst in the Camera app.
