How-To Guides from Gadget Hacks: Page 36

Pasting on your iPhone has never been easier.

The Files app received a big update in iOS 13. Before, it was limited to local and cloud-based files, but now you can access data from external storage devices, including SD cards and USB drives. But before you try to connect your favorite card or drive to your iPhone, there are a few things you need to know.

QR codes are supposed to make life easier, but having to install potentially shady third-party apps just to scan one is more trouble than it's worth. Thankfully, there's a QR code reader built into all Google Pixels, but you wouldn't know it unless you stumbled across the feature.

Your Pixel has a few hidden features you probably don't know about, like the ability to clean up your funky contacts list. Since I'm sure you haven't manually organized your contacts since the inception of Android, there are likely some incomplete and duplicate contacts. Thankfully, your phone can fix this automatically.

By default, videos in the Photos app auto-play in several instances on iOS 13, making it a great way to get a quick, extended glimpse when you're browsing. But this isn't always ideal — especially when you're flipping through private or embarrassing videos and other eyes are on your screen. Fortunately, Apple has an easy way to disable this feature.

Android is moving away from navigation buttons. Even with the transparent navigation bar on the Galaxy Note 10+, it still takes up space on the screen that could otherwise be used to show content. What's great about the Galaxy Note 10+ is that you can remove it, without installing one app.

Apple's innovations often involve more taking away than adding on. The company has released seven iPhones that omit the home button, the latest batch including the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max. If you recently picked up one of these devices for the first time, you might be a little confused on how to enter DFU mode when your iPhone acts up.

The PlayStation 4 has been around since 2013 and has brought with it countless game releases since then. One thing that hasn't changed, though, is the strict device restrictions on the PS4 Remote Play feature for streaming your games. The capability has always been there, but you still had to have an iPhone or Sony smartphone to get the best experience possible — until now.

As efficient as your iPhone is, it doesn't hurt to fully close running apps from time to time to free up memory and keep background processes to a minimum. Force-closing is also a great way to troubleshoot buggy apps, and can often resolve minor issues without having to restart your device.

Most of us have had a cloud-connected address book for years now. The result of this is an ever-growing contact list that will continue to get harder to navigate and manage. With the increased size of our contact lists, it becomes more important to sort contacts in a way that works best for us.

On all other iPhone models, you go to "Battery" in the Settings app and toggle on "Battery Percentage" in order to see the exact amount of power left in the status bar. On the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, and XR, however, that option no longer exists since there's not enough room up there to show the percentage indicator because of the notch for the TrueDepth camera system. But that doesn't mean it's gone entirely.

The iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max are the most advanced flagships Apple has to offer, but that doesn't mean they're immune to occasional bugs. Anything from an app plagued with issues to a faulty software update still can cause your device to freeze up, so having the ability to force a restart can come in very handy.

We often take for granted how reliable our iPhones are — so much so that many of us get panic-stricken at the very rare event where our device freezes up as a result of a buggy app or an update gone awry. Because of this, knowing the basics of troubleshooting is a handy skill to have, and this still applies to the iPhone XS, XS Max, and iPhone XR. Force-restarting is usually the first tactic to employ.

The iPhone X ushered in the Swiss Army Knife-like Side button, which can perform numerous functions, such as summoning Siri and opening Apple Pay through click gestures. This has carried over into the iPhone XS, XS Max, and iPhone XR, so if you've upgraded to one of these devices from a Home button-equipped iPhone, you'll have to learn how to shut down your new device.

When attending networking events, a LinkedIn exchange is a common occurrence. Equally common is the awkward fumbling dance with how to add each other. Fortunately, we have the solution: the ultimate way to add LinkedIn contacts.

From the iPhone X onward, the Side button has taken on many of the functions associated with the Home button, such as summoning Siri, pulling up the AssistiveTouch shortcut, and more. So if you've finally ditched your Home button iPhone for the latest iPhone 11, the process of shutting down and restarting is something you'll need to learn all over.

It's now standard for websites to have a mobile version. Conveniently, we can browse the web with a mostly mobile-optimized experience. But what if you want the desktop experience on mobile? If you want, you can browse the mobile web and see only the desktop version of websites on Android devices.

I want my Android device to run how I want, and I want it to be useful and positively contribute to my life. Recently, animations have started appearing on the Pixel's search bar when Google has a seasonal Doodle on their front page. It attracts my attention and distracts me from what I think is important. After several days of annoyance, I went on the hunt to turn these animations off.

Lots of people sleep with their phone close by. When closing our eyes, our phones are often the last thing we see. But with help from Google's Wind Down Mode, we can have an easier transition into our sleepy time.

Apple added the option to install custom fonts and use them in different apps on iOS 13. The rollout has been a bit confusing, with Apple announcing partnerships with vendors such as Adobe, but also limiting the feature to work with only certain apps. Nonetheless, you can now download and install custom fonts on your iPhone.

Swiping between pages on your iPhone's home screen feels very natural, but surprisingly, Apple has another way to switch between screens, and it's been staring us in the face this whole time.

As much as streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify have dominated the music industry, radio is still alive and well. And why wouldn't it be? Free music, 24/7? It's a great deal. That's why it's so cool that your iPhone can instantly tune in to your favorite radio station, even one across the country.

Between school, work, and your personal life, there's a good chance you have multiple Google accounts. Most Google apps let you log into all of them simultaneously to receive applicable alerts when they arrive. Well, there's a dead-simple way to switch between these accounts, and it just takes one swipe

It's a sad fact, but the Galaxy Note 10+ is the only phone in Samsung's 2019 Note 10 lineup to include microSD support. It comes with either 256 GB or 512 GB of storage, but you can more than double that if you slap a memory card in it. So if you're in the market, here are some of your best options.

When you type on a computer, you have the help of a mouse or trackpad to guide your cursor. Unless you set up a mouse with your iPhone, however, you don't have that option on the go. Therefore, iOS needs to come up with ways for you to move your cursor around to easy pick up typing where you want to. Among other solutions, Apple has a way to jump your cursor wherever you want.

Procrastination is an ugly beast. At first, it seems so innocent to spend five minutes checking Reddit or Twitter. You'll get started on work right after. Next thing you know, it's 1 a.m. and that paper is due in seven hours. Before you start anotherYouTube video, know you don't have to be like Spongebob. You can be like me, taking control of your productivity with the right app.

So, you undid something you typed on your iPhone. Maybe you used the new gesture in iOS 13 to do so. Maybe you shook your iPhone, on purpose or accidentally, to trigger the traditional undo method. Either way, you want your text back, or to redo your edit, and you aren't sure how to do it. Luckily, it's as easy as a swipe.

Since iOS 7, your iPhone automatically updates all of your apps, which is a wonderful thing ... until it's not. Not only does this feature drain the battery quicker when enabled, it can also bring changes to features, settings, and user interfaces in the apps that you already know and love. That's why you can easily disable the feature and stop apps from automatically updating.

By default, Slack optimizes the images you upload and send to other users in your workspace. Although optimization lowers the resolution of the image, it does send quicker, which is better if your internet service is poor. However, you may want to send the highest-resolution image possible, so how do you stop Slack from sending only optimized and lower-quality photos?

The transcribing app can be an invaluable tool, especially if you're a student or are in a profession that relies on audio journals or interviews. These apps can convert important recordings like lectures and meetings into text for you to carefully read through to better comprehend.

When you think about it, isn't life just one big open-world RPG just begging to be conquered? We all have a set number of specific tasks or chores we must complete every single day like clockwork. Sometimes, these items on our to-do list can become tedious and cause us to lose motivation. What if you could take those tasks and turn them into something awesome instead? Now you can.

Google Keep now has a dark mode. If your device is running Android 10, it kicks in automatically when you turn on the system-wide dark theme. If your device is not running Android 10, you will have to manually switch on dark mode for each app, including Keep. The benefits of dark mode include increased battery life, reduced eye strain, and improved readability.

Being organized is a big part of being productive. Keeping your important documents where they need to be is key to an optimized workflow. When using Google Keep, sometimes a note may outgrow its note status and you may want to upgrade it to a full on Google Doc. Thankfully, that's really easy to do.

Let's say you have an important report to submit, but you want to check it over for any last-minute edits or changes. Times running out, and you simply can't find this Pages document anywhere. Wouldn't it be great if you could just ask your iPhone to open the report for you, so you could stop wasting time searching and finish the paper? Well, thankfully, Siri can help you out with that.

Gboard is often considered the best keyboard for iPhone or Android. Google made sure to jam-pack it full of features, and you should expect nothing but the best when it comes to Google's own first-party software. But with so many capabilities, a few things might slip through the cracks.

Life can get busy. Between work, school, and all the extracurricular activities, weekly chores like making a grocery list can get pushed to the back burner. But with a little help from the Google Keep app for Android or iPhone, you can at least make one thing easier.

Who needs a pen when you've got an iPhone? If you have a form, agreement, or contract that you need to quickly sign, you do it directly from iOS without the use of a third-party app. Using Markup, which is available in several native Apple apps, you can sign and send important documents in just a few seconds.

The idea of a world without passwords used to be a pipe dream. But as we inch closer to making that a reality, we have services now that securely store all of our passwords under a single master password. It's a convenient way to keep our accounts safe and sound without having to remember all of their credentials. And there's no reason to be afraid — I'll explain why.

There's no doubt that Microsoft Word is the go-to for businesses worldwide. As such, you might receive Word documents to open on your iPhone, whether or not you actually have Word for iOS installed. If you prefer editing text documents with Pages, Apple's own word processor, you can import and export Word docs easily.

Unlike some of the popular app lockers out there, a nifty app fittingly named App Hider completely erases apps, files, and their associated footprints from your smartphone. Think of App Hider as a micro-OS within your smartphone's system. This miniature ecosystem can operate copied apps independently, thus giving it an unprecedented layer of privacy and freedom within your handset.