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YOU CAN DO a lot more on your mobile than browse Facebook and DailyEdge.ie. We swear.
Here are some functions you may not have known you have at your fingertips.
iPhone iOS
1. Shake your phone to undo an error
Make a mistake? Give your phone a subtle shake to quickly undo.
Magic.
2. Find out where you’ve been
Where have you been our whole lives? Well, your phone can tell us.
It’s mildly creepy but strangely interesting, your phone can tell you EXACTLY where you’ve been over the last while.
EXACTLY. It even learns where your home and work are located.
To freak yourself out, just go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Locations
It will even show you the duration of your stay.
Very useful for all those hazy nights.
3. Airplane mode to charge faster
A small tip worth knowing. If you’re rushing out with a nervously low battery, plug it in on airplane mode to charge twice as fast.
4. Use it as a spirit level
ALWAYS handy for those spontaneous picture-hanging sessions. You mad yoke.
5. Have a text read to you
Want your phone to read a certain amount of text back to you? First, turn it on using Settings > General > Accessibility > Speak Selection and switch it on.
Then simply shade an area of text like you’re about to copy it, but select Speak.
Endless fun.
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6. Get custom vibration or flash alerts
Sick of missing messages? Want to know who’s calling before you take your phone out of your pocket?
Turn on flash alerts (they’re very bright) in Accessibility settings to get a proper light alert when you get a notification.
OR, make a vibration pattern for important numbers so you can recognise them if your phone is on silent.
Just go to Settings >Sounds > Ringtone > Vibration > Create New Vibration then just tap a pattern of your choice.
Now you’ll know when mammy is on to you, every time.
Android
1. Make it an actual Kit Kat
Not edible, but a nice Easter Egg. Go to About Phone and keep tapping on the phone version, it turns into a virtual Kit Kat.
It has to be the Kit Kat version, obviously.
2. Use your Google Maps offline
This is a nice feature for those times you might get lost without Wifi. Just open Google Maps, select the Search function in the upper left corner, and scroll to the end and hit Make this map area available offline. Do in advance of wandering.
Afraid you’ll lose your phone and the finder will have no way of getting in touch with you? Simply go to Settings > Security > Owner Info and you can type anything for display on your lock screen in case it gets lost.
Constantly going over your data limit and getting charged through the nose? Android have a nifty little built-in tool to set a limit which will alert you if you go over.
Just go to Settings > Data usage, select Set mobile data limit and go to town on the limits.
You can improve the quality of your gaming graphics by going to Settings and tapping ‘About Phone’ three times. This will enable developer options in settings. Scroll until you see Hardware Accelerated Rendering, and select Force 4x MSAA. It’s not good on the battery, but your game will look great.
Saturday 23 November, 2024
Saturday 23 November, 2024
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12 deadly things you didn't know your phone could do
YOU CAN DO a lot more on your mobile than browse Facebook and DailyEdge.ie. We swear.
Here are some functions you may not have known you have at your fingertips.
iPhone iOS
1. Shake your phone to undo an error
Make a mistake? Give your phone a subtle shake to quickly undo.
Magic.
2. Find out where you’ve been
Where have you been our whole lives? Well, your phone can tell us.
It’s mildly creepy but strangely interesting, your phone can tell you EXACTLY where you’ve been over the last while.
EXACTLY. It even learns where your home and work are located.
To freak yourself out, just go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Locations
It will even show you the duration of your stay.
Very useful for all those hazy nights.
3. Airplane mode to charge faster
A small tip worth knowing. If you’re rushing out with a nervously low battery, plug it in on airplane mode to charge twice as fast.
4. Use it as a spirit level
ALWAYS handy for those spontaneous picture-hanging sessions. You mad yoke.
5. Have a text read to you
Want your phone to read a certain amount of text back to you? First, turn it on using Settings > General > Accessibility > Speak Selection and switch it on.
Then simply shade an area of text like you’re about to copy it, but select Speak.
Endless fun.
6. Get custom vibration or flash alerts
Sick of missing messages? Want to know who’s calling before you take your phone out of your pocket?
Turn on flash alerts (they’re very bright) in Accessibility settings to get a proper light alert when you get a notification.
OR, make a vibration pattern for important numbers so you can recognise them if your phone is on silent.
Just go to Settings >Sounds > Ringtone > Vibration > Create New Vibration then just tap a pattern of your choice.
Now you’ll know when mammy is on to you, every time.
Android
1. Make it an actual Kit Kat
Not edible, but a nice Easter Egg. Go to About Phone and keep tapping on the phone version, it turns into a virtual Kit Kat.
It has to be the Kit Kat version, obviously.
2. Use your Google Maps offline
This is a nice feature for those times you might get lost without Wifi. Just open Google Maps, select the Search function in the upper left corner, and scroll to the end and hit Make this map area available offline. Do in advance of wandering.
Good news, this can be used on iPhone too.
3. Display text on a lost phone
Afraid you’ll lose your phone and the finder will have no way of getting in touch with you? Simply go to Settings > Security > Owner Info and you can type anything for display on your lock screen in case it gets lost.
4. Restrict your data limit
Constantly going over your data limit and getting charged through the nose? Android have a nifty little built-in tool to set a limit which will alert you if you go over.
Just go to Settings > Data usage, select Set mobile data limit and go to town on the limits.
5. Smoother graphics
You can improve the quality of your gaming graphics by going to Settings and tapping ‘About Phone’ three times. This will enable developer options in settings. Scroll until you see Hardware Accelerated Rendering, and select Force 4x MSAA. It’s not good on the battery, but your game will look great.
6. Get different colour alerts
Download the Light Flow app to select personalised notifications for LED lights, using different colours for different alerts.
Now you can know what’s important or not just by glancing at your phone.
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