When you’re the tech-savvy friend, people ask for help. It comes with the territory.
And who helps those people? Me! I’ve always got your back with new tricks, tips and secrets to master your devices. Browse the hidden apps you didn’t know are built-in to your iPhone or Android.
Keep reading, and you’ll learn something new that’s good enough to share. I pass along insider tips just like these in my free daily newsletter. Join 400K-plus who trust it!
Secret Windows restart trick
Bet you didn’t know there’s a better way to restart your PC. When you click the Restart button, your computer goes through a process that saves some of its memory or RAM. This helps it start up faster when you turn it back on, but not everything is closed out. Some background processes and open apps may still be running.
Frequent shutdowns can fix most computer issues, but you can try a shift shutdown to close all processes and apps and clear the RAM completely. As the name implies, all you do is hold down the Shift key before you hit restart. Keep holding it until your PC powers down, and choose Continue when it turns back on.
Computers only keep that new machine speed for a while. Luckily you can bring it back if you know what to do. Follow these steps to make your PC run like new again.
Wipe your location from photos
Your phone stores metadata every time you take a picture. That might include the date you took it, your camera settings and where you were. Think about that for a second if you’re sending pics you took at home.
When you share your image, anyone can have access to that data. Yikes.
• To stop location sharing on iPhone, open the image you want to share, go to Options, and toggle off location.
• On Android, open your gallery, select the photo, then go to Details and click Remove location data.
Your GPS app needs your location, but does every game and shopping app need it too? Nope. Here’s how to see what knows where you are and stop it.
Fix your phone’s call audio
You’re on an important call, but the background is noisy, and your friend can’t hear you. Good news if you have an iPhone: the new Voice Isolation mode.
All the background noise that gets in the way of your convo is blocked out, leaving just your voice to come through crystal clear.