Tech Tips, Tricks and Tutorials
Regular readers of this blog know that you don’t have to just junk your old smart phone when it comes time to upgrade because there are countless uses for working phones.
In this post I’ll explain how to give your old iPhone or Android phone a second life as a dedicated emergency radio scanner.
You’ll be able to use your “scanner” 24/7 while at home or anywhere that you have access to Wi-Fi (your old phone likely won’t have an active data plan). [Read more…]
Question from Michelle H.: I sometimes loan my phone to my 9 year old son so he can play a game, and I recently found out that he sneaked into the Google Play Store and bought several games without my permission.
We had a long mother-son talk and he assured me that he won’t do it again, but I’d really like to force the Play Store to ask for my password for every purchase. Is there a way to do that?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Dorenda J.: Hi Rick! I have a question about charging my phone.
I lead walking tours through the streets of my historic home town and I only have a few minutes here and there when I can plug my iPhone in for a quick charge.
Someone told me my phone will charge faster if I turn it off before I plug it in. Is that true?
Rick’s answer: Yes it is true, Dorenda. The innards of your iPhone consist of some pretty sophisticated electronic devices, including a CPU, some memory chips and multiple send/receive radios. [Read more…]
Does your WiFi network seem slower than it should be?
Do you struggle with poor, unstable connections?
Are you unable to use your devices at all in a distant room?
Many wireless networking issues can be fixed simply by making a tweak or two to your router, but the trick is knowing exactly what’s causing the issue and what you need to tweak.
Our friends at Netgear have developed an awesome free app for your Android devices that can help take some of the guesswork out of diagnosing and fixing many WiFi networking issues. [Read more…]
A while back I told you about a great free program called Speccy that lists pretty much every technical detail there is about your PC.
If you have even a passing interest in what hardware and software is inside your computer’s case, you need to download Speccy today.
If you have that same curiosity about what’s inside your Android phone or tablet, a wonderful free app called CPU-Z will tell you. [Read more…]
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