There are huge numbers of tech-related tips and tricks out there that can simplify your daily routine and make your life much easier.
For instance, Apple’s charging cords foriOS devicesand Macs tend to fray after a few years, so you have to spend money often to replace them (unless you don’t care about them catching fire and ruining everything you own and love). Well, we know a nifty hack that’ll prevent your Apple cords from fraying in the first place.
In fact, we know stacks of different hacks - and everyone will make you wonder how you ever survived this long without them.
Use your keyboard to scroll on webpages
Use the space bar to scroll down on any webpage. You can even hold the shift key and the space bar at the same time to scroll up.
This trick might be well-known, but we thought it was still worth including: Use the space bar to scroll down on any webpage.
you may even hold the shift key and the space bar at the same time to scroll up.
Your headphones double as a mic
Need a microphone but don’t have one nearby? Plug your headphones into the microphone port as a cheap and temporary alternative.
Need amicrophonebut don’t want to spend money on one? Easy.
Grab any pair of headphones lying around, then plug them into the microphone jack, and start talking. This isn’t exactly secret knowledge, but if you don’t know about it, we think it’ll blow your mind. Of course, the quality isn’t amazing, but you can’t have it all.
Spelling, grammar and definition help
Grammarly is a superb tool for helping with spelling, grammar and more online.
If you’d like a little extra help when writing online, then we’d highly recommendGrammarly. This tool gives you tips and suggestions for grammar, spelling and general sentence construction whatever you’re doing on the web.
you may even double-click a word to highlight it and get suggested other words to use instead. There’sa Google Chrome pluginto ensure you can easily edit text whatever website you’re on. And it’s free!
Use emoji on desktops
If you thought emoji were limited to mobile devices, think again. You can use them on desktop, too.
For Mac: Press control+command+spacebar to get the emoji menu.
For PC: The latest version of Chrome has an emoji menu. Simply right-click anywhere you can type and click “Emoji” in the menu to access all the available emojis.
Quickly re-open a closed tab
If you just accidentally closed an important tab in your browser, you can easily re-open it by pressing command+shift+t on a Mac or control+shift+t on Windows PC.
This can be used multiple times too, so keep pressing to open all the tabs you’ve closed recently. It even works after you’ve entirely closed and re-opened your browser too.
Find the cheapest place to stream a movie from
For those of you who are cable-cutters, you’ll love this site:CanIStream.Ittells you where any movie is available to stream - and at the lowest price too.
Just Watch
If you’re stuck for something to watch and need help then Just Watch is a great option. A useful tool for getting personalised viewing recommendations.
If you’re stuck for something to watch and need help thenJust Watchis a great option. You can tell it what services you use (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ etc) and then get hints based on your viewing habits or just what’s currently popular and available to you.
If you have something particular in mind then you can simply search for it and see if there’s anywhere you can view it.
No internet? Play a game
When your internet connection goes out and the Google Chrome browser gives you an error page, press the spacebar to start a T-Rex game.
At least you won’t be bored while you wait to get online again. If you find your internet returns and ruins your game, no need to worry, you cancarry on online here.
Hide people on Twitter without blocking them
Twitter’s mute button is a little-known trick that is severely understated. It allows you to keep following an account but hides its tweets and retweets from your timeline.
It’s a simple way to rid a person from your Twitter without unfollowing them and thus offending them. They’ll never know when you mute them! Just click on the settings menu to the right of someone’s profile, and then select mute. Easy peasy.
Remotely log out of Facebook
Privacy tips are always worth a mention, especially when it comes to Facebook, considering everyone and their mother uses the social network. Have you ever checked Facebook on a strange device and then realised you forgot to log out?
Never fear - you can log out still, remotely. Go to the “settings” drop-down menu on your Facebook, then select “security”, and navigate to “when you’re logged in”.
From there, you can see all open sessions and close any of them.
