iPhone and Android annoyances: How to fix the 5 most annoying things for good
When it comes to consumer tech, there’s a massive list of things that can drive us all bananas.
Take your slow Wi-Fi. You can’t stream or join a video meeting, and it always happens at the worst time. Tap or click for clever ways to speed up your home’s connection.
What about wading through thousands of photos, looking for the one you want? Tap or click for a quick shortcut, along with four more smart tech fixes — like a hidden way to know a scammer is calling without picking up your phone.
Our smartphones help us get a ton done, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to chuck them out the window sometimes. Here are the top complaints I hear about and ways to fix them.
1. Your screen brightness keeps changing
Apple’s Face ID does more than unlock your phone. It also can tell when you’re paying attention to your phone. If you look away, your screen dims, and your alert volume decreases.
The fluctuating brightness can be frustrating. You can switch this feature off.
- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Face ID & Attention.
- Turn off Attention Aware Features.
On Android, adaptive brightness or auto-brightness uses a sensor to adjust the screen based on your environment. Sometimes it works well, but not always.
Steps will vary based on your phone’s model, but here’s a starting point.
- Go to Settings, then Display.
- Look for Adaptive brightness and toggle it off.
2. The person you’re talking to can’t hear you
You're killing your smartphone battery faster without realizing it - Make this change
You may have heard a tip about running down your phone to 0% before charging it back to 100%. This supposedly helps your battery “remember” the full range of its charge. While cycling memory may have worked with nickel-cadmium batteries, this isn’t the case with lithium-ion batteries.
True or false: Quick-charging apps really work to speed up the process
It’s happened again. Your phone battery died when you needed it most. Perhaps you were in an instant chat with coworkers or doing a video interview. Maybe you were sending memes to your significant other or catching Pokémon. Whatever it is, your phone is now a useless brick until you can get it juiced up again.
Battery draining quickly? Find out which apps are to blame
If your phone battery seems to drain quickly, don’t immediately assume you need to exchange it. Sometimes the true culprits are right under your nose.
It’s also possible you haven’t correctly configured your phone’s settings. Did you breeze through the setup steps when you opened it up? It’s not too late to fix Tap or click here for 3 crucial security settings for your Android.