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
Find and delete duplicate photos with these free apps
Are you someone who likes to keep a super clean home? It can be therapeutic, to say the least. But now that your house is spick-and-span, you might want to start cleaning other things. Tap or click here for instructions on how to disinfect your smartphone.
Quick pic tip: How to clean up your photo library, fast
While it’s fun to take more than five pics of every cute animal, life event or meal, your phone has a limit. For every beautiful shot, you’re probably saving a bunch of junk, too. Are you getting that “storage full” message? It’s a pain.
8 quick and easy ways to clean up your Android
Your smartphone can get bogged down with software, viruses and too many files like a computer. It can run slowly when that happens, which is less than ideal.
If you own an Android phone and want to keep it running like new, there are some steps you’ll need to take. Here are eight maintenance tips to keep your Android as good as new.
How much free storage should you have on your computer?
If your computer is slow, check its hard drive. You may need to clear storage space to make your PC run more smoothly. Simply put, your device needs a certain amount of free space to work correctly.
How much free space your computer needs will depend on the brand and model. We’ll give you details in this tech tip. In the meantime, you should also look for signs that your hard drive is failing. Watch for things like strange sounds.
Here’s why your phone is so much slower now than when you bought it
You spend a lot of money on electronics, so why not keep them in tip-top shape? When it comes to computers, speed is the name of the game. Is your PC or Mac running slow? Take these simple steps to speed things up again.
Delete these apps to keep your phone fast and safe
It’s a fact: your devices work better when running lean. An excess of useless apps and files consumes storage space and slows everything from opening programs to browsing the web.
When was the last time you gave your computer a good going-over? You probably have stuff on that hard drive you completely forgot about or never use. One of the simplest ways to boost a PC or Mac is by clearing out some space and removing the files you don’t need to store locally. Tap or click here to speed up your computer in three steps.
Low on space on your iPhone? Here's how to clear the hidden 'Other' storage
Is your iPhone running out of storage space? Many things could be taking up valuable real estate from pictures, videos, and streaming downloads. Tap or click here to find out how to clean up your contacts for good.
However, there are occasions when it isn’t apparent why you’re running out of space on your iPhone. These storage issues could be from the little-known Other categories.
One thing you must do before you upgrade to Windows 11
Software updates are a necessary part of technology — and something that can drive us up the wall when they happen when you’re trying to get things done.
If you’re ready to make the jump from Windows 10 to Window 11, you can download a clean copy of Windows 10 to save for future use just in case. This download is legal, free and fairly simple to do. Plus, it will ensure you have a way to reboot Windows 10 in the future if problems occur.
iPhone battery issues since updating to iOS 15.4? Here's what you should know
The iPhone has a reputation for being more secure than phones running Android. For one thing, Apple has a closed operating system while Android leans towards open source. And Apple is more strict about which apps make it to its App Store.
15 affordable products you didn't know you needed
There are tons of little ways technology can impact our lives. Get enough gadgets, and they add up to a significantly improved quality of life. With our list of affordable products you didn’t know you needed, you don’t have to worry about the little things anymore.
How to get that like-new computer speed back
Your PC is likely full of files and programs you seldom or never use. There are apps you used once or twice before forgetting about them. Then there are registry files, failed downloads and bloatware that sneaks onto your computer without your knowledge. In addition to taking up storage space, all that clutter slows your computer down.
There are 4 kinds of Live Photos on your iPhone - How to try them all
You’ll never miss a photo opportunity thanks to your smartphone. This is both a blessing and a curse. While it’s nice to capture those special moments, there’s probably a lot of footage on your phone that you could do without, especially duplicates.
Think twice about upgrading to Windows 11 - Here's what's going wrong
Windows 11 is here and rolling out to users everywhere. Depending on your hardware and its age, you may not be offered a free upgrade just yet, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
As with any other Microsoft release, Windows 11 has its share of problems. Early adopters are reporting issues such as slow internet, memory leakage and problems with the search bar in the Start menu. Tap or click here for more details about these problems and how to resolve them.
Update Chrome to get access to a bunch of time-saving new features
Storing online files and documents in Google Drive is incredibly helpful. Once uploaded, they are safe from accidental deletion, malware infection, or when you might run out of storage space. Tap or click here for nine things you didn’t know your Chromebook could do.
This new iOS 15 feature has a flaw that could put your data at risk
Apple’s new version of iOS has been out for just a week, and there are already severe problems being detected. This isn’t unusual with the latest software releases, as bugs and flaws are bound to pop up.
Last week, two issues were reported among users who downloaded and installed iOS 15 immediately. Some iPhones showed they were almost running out of storage space when in reality, they were not. The other bug had users claiming their battery life had diminished.
Easy way to clear space on your PC or Mac
An exciting new program just came out to optimize your business and you want to get it. Or, perhaps you decided to finally see what all the fuss is about with Fortnite, so you try to download it to your computer. But when you hit download, you get an error message. Your computer storage is full.
Find the duplicates and junk in your photo collection with this app
Choosing the best photos on your phone and deleting the rest forever can be a scary proposition. We want to hold on to as much as we can, but storage space is limited. Sometimes it is near-impossible to select the best shots from a day outside.
Speed up your slow Android phone with this one trick
Many factors can slow down your Android phone. In a worst-case scenario, you may have picked up a virus along the way. Tap or click here for details of a serious security flaw that a recent update patched.
But sometimes, what’s causing your device to run slow is something simple, like a full cache. A cache is temporary data storage that apps use, so they don’t have to repeatedly download the same information. It’s useful and can make sites load faster, but clearing out the cache can help speed things up.
iPhone how-to: Remove the default apps you don't use
Whether you buy an iOS or Android device, there will be several apps pre-installed by the manufacturers. Often referred to as bloatware, these apps don’t offer much use if you don’t need them.
Bloatware is more pervasive in Android devices than iOS, but several Apple apps could fall into that category. The last thing you need is unnecessary apps taking all the storage space on your iPhone. Tap or click here for a hidden iPhone setting that can eat up all your storage in a flash.