Smart Phone Tips Archives - Page 51 of 65

How to make completely anonymous phone calls in the age of Big Brother

Posted on May 21, 2015

pre-paid-phone Unless you live one hut down from Gilligan on that infamous remote tropical island, chances are you have heard that Verizon and some other carriers have been handing over the phone records of every one of their customers to the federal government for some time now.

That’s right, your private calls, texts and Internet communications aren’t private, and they haven’t been for a while.

Does this scare you? It should, even if you live life on the straight and narrow. This policy throws the entire concept of probable cause right out the window.

So how can you ensure your privacy when using your cell phone? [Read more…]

Use Google to quickly locate your lost or stolen Android phone

Posted on April 18, 2015

I wrote a post a while back that explains how to use a great service called Where’s My Cell Phone to ring your lost phone so you can track it down by the ringing sound when you don’t have another phone to call it with.

That service works quite well, but for it to be useful you have to know the general location where you lost the phone (i.e. somewhere inside your home or office). It won’t do you much good if your phone was stolen or lost in a distant place and you have no clue where to go to look for it.

Luckily, if you have an Android phone you can now use the Google search box to determine your phone’s location (within a few meters) and then make it ring so you can find its exact location. [Read more…]

How to disable Auto-Correct on the Samsung Galaxy S5

Posted on April 3, 2015

Auto-Correct is one of those features that we tend to either love or hate. Personally, I don’t like it, but that’s just me. I’d much rather proof-read my text than send annoying (and potentially embarrassing) erroneous words.

For some reason, the Auto-Correct feature on the popular Samsung Galaxy S5 smart phone seems to be even worse at guessing what you intended to type than its predecessors were.

If, like me, you aren’t all that fond of Auto-Correct, you can easily disable it on your own Galaxy S5. Here’s how: [Read more…]

How to tell Verizon to stop tracking your every move while you’re using the Internet

Posted on April 2, 2015

Are you a Verizon Wireless customer?

If so, did you know they secretly use cookies to track every move you make while using the Internet on their network with a mobile device?

Well, they do, and those cookies are actually “supercookies” that can not be removed! [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I prevent my LG G3 from connecting to Wi-Fi on its own?

Posted on March 16, 2015

Question from Amanda J.: Hello Rick. I ordered a brand new LG G3 Android phone off the Sprint website a few months ago, and I like it a lot.

The only problem I have with it is it keeps connecting to Wi-Fi all on its own, and it irritates the heck out of me.

I just found your website (which is awesome by the way) and I thought you might be able to tell me how to keep my phone from connecting to Wi-Fi until I want it to. I really hope so anyway.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]