Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Donna T.: I have a Sprint Samsung smart phone running Android (no clue what version). It drives me crazy by automatically connecting to my wireless network every time I walk into the house. Even if I turn Wi-Fi off on the phone, the next thing I know it has connected again.
I never use my phone with my home Wi-Fi network and I’d like to prevent it from automatically connecting to it. How do I do that?
Rick‘s answer: [Read more…]
A while back I wrote a post explaining how to use a battery backup unit (UPS) to keep your cell phone charged during extended power outages, and it turned out to be one of my most popular tips ever.
Since then I have received questions from a number of readers asking if there’s a way to do it if you’re caught in a blackout while away from home. And as it turns out, there sure enough is! [Read more…]
If you use the popular Facebook for Android app you probably wish you could delete unwanted or inappropriate comments right from your phone without having to rush to the nearest computer. If so, you’re in luck!
Facebook has just released the latest version of Facebook for Android, and it now includes the ability to delete a comment quite easily and quickly. All you have to do is tap the comment you wish to remove, then tap Delete Comment. What could be easier?
One would think that including the ability to delete unwanted comments would have been included in the app from the get-go, but it wasn’t. Go figure. Better late than never I suppose.
You can download the latest version of Facebook for Android from the Google Play Store.
Question from Miranda P.: Hi Rick. I just bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 and I love it, but the annoying clicking sound the keyboard makes when I’m typing is driving me crazy.
I’ve searched the menus from top to bottom and I can’t find a setting to disable the keyboards sounds. Can you please, please, please tell me how to do it?
Rick‘s answer: Indeed I can Miranda. The setting for turning off the key click sound on the Galaxy S4 is hidden under a set of nested menus. Here’s how to find it:
1 – Open the Settings screen, then scroll down and select Language and Input.
2 – Find Samsung keyboard and tap the gear-shaped icon.
3 – Tap Advanced.
4 – Uncheck Key-tap sound. Note: If you’d like to turn off the equally annoying Key-tap vibration, you can do that while you’re on this screen as well.
Here’s a screenshot: [Read more…]
Do you ever find yourself needing to see a list of all the Android apps you have purchased? The Google Play Store allows you to see such a list by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and then selecting the My Orders & Settings link, but the list you’re given includes your free apps mixed in with the paid ones.
A free app called My Purchases lists just the apps you actually paid money for along with links to the apps’ pages in the Play Store, the date you purchased the apps and the amount you paid for them. Really useful stuff in my opinion.
There is a paid version of My Purchases as well, but the only difference between the free version and the paid version is the paid version is ad free. To download My Purchases to your Android device, simply visit the Google Play Store and search for it by name.