TECH Life hacks

[RW]

Re-open an accidentally closed tab

We've all been there. You're browsing the web with more tabs open than should be legally permissible. Next thing you know, you accidentally close up an important tab and simply can't remember what the URL was. Not to fear, if you press Ctrl+Shift+T(PC) your most recently closed tab will spring back to life. This tip is a real life saver.



Easily create animated Gifs from YouTube videos

Sometimes you want to send a friend a hilarious clip without them having to wade through a long YouTube video before getting to the good stuff. Thankfully, the website GifYouTube.com makes creating an animated GIF from any YouTube video you can find. What makes GifYouTube particularly worthwhile is that the entire process is seamless. Simply paste in the URL of a YouTube video and then it's easy to quickly select where you want the animated GIF to begin and where you want it to end. You can even add captions if you're looking to spice things up a bit.



Quickly scroll backwards through a webpage

Most people are familiar with scrolling down through a webpage, one page at a time, via pressing the space bar. Less commonly known is that it's possible to scroll up through a webpage, one page at a time, by pressing the Shift key while pressing the space bar.



Charge your iPhone faster

If you're looking to charge up your iPhone and time is of the essence, you might be well-advised to put your device into Airplane Mode before charging. While doing so doesn't always speed things along, the charging time can be significantly reduced if you happen to be in an area with a less than optimal cellular signal. Either way, even a 5% increase in charging time is welcome when you're in a time crunch.



Save money on flights by deleting cookies

Booking a flight online can be exceedingly frustrating. Not only do the cheapest flight options often include multiple layovers that add hours upon hours to your trip, but you also have to deal with prices seemingly changing on the hour.  One way to skirt around this is to delete your cookies and erase any evidence that you visited an airline website before. Doing so will ensure that you will be presented with the real travel price and not a price based on some algorithm that is programmed to charge users a tad more when the site recognizes that you've searched for a specific flight a number of times.



How to print when running extremely low on black ink

If you need to print and are running desperately low on black ink, these two tips, courtesy of Reddit, are worth keeping in mind. First, change the font color to #010101 which is 99% gray. You can also save on ink by adjusting the type of font you use. The top rated Reddit comment on the topic reads as follows:

Century Gothic, for example, uses on average 30% less ink than Arial. The top five fonts according to Printer.com for low ink usage are Century Gothic, Times New Roman, Calibri, Verdani, and Arial.  Solid info to be aware of.



Listen to video game music to study or work more efficiently

This tip has been around for a while but is worth mentioning in case you haven't seen it before. If you're looking to listen to some music while studying or working, you might want to close up Spotify and try listening to video game music instead. The reason why so many people find this helpful is because video game music is designed, in part, to create a desired mood while still enabling players to concentrate on the task at hand.



Turn off someone's annoying smartphone alarm

This is a clever one we stumbled across via hongkiat. If you have a roommate whose smartphone alarm won't stop going off, you can secure some peace and quiet by calling the offending smartphone and hanging up once the phone starts ringing.

[cc]

Neat. A couple I will save and use



Thanks!!

[RW]

http://www.awesomeinventions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/google-ctrl-l.jpg">

[RW]

Download YouTube videos and audio

You can download any YouTube video just by typing "ss" before the "youtube" part of a video's URL link in your address bar. Here's an example for Justin Bieber's Sorry music video:

Original -

[RW]

Shortcut for pausing a YouTube video

We think little tricks are fun, too. For instance, when you press 'K' while watching a video on YouTube, it will pause or play the video. How neat is that? And it works regardless of where you clicked last on the page.



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 and close any of them.



Take a selfie with your Apple headphones

Your Apple headphones double as a iPhone camera remote. To take a picture using your headphones, aim your phone, and then push the + button on the your Apple earbuds remote while the camera app is open. You can use your volume buttons on the side of your device to take pictures as well.  You can also use the play/pause button in the middle of the remote to start/stop recording video when in video mode.



Unmask your password

When visiting a login page of any website, you can view masked passwords with a simple hack. Just right-click the password box, and then select "Inspect Element" to bring up the developer console. Find the line that starts with "input type=password", then change the word "password" to "text", and you will see your password. This is handy hack should you think you're accidentally typing in a password wrong several times and want to check how you're typing it in the password field.

[RW]

Stream audio from Safari while using other apps

You can stream audio from websites (like YouTube or Soundcloud) in the background while using other mobile apps. All you have to do is play the song or video in Safari, then go to your homescreen, and swipe up from the bottom to access the Control Center. From there, press play. You'll then be free to multitask.



Quickly dial back your last caller

Want to call back the last number you dialed or received a call from? The quickest way is to hit the call button on your phone. It'll dial back their number. There's no need to access your contacts or call lists.



Use your keyboard to scroll on webpages

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 can 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 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.



DYI cord protector

This is that hack we mentioned earlier for preventing your Apple charging cables and other cords from fraying: Grab the spring out of a ballpoint pen, then stretch it and wrap it around the part of the cord that tends to bend, and it'lll keep it straight forever, thus stopping it from wearing down over years.



Watch blocked Netflix movies

Netflix's streaming service blocks you from accessing content limited to certain countries and regions, but a free browser extension called Hola allows you to visit websites that are otherwise blocked in your country. Netflix subscribers can therefore use Hola to increase the catalogue they have access to on the web.



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.

[RW]

Google can help you study

Whenever you need to study for an important exam in college or high school, just google "site:edu [subject] exam", and then you'll get links to tonnes of sample exams with solutions and everything.



Use Siri to return a device to its owner

We've all seen dropped iPhones on the street or in a store. But did you know there is an easy way to discover who owns it? If you find a locked iPhone and Siri is still enabled, just ask Siri: "Who do you belong to?" You'll then see the owner's name and contact information. Now go be a good samaritan.



Text mobile devices via email

You can text mobile phones from your desktop. All you need is an email account and a person's phone number and carrier information. From there, use this site (http://www.emailtextmessages.com/">http://www.emailtextmessages.com/) to look up the email address associated with their carrier. Just be sure to add their phone number to the address, and then you'll have an email address for them that you can send texts to from your desktop.



Get coupon codes with Honey

Download the Honey add-on extension to your Chrome browser (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpnenekpadlanbbkooimhnj?hl=en-US">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... j?hl=en-US">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpnenekpadlanbbkooimhnj?hl=en-US) to instantly begin saving money. It automatically applies coupon codes during checkout at any online retailer. Woohoo!



Save money on Amazon with CamelCamelCamel

Here's another money-saving tip: If you use Amazon a lot, make sure you start taking advantage of a website called camelcamelcamel.com. Like, right now. It tracks products for you and alerts you when prices drop.



Watch age-restricted YouTube videos without logging in

There is a way to watch any age-restricted YouTube video without signing into your account. Just add "nsfw" before "youtube" in the URL link in your address bar.

Here's an example:

Original video:

[Bricktop]

To prevent those annoying blue screens of death, unpredictable crashes and freezing on your Windows PC, buy an Apple iMac.

[Annie]

Your headphones double as a mic

Need a microphone but 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.



Sooo THAT'S why you were asking me if I had a pair of headphones to use as a mic on Skype! Doh! Good to know  

[eagle]

Logitech.



http://i68.tinypic.com/287etft.png">



Now that's what I call great product support. Way to go, Losertech.  

[Anonymous]

Logitech.



http://i68.tinypic.com/287etft.png">



Now that's what I call great product support. Way to go, Losertech.  

Diagrams are an additional charge.

[eagle]

Well that's just it. You can't even get one. I mean, it's not like it's a missile guidance system or something. It's just a powered speaker ffs. How stupid.   :001_rolleyes:

[ELPHUPPHY]

My son showed me a website yesterday that was amusing. ?It is called Akinator. The general idea is for one person to pick a character, real or not, and anopther uses Akinator to guess that person. It is amazingly good at doing so. You are asked a series of questions, and at some point, the damn thing spits out the correct name. I used such people as Ben Franklin, Roy Rogers, Julius Ceasar, Gregory Peck, Shirley Temple, General MacArthur to try to stump the program and failed miserably.





Try it and amuse and astound.





https://www.google.com/#q=akinator">https://www.google.com/#q=akinator

[Anonymous]

My son showed me a website yesterday that was amusing. ?It is called Akinator. The general idea is for one person to pick a character, real or not, and anopther uses Akinator to guess that person. It is amazingly good at doing so. You are asked a series of questions, and at some point, the damn thing spits out the correct name. I used such people as Ben Franklin, Roy Rogers, Julius Ceasar, Gregory Peck, Shirley Temple, General MacArthur to try to stump the program and failed miserably.





Try it and amuse and astound.





https://www.google.com/#q=akinator">https://www.google.com/#q=akinator

Looks good.  Asks good questions, mostly.  I ran it through 3 cycles of 20 questions with Boz Scaggs and it finally gave up.  



Second try...3 more cycles of 20, this time with Odetta Holmes.  Victory is mine.  



It's good, but I'm better   ac_smile

[RW]

I have the app.  It's great fun at parties...when you play with people who aren't Peaches that is.  :P



One time I did it using my dad and it came up with the answer "Your Dad".  Haha