15 Tech Tricks you'll wish you knew sooner.

" Most gadgets don't come with a user manual that spells out every feature. We learn them by doing, when someone spills the beans or asking, " How'd you do that?""

1. Share a Nest Cam video feed

The Nest Cam is great for getting live video streams, see any past events, and get instant alerts of motion and sound. Many people are unaware that you can easily share a Nest cam’s view. I permitted my sisters to see my mother’s Nest cam in her living room.

2. Built-in dictation

Do you send texts with Siri or Google Assistant? It’s a big time saver. You can use built-in dictation on your computer, too.

3. Turn your phone into a security cam

Don’t have a security system? No problem. Turn your phone, laptop, desktop computer or tablet into a motion-activated security cam with just a couple clicks using Critter.camera.

4. Create a secret world of conversation with your iPhone

Tap into your inner James Bond with secret communication — without messages coming up in your regular text messages. All you have to do is create a note and share it with anyone you want to have a chat.

5. Use a Post-it for useful reasons

Keyboards are magnets for dirt and grime, especially if you eat at your desk. If you don’t have any compressed air handy, clean out your keyboard with the sticky side of a Post-it note.

6. Open a new tab

Want to open a tab to read later? Hover over a hyperlink and click the wheel of your mouse. This automatically opens that link in a new tab, keeping you on your current screen.

7. Store a digital signature on your Mac

You don’t need Adobe Acrobat to sign a digital document. It’s easy to create a virtual signature you can use on a Mac using the Preview app.

8. Use your pencil eraser for something useful

If you own any Apple tech, you probably have quite a few dirty white charging cables. Those things attract scuffs and marks in no time.

Make them look brand new with a pencil eraser. It takes a little time and patience, but start erasing and the mess will be gone in no time.

9. Give your webcam a new purpose

Your webcam is good for more than video meetings. Use it as a scanner when you need to get a document onto your computer and don’t want to go through the steps of taking a photo, sending it to yourself and formatting it.

10. Stop guessing when to leave

Google Maps lets you set a departure time or an arrival time. By setting a departure time, you’ll get an estimate of when you should arrive for an appointment. By setting an arrival time, you receive an estimate on when you should leave your current location to make it on time.

All you have to do is open Google Maps and fill in your location and destination.

11. Free transcripts of your meetings

Taking notes is a pain, and transcribing audio takes forever. Otter.ai is a great option if you want AI to do the work for you.

Otter records and transcribes in real-time. Even better, within a couple of minutes, you get access to searchable transcripts to find whatever you need. You can playback your recording, and highlight or add comments.

12. Search results without the extra step

Turn Google into a specific search engine for any website using just the tab button on your computer.This works in Edge and Chrome. For Safari and Firefox, you can use this trick: Enter your search term, along with “site:” followed by the website you want to search. For example, you might put in “tech tips site:komando.com” to search my website for even more tech tips.

13. Use Siri or Google Assistant to disable weak Wi-Fi

Before the world of unlimited data, we jumped at the opportunity to tap into free Wi-Fi to avoid overage charges. Now, most of us have unlimited plans, but our phones still search for an open Wi-Fi connection to save data when possible.

14. Use your phone as a level

If you need to hang a picture, you don’t need to grab a level — your phone can do it for you.

15. Double your internet speed

When your internet slows down, you go through the mental checklist. Is it the router? The modem? The computer itself? Is a neighbor using your connection to watch 4K movies?

https://www.komando.com/kims-column/15-new-tech-tips/787418/