Technology is great, but the cost of all those cables, accessories and gadgets can really add up. Fortunately, everyday digital setbacks can be solved with many simple solutions provided by tech hacks.
Most of these tech hacks are easy and immediate. It's always good when you are able to save some money. Because they offer simple fixes to common issues, these top hacks make the technology even better.
Find Your Lost Phone By Using Alexa
If you already looked everywhere but can't find your phone, and there's no one around to ask to call you, then you can use "Alexa" as a last resort to find your phone. According to USA Today, you can simply say to your Amazon Echo "Alexa, trigger find my phone." Then Echo will call your phone and you can find its location by following its vibration or ringtone.
Use Household Items To Create DIY Speakers
In case you don't have speakers, you can always make your own. All you need is a two-liter soda bottle, a Pringles sleeve, the cardboard tube you find in the middle of wrapping paper, or any type of an empty cylinder. Add a notch that fits your smartphone's body or cut out a hole. Place the speakers in a position where they are facing into the tube. The higher quality and increased volume will surprise you, as the sound resonates inside the vacuum.
Amplify Phone's Speakers
Usually, the smartphone speakers aren't very powerful. In case that you want to really enjoy your podcast or music but don't have any Bluetooth stereo gear or ear buds handily to connect to the phone, then a simple solution is to place your phone into a dry bowl or cup with the speakers aimed downward. You'll be impressed how much louder your phone's audio will be.
Amplify Your Wi-Fi Signal
Most often we need to improve the Wi-Fi signal in our house in order to get a better internet connection. There are expensive commercial tech solutions for this, but you can also make it much simpler and cheaper. In fact, you can use only a coat hanger and an old CD to create your own Wi-Fi signal booster.
You'll also need a glue gun, a plastic CD case, a coaxial cable and a pair of wire strippers. You will have to build an antenna out of the clothes hanger. Ensure you make it in a shape that looks like an angular figure eight.
The next step is to glue the CD to the plastic container it came in. Then attach the clothes hanger antenna onto one end of the coaxial cable. Through the middle of the CD's case, string the coaxial cable in order to create a final product that looks like a miniature satellite dish.
Use Your Old Tablet As A Digital Picture Frame
Every year or two, most tablets get outdated. In case that you've purchased a most recent one, you can still find a use for your old device. According to Komando, an old tablet can be turned into a digital picture frame to show off your family and vacations photos. In order to do this all you have to do is to simply load up a site like Photosnack that pulls photos from your online accounts like Flickr and Facebook and automatically creates a slideshow. You can also create an ongoing slideshow by using the photographs already stored on your tablet.
