Top Iphone tricks that will save you some time !!

 

• Set up a text replacement for your email. I never have to type my full email anymore, just @@.

• Tap the status bar (where the clock and battery are) to scroll up to the top on any app

• Settings -> Accessibility-> Touch -> Backtap
• Allows number of things to be set up by double/triple tapping the back of your phone.

• When marking up a photo, you can use the pen to draw the rough shape you want (eg an approximate circle, rectangle etc), but if you keep your finger on the screen the phone will convert it from your rough shape to a properly drawn one

• In the calculator app swipe left with one finger to delete one character

My best uses for Alexa

 

I had bought the first generation of Amazon Alexa from US in 2015. I was very excited with it and wanted to explore it more and even code some skills for it. That coding part didnt go as per plan . However, Alexa has been part of the daily life since then . I wanted to list down some cool uses i use Alexa for. 

1. I added my home and Office location and used it ask Alexa how is the traffic every day just before starting from home to office. It would give the time taken and route which helped me guess the traffic without looking at maps. 

2. I had a routine setup ( Series of commands grouped ) to list down the weather, top news on that day when i got up and taking care of morning activities. 

3. I have a 3 year toddler now and i have a lullaby playlist which i play it in loop while he sleeps and there are some outside noises. 

4. In extension to above, we use the skill " Animal sounds" where i play with my kid listening to various animal sounds . 

5. Ofcourse, listening to music from Amazon music with voice commands is the best use in addition to setting up Alarms and Timers. 

6. My best and fun usecase is playing with Smart bulb . I have a wipro smart bulb setup and we play it almost every day with commands , changing colours , brightness and on/off.

Digitize old negatives of photos

 I am sure most of us have some old negatives of photos from our parents time lying at our home. I saw some posts that we can digitize them but after trying one or two things , they seemed difficult.

Until i encountered this app called Filmbox by Photomyne . It is simple to use and was able to digitize some of the negatives i had into colour photos. 

Links for app : Android , iOS.

The app is very simple to use . Just install, it gives instructions on how to create backlight (going to their website) , just scan and hold and voila you have your photos. 

My favorite podcasts

 

Podcasts have now become part of consuming edutainment . 

My favorite ones are : 

The Seen and the Unseen by Amit Varma.

This is a national treasure . Host brings some great experts in a long format discussion around 3 hours and is a bliss every time we listen to it. There are lots of mindboggling episodes. I loved the ones with Jayaprakash Narayan, Chinmay Tumbe on Migration, Manu Pillai on his history books, the one on Kashmir, the one on Maharashtra politics , the one on CAA, the one with Ashwin Mahesh, the one with Madhavan of PRS and lots more. 

After Hours by HBR

This is my another favorite where some of the greatest minds from Harvard Business School discusses on the trends in the world and brings some interesting perspectives. They also give out some great reccos to watch and read. 

Finshots

5 minute size bytes on current economic affairs . A brilliant way of explanations that will calm down your curious brains.

Interpreting India

The episodes are of 30 mins and discusses some policy / governance implications related to India . 

Paisa Vaisa

A financial treasure to understand all the new products coming out in Indian financial space . 

ThinkFast Talk Smart

This one is from Stanford business school. Focusses on communication .

Harivillu

My latest favorite and this is in Telugu. Discusses some great topics and people from Teluguland . 

How to setup hourly reminders in iOS devices

 My biggest productivity hack i believe is to setup a hourly buzzing reminder on my iphone . It brings back on path to focus. 

There is an inbuilt reminder facility that can work but it creates a task and i need to mark complete the task so that it can keep working .  For reference, there is a good tutorial on how to achieve it. LINK

I was searching for a simple app that could avoid this creating task but just give a beep notification hourly and chanced upon " Chime"  . It is plain simple and clutter free UI and does the job perfectly. 

Link for Apple AppStore : https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chime/id414830146