Here are some quick and easy tech tips that can make your life easier!
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New Venmo privacy setting
Venmo is notoriously lax about the privacy of your transactions and for good reason: the service was built on social sharing of friends paying each other back for sushi and coffees.
But, ever since Buzzfeed was able to find President Biden’s profile and his entire list of friends, the app has introduced a new setting to hide your friend list.
To turn it on, open the Venmo app, go into Settings, then Privacy and Your Friends List. Choose “Private” so other people can’t see your list of friends.
While you’re in Settings, you might want to make your transactions private too, unless you like everyone seeing who you’re exchanging money with. I know, many people do. I just don’t get it.
Have your phone announce who’s calling
If your phone is across the room and it rings, you can still “hear” who is calling. All of the popular phones now support a feature that says the name of who’s calling out loud.
On Samsung, open your Dialer, then go into settings and under “Answering and Ending Calls,” choose the option to “Read Caller Names Aloud.”
The feature also just came to Google’s Phone Dialer app, which is the default on Pixel phones, but anyone using an Android can also download and use it for free. Open the Dialer app, go into Settings, then look for the option for Caller ID announcement. Set to Always.
On iPhone, go into Settings, Phone and choose the option for Announce Calls.
Set the book you’re reading as a Kindle lock screen
Kindles just picked up a cool new feature. They can now display the cover of the book you’re reading on the lock screen.
To set it, make sure your software is up to date. Then, go into Settings, Device Options and toggle the switch for Show Cover.
Keep in mind, if your Kindle displays ads on the lock screen by default, you’ll have to pay $20 to get the new cover feature. This feature works on Kindles, Paperwhites and Oasis models, not the Fire tablet models.
Also, Amazon Prime day is rumored to be approaching, so before you spring for the $20 upgrade, you might want to wait to see what kind of deals they have on brand new Kindles.
Protect your Windows 10 PC from ransomware
Did you know Windows 10 has built in ransomware protection? You can turn it on in one click!
To do it, start by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard to open the built-in search tool. Then, type in “ransomware protection” and open the result, which will be inside settings.
Next, toggle the switch under Controlled Access Folder. This will keep random apps from accessing your most important files unless you specifically grant them authority.
You’re now protected from what Windows calls “unfriendly applications,” which is a nice way of saying apps that hold your computer hostage until you pay a ransom fee to hackers.
Keep in mind, just because this feature is turned on doesn’t mean you can click random links with no worries. You should still be careful when downloading apps, clicking links or opening attachments.
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