All posts tagged: Shortcut

I found a Windows shortcut that makes the Settings app feel embarrassingly incomplete

I found a Windows shortcut that makes the Settings app feel embarrassingly incomplete

Published by skeptic

The default Settings app in Windows 11 is functional, but it’s quite limited compared to something like the classic Control Panel. It certainly gets the job done for most Windows users, including me. However, with Microsoft’s push for a more integrated, online ecosystem, the Settings app has become quite closed off. In fact, a good chunk of the administrative options that used to be part of the User settings are now locked off unless you’re connected to the internet. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a hidden feature on Windows that’s basically everything I ever wanted the default Settings app to be. I’m talking about Windows’ God Mode folder. It’s essentially a shortcut that gives you access to most administrative tools, restore point options, and a ton of other settings within a single window. Related This Windows app is Microsoft’s biggest failure in years Remember Control Panel? Yeah, I miss it too. The Settings app on Windows 11 is restricted in the worst ways possible Using the default Settings app shouldn’t come with any …

This iOS 27 Shortcut Stopped My Mindless Scrolling

This iOS 27 Shortcut Stopped My Mindless Scrolling

Published by skeptic

It got to the point where I couldn’t remember why I picked up my phone. I compulsively opened Threads and TikTok at all hours of the day and got sucked into the endless scroll — but I found a way to retrain my brain this week, thanks to a new iOS 27 feature.  I’m beta testing the upcoming operating system and its refreshed Shortcuts app, which lets you program your iPhone to do things using ordinary language. It’s called Describe a Shortcut. I speak my wishes into the app, and it obeys. So in this week’s One More Thing video, which you can watch embedded above, I found out what happens when you tell Shortcuts to not let you open Instagram (or Threads, or TikTok) during work hours. This is probably not what Apple developers had in mind for Shortcuts. After all, the Apple Screen Time app already has plenty of ways to help curb a social media addiction. But reprograming my phone to turn it into a brick is more fun than paying for …

Sali Hughes on beauty: a shortcut to glass skin? Try these one-step moisturisers | Beauty

Sali Hughes on beauty: a shortcut to glass skin? Try these one-step moisturisers | Beauty

Published by Sam Flores

As you will no doubt have noticed, “glass” skin – that is, a complexion with a smooth, glazed sort of sheen – has been fashionable for ages. Until now, however, it has only come as the result of a meticulous, umpteen-step Korean skincare routine. But the new glass skin moisturisers attempt to mimic the look in one simple application. Erborian’s Glow Moisturiser (from £9, all skin types) is a Goldilocks’s porridge sort of face cream. Not too heavy, not too light, just dewy enough without looking oily, and with lasting hydration that never becomes wet. I must advise the glimmer-avoidant that it does have a smidge of pearlescence, but I find that flattering. double quotation mark I’ve rarely changed my mind about a product so quickly. It went on sticky and stiff – but then transformed Mac’s Faceglass Hydrating Skin Gloss (£30) is, as you might expect from an artistry brand, a more definite “look”. I’ve rarely changed my mind about a product so quickly. On first application, I found the cloudy gel sticky and stiff, but seconds later …

The Books Briefing: The Genre That’s a Shortcut to Wisdom

The Books Briefing: The Genre That’s a Shortcut to Wisdom

Published by Daniella Wilson

This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. “How are you on theory?” my editor asked me earlier this week. I knew what he was talking about—not my pet hypotheses about, say, the existence of cryptids, but rather a group of 20th-century French philosophers. Yet I didn’t know much else beyond that. I was familiar with Michel Foucault, partly from college coursework but largely from a popular meme that features his most famous concept, the panopticon. I know about Roland Barthes and the death of the author. I know that Derrida, Lacan, and Deleuze are names that I should know. “Not good,” I told him. First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic’s Books section: I could read their works for myself, of course. I could pick up Foucault’s Discipline and Punish at any one of the college bookstores that serve four major universities in my city. But frankly—and I don’t think I’m alone in this—I’d rather not. My preference …

I taught my Samsung phone a hidden back-tap shortcut, and now I can’t stop

I taught my Samsung phone a hidden back-tap shortcut, and now I can’t stop

Published by skeptic

For years, the iPhone feature I missed most on Samsung was Back Tap. On Android, it’s even better. A double tap turns any app into a floating window so I can multitask like a pro. A triple tap fires off a screenshot and opens the share sheet in one motion — because when you grab a screenshot, you usually want to send it anyway. Launch any app, open your notification panel, trigger the flashlight — once you map a few taps, you’ll wonder how you lived without it. It’s also one of the most natural shortcuts you can do since you are probably resting your index finger on the back of your phone everytime you hold it—why not turn that into a producivity boost by settings up back-tap on your Samsung Galaxy? Related I’ve used Samsung for years, but these 5 features make me feel like a pro It’s sad that most Galaxy users never find or try these features. First, open Good Lock and install the RegiStar module Once again, Good Lock is a …

There’s a Hidden Shortcut to Mars, Scientific Paper Finds

There’s a Hidden Shortcut to Mars, Scientific Paper Finds

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech It takes an average of 12.5 minutes for light to cover the distance between the Earth and Mars. Using currently available propulsion methods — and at a time when both planets’ orbits align perfectly, a “Mars opposition” that only happens every 26 months or so — traveling to the Red Planet could still take anywhere from five to 11 months. But according to a new study published in the journal Acta Astronautica, there might be a way to cut the journey down significantly. Author Marcelo de Oliveira Souza, a cosmologist at the State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, considered the trajectory of asteroids, calculating a perfectly optimized route that he says could bring a round trip to Mars down to just 153 days. He examined the flight path of asteroid 2001 CA21, which crossed the orbits of both Earth and Mars at a steady five-degree tilt. He then calculated this journey for the upcoming Mars …

This Android shortcut saves me hours every week, and almost nobody knows it exists

This Android shortcut saves me hours every week, and almost nobody knows it exists

Published by skeptic

I’ve spent 15 years writing about mobile operating systems. Yet I still get that “eureka” moment when I find a toggle I’ve ignored for three hardware cycles. It’s usually tucked away in a sub-menu with a boring name like “Gestures.” I scroll past it a dozen times before finally tapping it and wondering how I ever lived without it. Quick Tap was exactly like that for me. I enabled it on a whim, fully expecting to forget about it within a week. Instead, it became one of the first things I set up on my Pixel 9 Pro XL. I’ve done the same on every Pixel I’ve tested since then, including older ones. Most Android users I know have never heard of it. Some have carried a Pixel for years and still haven’t stumbled across it. That’s the thing about Android: it hides its best stuff just far enough off the beaten path that most people never find it. Here’s what I reach for every day, and a few others worth turning on while you’re …

I found Android Auto’s hidden shortcut that automates any task in your car – and it’s brilliant

I found Android Auto’s hidden shortcut that automates any task in your car – and it’s brilliant

Published by skeptic

Charlie Osborne/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Android Auto’s Custom Assistant is an underutilized shortcut. You can trigger multiple actions, and Gemini makes the shortcut more useful. Custom Assistant takes only a minute to set up. Android Auto is a highly convenient, albeit underused, feature available in most modern cars. Even if your vehicle doesn’t support it natively, you can buy an inexpensive Android Auto display and enjoy your phone’s features safely while driving. A relatively unknown shortcut, however, can help you easily automate these everyday tasks from your car.  While Android Auto gives you safe access to your phone’s navigation, messages, calling, and more while driving, using the Custom Assistant shortcut lets you trigger preset actions and automations to control anything you can do with your phone. Also: Having Android Auto issues? How users are handling persistent connection drops lately And the recent addition of Google Gemini to Android Auto makes the interface even more useful for handling complex commands via shortcuts that are as easy to run as …

Android Auto’s Secret Superpower Is a Customizable Shortcut Button

Android Auto’s Secret Superpower Is a Customizable Shortcut Button

Published by skeptic

Even if connecting your Android phone to your car’s dashboard via Android Auto is a daily ritual for you, you may not have explored much beyond the default settings for the interface. You probably just want to get where you’re going, rather than dive through menus and options screens to tweak the Android Auto experience. However, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with a few key Android Auto tweaks that can make your time behind the wheel easier. One of these is the option to add Assistant shortcuts to the Android Auto app screen, so anything you can tell Google Assistant to do, you can put behind a button on your dashboard. We’re currently in the midst of Google moving all of its apps and devices over to Gemini from Google Assistant, but for now the Assistant shortcut option remains in Android Auto—and presumably when the Gemini switch is finally complete, the new voice-controlled AI chatbot will take over the same role on Android Auto. The possibilities for what these shortcuts can do are many and varied. …