Phone and Tablet Tips
Record and edit voice notes
IOS Record and edit voice notes In Issue 538’s Phone and Tablet Tips (see ‘Use Apple’s new password manager’), we showed you how to update your iphone and ipad to IOS 12. The update adds the Voice Memos app to ipads for the first time, while the iphone app introduces new editing features. Voice Memos lets you record, edit and share voice notes or audio recordings.
Search for and open the app, tap the red record button at the bottom, then say whatever you want. You’ll see a button to pause and stop the recording at the bottom.
To edit your recording, tap the square icon at the top right. You’ll now see a yellow outline on your timeline at the bottom. Tap and drag either end of the yellow bar to include more/less of your recording. The blue vertical marker indicates where you are in the recording. Tap anywhere on the timeline to play from that point.
You’ll see two buttons at the bottom left (see screenshot below). The trim button deletes everything outside the yellow area, while Delete deletes everything inside. Tap the default file name at the top to rename your file, then tap Save.
To share your recording, select it on the left, tap the share icon at the top, then choose which app you want to share it with.
IOS Measure household items using Apple’s new AR app Another new feature in IOS 12 is the augmented-reality app Measure, which lets you measure an object simply by pointing your camera at it. The app only works on the iphone 6s and later and on ipad Pro (first and second generation) and ipad (2017).
Open the app and it will show the view-finder of your device’s camera, displaying a small dot in a circle (see screenshot below). Point your device at the object you want to measure.
In our screenshot, we’ve measured the diameter of a plant pot. To make your own measurement, place the dot at one end of your measurement, tap the ‘+’ icon at the bottom, move your device until the dot is at the other end, then press the ‘+’ icon again. You’ll see the length in inches.
ANDROID Send someone specific info about your device Issue 537’s Best New Apps included the beta version of Inware ( www. snipca.com/29146), which displays detailed information about your phone or tablet in neat tabs. The app has now launched its full version with a new feature that lets you copy device details, which is useful if you want to send someone your phone or tablet’s specification so they can help you fix a problem.
The app has eight category tabs at the top - System, Device, Hardware, Memory, Camera, Network, Connectivity, and Battery. The System tab, for example, tells you which Android version your device came with, the current version, security patch, build number and ID.
To enable the copy feature, tap the cog icon at the top of the app, then switch on
the ‘Long press to copy’ and ‘Copy values with labels’ sliders (see screenshot above). Now go back to the previous screen, tap and hold any field you want to copy. You’ll see a pop-up confirming it’s been copied, so you can now paste and send this info to whoever needs it.
ANDROID & IOS Get instant translations as you type Microsoft recently integrated its Translate tool into its Swiftkey Keyboard app (Android www.snipca. com/29396; IOS www.snipca.com/ 29397), letting you translate text as soon as you type it.
To use it, open the app where you want to translate text. Next, tap the ‘+’ icon at the top left of the keyboard, scroll to the extreme right of the row, tap the Translate icon (second from last), then tap I Agree.
You’ll now see two dropdown menus to the left and right, and a small text field below them. By default, both dropdown menus are set to English. So if, for example, you want to translate from English to Spanish, tap the right dropdown menu and select Spanish/ Espanol. Whatever you type in English will now appear in the text field, while your translated text will appear in whatever app you’re typing in (see screenshot below left).
ANDROID & IOS Don’t lose BBC iplayer programs you’ve downloaded The BBC iplayer app now tells you when episodes you’ve downloaded are about to be deleted.
Open the BBC iplayer app (Android www.snipca.com/29397; IOS www. snipca.com/29398), then tap the Menu button at the top left, the Settings (cog) icon at the top right. Here, tick the Expiring Downloads box (see screenshot right - you’ll only see this if you’ve downloaded programmes).
To download content, make sure you’re connected to a Wi-fi network. Next, return to the app’s main screen, select the show/episode you want or search for it, then tap the Download button at the bottom left.