Here are some tips on using smartphones, tablets

Android and Apple smartphones and tablets can be very useful and convenient. Though small, they pack a lot of power! There are thousands of apps out there and endless different things you can do with mobile devices.

Some of the basics that mobile devices offer are taking photos and videos, keeping in touch with family and friends via email, texting, and social networks, and entertaining yourself (or kids) with games and videos. They can also provide a flashlight in a pinch, timer and stop watch, a Bible with all the translations, music player with endless songs, fitness or diet tracker to help you stay healthy, bar code scanner for price comparison or look-ups in stores, and even a bubble level when doing home projects.

If you have smartphone or tablet or plan on getting one soon, here I share some tips to consider:

■ Keep it physically protected from falls with a case and maybe a screen protector.

■ Connect it to your home’s WiFi, so you don’t use the cellular data while at home.

■ Secure it with PIN, password, or fingerprint so it’s safe if it becomes lost or stolen, or to keep those kids or grandkids off of it.

■ Ensure it stays current with software updates to keep it secure, fix issues, and gain improvements.

■ To help with performance and clutter, carefully disable or remove apps you won’t use, clear out temporary data, and organize your home or app screens.

■ Disable notifications for apps and websites that you don’t want bothering you with updates, alerts, and ads.

■ Consider enabling spam call filtering to cut down on those annoying sales and scam calls.

■ Talk to your phone! Whether you have an Android or Apple based device, all allow you to speak commands to it, ask it questions, and do speech to text so sometimes you can talk instead of type. Of course, they aren’t perfect listeners, but these digital assistants can be useful and even comical.

■ Check out the online functionality that Google or Apple provides and you can utilize from the comfort of your computer, such as viewing or syncing your photos, editing your contact list, making your device siren if lost, locking the device if stolen, and even texting from a computer.

■ If you have a lot of bookmarks/favorites or saved passwords on your computer’s web browser, sync your phone or tablet with the browser so you can have those same bookmarks/favorites or saved passwords on your mobile device.

■ If you haven’t already, check out the apps and features your device came with, such as the maps or navigation, printing, and calendar.

■ Discover more apps by opening the

Play Store on Android devices or the App

Store on Apple devices. There you can browse the apps, games, music, books, movies/TV available on the official app store. If you don’t know where to start, search for a topic, company, or hobby that interests you. For instance, I searched gardening and found a neat app that you can take photos of plants with and it tells you the type and details of it.

If you don’t understand how to use your smartphone or tablet, or want to learn how to do more with it, I suggest getting help, even professional help from a computer tech. Not all computer shops are setup for one-on-one help, but some are.