Free Technology Guides · Learning With Lantern
Over a thousand short, plain-English answers about computers, phones, the internet and staying safe online — free to read, with no account needed.
First steps
- Find out why a message appeared
- Practice Undo and learn when to pause
- Point at a folder and open it
- Find the six keys that matter, then copy and paste
- Close a window without losing your work
- Make the screen comfortable
- Turn it off and on again, safely
- Have two things open at once
- What a small picture is telling you
- Reading a screen that has gone busy
- Putting it back the way you like it
Make it comfortable
- Make everything bigger, properly
- Make a computer bigger, and put it back
- Bolder letters, stronger edges
- A closer look at one thing
- A magnifier on a computer
- Dark mode, night light, and which one helps
- When two colors look alike
- A pointer you can find
- Louder than the slider seems to allow
- Subtitles on everything
- Connect a hearing aid to the phone
- Both sides in one ear
- A phone that flashes instead of ringing
- Typing when your hands are not steady
- Talk instead of type
- Have it read out to you
- Slow the double click down
- Reaching the top of a big phone
- A home screen with six things on it
- The card on the lock screen
- Finding the phone down the side of the chair
- Somebody knows you are alright
- Sharing where you are, with one person
- Getting the text to a size that does not tire you
- Turning down the parts that move
- Making things easier to press accurately
- Setting the sound so speech is clear
- A machine set up for somebody else
Files, folders and finding things
- What a file actually is
- File names, and what the ending tells you
- Folders, and why they sit inside each other
- Save, Save As, and where things go
- The window everybody clicks past
- Downloads: the folder everything lands in
- Opening what you downloaded
- Finding a file you have lost
- A filing scheme that actually survives
- Give a file a name you would actually search for
- Copy a file instead of moving it
- Search your computer instead of hunting for it
- The letter from the doctor’s office
How the internet actually works
- What the internet actually is
- Wi-Fi is not the internet
- Your router, and joining a network
- Your browser is not the internet either
- From pressing Enter to seeing the page
- Tabs, bookmarks, and finding your way back
- Wi-Fi that is not yours
- Read an address nobody can dress up
- What happens in the second after you press Enter
- Find out where the problem lives, before touching anything
- Reading a web address to see whose site you are on
- Saving a page so you can find it again
- Why pages ask you about cookies
Staying safe, without living in fear
- Why they pick everyone
- Build a password out of four ordinary words
- Let your phone remember your passwords
- Turn on the second step
- Put the phone down and call the bank yourself
- Tell a real warning from a picture of one
- Decide what an app is allowed to see
- If you think you have been caught
- Set things up so losing the phone is survivable
- Lock the screen so a lost phone stays just a lost phone
- Updates are repairs, not nagging
- What a permission box is really asking
- The first ten minutes after a mistake
- The message about your account
Messages, from first principles
- Writing one, and sending it
- To, Cc and Bcc — who actually sees it
- Attachments, going out and coming in
- Reply, Reply all, and the classic mishap
- Junk, folders and a tidy-enough inbox
- The junk folder, and getting off a list
- Text, WhatsApp or email — which for what
- Video calls, and how to stop panicking
- The four buttons on a call
- Send a photograph in a message
- The little words under a message
- Quiet a group without leaving it
- The photographs Danny asked for
How a touchscreen thinks
- A phone is a small computer
- Tap, hold, swipe, pinch
- The home screen, and where things actually live
- Notifications, and how to quieten them
- The settings worth changing on day one
- Data, battery, and the two quiet meters
- Bluetooth, and pairing something
- Printers, and why they are the worst
- A method for when anything goes wrong
- When to stop, and how to ask well
- Charging habits worth having
- What airplane mode is for
- Finding a phone lost in the house
- Handing your device to somebody
- The speaker, and the pinging
Modern life online
- Find out where your things actually live
- Take a photograph off your phone without losing it
- Build a backup that would get you through
- Find the thing you were actually looking for
- Watch an assistant invent a telephone number
- Empty a full phone without losing a picture
- Share photographs without handing them over
- Keep it all in order in twenty minutes
- Check what an assistant told you, in under a minute
- What an app store actually is
- What signing in actually does
- Why everything wants your email
- What a QR code is
- Two of everything from Ireland
Shopping, banking and subscriptions
- Check the store, then choose how to pay
- Rule out a fake shop in two minutes
- Find the real total, and refuse to be hurried
- Reach your parcel by your own route
- Know what your bank will never ask
- Find a payment you forgot, and stop it properly
- Get your money back when something goes wrong
- Choose how to pay by what it protects
- Find every payment that renews itself
- Reading your bank app home screen
- What pending means
- An alert for large charges
- Matching a receipt to your statement
- The subscription that is going up
Your phone, properly
- Call someone without dialing
- Save a number so you never lose it
- Answering, declining and calling back
- Voicemail, set up and listened to
- Block a number that will not leave you alone
- Send a text, and know it went
- Send a photograph in a message
- Group messages, and how to get out of one
- Send your voice instead of typing
- Which app did that message come from?
- Reply without your glasses on
- A photograph that is actually in focus
- Photograph a form or a letter
- Find the photograph you took last March
- Send one photograph, not the whole album
- Delete a photograph, and get it back
- Make the writing bigger on your phone
- A louder ring, that lasts longer
- Stop it ringing at night
- The flashlight, the alarm and the timer
- Put what you use on the first screen
- When it says storage is full
- Updating the phone, without the dread
- What actually drains the battery
- Deciding what is allowed to interrupt you
- Keeping a battery healthy for years
- What an app is allowed to see
- Moving to a new phone without losing anything
- The two photographs Sheila needs
Your computer, properly
- The desktop and the bar along the bottom
- Bring back a window that vanished
- Find a program you know is there
- Open things without the mouse
- Two windows, side by side
- Copy and paste, properly
- Move a file with cut and paste
- Undo: the most reassuring key there is
- Write something and save it where you can find it
- Find a document a week later
- Open a PDF and make the writing bigger
- Print something — and only page two
- Take a picture of your screen and send it
- When the keyboard types the wrong symbols
- Accents and symbols that are on no key
- Get the photos off a USB stick
- Telling the computer where downloads should go
- Open a zip file
- Attach a file to an email
- Scan a document with your phone
- Sleep, restart or shut down
- Why it keeps asking to update
- Remove a program you never use
- What is making it slow, honestly
- Free space: find the big things safely
- Make everything bigger, without breaking the layout
- Night light and brightness
- When you keep losing the pointer
- Let it read the page out loud to you
- Finding out where the disk space actually went
- Two people, one computer, two accounts
- Deciding whether a program is worth trusting
- Getting a computer ready for the repair shop
- Three things before Friday
Your tablet, properly
- Hold it, prop it, and stop the picture spinning
- Put your six things where your thumb lands
- The keyboard, and making it bigger
- Two things on the screen at once
- Charging, and what actually wears a battery out
- Stretch a low battery to the end of the evening
- Read the paper on it, properly
- A video call where you can see the face
- Cook from it without the screen going dark
- Pinch, zoom and turn it the right way up
- Watching something in bed, set for the dark
- Borrow a library book on it, for nothing
- Get the photographs off your phone and onto this
- The same post, the same diary, on both machines
- Add the few apps worth having, and clear the rest
- What "storage full" really means, and keeping it fed
- Every photograph, in half the room
- Hand it to a grandchild, without handing over your letters
- Two people, one tablet, two sets of things
- Make it impossible to buy anything by accident
- What a sitting-room tablet should be signed into
- Passing it on, or getting rid of it safely
- Make the tablet comfortable to read on for an hour
- Keep a shared family tablet civil
- Get photographs and documents off the tablet
- Know when a slow tablet is genuinely finished
- Two days before Sandhaven
Email, properly
- Writing one, and knowing it has gone
- A subject line that gets read
- Several attachments, and where they land
- Sending to several people at once
- Reply, or reply to all
- Getting it back
- What all those folders are
- Archive, or delete
- Finding one from months ago
- Unsubscribing, properly
- When one looks wrong
- The one that is almost certainly real
- A signature, so you stop typing your name
- Everything from one store, in one folder
- Marking one to come back to
- Telling people you are away
- The same email on your phone and your computer
- A password you can actually remember
- Two-step sign-in on the account everything depends on
- The day you cannot get in
- Getting a deleted email back
- A filing scheme that still works in ten years
- Telling a real sender from a borrowed name
- Getting back into a mailbox you cannot open
- Deciding what is worth keeping for years
- The message Jean says she sent
Photos and memories
- Steady hands, and tapping to focus
- Two camera settings worth turning on
- Portrait, landscape, and why it matters later
- Photographing a form, a letter or the meter
- A group photograph with everyone in it
- The flash, and the three times it helps
- Why they are in date order, like it or not
- Finding the photograph from last August
- Searching for “beach” or “dog”
- Favorites: the two-second habit
- Making an album for one person
- Sending one photograph to one person
- Sending twenty photographs at once
- An album that keeps itself up to date
- Keeping a photograph somebody sent you
- What a photograph tells people about you
- Deleting one, and getting it back
- What iCloud and Google Photos actually do
- Getting them off the phone and onto a computer
- Scanning the old paper photographs
- Printing one properly, and a book of them
- Deciding which pictures are worth keeping forever
- Getting decades of paper prints into your library
- Sharing pictures without handing over the originals
- Making sure your pictures outlive you
- The movie for Danny’s fiftieth
Letters, lists and numbers
- Start a letter, and not lose it
- Save again, and find it tomorrow
- Bigger, bolder, and a heading
- A list that stays tidy
- Copy, paste, and the tray you cannot see
- Paste without the mess
- Spell check, without it changing your meaning
- Printing, and when nothing comes out
- Nothing came out of the printer
- Only page three, or two to a sheet
- Save it as a PDF instead
- Scan a letter with the phone in your pocket
- Fill out a form without printing it
- Put your signature on a form on screen
- A spreadsheet is a list with columns
- Make a list readable
- Adding a column up
- Check what it added up
- Sorting a list so the right thing is at the top
- A budget that updates itself
- The one thing that stops it working
- Keeping a record that matters
- A column of meter readings
- Naming things so you can find them in two years
- One folder, or twenty
- Six copies of the same letter
- Tidy up the copies you already have
- Sharing a document, and taking it back
- Keeping one version instead of six
- Filling in a form that arrives as a picture
- What a PDF actually is
- Sharing so it can be read but not changed
- Six goes at the same letter
Errands, done sitting down
- Find an address on a map
- Directions on foot, by bus or by car
- When the next bus actually is
- Book a taxi from your phone
- The nearest pharmacy that is open now
- Book a doctor’s appointment online
- Order a prescription refill
- The patient portal: what it is for, and what it is not
- Fill out a form without losing what you typed
- Sign and return a document with no printer
- Buy one thing, start to finish
- Is this a real store?
- Track a delivery, and the word "delivered"
- Send something back
- Compare prices without being led by the nose
- Read reviews sensibly
- Do the grocery shopping online
- Send a meter reading
- Pay for parking with an app
- Get a ticket onto your phone, and through the gate
- Keep a calendar that reminds you
- Share a calendar with family
- Sizing up a store you have never used
- Keeping the paperwork for an online order
- When a delivery never came
- What a review is actually evidence of
- The feeder Sheila cannot remember buying
Staying in touch
- Make a video call, start to finish
- Join a call somebody else started
- A call with the whole family on it
- When they can see you but not hear you
- Propping the phone up and getting the light right
- Record a short video message instead
- What a group chat actually is
- Send a photograph to the family group
- Reply to one particular message
- Voice notes, sending and listening
- Mute a group without leaving it
- A calendar of birthdays everybody can see
- What it is for, honestly
- An account with the noise switched off
- Set it so only people you know can see you
- A friend request that is not your friend
- Join a group about something you care about
- Comment and reply without shouting by accident
- A photo frame the family send pictures to
- Letting one trusted person help you, from far away
- Take back access somebody no longer needs
- An emergency contact on the lock screen
- Writing down what happens to your accounts one day
- A weekly habit that keeps you in touch without effort
- Helping somebody at a distance without taking over
- Agreeing what happens to your accounts one day
- Sharing photos with people who use different phones
- Spotting when a message from a relative is not from them
- Sunday, and two things at once
Health, kept track of
- Get set up on your doctor’s portal
- Find your way round the six doors
- Find your allergies in your own record
- Order your refills from a chair
- Find out where a prescription actually is
- Choose the pharmacy that suits your week
- Fill in your doctor’s office online form
- Book without the eight o’clock phone line
- Change or hand back an appointment
- Join a video appointment, already working
- Make sure your doctor’s office can reach you
- Take the four facts out of a hospital text
- Reach the hospital by a route you chose
- Ask for a doctor’s note, or a letter, the right way
- Open a document and pass it on
- Ask to be linked, instead of borrowing a password
- Work in two accounts without muddling them
- Find a test result and read its parts
- Write a medicines list somebody else could read
- Set a reminder you will hear from another room
- Put your key details on the outside of your phone
- Record a reading your doctor can use
- Make a health screen comfortable to read
- Hear your doctor’s office when it calls
- Set up the emergency features, and know their limits
- Handle a health message without having to judge it
- Look something up without frightening yourself
- Reading a test result without frightening yourself
- Keeping one list any doctor could use
- Judging health information you find online
- Making ten minutes with a doctor count
- The list Danny needs before Thursday
When something goes wrong
- The order to try things in
- A program that has stopped responding
- Restarting properly, and what it actually fixes
- Reading an error message instead of flinching from it
- Writing down what happened so somebody can help you
- The internet is down — is it you, the box, or them?
- The Wi-Fi says connected but nothing loads
- A device that has forgotten the Wi-Fi password
- The printer that will not print
- Something that worked yesterday and does not today
- The computer has become slow
- What helps, and what is sold to you
- Ads and pop-ups that will not go away
- A browser whose home page has changed by itself
- Storage full on a phone
- A battery that dies by lunchtime
- A screen that has gone the wrong way round or the wrong size
- You cannot get into your own account
- You think somebody else has gotten in
- You have lost the phone
- You clicked something you wish you had not — the first hour
- What needs doing today, and what does not
- Getting help without getting scammed by the help
- Four rules, and what to do afterwards
- Change one thing, and write it down
- Is it the machine or the connection?
- When the problem is not yours to fix
- Describing a problem so somebody can help
- The morning three things broke
Money and paperwork online
- Find last month’s statement yourself
- Find your bank’s real telephone number
- Sign in, and name the three things a bank never asks
- Open the bank with your fingerprint
- Find out what a strange payment actually was
- Find a payment from months ago
- Move money into your savings and back
- Prove a payment arrived, instead of paying twice
- Pay somebody new, when the name may not be checked
- Send a dollar before you send the rest
- Tell a payment you send from one they collect
- Change what you send every month
- Stop paying for something you no longer use
- Check, a month later, that it really stopped
- Find the payments that hide from the autopay list
- Cancel a subscription the phone is billing you for
- Work out a payment you do not recognize
- Fill in a bank’s fraud report and be rung back
- Freeze a card at two in the morning
- Sign in to the government, once
- Have your access codes read out on the landline
- Check your Social Security statement
- Keep a copy, and find the free help
- Find out what you might be entitled to
- Find somebody free to sit with you and the form
- Move the day your utility bill comes out
- Ask your county for a property tax break, in writing
- Keep copies of the papers you would hate to lose
- Write one note saying where everything is
- Name the pressure techniques in ten seconds
- Give yourself a pause button on the telephone
- Check a firm on BrokerCheck
- Check a name against the SEC alert list
- End the call, and check on a number nobody gave you
- Check the list of people you can pay
- Tell the bank, at ten past two in the morning
- Report it in the first hour, and keep the reference
- Make it a complaint, in writing
- Take it above the bank, for nothing
- The file somebody would need if you were ill
- Proving who you are to strangers with rules
- Reading a bill you did not expect
- Knowing which account can reset the others
- The payment nobody recognizes
What is actually inside
- The parts, and what each one does
- The processor: what GHz and cores really mean
- Memory, and why the computer slows down
- Memory or storage — the distinction worth having
- What GB and MB actually mean
- The graphics part, and why video needs it
- Why computers get slower — and when one is genuinely finished
- When a machine really is finished
- Work out what is actually slow
- What an operating system is
- Why some files will not open
- What the box in the hall really does
- Why two machines behave differently
- The computer that had stopped being worth using
Things worth doing with it
- Watch the thing you missed
- Stop a subscription you are still paying for
- See everything your phone is charging you for
- Put the words on screen, big enough to read
- Get it from the phone onto the big television
- Watch something with somebody who is not in the room
- Listen to a station on the other side of the world
- Find a series about the thing you care about
- Borrow a book read aloud, free, from your own library
- Find the record you have not heard in forty years
- Connect headphones, and hear the words clearly
- Read a newspaper without paying five times over
- Borrow an e-book from the library, free
- Make anything comfortable to read
- Learn something properly, online, free
- Do the crossword, and use the hints without guilt
- Quieten a busy group without leaving it
- Find a great-grandfather, and keep the record with him
- Point the camera at a plant and find out what it is
- Make a photo book or a calendar for a present
- Finding something to watch in five minutes
- Books and radio while your hands are busy
- Following a hobby without getting lost
- Playing a game with a grandchild far away
- What the card in your purse already buys
One-minute lessons
- Tell the browser from the internet
- Say what the cloud actually is
- Tell Wi-Fi from the internet
- Say what an app actually is
- Unstick a screen that will not turn
- Close an app that has frozen
- Get the sound back
- Refuse to read a code aloud
- Read the padlock honestly
- Tell Cc from Bcc
- Say what the subject line is for
- Say what an attachment is
- Say why a message went to spam
- Know when Reply all is wrong
- Say what a draft is
- Spot a forwarded message
- Say what an email signature is
- Know what airplane mode does
- Tell the home screen from the app list
- Say what a widget is
- Read a phone’s storage full message
- Tell cellular data from Wi-Fi
- Say what a SIM card does
- Know what Do Not Disturb does
- Know what a passcode protects
- Say what the desktop is
- Read the bar along the bottom
- Tell minimize from close
- Use the right mouse button
- Spot a shortcut icon
- Read a Not responding message
- Choose sleep or shut down
- Find the window that vanished
- Read a web address
- Tell the search engine from the browser
- Keep two pages open at once
- Use the back arrow without fear
- Save a page so you can find it again
- Close a pop-up without pressing it
- Answer the cookie question
- Read a “not secure” warning
- Say what an account actually is
- Tell sign in from sign up
- See what two-factor sign-in is
- See what a password manager does
- See why one password is the risk
- Use Forgot password without fear
- Know what signing out does
- Why your email is your username
- Find where a photo actually lives
- Tell an album from a folder
- Get back a photo you deleted
- Say what a screenshot is
- Say why a photo moves
- Send a photo at its full size
- Understand photos filling the phone
- Say what backing up photos means
- Tell a text from an app message
- Read Delivered and Read
- Decide who sees that you read it
- Leave a group message
- Play and send a voice note
- Know what blocking does
- Answer with a reaction
- Forward a message on
- Handle the fake delivery text
- Answer the grandchild-in-trouble call
- Close the tech support pop-up
- Refuse a gift card demand from a stranger
- Deal with an invoice you did not order
- Spot the romance approach
- See through the prize you never entered
- Check the account-will-be-closed email
- Pick the safer card for online
- See why a charge keeps coming back
- See what a free trial commits to
- Ask the bank to pull a charge back
- Tell a real store from a fake one
- Know what saving a card does
- Find a receipt that came by email
- Say what a payment app does
- Say what a patient portal is
- Know what a video visit involves
- Ask for a refill online
- Find your own test results
- See what your insurance site shows
- Turn on reminders by text
- Let family see your record
- Know what a health app can do
- See inside your Social Security account
- Say what a Medicare account shows
- Say what an IRS online account is
- Renew at the DMV without going in
- Check that you are still registered
- See the mail before it arrives
- Trust the .gov at the end
- Know that no agency is ever paid in gift cards
- Get directions to an address
- Use a boarding pass on your phone
- Scan a QR code
- Say what a ride app does
- Check in to a hotel early
- Know what your phone does abroad
- Download a map before you lose signal
- Share where you are, for an hour
- Say what streaming means
- Know what a subscription buys
- Send a video to the big screen
- Turn the words on
- Say what a smart TV is
- Sign in with the code on screen
- Tell live from on-demand
- Say what buffering is
- Say what a file actually is
- See what a folder actually holds
- Read the end of a file name
- Say what a PDF is
- Know what downloading does
- See what the Recycle Bin holds
- Read a disk full message
- Tell Save from Save As
- Set the writing to a size you can read
- Zoom in on a web page
- Say what dark mode does
- Turn on bold text
- Say what a screen reader is
- Sharpen the pale gray writing
- Say what the little buzz is
- Stop the screen sliding about
- Tell Archive from Delete
- Search your own mailbox
- Unsubscribe, or mark as spam
- Say what a mailing list is
- Set an out-of-office reply
- Say what the address book is
- Read a bounced message
- Know what a full mailbox does
- Know what wears a battery out
- Put down the old charging rules
- Stop the screen going dark so fast
- Tell ring from vibrate
- Put a person in Favorites
- Stop one number calling you
- Play a voicemail
- Set up the card a paramedic reads
- Copy something without retyping it
- Undo the last thing you did
- Say what the clipboard is
- Select only the words you want
- The four shortcuts worth knowing
- Drag something and drop it
- Put two windows side by side
- Find anything with the search box
- Open a meeting link
- Say what mute does
- Get off mute in one press
- Turn your camera off
- They hear you but cannot see you
- Wait in a waiting room
- See what screen sharing does
- Choose gallery or speaker view
- Say what a feed is
- Say what a friend request is
- Tell posting from sharing
- Tell a comment from a message
- Say what tagging does
- Say what privacy settings control
- Tell a page from a profile
- Spot an advertisement in a feed
- Know what printer offline means
- Choose wireless or a cable
- Print from your phone
- Scan a paper with your phone
- Tell ink from toner
- Use print preview
- Clear a paper jam safely
- Say what a printer driver is
- Say what a tablet is
- Turn the tablet sideways
- Make the tablet keyboard bigger
- Say what a stylus is for
- Say why a tablet case matters
- Put two apps side by side on a tablet
- Read a book on the tablet
- Say why a tablet needs Wi-Fi
- Join a Wi-Fi network
- Find the Wi-Fi password
- Say why one room is slow
- Restart the router properly
- Use the guest network
- Say what an extender does
- Rejoin after a new router
- Say why the name appears twice
- Strip the clutter from an article
- See what autofill fills in
- Say what a form is
- Get past a captcha
- Answer a download prompt
- Say what an extension is
- Say what a redirect is
- Say what a paywall is
- Say what an update changes
- Say why an update wants a restart
- Say what an app update does
- Know what no longer supported means
- Decide about automatic updates
- Say what a restart fixes
- Say why an update needs space
- Say why updates are security
- Say what a voice assistant is
- Say what a wake word is
- Know where what you say goes
- Speak a message instead of typing
- Set a timer by voice
- Say what a smart speaker is
- Turn the listening off
- Know what it cannot do
- Say what a document is
- Say what formatting does
- Start from a template
- Say what Track Changes shows
- Say what a cell is
- Say what a formula does
- Send a document as a PDF
- Say what autosave does
- Say what tracking across sites is
- Say what an app permission grants
- Say what location history is
- Know what private browsing hides
- Say what an advertising profile is
- Turn off personalized ads
- Know what a company keeps
- Know what deleting an account does
- Say what antivirus does now
- Say what a firewall is
- Tell what a VPN does and does not
- Judge public Wi-Fi honestly
- Say what encryption means
- Know what a data breach means
- Say what a security key is
- Say what a lock screen protects
- Send phone sound to your hearing aids
- Read what is said on a video call
- Work the phone by speaking to it
- Turn the phone into a magnifier
- Say what color filters do
- Bring the top of the screen down
- Settle the screen for a shaky hand
- Make the buttons easier to hit
- Tell a useful spec from noise
- Say what refurbished means
- Know what a warranty covers
- Say what unlocked means
- Tell storage from memory
- Check the return window first
- Buy safely from a listing
- Tell when a device is finished
- Send a photo to the family
- Say what a shared album is
- Say what a family group chat is
- Say what a shared calendar is
- Give access without your password
- Say what a legacy contact is
- Say what a trusted contact does
- Ask a grandchild for help
- Say what autocorrect is doing
- Use the words above the keyboard
- Type an accent or a symbol
- Tell Caps Lock from Shift
- Tell Backspace from Delete
- Dictate instead of typing
- Find the numbers and symbols
- Put back a word that was changed
- Say what a notification is
- Read the red badge on an icon
- Turn off one app’s notifications
- Tell a banner from a lock screen alert
- Say why one app sends dozens
- Say what a notification summary is
- Know if the alarm still rings
- Clear notifications all at once
- Say what a processor does
- Tell memory from storage
- Picture what a gigabyte holds
- Say what a graphics chip does
- Say what a battery cycle is
- Tell one port from another
- Say what Bluetooth is doing
- Say what a home network is
- Say what an e-book is
- Borrow a library book on a device
- Turn on reading mode
- Have a page read out loud
- Give the words more room
- Know what a news subscription covers
- Save an article to read later
- Read comfortably at night
- Say what a smart plug does
- Know what a doorbell records
- Set the heat from your phone
- Say what a hub is for
- Know what works with no internet
- Say what a routine does
- Say what a sensor is
- Decide what listens indoors
- Pair Bluetooth headphones
- Send the sound to the right place
- Say what a podcast is
- Say what an audiobook is
- Put a limit on the volume
- Say what a speaker group is
- Fix an earbud that went quiet
- Tell media volume from the ringer
- Read a 404 not found page
- Read a server not found message
- Read a connection timed out message
- Read a certificate warning
- Read a computer’s disk full message
- Read a permission error
- Say what a crash report is
- Say what safe mode is for
- Describe a problem so it can be fixed
- Show the screen instead of describing it
- Know what a remote session shows
- Know what real support never asks
- Restart before you ask anybody
- Write down what you changed
- Know when to stop and ask
- Tell real support from a fake
- Say what the algorithm is
- Say what AI means on a product
- Say what a chatbot is
- Say what a bot is
- Find the folder called spam or junk
- Say what a server is
- Say what bandwidth is
- Know what a gigabyte a month buys
- Say what a backup actually is
- Know what a phone backup holds
- Restore onto a new phone
- Say what an external drive adds
- Say why one copy is not enough
- Check the backup actually ran
- Know what stopping payment does
- Get one deleted file back
- See what a statement leaves out
- Get told about every charge
- Tell pending from posted
- Move money between your accounts
- Pay a bill from the app
- Freeze a card from the app
- Check a charge you do not know
- Refuse the call that moves money
- See what a calendar app holds
- Answer a calendar invitation
- Set an event to repeat
- Add a reminder to an event
- Share a calendar with your spouse
- Know what a time zone does
- Say what an all-day event is
- Find out why an event appeared
- Keep a copy of what you would miss
- Read a statement line by line
- Write down what accounts you have
- Restart it once a week
- Get a phone ready to travel
- The hour a phone goes missing
- Keep the way back in current
- Know when the answer is no
- Search for a place by name
- Say what the blue dot is
- Choose driving, walking or transit
- Save home and work
- Say what Street View shows
- Keep a route off the highway
- Say why it recalculates
- Add gas or parking on the way
- Build a password you can recall
- Say what a passkey is
- Know what Sign in with Google does
- Answer the Save password box
- See what a security question is for
- Keep a recovery code safely
- Plan for a locked password box
- Change a password properly
- Crop and straighten a photo
- Brighten a dark photo
- Search your photos for a thing
- Say what a Memory is
- Print a photo at the right size
- Turn a photo into a card
- Clear out duplicate photos
- Get photos off an old phone
- Record a video on a phone
- Say why video fills a phone
- Trim the start and the end
- Send a video that will not attach
- Say what a thumbnail is
- Watch slower or quicker
- Turn captions on in a video app
- Upload a video for the family
- Reopen a tab you closed
- Find a page in your history
- Choose what opens first
- Find a word on a long page
- Make one site bigger
- Find a file you downloaded
- Print a web page properly
- Pin a site you use daily
- Say what the Dock on a Mac is
- Say what Finder is
- Use the three window buttons
- Search with Spotlight
- Force quit a stuck program
- Find what you downloaded
- Say what Time Machine is
- Open the Apple menu
- Say what a notes app is for
- Make a list you can check off
- Speak a note instead of typing
- Pin the note you open most
- Share a shopping list
- Find a note you wrote years ago
- Scan a letter into a note
- Know which notes reach a new phone
- Open anything from Start
- Say what File Explorer is
- Pin a program to the taskbar
- Close a program that has frozen
- Say what Windows Update does
- Find something you downloaded
- Say what OneDrive is doing
- Tell Settings from Control Panel
- Open Control Center
- Know what the side button does
- Say what AirDrop is
- Say what iCloud is doing
- Find an app in the App Library
- Say what Face ID protects
- Say what a Focus is
- Know when the App Store charges
- Turn a web page into English
- Translate a spoken conversation
- Change the language your phone uses
- Add a keyboard for another language
- Read a menu with your camera
- Know why a translation reads oddly
- Translate a message you received
- Keep two languages on one device
- Act on a click you regret
- Check who an email is really from
- Answer a friend’s odd message
- Freeze your credit
- Find a sign-in you did not make
- Lock a stolen phone
- Name one person you trust
- Report fraud to the FTC
- Say what a shopping cart holds
- Track a delivery yourself
- Say what a return label is
- Read reviews without being fooled
- Tell the seller from the store
- Say what a wish list is
- Say what In stock promises
- Cancel an order before it ships
- Say what Quick Settings is
- Tell the three buttons apart
- Know what the Play Store asks first
- Say what Photos backup does
- Say what the app drawer is
- Say what a home screen page is
- Say what Nearby Share is
- Say what your Google account does
- Hear who is calling
- Put captions on any sound
- Make the phone flash for calls
- Have a photo described aloud
- Read a small label in a store
- Make the cursor easier to see
- Send both sides to both ears
- Check your hearing with a phone
- Hand your phone to a child safely
- Lock the phone to one app
- Say what a kids profile is
- Video call a very young child
- Send the photo to the parent
- Know why a free game asks for money
- Agree screen rules that stick
- Answer a school app
- Tell an ad from a result
- Find the real download button
- Read a browser warning page
- Check a store before you buy
- See why a short link hides
- Leave a page that argues
- Answer an infected-phone pop-up
- Close a tab, press nothing
- Save a number after a call
- See what a contact card holds
- Merge two entries for one person
- Put a face on a contact
- Send somebody a contact
- Keep contacts on a new phone
- Group contacts with a label
- Name an emergency contact
- Check who really sent it
- See where a link really goes
- Leave an unexpected file shut
- Spot a borrowed company name
- Report a phishing email
- Notice a message rushing you
- If you already replied
- Mark a sender as safe
- Reach your apps from the iPad Dock
- Split the iPad screen between two apps
- Say what a Slide Over app is
- Use an iPad with a keyboard case
- Say what an Apple Pencil does
- Say what Stage Manager is
- Say why an app looks stretched
- Say what a Smart Cover does
- Find what is filling the phone
- Say what offloading an app does
- Clear the browser cache
- Say what Optimize Storage does
- Clear out old downloads
- Empty the trash properly
- Say what a memory card adds
- Say why a full device gets slow
- Book online instead of calling
- Keep the confirmation email
- Change or cancel a booking
- Wait your turn in an online line
- Say what a booking reference is
- Add a booking to your calendar
- Tell a deposit from a hold
- Book on behalf of somebody else
- Read one mailbox in two places
- Tell webmail from a mail app
- Know why read shows everywhere
- Say what an inbox tab does
- Say why a message is in Promotions
- Add a second mailbox to one app
- Say what conversation view does
- Keep email when you change providers
- Say what a streaming stick does
- Switch the television input
- Use the microphone on a remote
- Fix a picture the wrong shape
- Say what a viewing profile is for
- Find a movie you already bought
- Say what a channel add-on is
- Stop the next episode starting
- Say what a phone hotspot is
- Get past a hotel sign-in page
- Forget a network for good
- Use Wi-Fi in airplane mode
- Stop joining the wrong network
- Tell 2.4 from 5 gigahertz
- Change the Wi-Fi password
- Check your actual speed
- Cancel a subscription you forgot
- Know what autopay covers
- Split a bill with a payment app
- Know that app money does not return
- Say what a virtual card number is
- Keep a receipt you can find later
- Say what paperless means
- Set an alert for large charges
- Ask a whole question
- Spot the ads at the top
- Search inside one website
- Search for a picture
- Read the map panel
- Know why your results differ
- Search your own device
- Judge a result before you trust it
- Know what setup is asking
- Move everything from the old phone
- Say what signing in gives you
- Skip the parts you do not need
- Clear an old phone before it goes
- Keep your own phone number
- Know what to keep from the box
- Change the first five settings
- Start the way back in
- Sign in when the code phone is gone
- Say what a recovery email is for
- When the second address is gone too
- Prove who you are to a company
- Why a lock can be good news
- Why recovery makes you wait
- Set recovery up before you need it
- Sign a document on screen
- Type into a PDF form
- Combine pages into one file
- Say what read-only means
- Share a document by link
- Say what a comment is
- Print on both sides
- Find a document you mislaid
- Scan an old photograph properly
- Label a photo so the name lasts
- Say what a family tree site holds
- Record somebody telling a story
- Put papers where family can find them
- Share an archive with relatives
- Know what a DNA site keeps
- Sort decades of paper
- Read a hobby site without joining
- Follow a how-to video at your pace
- Find a club or class near you
- Choose an app or a bookmark
- Keep a running record with photos
- Listen to a station from anywhere
- Say what an online course is
- Print a pattern at true size
- Find where a download went
- Open a file you just downloaded
- Say what a zip file is
- Install apps from the store
- Answer what an installer asks
- Update an app you already have
- Remove an app you did not want
- Treat an emailed file differently