General
16 tech tips and tricks
We all love a good life hack, whether it’s a tip that can save you time or money or discovering something new that can help make your life a little easier.
Here we uncover and share some tech tips you might find useful. For example, did you know there’s a website that tells you whether your email address has been compromised in a data breach? Or that you can use your smartphone as a tape measure? Read on for more.
In this article:
Saving money
Make use of trusted websites and apps that let you compare prices to get the best possible deal.
Save on petrol. Use fuel price websites and apps to compare petrol prices near you to find the cheapest fuel. Popular options include PetrolSpy Australia and Fuel Map Australia. Each state and territory government also has its own fuel app, like NSW FuelCheck and WA’s FuelWatch.
For more information, read our guide on how you can save money on petrol.
Get the best energy and health insurance deals. Use the free government comparison sites to get the best deal on energy and health insurance plans.
Commercial comparison sites offer to find you the best deal, however they don’t always show all the available options. Some of these sites are owned by companies that sell insurance and they may receive commission from the products they recommend. So, use government comparison sites like Energy Made Easy and PrivateHealh.gov.au to get the best deals.
It always pays to shop around and check competitor prices, especially at renewal time. If you’re reluctant to switch, why not ask your provider if they can price match.
Using your smartphone
Your smartphone is a clever device that can do more than just make calls. Did you know it can also be a useful measuring tape? Read on to find out what else it can do.
Use your smartphone as a tape measure. The Measure app comes preinstalled on iPhones and is a handy tool for those times when you’re without a tape measure and need to take rough measurements. You can find similar apps for Android phones in the Google Play store, including Samsung’s Quick Measure.
Most are similar to use. Open your measure app and align the centre point on your phone at one end of the object and tap the button on the screen. Then, move it to the other end and tap again to get the measurement.
See our Useful apps topic for more information on apps that come with your smartphone.
Use the screen reader function to read out what’s on your phone’s screen. VoiceOver for iPhones and TalkBack for Android phones are designed to help blind and low vision users navigate their phone. You can turn on VoiceOver or TalkBack in your phone’s Settings > Accessibility menu. There you should find a tutorial showing you how it all works.
Scan important documents with your phone. Use a scan app to scan important documents, receipts or signed contracts. You’ll get a clean and clear result that you can save to your phone, the cloud, or share via email. Most Android phones have a built-in scanning capability in the camera app but if it’s not available, Adobe Scan is a popular scanning app you can download on Android phones and iPhones.
Find out where to watch a movie or TV show with JustWatch. Enter the name of the show you are looking for in the search function and JustWatch will tell you which streaming service(s) in Australia it’s available on across a range of platforms including, Netflix, SBS On Demand and ABC iview. Visit justwatch.com or download the app from your phone’s official app store.
If you’re new to streaming services, read our guide, How to watch Netflix, Stan, and more, for information on how to get started.
Online safety
Practising good online safety habits can help you safeguard your personal information. Here are a few tools to make things a little easier and safer.
Check if your email address has been in a data breach. Use haveIBeenPwned.com to check if your email address has been compromised in a data breach. For more information on data breaches and what to do if your personal information has been impacted, see our course, Web tracking and data breaches explained.
Get yourself a password manager to save having to remember numerous strong passwords. With a password manager, you only need to memorise one password to access the service. Learn more about password managers in our short course.
Test the strength of your password. The ID Support NSW website not only helps NSW residents restore stolen or misused ID documents, it also offers free resources for all Australians, including this password checker . The checker is anonymous, so they don’t track or store your passwords so they can’t be linked to any usernames, accounts or websites.
Keyboard shortcuts
You may know common keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste, but did you know you can scroll with your spacebar too? Here are a few other shortcuts to try out.
- Windows key + D quickly hides the page you’re on and replaces it with your desktop instead. To get back to the page you were on, hit Windows key + D again.
- Windows key + L locks your computer.
- Use the spacebar to work your way down a web page instead of using the mouse to scroll down the page. Shift + spacebar scrolls back up the page.
- Ctrl +L highlights the URL in the address bar without you having to place your mouse over it. It immediately takes you to the address bar so you can type in a new URL or search terms.
Using email
We’ve all been there – sending an email to the wrong person or forgetting to attach a document. Now there’s a way to get your emails back and boost your security too.
Undo send feature in Gmail. If you’ve sent an email accidentally to the wrong person and realised just after you’d sent it, there’s a way to get it back if you act fast. The ‘Undo send’ button appears for five seconds after you send an email, usually in the bottom left corner of the screen. To give yourself more time, you can adjust the time in Gmail on your desktop. Go to Settings (the cog symbol in top right) > See all settings > Undo Send > Select send cancellation period: 10, 20, or 30 seconds.
Write your email first then add your recipient last. It’s another way to stop you from accidentally sending an email to the wrong person.
Set up multiple email addresses. Use one for logging into important online accounts such as banking and government services, while another email address could be used for online shopping and newsletter subscriptions. That way you reduce the risk of a data breach impacting all your online accounts when you have the one email address. Most free email service providers let you add multiple email addresses to your account so best to do a search online to find out how.