5-Minute Tech Tip - Fresh From Cache

Fresh From Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip card over a clock face, reading: Want to see your mail before it gets to the mailbox?

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The post office already photographs your mail. It will send you the pictures.

USPS will email you a photo of the letters coming to your house that day, for free. Most eligible addresses have never turned it on.

Fresh From Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip card over a clock face, reading: When's the last time you used your library card?

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Your library card is a subscription you already pay for

Free audiobooks, ebooks, and magazines on the phone already in your pocket. No card? You can probably fix that today without leaving home.

Fresh From Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip card over a clock face, reading: Why did nobody tell me about these shortcuts?

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Five shortcuts I wish somebody had told me about

Five small things your phone and computer have always done. I learned most of them late, and I use every one of them almost daily.

Fresh From Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip card with a clock face and the question: Can your phone read the fine print to you?

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Your phone has a magnifying glass

The camera app zooms. The magnifier holds the image still, turns up the contrast, and on an iPhone it will even read the small print out loud.

5-Minute Tech Tip card: Can you make the robocalls stop?

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Make your phone stop ringing for robocalls

Your phone can send robocalls straight to voicemail, or make them say who they are first. Here is the five-minute setup on iPhone, Android, and Samsung.

Fresh from Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip: can your phone copy text out of a photo?

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Your phone can copy text out of any photo

The two-minute trick that ends retyping wifi passwords, codes, and recipes off a screen.

5-Minute Tech Tip card: an analog clock with the question 'Could you get back into your email?'

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Check your email's recovery info before you get locked out

Password resets for everything else land in your inbox, which makes your email account the master key. The recovery phone and backup email on that account are how you get back in, and most of us set them years ago.

5-Minute Tech Tip card: analog clock with the headline "Are your browser's strongest settings turned on?"

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Your browser can block trackers and scam sites. The strongest settings just aren't on by default.

Your browser can block trackers and warn you off scam sites. In Chrome the strongest settings are off by default; in Edge they are turned down. Five minutes fixes both.

Fresh From Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip card on a dark clock face, reading “Can your phone speak for you in an emergency?”

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Set up your phone to share your medical info in an emergency

Your phone can show your medical info and call your contacts without anyone unlocking it. Five minutes of setup, and you can confirm it works.

Fresh From Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip card on a dark clock face, reading “What’s the wifi password?”

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Share your Wi-Fi without ever spelling out the password

Your phone can turn your network into a QR code that any camera scans, iPhone or Android. Five minutes, and you never recite the password again.

Fresh From Cache: Who gets your accounts when you're gone?

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Who gets your photos and email when you're gone? Set this up in five minutes.

Your photos and email don't pass to anyone when you die. Apple's Legacy Contact and Google's Inactive Account Manager fix that in five minutes each.