Faster: 100 Ways to Improve your Digital Life
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93. How to create a disposable email account
< 120 Seconds
A disposable email address is a temporary email address that automatically expires after a predefined period of time. They are usually created so that they can be given to websites, individuals and companies that you don’t necessarily trust and suspect of wanting to send you spam. They are also useful in situations where you want to receive emails from someone without revealing your true identity to them.
Anonymous Email and the Anonymous Email logo are registered trademarks of Privax Ltd, used with permission
To create a disposable email account for yourself, start your browser and connect to the Anonymous Email feature on the HideMyAss website (http://www.hidemyass.com/anonymous-email/). Fill out the form to create a disposable email account for yourself, which in this case will come with the extension @hmamail.com. You can choose any username and password you want for the disposable email account, like you do when you create any other email account. The difference lies in the fact that you also need to specify an expiry date for your disposable email account, on which it will self-destruct automatically. The expiry date can be anything from twenty-four hours to a year. Finally, you can also specify your real email address, where you will receive notifications whenever you get a new email in your disposable account.
To log in to your disposable email account, open your browser to Anonymous Email whenever you want.
Anonymous Email and the Anonymous Email logo are registered trademarks of Privax Ltd, used with permission
Some other popular disposable email account providers are the following:
Guerrilla Mail (www.guerrillamail.com)
Fake Inbox (www.fakeinbox.com)
Spamex (www.spamex.com)
Mailinator (www.mailinator.com)
94. How to beat Internet trolls
< 300 Seconds
[A] troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response …
—Wikipedia (‘Troll’)
Chat rooms, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, online games, discussion forums and almost everywhere else you look on the Internet, you are sure to find trolls—who are incessantly trying to tempt people to respond to illogical, pointless and insensitive remarks. Recognize them from your favourite websites? Trolls get a kick out of insulting the victim and spoiling their mood, online experience or even their reputation. Most trolls use poor grammar, throw insults around, attack you for no real reason and will often type in all caps. They might even post the same message in multiple websites and forums, to get reactions from as many people as possible. So how do you deal with a troll?
Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a program or app that can make your Internet experience completely troll-free. So the first rule of dealing with a troll is, no matter how hurt, angry or sad the troll has made you, never express your frustration and anger directly to them. Do not ever engage in a verbal fight or sarcastic battle with the troll. Replying to a troll with facts, figures and logical arguments is also not always the best idea, since trolls will always find a way to misquote you or find more fodder within your factually accurate answer to troll you with. The secret to remember is that the troll will be interested in continuing to play with you only if they realize that it’s affecting you, or if you give them attention.
Instead, reply to a troll by keeping calm, writing a controlled and matter-of-fact response, keeping emotions at bay, and trying firmly to bring the discussion back to the topic. Chances are that this will frustrate the troll and encourage them to move to more volatile targets. Sometimes, even posting a mild compliment might surprise and silence the troll. If nothing works, the most effective way to deal with a troll is to simply ignore them.
Does that mean that you will never face an attack from trolls again? Be prepared, for you always will. Trolls will always be there on the Internet, so you just have to learn how to live with them. Of course, if everything else fails, you can always block a troll.
95. How to stay inspired in life
< 180 Seconds
Most of us are so busy with our daily routines that we tend to forget what is really important to us—our big-picture life goals. Wouldn’t it be great if there was an app that kept reminding, inspiring and motivating us to take steps towards achieving what is really important to us, so that we could remain happy, focused and productive?
Bloom is an iOS app that can be downloaded free of cost from the iTunes app store or from the https://www.mindbloom.com/bloom website. It is an app that brings inspiration to your mobile phone in a visually awe-inspiring way. It allows you to combine your goals with powerful photos and your favourite music to create inspiring reminders of what is really important to you—eating healthy, spending more time with your family, remembering to call your grandma, driving safely, getting pumped up before a workout, cheering up in the middle of the bad day at work, drinking plenty of water to stay healthy, taking the stairs instead of the escalator and others.
Bloom and the Bloom logo are registered trademarks of Mindbloom Inc., used with permission.
When you initially start the Bloom app, a few default inspirational ideas (also known as Blooms) will be displayed on the screen, to get you comfortable with the app. To create your own Bloom, press Add > Create a Bloom. Enter any inspirational text you want. In this example, I am going to create a health-related Bloom—‘work out for 45 mins’. Press Next to continue.
Bloom and the Bloom logo are registered trademarks of Mindbloom Inc., used with permission.
Choose a suitable image that goes well with your inspirational message. You can either take a new photo using your camera, or choose one from the collection of photos available within Bloom.
Bloom and the Bloom logo are registered trademarks of Mindbloom Inc., used with permission.
You can also add background music to your Bloom. The idea here is that the inspiring text, image and background music will all work together to motivate you to on your life goals. Instead of using just one image and one text in a Bloom, it is possible to use several images and multiple texts to create a Bloom video as well. Your Bloom is now ready to inspire you to achieve one of your life goals.
You can schedule your Blooms to be automatically displayed on your screen at predefined specific dates and times, or at completely random dates and times! Just select the Bloom you want to schedule reminders for, press the Edit button > Go to Remind Me.
Bloom and the Bloom logo are registered trademarks of Mindbloom Inc., used with permission.
If you want to share your Blooms with your friends, or if you have Blooms that are applicable to your family members or your entire team at office, you can choose to share them via email or social networking websites.
Bloom and the Bloom logo are registered trademarks of Mindbloom Inc., used with permission.
With the Bloom app on your mobile device, you will never be too far from the next dose of your inspiration!
96. How to send free SMS text messages from your Gmail account
< 120 Seconds
Google has recently introduced a free SMS-to-mobile-phones service for Gmail users. This feature allows users to send and receive SMS text messages to and from mobile phone devices. To enable the SMS feature in your Gmail account, click on Settings > Labs > Scroll down to the SMS in Chat feature and select Enable, and then scroll down to click on Save Changes.
SMS in Chat and the SMS in Chat logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.
SMS in Chat and the SMS in Chat logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.
Now you can start sending text messages from your Gmail account to anyone in your contact list. Simply click on the contact’s name in the chat app to the left of your Gmail window. In the pop-up chat window, click on More > Send Text (SMS) option.
It will now ask you to enter the mobile ph
one number that you want to associate with the selected Gmail contact. Type the number in the space provided and click on the Save button. Most countries in the world are already supported by the Gmail SMS feature.
SMS in Chat and the SMS in Chat logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.
You are now ready to start sending SMS text messages to your contact. Simply type the SMS text message in the space provided—just the way you would type a regular chat message—and press enter to send the SMS text message to your contact.
SMS in Chat and the SMS in Chat logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.
The Gmail SMS feature is free, but it is restricted by a system of credits. If you look carefully at the chat window, you will find that Gmail displays the number of SMS credits that you have left in your account. By default, when you enable the SMS feature in your Gmail account, you are given fifty SMS credits free of charge. Each time you send an SMS text message, your available credits are decreased by one. However, each time someone replies to you by sending an SMS text message to your Gmail account, your SMS credits are increased by five.
Using this feature, you can use Gmail to send an SMS text message to your own phone, and then reply to that text message as many times you want. Each time you respond, your SMS credits will be increased by five, up to a maximum limit of fifty SMS credits. Moreover, in case your SMS credits go down to zero, all you need to do is wait until the next day, and automatically your SMS credit will be increased by one.
97. How to get fake incoming call to get out of sticky situations
< 60 Seconds
Fake-A-Call and the Fake-A-Call logo are registered trademarks of ExcellTech Inc., used with permission.
Have you ever got stuck talking to a boring colleague, boss, date or relative and wished that there was an excuse to get you out of there? Wouldn’t it be great if your best friend called you at that very moment and pretended to be in an emergency situation that required your immediate attention?
Fake-A-Call is a fake-call app available for both iOS and Android phones. Once installed on your phone, you can choose the caller name, caller photo, ringtone and even when you wish to receive the call. If you don’t want to bother entering these details, you can simply pick someone from your contacts list.
98. How to use a fake SMS to get out of trouble
< 60 Seconds
Have you ever been in a situation where you were in trouble and no one believed the excuses you cooked up? Wouldn’t it be great if you were able to show an actual SMS text message on your mobile phone as proof supporting your excuse? For example, you may have used an urgent doctor’s appointment as an excuse for showing up late at an important client meeting, and want to show a text message from the doctor as proof. This is now possible with the Fake SMS & Call app.
Fake SMS & Call and the Fake SMS & Call logo are registered trademarks of Fake SMS & Call, used with permission.
Download and launch Fake SMS & Call on your phone and enter all the details of the fake SMS text message you want, including the sender’s number, time, date and the actual message. You can even choose whether you want the fake SMS message to appear as a received message or a sent message. Once you have entered all the relevant details, simply press the Create Message button.
If you now go to the inbox on your mobile phone, you will be able to see the fake SMS message in it. It is important to note that this app does not actually send or receive any message, it merely places a fake message on your phone based on the details that you entered in the previous step. The best part is that if you were to show the SMS text message to someone else, there is no way for them to tell whether the message is real or fake. You can also reply to a fake message with a real message if you wanted to.
Fake SMS & Call and the Fake SMS & Call logo are registered trademarks of Fake SMS & Call.
To make your story even more believable, Fake SMS & Call also allows you add fake entries to the call logs of your mobile phone. Simply tap the Call tab on the top right corner of the app and enter all the details of the fake call you wish to add to the call logs of your mobile phone.
Fake SMS & Call and the Fake SMS & Call logo are registered trademarks of Fake SMS & Call.
If you were to view the call logs on your mobile phone, you will now be able to view the fake call with all the details that you entered in the previous step.
99. How to send and receive text messages from your Android phone using your computer
< 120 Seconds
Imagine that you are sitting in a meeting with your boss and colleagues, and you receive a text message on your mobile phone from a friend. Although you are itching to pick up your phone, read the message and reply to it, you cannot do that since it might be construed as rude. Or, maybe you have forgotten your mobile phone at home and still wanted to text your friends while you are sitting in the office.
MightyText is an Android-based app that allows you to remotely control and access all the text messaging features on your phone through the Internet from any computer or tablet in any part of the world. While your boss or colleagues will think that you are dilligently typing notes into your computer, in reality you will be texting!
To use this feature, first download the MightyText app on your Android phone. It is available as a free download from the Google Play App Store. When you run MightyText for the first time on your Android phone, press the Complete Setup button to link the app with your Google account. This is required so that you can verify your identity whenever you want to read and reply to your text messages from a computer or tablet.
Once you have installed MightyText, you can use any computer or tablet to connect to the web interface of the app at https://mightytext.net/app. You will be asked to log in to the same Google account that you had used while setting up the app on your Android phone. Once you log in, you will be able to control all the text messaging functions on your mobile phone remotely through the Internet, including:
1. Read and reply to all the text messages on your Android phone remotely from your computer or tablet
2. Receive new text messages, which will immediately show up on your browser as soon as they appear on your Android phone; you can even reply to them right there from within your browser
3. Search, read and reply to all your old messages
4. Compose new text messages to start new conversations with your friends
MightyText and the MightyText logo are registered trademarks of MightyText, used with permission.
Another benefit of using MightyText is that it saves time, since most people can type messages faster on their computer than on their mobile phone. MightyText can be used in the same way on your tablet as you used it on your computer.
MightyText and the MightyText logo are registered trademarks of MightyText, used with permission.
MightyText also instantly displays alerts on your computer to inform you about incoming calls that you may have received or missed on your Android phone.
Finally, you can also use MightyText to make phone calls from your Android phone. However, the big limitation of this feature is that you can only initiate a phone call from your computer. You will still need to physically pick up your Android phone to continue the conversation.
MightyText and the MightyText logo are registered trademarks of MightyText, used with permission.
Also, please remember that even though you are using the Internet to control messaging functions on your phone, standard messaging and calling rates will be applicable on all usage of MightyText.
100. How to wirelessly transfer files from phone to phone
< 120 Seconds
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to share stuff with your friends by simply shaking hands with them? Science fiction, you say? It is actually possible—well, almost. An easy, fast and almost magical way to wirelessly transfer files between any two devices (mobile phones, tablets or computers) is to use an app called Bump
.
Bump is available as a free download from https://bu.mp and can be run on Android and iOS phones, or even through the Internet connection on your computer. Bump allows you to wirelessly transfer files between any two devices by simply doing a gentle fist bump between the two devices. For example, imagine you are at a conference and want to exchange contact information with someone that you just met. You can wirelessly exchange the details by simply doing a fist bump with them! Think of Bump as a modern-day equivalent of a handshake with a business contact, which automatically allows you to exchange business cards with each other.
Whenever you bump two devices, the Bump app running on each of the devices will record their respective GPS coordinates and transmit them to the central Bump server. The sensors on the two devices will also literally ‘feel the bump’ and transmit the Bump Details to the central Bump server. The central Bump server will use the GPS coordinates and Bump Details to match up the two devices and establish a data communication channel between them. When you send Bump files to your friend’s device, the files are getting transmitted using Internet connections on both the devices.