As an Android user, how do you share apps with other people? You probably tell them, “Hey, I awesome downloaded [cool app name]. You should play/use it too.” But Google has introduced a new way to share apps from Google Play, and it’ll be pretty useful when (if?) we’re ever able to hang out in person again.

Once you can access the feature, which is currently rolling out various permutations of devices running the 24.0 version (or newer) of the Google Play Store app, you’ll be able to send some of the apps on your phone directly to friends using your device’s Nearby Share feature. However, there’s a caveat; as Android Authority reports, not all apps are eligible for the sharing, thought that might change at some point.

To check if you have this capability yet, make sure you’ve updated your Android’s operating system and all of its apps to the latest versions available (via Settings > System > Advanced > System Update , at least on my Pixel). Check your version of the Google Play Store app by visiting Settings > Apps & notifications > See all [x] apps > Google Play Store > Advanced , and scrolling down a bit until you see the app’s version number. (Again, those are instructions for my Pixel, so the exact path might vary for your specific Android.)

Next, launch Google Play, tap on the three-line hamburger icon in the upper-left corner, and select My apps & games . You should now see a new tab at the top: Share . Tap it, and you’ll see this prompt:

Once you’ve given the app the proper permissions, you’ll be able to use the Send button to shoot apps to nearby phones that have tapped on the Receive button and are awaiting transmission. Neither phone needs an internet connection for this to work, as Nearby Share works via a bunch of different methods (“Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, WebRTC, or peer-to-peer WiFi “) to ship .APKs between the two devices.

Once you’ve picked a device to send apps to — or once someone has elected to send one to you — you’ll get a prompt with a pairing code. All you have to do is make sure the four-digit codes match on the sending and receiving devices. Odds are they will, unless someone else near you is trying to do the exact same thing at the exact same time.

The post Use ‘Nearby Share’ to Send Android Apps to Your Friends appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

A wireless charger is a simple gadget that once you own, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Sure, they aren’t some groundbreaking piece of technology, but the amount of convience that can bring to your life can’t be understated.

If you’re working from home, a wireless charger is a helpful way to streamline the amount of cables on your desk with the added ease of being able to pick up your phone straight away, without having to unplug it from anything.

We’ve put together a list of wireless chargers that are worth considering if you want to stop your cables from looking like a ratking.

Wireless charging speeds

Just note that the speed at which you’ll be able to recharge your phone will be determined by what type you own. Most compatible Android phones get around 1oW when charging, while iPhones are capped at 7.5W. Other Qi-compatible phones will only achieve a 5W charge.

Also, as a general rule of thumb, make sure you’ve taken off your phone case before charging. While most of these charging stations will work with cases up to 3mm thick, anything in-between your phone and your pad raises the chance of a slower recharge. You also won’t get any charge from metal cases, credit card holders and pop-sockets/grips.

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Anker PowerWave Pad ($29.99)

Anker have pretty much staked their claim as the go to brand when it comes to wireless charging, and with good reason. Their wireless pads are consistently good, and come at an affordable price.

The PowerWave pad is a solid wireless phone charger that will get you a 10W charge for a Samsung Galaxy (S10, S9+, S9, S8, S8+, S7 edge, S7, S6 edge+), and a 7.5W charge for an iPhone (XS Max, XS, XR, X, 8, 8+).

The PowerWave is slimline and understated, so it won’t add to your desk or countertop clutter. The top surface also has a TPU coating, which will stop your phone from sliding off.

Anker PowerWave Stand ($33.99)

This charger isn’t too different from the Anker pad, bar the obvious difference of how your phone is displayed. The PowerWave Stand will let you sit your phone in either portrait or landscape mode, so you can continue to browse the internet or watch videos.

Compared to the PowerWave pad, however, the PowerWave stand doesn’t perform as well with iPhones or other Qi-enabled devices. It only achieves a 5W charge, so prepare for a slow recharge time. That’s something to be mindful of if you aren’t a Samsung user — which will charge at 10W.

Belkin Boost Up Charging Pad 10W ($49)

Image: Belkin

Belkin’s Boost Up charging pad sits on the more expensive end of the wireless phone charger spectrum, but the price is worth it. This is one of the sturdiest charging pads on the market and is built to give you the fastest recharge speeds possible.

This Belkin wireless charging pad will give you a 9W recharge for a Samsung Galaxy (S10, S10+, S9+, S9) and a 7.5W recharge for an iPhone (XS Max, XS, XR, X, 8, 8+). It also comes with a Quick Charge 3.0-compatible wall charger, so you can get the best recharge possible right out of the box.

Nanami Charging Stand ($26.99)

Image: Nanami

If you want a wireless charger that stands out, Nanami’s charging stand has a sleek, futuristic-looking design. You also have choice when it comes to colour, either black or silver. The stand will let your phone sit at an angle that will allow you to comfortably browse, and, if you’re using an iPhone, will still let you use face ID.

If you’re after a fast charge, you’ll get a 10W recharge on Samsung Galaxy (S20, S20+, S10, S10+, S9, S9+, S8, S8+) and Galaxy Note (10+, 10, 9, 8). You’ll get a 7.5W charge for iPhones (11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, XS Max, XS, XR, X, 8+, 8). However, if you want to achieve a fast charge, you’ll need to pick up a QC 2.0.3.0 adapter separately.

CHOETECH Fast Wireless Charging Pad ($22.99)

Image: CHOETECH

If, for whatever reason, you just hate the idea of owning a circular charging pad, this CHOETECH charger will give you the squareness you desire. It’s also very affordable, especially when you consider its range of features.

This biggest appeal of this pad is the range of products its fast charging mode is compatible with. With this wireless phone charger, you’ll hit a 10W recharge for Samsung Galaxy (S10, S10e, S10+, S9, S9+, S8, S8+, S7, S7 Edge, S6 Edge+) and Galaxy Note (9, 8). For iPhones (11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, XS Max, XS, XR, X, 8+, 8), and even AirPods 2, you’ll get a 7.5W charge.

This charger also has a slight leg up on the others listed here, as it will let you charge through cases that are up to 5mm thick. And if you really want a wireless phone charger that really stands out, this CHOETECH pad comes in multiple colours: white, black and red.

DOSHIN 3-in-1 Wireless Charger ($47.98)

Image: Amazon

Maybe you own more than one smart device and want to eliminate the annoying procedure of having to swap out one device to charge another. DOSHIN’s 3-in-1 charger is a good option if you want to get some simultaneous charging going. It also looks simple and sleek, with plenty of space to charge a smartphone, smart watch and wireless earbuds at the same time. This pad comes with an adjustable stand for your phone, so you can still have a good view of the screen.

This wireless charger is compatible with Apple products, like the iPhone (11, 11 Pro Max, XS Max, X, XR, 8, 8+), Airpods Pro, Apple Watch (SE, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2). If you’re a Samsung person, it is compatible with the Galaxy (S20, S20+, S10, S10+, S10E, S9, S9+, S8, S8+), the Galaxy Note (10, 10+, 9, 8) and the Galaxy buds. To achieve fast charging, you will need a QC 2.0 or 3.0 adapter.

mophie Charge Stream Desk Stand ($65.98)

Image: mophie

A more unique design, compared to the other chargers listed here, mophie’s Charge Stream desk stand has been optimised for a fast charge. You’ll get 10W for compatible Samsung device, 7.5W for iPhones and 5W for any other Qi-compatible smartphones when using this wireless charger.

This charging pad is modular, so you can either use it as a stand or you can remove the pad to let it sit flat on your desk. The stand itself is adjustable, so you can change its height to suit whatever phone you’re placing onto it. That’s pretty handy if you live in a household where everyone uses a different type of phone.

The post Stop Turning Your Cables Into a Rat’s Nest and Get a Wireless Charger appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

With Aussies waking up this morning to the news that Facebook would no longer be allowing media outlets to share content to the social media platform. It’s major news that has turned the way Aussies consume media on its head.

If you’ve been wondering how to best get your news going forward, don’t panic. We pulled together a useful guide for you here . And in addition to that, we thought we’d share a few of our favourite RSS readers should you decide you’d like to start using that option.

Check out the list below.

The Best: Feedly

Feedly got the most comments and upvotes from readers, which isn’t surprising — it’s one of the few RSS readers with a modern design and active support behind it. It’s also packed full of features. As I said in a previous post:

Its chronological feed, flexible search and organisation tools, and cross-platform syncing are all excellent, and it helped me wean off Twitter for news — and just about everything else. Since it’s an RSS reader, Feedly can even be used to track YouTube and podcast subscriptions, blogs, and even newsletters in some cases. Oh, and both the web and mobile versions have built-in dark themes.

Those of you who voted for Feedly cited its ease of use, customisable interface, and helpful collection tools as noteworthy, and that’s just for Feedly’s free version. A Pro version is also available for about $9/month that adds even more customisation options, lets you follow an unlimited number of sources, and gives users more granular search and tracking options like alerts for specific keywords.

There’s also a “Team” version that gives users the ability to create “boards” the can be accessed and edited by multiple users, plus integration with apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and more. It’s worth mentioning that the free version is ad-supported, but these are mostly unobtrusive and kept to a minimum. (Feedly Pro and Team are entirely ad-free.)

Even with the ads, Feedly’s free version is difficult to top. However, some readers commented that they found it to be cumbersome to use and others said they disliked the layout options. I’ll admit I needed to change some of the feed display options before I was fully on-board, but once I had my preferences locked in I haven’t looked back.

If you’re struggling to click with Feedly, our runner-up pick is just as worthy of your consideration.

Runner-up: Inoreader

Inoreader came in a close second, and if you do a cursory internet search you’ll find plenty of debates over whether Inoreader or Feedly is the superior product. In my opinion, both are excellent choices and you’ll get a great RSS reader and news aggregation solution whichever service you pick.

The free, ad-supported versions of both services are largely identical, though Inoreader allows up to 150 sources compared to Feedly’s 100. Inoreader has a fairly similar user interface to Feedly — their dark themes are practically identical — though Inoreader’s layout is more compact and faster to navigate. Inoreader also has a built-in podcast player that will play audio in the background while you read through your feed.

While the basic service is entirely free, Inoreader also has paid options . Users can nix ads and follow up to 500 sources for $30 a year (about $2 a month), but in order to get the best features — like an offline mode, unlimited news sources, feed automation, and robust search/tracking features — you’ll need to pony up $75 a year. Interestingly, Inoreader also lets users pick advanced features a la carte.

The rest

The vast majority of Lifehacker commenters were either Feedly or Inoreader users, and they are hands-down the best choices for most people. That said, a few other RSS readers are worth highlighting:

Feedbro – FeedBro is an RSS reader extension available for Firefox , Chrome , and other Chromium-based browsers like Edge and Vivaldi. It has a clean (but basic) interface you can customise, and it comes with tons of social media integration. It’s entirely free and, unlike some other RSS add-ons, is fully standalone — meaning you don’t need to sync it with another RSS service for it to work.

Open-source options: Vienna RSS and Tiny Tiny RSS – A couple of open-source choices — Vienna RSS and Tiny Tiny RSS (or TTRSS) — were also mentioned by readers. I’m a sucker for open-source applications, and both Vienna and TTRSS lets users create self-hosted RSS readers. These will require a bit more technical skill than simply signing up for one of the other apps or add-ons above, but they’re great options for protecting your data and having full control over your news feed.

There are also news aggregator options like Apple News and Google News which can be easily be amended to suit your daily news preferences.

This article has been updated since its original publish date.

The post The Best RSS Readers and News Aggregation Apps appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

If you use WhatsApp, the incredibly popular messaging app owned by Facebook, chances are you’ve encountered the news surrounding their ever-changing privacy policy. While the service seems to continually shift from more to secure to less secure and back again, you may feel like it’s time to pack up your data and find a new platform to chat with friends.

If you choose to remove yourself from WhatsApp, here’s what you’ll want to do:

To export your messages, tap on the chat you want to save. Tap on the name of the chat at the top and scroll down to “Export Chat,” and then choose whether or not you want to include the media from the chat with it.

Then request your account data by going to “Settings” in the bottom right corner. Then choose “Account” and “Request Account Info”. It will take about three days to receive your data report from WhatsApp, but they’ll notify you when it’s ready.

Finally, to delete your account, go to “Settings,” then “Account,” and “Delete My Account”. Doing so will erase your message history, remove you from all groups, and delete your backup. Now you’re free and clear of WhatsApp, and just need to convince your friends and family to migrate to a different app.

The post How to Ditch WhatsApp for Good appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

I’ve been a mouse guy for as long as I can remember — never wavering. However, what if you want to ditch your mouse entirely? That’s the question put forth by Lifehacker reader James . He writes:

I sign my name as best I can using my Logitech mouse. I am in my late 80s and find shaping letters very difficult. I am anxious to try a Pentype Mouse to provide me with better control when signing or making sketches.

My system is Windows 10, 64 bit. Can you recommend any mouse or give me a reference to any reviews of such mice?

Pen mouse or drawing pad?

I confess, I haven’t seen a review of a bonafide pen mouse in years. They always struck me as one of those cheap, $30 gadgets you’d probably find on some deep shelf at Target, perhaps with an “as seen on TV” sticker on it. They’re not a very conventional way to use one’s system, look bulky as can be, and you have to deal with wireless charging all the time. Ee ech .

I’m talking about a very specific type of product, though, like this one:

Plenty of people use a pen to interact with their computers, but in a slightly different way. I’d recommend you try out a full-on drawing tablet, one that you use a stylus to interact with, even though a pen mouse would likely be a cheaper investment at first.

The pros? The stylus never runs out of battery. It’s merely an extension of your hand that interacts with the tablet, which is the real meat of the operation. Drawing tablets like the Wacom CTL4100 — its entry-level product — come with a sea of favourable reviews, and Wacom is a trusted brand, so you know that any quirks with the relationship between pen and PC will likely get sorted out, which is more than I can say for some random manufacturer of a $30 “pen mouse.”

The downsides? Well, you’ll be tapping, not clicking, so that might take a little getting used to. That said, I’ve even heard of some people going for a hybrid approach — resting their non-primary hand on a mouse and using that to click, while using a pen+drawing tablet combo to navigate around Windows, move apps, and so on.

There’s also the price. The aforementioned CTL4100 costs a cool $109. That’s just around four times the price of various pen mice I saw; however, I would consider this purchase like buying a quality kitchen knife. Sure, you can get $30 knives from Amazon that get the job done — as I have in the past — but the quality generally sucks and their long-term prognosis isn’t great. (Of course, though, when you lose, break, or rust them, it’s not that big of a deal.)

I’m assuming that you interact with your computer a fairly regular amount, and given that you specifically referenced signing your name and sketching, I think the CTL4100 is the perfect fit. I also didn’t mention earlier that it has a lot of built-in pressure sensitivity for the latter, in case you want to explore that as part of your doodling. A pen mouse? Unsure if it’ll have that kind of a feature built-in, as it’s more an input device than an ideal drawing tool.

So that’s my advice: Go with a drawing tablet. I (and many others) like Wacom, but I’m sure there are decent alternatives out there, too. Given your needs, though, I wouldn’t buy something that costs hundreds of dollars — not unless digital art is a key part of your daily life.

If, or when, you purchase a drawing tablet, make sure you pull up Windows 10’s Pen & Windows Ink settings, where you should also see a key option you’ll want to enable: “ Allow my pen to act as mouse in legacy applications.” I don’t have a pen/drawing tablet myself, so I can’t confirm this is what it’s called (or whether it still exists), but I know this was previously a way to ensure that you could use your stylus to interact with apps system-wide. It’s also plausible that you’ll have similar settings in whatever app comes with your drawing tablet (make sure you’ve installed that, as well as the tablet manufacturer’s drivers, to ensure the best experience).

Do you have a tech question keeping you up at night? Tired of troubleshooting your Windows or Mac? Looking for advice on apps, browser extensions, or utilities to accomplish a particular task? Let us know! Tell us in the comments below or email david.murphy@lifehacker.com .

The post Is It Worth Switching From a Mouse to a Pen? appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

Once a year or so, I spend some time trying to find the best way to take a seamless screenshot of an entire website, as I’m not always a fan of the CTRL + S approach for saving a site’s data. I only wish I knew earlier how absurdly easy this was to do on iOS, of all places.

I’ve tried plenty of browser extensions that worked to varying degrees (until I found the reason why most of them would typically mess up for me). Capturing the entirety of a site on my iPhone now opens up plenty of new possibilities though — including being particularly convenient if I want to send someone a snapshot of what a site looks like at the exact moment I’m viewing it or want to show someone how a bug is mucking up my experience.

Whatever the reason, capturing a full-page screenshot of a website on iOS is simple. To start, launch the website in your device’s Safari browser — after you’ve made sure you’re using the latest version of iOS. Take a screenshot of a website as you normally would — Side Button + Volume Up , in my case. You’ll now see this screen:

If you don’t see those two options at the top — Screen and Full Page — iOS is probably being fussy. Close Safari, reopen it, and try taking another screenshot. These options are critical, as tapping Full Page is the magic sauce that will lead you to this screen:

That little sidebar on the right, which you can scroll through up and down, shows you the entirety of the page that your phone has captured. When you go to save it, however, you won’t be dropping it in your photo album because your device isn’t technically creating a giant photograph. Instead, your iPhone will have converted this mega-screenshot into a PDF, so you’ll need to send it to some other folder on your device:

And that’s it. You now have a gigantic, full-page screenshot of whatever website you were looking at — one that’s already been converted into a PDF for you. If you’re doing a lot of archiving of old work, I would argue this is almost easier to deal with than the combination of a desktop browser and an extension, but that’s just me.

The post How to Take Scrollable, Full-Page Screenshots of Websites on iOS appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

Microsoft’s Word app has a dark mode that you can use right now, but it’s not as dark as you might prefer it if you’re the kind of person who likes working on projects in the wee hours of the night.

When you fire up Word normally, this is what you’ll see when you’re using its “Colourful” theme:

If you go to switch the theme (via File > Options > General > Personalise your copy of Microsoft Office or File > Account > Office Theme ), you’ll be able to pick a slightly darker grey to use:

And even a straight-up black setting, the app’s “dark mode” as it currently exists:

Even in dark mode, you have a big-arse hunk of white staring you in the face: the very page you’re working on. It kind of takes away the purpose of having a dark mode.

While you can certainly change this yourself using the Page Colour option under Design , that modifies the document for all who view it. And it’s possible that whoever you’re sending your work to might not want white text on a black background.

To get around this, Microsoft is testing a new dark mode iteration for Word that turns the page black, if that’s your preference — but only as a viewing mode. That document will still look normal in whatever viewing mode another person has set up for themselves.

To get to this feature, you’ll need to first sign up to be an Office Insider. You’ll find that option within the Account window on your main Office screen:

Sign up for the Beta Insider channel, rather than the Preview insider channel, and then click on the Update Options box on your Account screen to download whatever updates Word asks of you. You’ll now be “on the cutting edge,” as Microsoft says:

Close Word and reopen it. From there, head back to File > Options , and set your theme to Black once again. You should now see a blissful black background that you can type on:

And if you want to switch back to a white page at any point, simply pull up the View tab in your document and click on the new Switch Modes button:

The post Make Microsoft Word’s ‘Dark Mode’ Actually Dark appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

Hearing that there’s been some kind of eye-opening twist on WandaVision might make you anxious about logging into any kind of social media. We’ve already talked about a number of techniques you can use to avoid spoilers on social media , but here’s a new one to add to the mix: Hide Twitter Trends .

This aptly named Chrome extension does exactly what it suggests. Install it, and your Twitter home page will go from this:

To this:

That’s quite a purge of information — basically everything on the right-hand side of Twitter’s UI. However, it’ll help ensure that your Twitter UI stays as spoiler-free as possible, though it won’t do anything about your actual feed. For that, make sure you continue using our advice of muting keywords related to content that you don’t want to see. You can set these blocks permanently or for, say, 30 days from the current date, with the hopes that internet chatter about whatever spoiler-filled topic you’re concerned about dies down by then.

While Twitter Trends are generally pretty dull, I wouldn’t assume that you’ll be safe from spoilers by simply not looking at them. There have been instances where key moments in media are ruined by Twitter’s “helpful” feature though:

Once again, WandaVision spoilers on Twitter trends.

Great episode though. Kathryn Hahn is a national treasure as always

— Sounds Dangerous! Stan Account (@Tui717) February 5, 2021

So, unfortunately, you’re going to want to mute keywords and have a browser extension installed — and, even then, hope that someone doesn’t fumble-fingers that “Dorth” Vader is Luke’s father. And, of course, if your media matters that much to you, perhaps staying off Twitter around key moments is for the best.

The post How to Ward Off Spoilers on Twitter appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

According to a notification from Apple, YouTube is dropping support for some Apple TVs in early March. Users can still watch videos from a secondary Apple device via AirPlay, but you won’t be able to use the YouTube channel itself on third-generation Apple TVs from 2012.

Newer Apple TV devices, like the Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K, will still support YouTube. These models run tvOS, which is a modified version of iOS. That means they can run many of the same media apps that an iPhone can. Older Apple TVs, however, used proprietary “channels” that had to be made specifically for these models. YouTube already pulled support for the first and second-generation Apple TVs, so it was only a matter of time before gen three got nixed, too.

We’d love to offer a workaround for those affected, but so far we haven’t seen one. That leaves owners of older Apple TVs with two options for watching YouTube on their TVs. The first is using AirPlay to watch YouTube. Watching over AirPlay is a minor extra step, but an extra step nonetheless. And you’ll need a compatible iPad or iPhone to cast from.

The other option is even less great: Switch to a different device when you want to watch YouTube. It’s possible you already own a viable alternative, such as a smart TV or a gaming console like the PlayStation 4 and 5, or the Xbox One, Series X, or Series S.

Besides, it’s probably time to upgrade that ancient Apple TV. And if you do, you have several options. The best upgrade for existing Apple TV users is the latest Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K. The Apple TV 4K is the more powerful option, but the Apple TV HD is still a great choice for those without a 4K TV. Either will feel like a major upgrade if you’re moving on from an older Apple TV box.

If the new Apple TVs are too expensive, you could jump over to Amazon’s Fire TV stick or a Roku. The good news is that you can get the Apple TV app on either, which means you’ll still be able to watch all of your Apple-purchased content (or subscriptions) without paying for a more-expensive Apple TV set-top box.

The post What to Do When YouTube Stops Working on Your Old Apple TV appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .