Bradford - Life hack (lif, hak)

Avon, Massachusetts

Contents

Introduction

Congratulations! Youve just opened the most helpful book on the face of the planet. Give yourself a big pat on the back because your life is about to change for the better. Youll now be able to get free food on your birthday, catch a liar in the act, unclog drains, stop mosquito bites from itching, charge your phone faster, and even survive a zombie apocalypse!

Life hacks have been around since the dawn of time, but theyve just never had a title attached to themuntil now. I still remember the first life hack I ever used. When I was a kid my grandma taught me an old trick that cured my hiccups within seconds. I was amazed! Well, I was mostly just happy to get back to playing soccer so quickly. But to this day, any time I get the hiccups, I still use her trick and poof, theyre gone.

I started to realize that my grandma wasnt the only person that had secret tricks like this up their sleeve. Everyone seemed to have their own kind of tip or shortcut they used to hack their way through life. But imagine you could take everyones tips, tricks, and shortcuts and put them all in one place; how great would that be? Oh wait, thats right, thats the book youre holding right in front of you!

Each of these life hacks entries have been pulled from various sources around the Internet as well as from user submissions from my blog 1000LifeHacks.com. Along with these are a ton more of my favorites that Ive saved specifically for this book. Theyre all broken down into ten categories from technology to cures and solutions, so you can decide which aspect of your life youd like to improve upon and start from there. It doesnt need to be read in chronological order either; you can literally flip to any page and start improving your life right now!

Running low on battery? Put your phone on airplane mode and itll charge much faster.

Want to download a YouTube video? Just add ss to the URL between www. and YouTube.

Need to test a printer? Print the Google homepage. It has all the colors you need to run a proper test, and will use almost no ink.

Get the Wi-Fi password to almost anywhere by checking the comments section on Foursquare.

If you mess up recording a voicemail, press # to re-record it.

Accidentally close a tab in your Internet browser? Press Ctrl + Shift + T to reopen it.

Out of AA batteries? You can use a AAA battery and fill the gap on the positive side with a small ball of tinfoil.

iPhone pictures will be of better quality if you take the picture and then zoom in on the saved version rather than zooming in while taking the picture.

Keep your charger from bending or breaking by sliding it into the spring from an old pen.

To listen to a song on YouTube on repeat, without having to keep pressing replay at the end, add repeat between www.Youtube and .com.

Storing batteries in the freezer can double their lifespan.

Dropped your phone in water? Put it in a bag of rice. The rice will absorb the water and can potentially save your phone from death.

If an image is burned into your plasma TV screen, turn on static for the entire day. The image will fade away.

If you accidentally erased something you just typed on your iPhone, you can undo the action by simply shaking the phone.

When using Hulu, refresh the page at every ad-break. Youll only have to watch a thirty-second ad instead of a longer one.

If you have a computer that blocks sites like YouTube, Google Chromes incognito mode will let you access them.

To resize a photo for Instagram, tilt your phone sideways and take a screenshot of it. Itll fit perfectly without affecting the quality.

Putting your phone on airplane mode will stop ads while playing games.

If you pause a YouTube video and type 1980 you will have to fight off missiles to protect your video.

Swipe left or right on the iPhone calculator to delete the last digit, so you dont have to start all over.

You can watch an awesome visualizer by hitting Command + T while a song is playing in iTunes.

You can use Google search as a timer by typing in set timer for followed by the amount of minutes or hours youd like Google to start counting down from.

Do you remember everything in your search term except for one word? Use an asterisk (*) in its place and Google search will fill in the blank for you.

Rather than sift through your local airports website, simply type in the airline and flight number into Google search to get all the important information you need.

Turn the Google search page into pirate slang by typing in Google pirate and clicking the Im feeling lucky button. Settings will now be referred to as Me likes an dislikes.

Want search results from one specific website? Type in your search term followed by site: and then the site you want the results from.

Dont bother getting out your calculatoryou can simply type what you want converted like 20 euros to dollars or 8 meters to feet right into Google for an instant answer.

You can narrow your search to specific date ranges by typing in your search term and using .. between the dates you want. For example, if you were searching for popular music during the mid-to-late 2000s, you could type in Best albums 2004..2010.

Want to play Pac-Man? Go straight into the game by typing Google Pac-Man and clicking the Im feeling lucky button.

Having something shipped to you? Dont bother going to a confusing shipping website! Simply type your package number into Google to take you straight to the tracking page.

Instantly translate between any language by typing in translate then your search term, followed by the language you want it translated to.

When sharing headphones with friends, turn on the mono audio feature, so that your phone splits the sound equally.

Want to save on your phone bill? Gmail offers free calling to anywhere in the United States as long as you have Internet and a microphone.

If youre in an area where you should have cell phone service but dont, put your phone on airplane mode and then switch back. This will cause your phone to register and find all the towers in your vicinity.

Tie a small knot around your left ear bud so you can easily tell them apart.

If you want to access Pandora, Hulu, or Netflix outside the United States, download the Chrome or Firefox extension called Media Hint.