Phone and Tablet Tips
44
What you should install this fortnight
Total War: Medieval II
£11.99 (Android); £12.99 (iOS)
Android http://www.snipca.com/42032
iOS http://www.snipca.com/42033
If you like historical war-strategy games,
this new mobile app of the classic PC game
is an absolute must. Vie for supremacy of
the Middle Ages through conquest, trade,
diplomacy or duplicity. Check the list of
supported devices in the app’s description
to make sure your device can run it before
you buy.NowPlaying
Free*
iOS http://www.snipca.com/42039
Shazam is a great app for identifying tunes
you hear playing.
But since being
bought by Apple,
it has become
closely tied to the
company’s own
music-streaming
service. The new
version of rival app
NowPlaying lets
you open songs in
Spotify as well. You
can also view lyrics,
artist info and more.8 – 21 June 2022 • Issue 633BEST NEW APPS
Gallery Slideshow
Free
Android http://www.snipca.com/42031
Gallery Slideshow effectively converts
your phone or tablet into a digital picture
frame. Creating a slideshow is as simple
as selecting
the images (or
albums) you want
and tapping play.
You can fine-tune
transitions, add
music and more.
Note, however,
that this app
won’t save your
slideshow as a
video file.ANDROID
Change your keyboard’s
long-press delay
Android’s onscreen keyboard
(Google’s excellent Gboard) has a
handy long-press menu that appears
when you hold down your finger on
certain keys. Long-pressing one of the
letters on the top row, for example, lets
you select a number instead.
But long-pressing can be tricky to get
the hang of. If you’re typing quickly, for
example, you may find the delay before
the long-press menu appears is slowing
you down and it’s easy to misjudge the
lag and end up making a typing error.
Thankfully, you can adjust the length of
this delay to suit your typing style.
Open any app that lets you use the
keyboard (such as Messages). Tap in the
text entry box, then tap Settings (cog
icon) and select Preferences. Scroll down
to the bottom and tap ‘Key long-press
delay’. By default the delay is set to 300
milliseconds (ms, 0.3 seconds), but you
can use the slider (see screenshot below)
to set it to anything from 100-700ms
instead. Shorten or lengthen the delay as
required, then tap OK.Currently, you can’t change the long-
press delay on the iOS version of Gboard.ANDROID
Get your Android device
to read your texts aloud
If you’ve ever heard that text
message ‘ping’ at a moment when
you’ve got your hands full – when you’re
driving, for example – then you’ll know
how useful it would be to have your
phone read your incoming messages
aloud to you.
To do this, you’ll need the Google app
(www.snipca.com/42003) and Google
Assistant (www.snipca.com/42004) on
your device – most recent Android
phones come with these installed. You
can find out whether Google Assistant is
enabled by saying “Hey Google” or “Okay
Google”. If Google Assistant is switched
off, you’ll be prompted to switch it on at
this point. Note that on some models, you
may need to press the Home button
before issuing spoken commands.
Now, say “Okay Google, read my text
messages”. The first time you do this,
you’ll see a request for permission to
‘Allow your Assistant to read your
notifications to you’. Tap OK and you’ll be
taken to the ‘Device & app notifications’
settings screen. Tap Google here, then tap
the slider next to ‘Allow notification
access’ to enable it (see screenshot above
right), then tap Allow. Say “Okay Google,
read my text messages” again to hear any
new messages read aloud.iOS & iPadOS
Stop podcasts taking up so
much space
The automatic download function of
Apple’s Podcasts app is very useful
because it means the latest episodes of
your favourite shows will be ready on
your device whenever you want to listen
to them. However, it’s easy to end up
with dozens of podcast episodes hogging
valuable storage on your iPhone or iPad.
Among the features introduced in iOS
15.5 and iPadOS 15.5 (released in May) is a
handy new setting that provides much
more control over the way the Podcasts
app’s automatic downloads work,
potentially saving you masses of space.
To change these settings so they apply
to all the podcasts in your library, tap
Settings then Podcasts, then tap
Automatically Download. To change the
settings for a specific show, open the
Podcast app, tap Library then the show
you want. Tap the menu icon (three dots)*Contains in-app purchases