Rick's Daily Tech Tips
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Do you receive a lot of calls from people who aren’t on your Contacts list?

If so you’ve probably discovered that most of those “unknown callers” are telemarketers, scammers or other folks you’d simply rather not talk to.

The good news? It’s possible to block calls from anyone who isn’t on your Contacts list, and it’s very easy to do (especially if you have an iPhone).

Yep, anonymous calls are the bane of the modern world, but you CAN get them under control!
Just follow the instructions below for your particular phone to block calls from unknown callers.

To block unknown callers with an iPhone if it’s running iOS 13 or later:
1 – Tap Settings.
2 – Tap Phone.
3 – Scroll down and toggle the Silence Unknown Callers setting to On.

To block unknown callers with an iPhone if it’s running iOS 12 or earlier:
1 – Tap Settings.
2 – Tap Do Not Disturb.
3 – Tap the slider switch beside the“Manual” setting to enable it.
4 – Tap Allow Calls From.
5 – Select All Contacts.

That’s all there is to it. From now on your iPhone will only accept calls from people who are on your Contacts list.

How to block unknown callers with an Android phone:
Unfortunately, things are a little more complicated when it comes to blocking unknown callers with Android phones. Some phones don’t have that capability at all, and the ones that do have it don’t all do it the same way.

I recommend that you check your phone’s user manual to see if it’s capable of blocking unknown callers. If so, simply follow the steps listed in the manual to set it up. (Brian recommends Googling it, or look at THIS)

If your particular Android phone doesn’t happen to have a feature for blocking unknown callers, don’t despair. You can still enjoy unknown caller blocking by installing a great free app called YouMail.

YouMail actually replaces your phone’s built-in voicemail service and adds several nice features to boot. I won’t go into all those features here, but one of them is a feature to block unknown callers.

Important caveat: Depending on your needs you might need to pay for the premium version of YouMail in order to get all the functionality you need out of its voicemail service.
Be sure to take that into account before making the decision to install the app.

Click here to read more about the YouMail app and all the great features it provides.
Bottom line: You don’t have to put up with telemarketers and other annoying anonymous callers interrupting you at all times of the day and night. Just follow the simple instructions above and you’ll be able to stop them cold!
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Bonus Tip: If you still happen to have a landline telephone, read this post to learn about a nifty device that will allow you to block unwanted calls on it as well!

Sometimes you need to scan something. You may need to sign a document and send it to somebody as a pdf. While many printers these days have a scanner built in. some do not. Sometimes you need to scan something and you’re not near a scanner.
 
As it turns out, your iPhone has a built-in scanner, and it works pretty well. The scan feature is in the app Notes, which is already on your iPhone. Open it up and choose to create a new note, using the icon in the lower right corner. You’ll get several options, choose the camera icon. That will offer a few ways to do a scan, choose Scan Documents.
 
A neat feature is that it looks at what’s in front of the camera and it automatically chooses what to scan. It worked great when I tested it out. Follow the prompts and it will save the pdf to a folder in Notes. You can then edit it or send it along. A more detailed article on this process is HERE.  

​​As a “senior”, and I say that begrudgingly, I find that I am thinking more of my health, and possible health emergencies. The smartphone can be a useful tool in emergencies. It can hold health information which may be accessible to a person that is trying to help, like an EMT. Also, it can automatically call 911 if you can’t. It has a couple of different ways to call 911, in fact. If you press the side button enough times, for instance. I did that accidentally once. On an iPhone, I think it’s 5 times.
 
I like the health related apps on my iPhone, and I look forward to them becoming more sophisticated. My iWatch can already check my pulse and blood oxygen. At some point in the near future Apple is supposed to come out with a watch that will take my blood pressure and do a blood glucose reading. Still waiting on that one though.
 
You should be aware of your smartphone’s emergency capabilities, just in case. Check out the article on that HERE. 

On an iPhone
You can add a website icon to your iPhone Home Screen for quick access to that site.
From the website, tap the Share button, then tap Add to Home Screen.
The icon appears only on the device where you add it.

​You can also do this on an Android
 
Android
Launch “Chrome” app.
Open the website or web page you want to pin to your home screen.
Tap the menu icon (3 dots in upper right-hand corner) and tap Add to home screen.
You'll be able to enter a name for the shortcut and then Chrome will add it to your home screen.

I was looking for a tech tip, and pondering what a good subject might be. I use Google to search that sort of thing. I can barely get through a day without looking how to do something on Google. I know it will come as a shock to many folks, but I am NOT actually a genius. I do, however, know how to search things on Google.

The tech tips for seniors were mostly annoying me though. There were a bunch of really young-looking kids doing high school projects making videos for seniors. I found it just a tad condescending. And also quite helpful. But enough of that. If you’re interested, then Google: Tech Tips for Seniors. Those whippersnappers are annoying as all get out. I hope that sounded very curmudgeonly.

I did find a good video explaining iCloud on the iPad or iPhone, by an adult, and a Canadian, so 2 points there. You can watch it below if you are interested.​