Slash energy bills with new TV button coming to millions in surprise upgrade – and it solves common bedroom problem too

The Sun

3 days ago

GOOGLE is creating a clever button that could slash energy bills for millions of TV owners.
Telly sleuths have spotted early signs of the feature on Google TV – one of the most popular systems that powers televisions around the world.
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Google TV and Android TV are Google creations that serve as the "home" for your telly, serving up your apps and settings.
It regularly receives updates from Google adding new features to help improve your television – even after you've bought it.
Eagle-eyed gadget fans at Android Authority have dug into the test version for one of these updates, and uncovered a clever upgrade.
It lets you set up an advanced sleep timer for your telly so that it won't keep playing all through the night.
Falling asleep while watching telly is very common – even if what you're watching isn't boring.
Currently Android TV does offer a very basic sleep timer, but it's very hard to get to, buried deep inside your TV's energy settings. One clever shortcut is to ask the built-in Google Assistant to "turn off TV in X minutes".
But the new version will let you schedule sleep timers, add time to them, pause it, and even get notifications for when it's about to run down.
There's no word on exactly when the feature will arrive, but it would be very handy.
For a start, not having your TV running all night will save you money on energy bills.
It also means you'll get a more restful night's sleep.
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And you don't run the risk of something loud coming on the telly that wakes up your partner or other people at home too. So it may even help you dodge a few rows at home.
The Sun has asked Google for comment and will update this story with any response.
IPHONE SLEEP TIMERS
While you wait for that, there are some clever iPhone sleep timers to try too.
The first is built directly into the official Apple Podcasts app.
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Just go into it and start playing something.
Then look at the media playback screen in the app: you should see a small crescent moon icon in the bottom-right. It'll have three "z"s next to it.
Tap it and you'll be able to set up a sleep timer for that podcast.
You can choose times ranging from five minutes right up to an hour.
TRY YOUR IPHONE'S BUILT-IN SLEEP SOUNDS
Millions of iPhone models have built-in 'background sounds'...
They're there to help you get to sleep, or focus on work.
You'll find them in Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds.
Tap on Sound and then choose one of the following:
Balanced Noise
Bright Noise
Dark Noise
Ocean
Rain
Stream
Night
Fire
Then go to your Control Centre (swipe down from the top-right corner on a Face ID iPhone, or up from the bottom on a Home Button iPhone).
Go to the edit function and then you can add Background Sounds there as a shortcut.
Alternatively, try going to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut and choose Background Sounds.
Then when you triple-click the Side Button on your iPhone (the one for locking it), Background Sounds will begin playing. Do it again to shut Background Sounds off.
Picture Credit: The Sun / Apple
But the more useful option might be to choose When Episode Ends.
This will kill your podcast once the episode is over, which has the added benefit of meaning you won't sleep through a load of episodes that you wanted to listen to.
There's a very similar feature that works on music for your iPhone too.
It's built into the default iPhone Clock app, and you may well have missed it entirely.
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This will let you shut off music after a certain amount of time.
So you could play peaceful rain sounds, for instance, and then have it shut off so it doesn't run all night.
This will save energy and hope give you a bit of peace too.
First, begin playing some music.
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Then go to the Clock app and head into the Timers tab.
Set a timer for a length of time – for instance, you could choose one hour.
Then on the button for When Timer Ends, don't choose a sound. Instead, scroll all the way to the very bottom.
Tap on the Stop Playing option and then start the timer.
Once it ends, the timer won't make a noise. It'll just switch your music off entirely. Handy.
iPhone tricks to try today
Here are some of the best...
Typing cursor – When typing, hold down the space bar to turn your keyboard into a trackpad, letting you move around words and sentences more easily
Close all Safari tabs – To do this in one go, simply hold the overlapped squares in the bottom right-hand corner, and press close all tabs
Delete lots of photos quickly – Hold down on a photo and then drag your finger diagonally in Photos to select lots of images at once, then hit delete
Convert currency quickly – Swipe down from the top of your Home screen (or swipe left to right on an iPhone X or later model), then tap in the bar and type a currency (like $200) and it will automatically covert to your local currency
Check if you're due a battery upgrade – Batteries inside smartphones degrade over time. Just go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health, and check out the Maximum Capacity reading. Generally a battery is considered worn when you're down to 80% capacity. If you're below, you can buy a battery swap from Apple
Move apps around faster – Hold an app until it starts wiggling, then (while still holding) tap other apps, causing them to stack so you can move them around easier