Latest news with #digitalclutter
Fox News
2 days ago
- Fox News
5 smart settings to make your phone work harder
Sometimes it feels like our phones take up more of our time than they save. Between constant notifications, repetitive tasks and digital clutter, it's easy to forget they're supposed to make life easier. But with a few simple setting tweaks, your phone can actually help you stay organized, reduce distractions and save time. These built-in tools don't require any extra apps or subscriptions, and once you set them up, they work quietly in the background so you don't have to. If you're constantly typing your email address, home address or the same greeting, you can save time by using built-in text shortcuts. On iPhone: On Android: Settings may vary depending on your Android phone's manufacturer. A few of the shortcuts I use include "@@" for my email, "adr" for my address and "gm" for a quick "Good morning!" but I've also put together a full guide of my most useful keyboard shortcuts here. Instead of turning off notifications manually, let your phone do it for you based on a schedule or even your physical location. On iPhone: For example, when you click Work, you can allow notifications from key apps like Outlook or Slack and silence the rest. You can also allow for notifications from important people, like your co-workers and family members. When you click Add a Schedule, you'll be able to customize a Time for your phone to know exactly when to turn Work mode on and off. Or, if you work odd hours, you can even set up Location, so when you arrive to work, your phone does, too. On Android: Settings may vary depending on your Android phone's manufacturer. This feature helps reduce distractions while working, sleeping or commuting without needing to remember to toggle it on. Rather than setting reminders for a specific time, you can have them appear when you arrive or leave a location. This can be useful for reminders like "Pick up eggs" when you arrive at the store or "Bring laptop" when you leave home. On iPhone: On Android: Settings may vary depending on your Android phone's manufacturer. Now, your phone works like a virtual assistant, reminding you of your tasks when you need them most. Instead of scrolling back through months or years of messages to clean up, you can set your phone to delete them automatically. On iPhone: On Android: Settings may vary depending on your Android phone's manufacturer. This keeps your device from getting bogged down with old group chats or spam texts. Make sure your apps stay up to date with the latest features and security fixes without needing to check manually. On iPhone: On Android: Settings may vary depending on your Android phone's manufacturer. Turning on auto-updates saves you time and helps keep your phone running smoothly and securely. These five small automations can make a big difference in how you use your phone. Setting up text shortcuts helps you type faster. Scheduling Do Not Disturb cuts down on unwanted distractions. Location-based reminders take the mental load off your to-do list. Auto-deleting old messages keeps things tidy. And auto-updating apps ensures you always have the latest improvements without lifting a finger. Got a tip you'd like to share and/or what other everyday tech challenges would you like help solving? Let us know by writing us at For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Follow Kurt on his social channels: Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions: New from Kurt: Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
CNET
09-05-2025
- CNET
Have You Updated to iOS 18? Make Sure to Clear Your Cache
Spring has arrived, which means you may have been spending the last few weeks tidying up your space with some spring cleaning. Along with your physical space, be sure to include your iPhone as you brush off the dust from winter. Your iPhone might not look like it needs any decluttering, but that's deceptive. Your browser collects data from every website you visit to ensure a quicker loading time the next time you visit it. However, that preloaded data can muck up the works over time, especially if a site moves around elements on their page or swaps out to new images. Clearing your phone's browser cache will slow down your next visit to any individual website because it no longer has that site's data preloaded, but it also clears out the digital clutter. Just like physical cleaning, it means putting a little effort up front to make things neater going forward. Whether you use Chrome, Safari or other browsers on your iPhone, it's good to clear your iPhone's browser caches every month or two. Yes, even if you're rocking the new iPhone 16E and running iOS 18. (If you want to get your phone to run faster, try managing your iPhone's storage.) Clearing your cache usually involves clearing website cookies, too. Cookies work similarly to browser caches, except they store information about user data, rather than data on the website itself. Clearing your cookies gives you a chance to reset those preferences, which could improve your browsing experience. Note that clearing your cache and cookies will log you out of sites, which means you'll have to log into them again and reset any preferences. The upfront investment of that time can lead to a smoother experience down the road, and it can be a useful fix if you've recently changed settings that aren't being applied properly. Here are step-by-step guides on how to clear your cache on your iPhone based on the browser you use. Make Your iPhone Faster by Clearing the Cache Make Your iPhone Faster by Clearing the Cache Click to unmute Video Player is loading. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Next playlist item Unmute Current Time 0:02 / Duration 5:02 Loaded : 11.88% 0:01 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 5:00 Share Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Close Modal Dialog This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. Close Modal Dialog This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. Make Your iPhone Faster by Clearing the Cache How to clear your iPhone cache in Safari Safari is the default browser on iPhones, and you can clear your Safari cache in a few short steps. Starting with iOS 11, following this process will affect all devices signed in to your iCloud account. As a result, all your devices' caches will be cleared, and you'll need to sign in to everything the next time you use them. Here's what to do. 1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone. 2. Select Apps > Safari. 3. Scroll down to History and Website Data and choose Clear History and Website Data. 4. Choose Clear History and Data in the pop-up box -- you can chose anywhere from the last hour to all history. Then you're set! How to clear your iPhone cache in Chrome It's easy to clear your iPhone cache in Chrome. James Martin/CNET Chrome is another popular browser for iPhone users. Google has simplified the process for clearing your Chrome cache, making it much faster to clear your data. 1. Open the Chrome app. 2. Select the three dots in the bottom right to open more options. 3. Swipe over to Settings in the top menu bar. 4. Scroll down and tap Privacy and security. 5. Tap Delete browsing data to open up another menu. Select the intended time range at the top of the menu (anywhere from Last 15 minutes to All time). Make sure that Cookies and Site Data are checked, along with Cached Images and Files. Finally, hit Delete data at the bottom of the screen. How to clear your iPhone cache in Firefox If you're a Firefox devotee, don't worry. Clearing the cache on your iPhone is straightforward. Just follow these steps. 1. Press the hamburger menu in the bottom right corner to open up options. 2. Choose Settings at the bottom of the menu. 3. Select Data Management in the Privacy section. 4. To clear everything, choose Web Site Data at the top of the menu and then Clear All Web Site Data. Alternatively, you can choose to clear just your browsing history, cache, cookies, offline web data, tracking protection or offline files. What happens when you clear the cache? Clearing your cache removes the website data your phone stored locally to prevent having to download that data upon each new visit. The data in your cache builds over time and can end up being an issue if that data winds up out of date. (My phone had about 150MB of data stored in Chrome when I checked.) Clearing that data gives sites a fresh start, which may fix some loading errors. But clearing your cache also signs you out of pages, so be prepared to sign in to everything again. How often do I need to clear my cache? Most people only need to clear their caches once every month or two. That's generally the point when your browser will build up a cache large enough to start slowing things down. If you frequent a large number of sites, you should err on the side of clearing your cache more often.
