10 easy hacks to get more out of your devices

You'll still have access to your smartphone screen. Plus, the makeshift stand acts as an amplifier: The audio from your phone bounces off the plastic, making it louder. Even a basic

smartphone stand bought at retail will run you around $8 to $10, so why not try this instead? 8. REPURPOSE YOUR OLD DEVICE Ready to upgrade to a new phone or tablet? Before trading in or,

worse, tossing out the old one, look into free apps that can turn it into a different, and useful, household device. For example: With the Presence app, you can detect someone in your home,

or keep tabs on a pet, using an old tablet or smartphone. Courtesy of Marc Saltzman • With the Universal Remote or SURE app, your previous phone or tablet can serve as a universal remote for

many smart TVs. • Apps like Alarm Clock for Me (for Apple devices) or Easy Rise Alarm Clock (for Android) repurpose an old tablet into an alarm clock for your night table. • The Presence 

app can turn an old iPhone, iPad or Android device into a Wi-Fi surveillance cam. Sign into Presence on your new phone and you can see what's going on at home when you're not there

(including what your pets are up to). 9. TURN YOUR TABLET INTO A SECOND PHONE There are times when you might not want to give out your phone number — for example, when selling something

over Craigslist, entering a contest or going on a first date. (What if they're a creep?) Or maybe you have a basic wireless plan with limited call minutes. For situations like these,

there's TextNow, an app that lets you set up and use a second phone number, for free. Simply load the app on your tablet or a spare phone, select the city you'd like your alter ego

to appear to be from, and choose an available number in that area code. You'll be able to send and receive calls (and texts) for free over Wi-Fi when doing so over a cellular

connection might incur data charges (back when I could travel, I'd use my TextNow-equipped iPad for long-distance calls), or when it would reveal your “real” number to someone or

something you'd rather not share it with. You get familiar features, too, like voicemail, three-way calls and custom ringtones. 10. SEARCH BETTER When looking for information on Google

or another online search engine, use a minus (-) sign to exclude words you don't want searched. This refines the results to filter out stuff you don't need. For example, type

“recipes -meat” to find vegetarian versions of a particular dish, or “best movies -horror” to omit flicks from that genre. Another search trick: Put phrases in quotes to help the search

engine find exactly what you're looking for. Say you're shopping for tie dye masks. You'll get better results searching for “tie dye masks” — without the quotation marks, the

search engine will look for any of those three words, in any order.