8/13/2024: Remote camera trigger tricks

Tip of the week: Remote camera trigger tricks

Plus: Solving my clipboard history headaches đź”’, and why not to pay for people search removal

Jared Newman   |   August 13, 2024

Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, a veteran tech journalist, and this is the free edition of Advisorator, my weekly tech advice newsletter. If someone shared this newsletter with you, consider signing up to get it every Tuesday. Thanks for reading!

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Want to take a photo of yourself from far away? Assuming you’ve got a safe spot to prop up your phone, use these methods to trigger the shutter:

  • Use a timer: Pretty much every phone has a shutter timer function, usually indicated by a timer icon. (To find it on the iPhone, for instance, tap the up arrow near the top of the screen, then scroll right on the bottom control pane.)
  • Use your smartwatch: Start the timer from your watch using the Camera Remote app on an Apple Watch or the Camera app on Wear OS watches.
  • Use your voice: On Android phones, say “Hey Google, take a photo,” or “Hey Google, take a selfie.” On Samsung phones, you can also say “Cheese,” “Capture,” “Smile,” or “Shoot” while the camera is open. (You may need to enable this first by tapping the gear icon and heading to Shooting Methods > Voice Commands.)
  • Use your palm: On Pixel phones, hold your palm up to the camera to start the shutter timer. (By default, this only works when timer mode is enabled. You can set it to work at all times tapping the gear icon and changing the “Palm Timer” setting.)
  • Using the iOS 18 beta? You can use Vocal Actions to set up a voice-activated camera trigger. Just assign a phrase like “Say Cheese” to the volume up button.

How I solved my clipboard history headaches

Here is a scenario I run into often:

  • I copy a link, image, or snippet of text.
  • I copy another link, image, or snippet of text, overwriting the previous clipboard item.
  • I now realize that I need to paste the original item, so I waste a bunch of time finding and copying it all over again.

On my Windows PCs, this is never a problem. Using Microsoft’s built-in clipboard history tool, you can easily retrieve a list of previously-copied items by pressing Win+V, then select the one you want to paste. This feature has saved my bacon on numerous occasions—especially when I’ve already closed or deleted the item in question—yet for reasons I can’t fathom, it’s not a standard feature on every operating system.

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News in brief

Don’t pay for people search removal: I love this new study from Consumer Reports on wiping your phone number, address, and other personal data from people search sites such as ClustrMaps and PeopleFinders. While some companies such as Optery and DeleteMe charge upwards of $100 per year to take data down on your behalf, they’re apparently less effective than just manually requesting the takedowns yourself. (EasyOptOuts, by far the least expensive option at $20 per year, was the most effective in Consumer Reports’ testing, but still couldn’t match the manual route.)

If you want to get your data removed from people search sites and aren’t sure where to start, I wrote a newsletter on that topic for paid subscribers last year.

Google’s smart speaker plans: Google says it’s sticking with Google Assistant as its voice agent on smart speakers for now, even as it pushes Gemini as its answer to ChatGPT on phones. Starting next year, you might see some Gemini-powered features—for instance, you’ll be able to ask for help creating smart home routines, or get more conversational answers to certain questions—but no drastic overhaul is forthcoming.

That’s a relief, as my experience with Gemini on Android is that it’s considerably worse than Assistant at getting things done. Meanwhile, Amazon’s pushing ahead with a generative AI version of Alexa, for which it reportedly hopes you’ll pay up to $10 per month. Good luck with that.

Other news tidbits:

Try this app

Apple Pencil camera trigger: What got me thinking about this week’s tip is a new iPad app called Pencilera, which lets you trigger the camera on an iPad with either a double-tap on the Apple Pencil 2 or a squeeze on the Apple Pencil Pro. Consult my Apple Pencil Decision Flowchart to see which iPads work with which Pencil models. Pencilera is free with optional donations.

Spend wisely

Newman’s Third Law of Cables states that you can never have too many 3.5mm audio cables. Even in the age of Bluetooth audio, audio cables can come in handy for computer speakers, wired headphones, vintage speakers, and assorted DIY projects.

Anyway, here’s a 12-foot 3.5mm-to-3.5mm cable for $1.19 with free shipping for Prime members.

In other deal news, Windows laptops with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X are already dropping in price:

Not sure what to look for in a laptop? Consult my recently-published guide.

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Thanks for reading!

After last week’s column about uBlock Origin, we had a spirited discussion in the Advisorator chat room about the ethics of using an ad blocker. In particular, Matthew Keys of The Desk raised concerns about how using an ad blocker can deprive independent journalists (himself included) of revenue.

I appreciate that Matthew brought this up, and after some reflection, I wrote down some thoughts that he encouraged me to share, and which I published over at the Advisorator website.

Got tech questions for me? Just reply to this email to get in touch.

Until next week,
Jared