Tech tricks you might’ve missed

A random assortment of cool tech tricks

Plus: An Apple account disaster, improved Apple Watch search, and big savings on refurbished tech

Jared Newman   |   December 16, 2025

Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, a longtime tech journalist, and you’re reading the free edition of Advisorator, my weekly tech advice newsletter. Did someone share this newsletter with you? Sign up to get it every Tuesday.

This week for Advisorator’s paying members, I’m clearing out all the neat tech tricks I’ve been meaning to write about, some new, others not as new, including:

  • A quick way to see if a text message is a scam
  • How to turn iPhone reminders into alarms so you don’t miss them
  • One-handed smartwatch controls
  • Live translation through earbuds
  • Free ways to better on Zoom calls (for Mac and Windows)

In case you missed it last week, I also put together a big guide to stopping spam. You can read that, along with this week’s feature story, by becoming an Advisorator member. Get started for as little as $5 →

News in brief

An Apple account disaster: The big promise of being deep into Apple’s ecosystem is that it makes everything simpler. Store your photos, files, notes, email, contacts, and even passwords with Apple, and it all just works on your Apple devices without any third-party apps or services to manage.

A post last week by software developer Paris Buttfield-Addison highlights the problem with putting all your eggs in Apple’s basket: After he redeemed an Apple gift card that was somehow compromised despite coming from a major retailer, Apple permanently locked and closed Buttfield-Addison’s account. Apple’s support representatives won’t provide an explanation, nor will they escalate the issue. Absent some executive intervention in response to bad press, he stands to lose decades of photos and files, thousands of dollars in purchased apps and media, and some basic functionality across all his Apple devices.

I’m not blaming the victim here. The problem is that Apple and other tech giants have much to gain by positioning themselves as the ultimate gatekeepers of our digital lives, yet they’re too big to help on an individual level when their systems inevitably fail.

Still, I hope this story at least helps explain why I write about things like reducing my dependence on Google, staying flexible enough to move between ecosystems, owning my email address, and using tech services that are smaller and more sustainable.

Other notable reads:

Try these apps

Highlight your active Mac window: Because MacOS keeps reducing the amount of contrast between windows, Tyler Hall made an app that paints a border around the foreground window in the color and thickness of your choosing. It’s called Alan— presumably named after Alan Dye, the interface design head who just left Apple—and you can download it for free. Just grab the “Alan.zip” file and move it into your Applications folder.

Improved Apple Watch search: Chirp bills itself as bringing AI answers to your Apple Watch, but what I most appreciate is how it puts actual web search results right on your wrist, which Siri doesn’t do. Ask for the latest news or nearby restaurants, for instance, and you’ll see a link to a little search result page, and you can even tap on the links. It’s free for up to seven queries per day, after which there’s a $3 per month subscription. (Via both Rich DeMuro and Hiro.)

Symbol lookup site: Here’s my latest writeup for the Cool Tools newsletter, where I covered Symbol.wtf, a handy site for looking up all the odd symbols that aren’t on your keyboard, like these: © π →. Read the full story for how I’ve managed to remember the site’s name, plus a bonus tool for looking up emoji.

Spend wisely

eBay is taking 20% off an assortment of refurbished tech gear, including some nice discounts on unlocked iPhones.

Unless otherwise specified, all eBay deals that I’ll list below are refurbished and billed as “Excellent” condition, and include a one-year warranty. You must use the coupon code HOLIDAYRUSH to see the discount. Here are the highlights:

  • iPhone 15 for $378, iPhone 15 Pro Max for $590, iPhone 16 for $550, iPhone 16 Pro for $653.
  • Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 for $36 in “Very Good” condition.
  • 2020 M1 MacBook Air for $334.
  • Acer 27-inch 4K gaming monitor (1000 nit brightness, 160 Hz refresh rate) for $232.
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE 11-inch tablet for $160, no S Pen.
  • Sony WH-1000XM5 noise-cancelling headphones for $198 in black or silver.
  • Bose QuiteComfort Noise Cancelling Headphones for $159.

Again, make sure to use the code HOLIDAYRUSH to get the prices listed above.

A few other stray deals not on eBay:

  • Baseus 67W USB-C charger with a 2.6-foot retractable cable for $20 with code TKP4CVDL..
  • Apple Watch Series 11 drops even lower with Best Buy’s open-box deals, starting at $289 in like-new condition.
  • Or grab a 46mm Series 10 in black for $216 open-box.

Think about an Advisorator membership!

You’ll get more in-depth advice than what’s in the free edition and will learn about things like stopping spam, becoming less Google dependent, and how to pick a better phone plan. As I am fond of saying, it’s cheaper than the cost of precisely one beer per month in a medium-sized city.

Thanks for reading! Catch you next week.

Until then,
Jared

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