From The Tips Box: Screen Protection, AirPlay Issues

Readers offer their best tips for protecting gadget screens, fixing broken mice and AirPlay issues on iOS.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons — maybe they’re a bit too niche, maybe we couldn’t find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn’t fit it in — the tip didn’t make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Email it to tips at lifehacker.com.au.

Stick a Rubber Band On Your Gadgets for Easy, Quick Screen Protection

Michael shares a quick tip for avoiding bumps and scratches:

This might seem dumb, but it works for me.

if you own a Touchscreen Tablet, and are without a case, or maybe you just like the feeling of it naked; You can still easily add some sort of cheap protection. Just wrap a rubber band vertically on each side of the tablet (left and right), making sure to not interfere with the touch screen. This will prevent the face and backing of the tablet from touching any flat surfaces you may place it on. The rubber on each side act as a buffer between the tablet and the surface area, giving it minimal cushion.

If you have a black frame around the tablet, use black rubber bands so it doesn’t look so ugly.

I use a full fledged case when leaving the house, but when inside, I ditch the case and use this method.

Restart iOS Devices to Fix AirPlay Flakiness

Tobias tells us one way to fix AirPlay issues in iOS:

I love playing music from my iPod and iPad to my AirPort Express, but sometimes the little AirPlay icon doesn’t show up, and there seems to be no particular reason it flakes out. I found that if I power off the device completely and restart it, it’ll usually show back up. Apple has a list of troubleshooting tips, but none of them worked for me — my device was connected to the right network, etc. but it just wouldn’t show up. This usually fixes it.

Fix a Broken Mouse Button with a Small Piece of Tape

Patrick shows us how to fix a mouse that performs a double click even when you only click once:

This bug happens when a mouse is constantly used. Instead of a single click it performs a double click.

That’s because the inner mouse button (The electrical part) and the outer button don’t have a perfect contact after a number of years. It’s not a vendor specific problem, I’ve seen both Roccat and Logitech mice affected. You can fix it with some tape or address label. Check out the video above to see how.