From The Tips Box: Automatic GPS Toggles, Organised Downloads, Hot Showers

Readers offer their best tips for toggling GPS before you navigate, organising your downloads with Windows Libraries, and getting your shower temperature just right.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or send it using the contact tab on the right.

Use Tasker To Toggle GPS Before You Navigate

Unionhawk comes up with a great use for Tasker:

Tired of opening your navigation app and not having GPS turned on? I just came up with a Tasker task that fixes this. What it does is it checks to see if GPS is on. If it is, then all it does is open the navigation app. If it isn’t on, it opens location settings and waits until it is on, before opening the navigation app. Here’s what it contains:

Launch Navigation

A1: Location Settings If [ %GPS !~ On ]

A2: Wait Until [ MS:0 Seconds:5 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] If [ %GPS ~ On ]

A3: Load App [ App:Navigation Data: Exclude From Recent Apps:Off ]

The time in the “Wait Until” is the time between checks. It really doesn’t matter that much in this case. I just picked 5.

See our guides to Tasker for more information on automating functions on your Android phone.

Use Windows Libraries To Organise Downloaded Files

Geekgirlbarbie keeps her files neat and organised:

Between my regular downloads folder, my normal “save all documents until I decide where they belong folder”, and miscellaneous folders that I have this automatically saved to (Ifftt — >Dropbox, automatic downloads), going through on a weekly basis to decide to what to keep and what to get rid of was becoming a pain in the arse.

So, I created a new Windows library called “Dumping Ground” and included all of the aforementioned folders.

Now when it’s time to go through and determine what to keep, I just open up that library and all the folders I need to go through are right there with one click.

Use Tape To Mark Your Optimal Shower Temperature

James Sinclair shares a tip for finicky showers:

I have one of those showers with separate knobs for hot and cold water. It’s very sensitive to slight turns of the knobs, but also slow to react, which is of course an extremely frustrating combination.

So, one day, I adjusted the water until the temperature was about right, and then put a narrow strip of duct tape along the top of the cold water knob (as seen in the picture). Now, all we have to do is turn the hot water knob all the way and turn the cold water knob until the strip of tape is on top, which saves who-knows-how-much time, water and mental energy.

Use Paper Clips To Hang Spare Glasses

Kyle keeps his glasses up and out of the way:

Thought I’d share a housekeeping tip I came up with over the holidays. To keep 3D glasses (passive LGs in my case) out of view/the way, I took some paperclips then bent them into a S shape creating hooks. One end goes into the vent holes on the back of the TV and the other can be used to hang the glasses on. Really simple but I thought it might help some of the readers out.