From The Tips Box: Glasses Hangers, iPad Gestures

Lifehacker readers offer their best tips for storing your spectacles, using gestures on the iPad, and translating words from the Kindle smartphone and tablet app.

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.

Store Glasses with a Adhesive Hook

Yanstaria finds a better way to keep glasses easily accessible:

I wear contact lenses by day, and glasses by night, so I use to leave my glasses on the bathroom counter. This usually meant that they’d end up splattered with water droplets, or gets knocked around by toothpaste. I put a 3M Command adhesive hook on the tile wall, and they hold my glasses there very nicely. This keeps my glasses out of harms way and leaves more room on my bathroom counter.

Replace Your Broken iPad Button with Gestures

Peter discovers another trick for iPads with broken buttons:

I read your guide on what to do when your phone’s buttons stop working, but it didn’t address tablets. My iPad’s button is broken and I use the four- or five-finger pinch to go back to the home screen, and the four- or five-finger swipe up to reveal the multitasking drawer (and the same gesture downwards to hide it). You can also four- or five-finger swipe horizontally to switch between apps.

We’ve mentioned these a few times when they first came out in iOS 5, but this is a good reason to try them out if you haven’t already. Unfortunately, they only work on the iPad 2 and above.

Quickly Translate Words from the Kindle App

Piotr Kowalczyk shares a handy tip for Kindle on iOS, Android and other platforms:

If English is not your primary language, but if you want to read in it as much as you can, you will find this simple tip useful. The trick is really fast and is using the feature to look up reference in Google web search. You can translate words in Kindle app (iOS, Android, other platforms, too), but also in other e-reading applications that offer Google lookup. . .

When you find a word you want to translate, highlight it, and at the bottom of the explanation window, tap on the Google link. . . In the search box add two words that tell Google to find a translation. The phrase is “to Polish”, or “to Italian”, or “to Portuguese”, etc. Please note that it should be stated in English, not in your mother tongue. The other phrase that also does the job is “in Polish”, ”in Italian”, etc. . . Tap on Search button and you’ll see a translation.

Check out Piotr’s full blog post explaining the process.

Turn Beer Boxes Into Rubbish Bins for Easy Party Cleanup

Artem Mischenko shares a tip for the party animals out there:

Having a party? But don’t want to spend the whole next day cleaning!

Set up garbage/recycling cans all over your house (the more people the more cans). Don’t have extra garbage cans..no problem. Use Empty the Beer Boxes with a Grocery Bag as a Liner (most fit perfectly). This trick also works great for garbage cans that are hidden throughout your house, like in your bathroom vanities and under desks.

Check out Artem’s full blog post here.