The fine print can be read on your smartphone
It’s no secret — we are all getting older.
The last time I wrote about this, I said to read the small print on your USB charging device and check how much power it can deliver.
The photo I took of the tiny print on a charging cable brought me a few emails complaining that they couldn’t read it in different places.
In our living room, my wife always keeps a magnifying lens within easy reach of her chair. She even has a “traveling” magnifying glass for when we go out of town.
To be fair, she’s having cataract surgery next month.
Did you realize that your iPhone includes a magnifying application? It’s called the Magnifier and you can search your phone for it.
My phone has been set up so it will launch the Magnifier app when I triple click the sleep/wake key. You can set that up by going to Settings, opening the Accessibility page and scrolling down to the bottom to “Accessibility Shortcut.” Scroll down that list and choose “Magnifier” from the list.
Magnifier launches when you click three times on the side button.
What’s so different about the Magnifier app that makes it better than just snapping a photo and pinching it to zoom in?
It’s a snapshot, but you can think of it like a frozen frame. You can snap the picture, but the phone doesn’t automatically save it to your camera roll. Chances are you just want to read some text and you don’t need to save the photo. If you want to save an image, simply touch the share icon at the upper right corner and select to save it.
There is also a slider for changing the contrast. This is especially helpful when reading gray text on a white backdrop (like the power supply on Apple products).
Magnifier can also be used to change exposure (brightening/darkening of the image as a whole) or turn on and off the flash.
Android users don’t have a built-in Magnifier app, but the Google Play store has plenty of options.
You will see ads on the free apps and they may only allow you to take photos, zoom in and save them to your camera. You will have to pay a little money to get advanced features, such as ad-free browsing and advanced zooming.
I read a few app comparison sites that list “Magnifying Glass + Flashlight” as a good one that only costs $1.99 to unlock a permanent ad-free version.
Jim Rossman writes a column on technology for Tribune News Service. He may be reached at [email protected].