Change These Default Settings and Be Happier With Your Tech - The New York Times

Many default settings buried deep inside our technology make us share superfluous amounts of data with tech companies.

Many modern televisions come with an effect known as motion smoothing turned on to make videos look as if they are playing at a higher frame rate, which is supposed to make fast-motion scenes look more detailed.

Our consumer electronics are among our most expensive household purchases, so it’s worthwhile to peruse and change the default settings to reap their maximum benefits.

Apple’s iPhones include various settings that are turned off by default and must be activated to make the device more convenient to use and to take better photos.

To make an iPhone camera shoot video at its highest resolution, go to Settings → Camera → Record Video and choose a 4K option.

The iPhone camera has a setting to show a grid to help compose shots.

Go to Settings → Camera → Grid and toggle this setting on.

Android phones also include controls that have to be activated or modified to make the screen look better and the phone easier to use.

Many Android phones come with big, bright screens, but their colors may look oversaturated or too blue.

For Samsung phones, go to Settings → Display → Screen mode → Natural.

For Pixel phones, go to Settings → Display → Colors → Natural.

On Android phones, you can customize the “quick settings” menu for shortcuts to features that you use often.

Similar to iPhones, some Android phones can also show a grid to make photo composition easier.

On Pixel phones, open the camera app, swipe down from the top of the screen, tap the gear icon and then go to Grid type → 3x3.

Like Macs, Windows computers, by default, blast us with lots of notifications, but most frustrating are the many bleeps and bloops that go off when something goes wrong.