Ask Adrian: Fixing an iPhone frozen in magnify mode and how much to spend on a laptop for school

Our technology editor answers your trickiest tech problems

What to do when your iPhone screen is stuck in zoom mode

What to do when your iPhone screen is stuck in zoom mode

Apple MacBook Air M2

Garmin Edge 1040 Solar

What to do when your iPhone screen is stuck in zoom mode

Adrian Weckler Twitter Email

June 11 2022 02:30 AM

Question My iPhone seems to have a bug where the screen becomes magnified and I can’t access controls to get out of it. I couldn’t find an answer and couldn’t even turn it off as the magnified screen wouldn’t let me swipe the screen fully. I had to let my phone run out of battery to get it back to normal. Is there some solution to this? — Peadar Keaney Answer This is an annoying problem that usually comes from your hand touching off the iPhone when it’s in your pocket. Even when it’s in locked mode, you can mistakenly magnify the screen to the point where it’s actually unusable.

There are two ways to fix it. The quickest and most direct way is to tap three fingers on the iPhone’s screen (when it’s lit up) three times in succession. This is the shortcut for getting to screen-magnifying controls in the first place, although many people don’t know this. You should now see a menu that includes the option to “zoom out”, which should solve your problem. If for some reason this process doesn’t work for you, or you get stuck, there is a fallback method to reboot your phone that will work for this — and other — scenarios.

Press each of the volume buttons once and then keep the power button pressed down for a few seconds. The screen should go black and then the phone should reset itself. When it does this, the magnifying effect is gone.

Question
I need to get a laptop for my daughter for school, but have the usual problem of not knowing whether a basic model will do or whether to treat it as an investment. How much should I be spending?
— Rosemary Geraghty
Answer
In general, you won’t get a decent laptop for under €600 or €700. The ultra-budget models do work, but they compromise a lot on things like power and speed to the extent that they may be slow and prone to freezing a bit in two or three years.

A general rule of thumb on this score is that for an ordinary machine to do ordinary daily tasks, you should have a bare minimum of 8GB of Ram and a processor that is a minimum of Intel i3 or AMD Ryzen 3. Storage doesn’t matter quite as much, with most models now offering 256GB or more.

Question
I’m going back to an office job part-time after many years as a carer and will need Microsoft Word, Excel and maybe Powerpoint. I’ve been out of the ‘workplace’ for several years and have lost touch with how to get these services in an era with no software CDs.
Is there any way to get them free, or what can I do?
— Margaret Daly
Answer
You can get them free if you don’t mind significantly reduced functionality and the requirement to only use it online at office.com through your web browser. One downside to this is that you can only save documents online through Microsoft’s OneDrive, which is free for 5GB of space, but then costs from €2 a month. If you want a more flexible option to get Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, you’ll either need to pay its subscription (€7 a month or €69 a year) or buy a one-off forever version for €299.
As for free, non-Microsoft alternatives, they’re available but are mixed in terms of their effectiveness.

WPS Office is somewhat prominent, while LibreOffice has been going for a while. Neither could exactly be called ‘much used’, even though they do synchronise with Microsoft Office applications.
Google Docs is actually the most popular alternative. Given that you’ve already said that’s not what you want because of your preference for, and experience of, Microsoft Office itself, you may find that there’s limited scope to avoid paying that subscription.

Email questions to aweckler@independent.ie

Tech two reviews

Apple MacBook Air M2
€1,529

Apple MacBook Air M2

Apple has a redesigned MacBook Air with a new powerful chip (its own M2) and some improvements to the screen. The only downside is the price — it’s a full €300 more than the previous MacBook Air model, which is still on sale and looks like a better-value deal for a first-time or student laptop.

Garmin Edge 1040 Solar
€749

Garmin Edge 1040 Solar

Solar gadgets are everywhere now. Among them is Garmin’s latest bike computer, the Edge 1040 Solar, can go up to 100 hours between charges. It’s a fairly niche gadget that is designed to help racing cyclists to plan and prepare for their next event. But it’s a sign of the way things are going with solar energy.

Ask Adrian: Fixing an iPhone frozen in magnify mode and how much to spend on a laptop for school

Tech two reviews

7 Things: Adrian Weckler on Tech

Read More

Most Watched

JP McManus Pro-Am: Jamie Dornan and Niall Horan excited to play a round with Bill Murray

Man faints while reuniting with his mother for the first time in one-and-a-half years in West Cork

Roadside Formula One footage captures shocking crash

Chilling footage shows man with gun at scene of Copenhagen mall shooting in Denmark

Bodycam footage released after officers shoot black man 60 times in US

Latest Technology

Most Read

Latest