A friend who took a mountain of photos in the last century (1950s-90s) recently asked me how to get all his old analog photos digitized, cataloged, online, and printed. Here is what I told him: I get all my old stuff (slides, negatives, prints) scanned at ScanCafe because the price is right. They have the cheapest yet most reliable scanning service. I box them up quickly and sort them after they are scanned. The files are returned on a DVD or a thumb drive. But you need time, several months, since they send them overseas (with incredible care and safety). For faster service, when needed, I use Costco. They scan at 600 dpi which is more than enough for most purposes. Costco is fast, but they don’t scan negatives any more. Only slides and prints. And they save to DVD, but not everyone has a DVD reader these days. If you need mild retouching on the old photos, Wirecutter makes some good recommendations of scanners who retouch. To manage and organize all my scanned photo files I use Lightroom. It’s standard issue for any serious photographer; I couldn’t work without it. (I currently have 230,000 photos in Lightroom.) Its image processing interface is better than Photoshop 99% of the time. You don’t need the subscription cloud version; the standalone version of Lightroom is still available and fine. — KK

My recent discovery is that I can use my iPhone keyboard as a mouse to scroll through text and place my cursor exactly where I want it. All you have to do is hard press the keyboard. This makes editing text on an iPhone a million times less frustrating. — CD

I use the Marco Polo Video Walkie Talkie app (iOS, Android) to keep in touch with my family who all live far away. I’m in a “group” with my mom, 2 siblings, and 2 nieces. Even though we live in different time zones we can all carry on a coherent conversation and be more connected. I like that I don’t have to worry about videos expiring, and when I check in at night the videos I missed load automatically so it plays like a mini-movie of what my family did throughout the day. I also think it’s much easier for kids to use than Snapchat. My 6-year-old niece is a pro at using filters to make creative video messages that always crack me up. — CD

Google Keep on iPhone (Free) makes it painless for me and my Android partner to stay synced-up on shopping lists and reminders. — CD

Here’s a tip for zooming on smartphone maps. Instead of pinching to zoom, tap the screen twice, but leave your finger on the screen on the second tap. Then slide your finger up or down to zoom in or out. — MF

My two-year-old iPhone 6 Plus wasn’t holding a charge as well as it used to. I ordered the iFixIt battery replacement kit for $25, which includes necessary tools, and excellent step-by-step instructions (video and PDF). It took less than 30 minutes, and I enjoyed looking at the inside of my iPhone. — MF

Daily App Advice shows you which paid apps are currently being given away for free in the iTunes App Store. I’ve found many useful free utilities and games here that usually cost between $1 and $10. — MF

Somehow I merged Google contacts from both my work and my personal email with my iPhone contacts and I couldn’t figure out an easy way to bulk delete. This article outlines how to delete multiple contacts at one time using Groups. The app is a little clunky, but it was free, and an added bonus was I was able to also merge duplicates pretty easily. — CD

We got our teenage daughter a LuMee iPhone case. It has LEDs embedded in the perimeter to illuminate your face when you take a selfie. She loves it and the photos really are a lot better looking. — MF

I’ve been dropping my iPhone a lot lately — enough to make me really grateful for my Spigen protective case. It’s slim enough to not feel bulky, and the lip on the front of the case has protected my screen from cracking on 30+ clumsy occasions. The kickstand feature is my favorite. — CD

Our house phone sounds awful and we get poor cell phone connectivity at home. But we have wifi and I’ve started using FaceTime Audio as much as possible to make phone calls. It works on any Apple hardware and the sound quality is crystal clear, even when using cellular data. — MF

Most carriers lock your subsidized phone so you can’t use a 3rd party SIM card with it. This is inconvenient if you want to buy a cheap SIM card in a foreign country. AT&T says they will unlock your phone, but only under certain conditions. I’ve tried before and it’s a waste of time. I gave up and used HangUnlock. It cost $2 and took less than a day. — MF

I’m still waiting for the ideal phone carrier who will let me use my phone anywhere in the world without thinking. True global coverage at reasonable rates. In the meantime I buy sim cards when I am outside of North America. They are cheap and useful. Downside is my phone has a new number. My solution: I put the foreign sim in a second phone, an older phone I no longer use. (We all seem to have one of those. If you don’t a friend will.) That way, my primary phone number still works on wifi in hotels and cafes, but I get full roaming capabilities such as Google maps, web searches, or texting locally on the other phone as I need them. — KK

When texting, at the end of a sentence hit the space bar twice and it will easily put a period in the right place. — KK

For many years, I paid $275 a month for an AT&T mobile phone plan (for a family of four iPhone users). Then I switched to T-Mobile. It’s $175 a month, we get unlimited data, and best of all, international data is free. It’s great to travel to another country and freely use the internet (for maps, reviews, texts, Instagram, etc). Phone calls are also free in Mexico and Canada, and other international calls are usually $0.20 a minute. — MF

If you use 2-factor authentication that sends a text message to your phone to get a code, beware of the port-out scam. This happens when a bad person impersonates you and tricks your phone company into issuing them your phone number. You can prevent this by calling your carrier (dial 611) from your phone and telling them to add a security PIN to your account. Anyone who tries to access your account will be asked for the PIN. Read more about port-out scamming here. — MF

For the past 2 years I’ve been using the free Nomorobo service to stop spam calls on my landlines, and it works fantastically. A few months ago I started using the paid Nomorobo app on my phone, and suddenly all those dumb spam calls have ceased. There are a number of phone spam eliminator apps, but Nomorobo is one that does not scarf up your friends’ phone numbers in order to make its white list. — KK

EBR (Electric Bike Review) is the best place to go if you are thinking of getting an electric bike. One guy, Court Rye, has personally reviewed in depth over 800 ebikes. He has seen and ridden them all, and his knowledge about them is encyclopedic. His reviews are in text and video. These days you can find an e-version of almost any type of bike made, from e-cruisers, electric mountain bikes, folding e-bikes, city riders, cargo bikes and so on. This site will help you sort through them. It respects your attention with minimum of selling and maximum helpfulness. — KK

I upgraded my old Fire Stick media streamer to the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote ($40). Navigating to a show is as simple as pressing the talk button and saying “Play Dreams of Sushi.” It will search all your subscribed media services (Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon Prime) and instantly return what you want. You can also say, “Order Dominos Pizza.” What more could you ask for? — MF

When I make videos where I need to talk to the camera (the audience) I can’t remember what I need to say, so I use this affordable teleprompter. Teleprompters project my visible text on an angled glass that the camera is shooting through. Normally this is a very expensive very cumbersome rig, but the Parrot Teleprompter uses a cheap plastic case, glass mirror, and a selection of lens rings to fit on to many digital cameras. It cleverly uses your smart phone as the screen. For about $100 I got a perfectly useful compact teleprompter mounted on my tripod that worked exactly as I needed. I can deliver my lines easily while directly gazing at the viewers and it looks very natural. — KK