Samsung Email app controls light and dark mode

I found this little neat trick on my Samsung S7 phone. The Samsung Email app is controlling the phone's setting for light/dark mode. There is probably a setting for those on One UI with Android Pie or greater. But this is probably one way to set dark mode for older Samsung phones still on Android Oreo and below without installing additional apps.

After launching the app, tap menu on the top left then the gear button at the top of the menu. Tap "Display style" then choose "Always dark". 

This will force all other Samsung apps to go into dark mode. It will also affect every other app that uses Launch Screen for its loading splash screen such as the Google Play store, Maps and Drive apps.

Do this before swapping out to new router

For Windows, go to command prompt and type in

ipconfig /release *

Read free SPH newspapers via NLB (Circuit Breaker Period)

Update: SPH fixed the issue by loading the correct newspaper viewer for desktop browser.

National Library Board (NLB) is providing free access to SPH newspapers during this circuit period when all libraries are closed, an NLB myLibrary ID account is required. The Straits Times epaper site it uses to display the full broadsheet pages does not work properly for desktop. You can double click to zoom in and out, and swipe (click and drag on mouse) to flip page. It only has one level zoom and pages can't be panned while zoomed which becomes tedious to view the papers. However there is a way around this. ST's own subscribers actually have a better viewer which actually can be accessed after logging into NLB.

1. In your browser, go to NLB ST Newspaper page, log into NLB.
2. Click on "The Straits Times" newspaper. This will open a new page to https://stepaper.straitstimes.com/jr/m/jc.api.m.php
3. Go to address bar and delete away every character except the top domain address, http://stepaper.straitstimes.com/. Hit enter to load page.

After loading the subscriber ST epaper, you can see a page navigation bar at the top of the screen with controls that help to navigate pages. You can also pan when zoomed-in and while zoomed-in there is a slider at the top to control zoom levels.

Navigation bar displayed at top

Recommended ad free QR code scanning apps for Android phones

This is my list of recommended QR code scanners:

Based off the QR code engine from Denso Wave, inventors of QR code. No ads.
QRQR app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arara.q

From the ZXing dev team of the popular open source barcode decoder used by majority of QRcode apps. No ads, open sourced.
Barcode scanner:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxing.client.android

From member of ZXing, enhanced version of original barcode scanner app. No ads.
Barcode Scanner+ (Plus/Simple)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.srowen.bs.android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.srowen.bs.android.simple

Alternatively, most Android phones that include Google Assistant can use the Lens feature to scan QR code. It may require a few more taps though.
https://www.howtogeek.com/410037/how-to-scan-qr-codes-on-android/

How to force restart Samsung phone without using screen menu

Nowadays you can only shutdown Samsung phone by holding the power button which brings up a menu with options for shutdown, restart and emergency mode. Without a working screen, there was no way to select from the menu.

I wanted to shutdown a Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro that I had the screen changed but it couldn't display anything. Holding down the power and volume down button until the phone vibrated did the trick.

Restart your device

In the unlikely event that your device becomes unresponsive, you can attempt a force restart. This will turn your device off and back on without affecting any data stored on the device.

How do I force my Galaxy S7 to restart when the screen is frozen?