How to turn your cell phone into an mp3 player without notifications or distractions

Let’s tell you how to turn your cell phone into an MP3 playerso you can dedicate it solely to playing music without any other distractions. You are going to do this so much with an old cell phone to which you want to give a new life as with a new one when you want to use it only to listen to music. Our mobile phone is the control center of our digital life, and at all times we receive notifications, notices, updates, and the eternal temptation to use it to write messages or browse social networks. But what happens when you want to isolate yourself from the world and have your phone only serve to listen to music and podcasts? In these cases, you may be tempted to simply buy a new device, a media player that is not so connected to everything and only serves that purpose. But before spending money, you should try doing this on your current mobile to see if it is enough. Let’s tell you two ways to limit your mobile to listen to music. One is going to be less aggressive, that of limiting all notifications and interruptions that could take you out of your musical bubble. And the second will be more aggressive, to directly limit your mobile. First decide where you will listen to the music The first choice you have is to decide where you are going to listen to your music. And here you will have many options, both music streaming services and other native alternatives to have greater control over the musical content you have. Here we leave you a list of alternatives which you can opt for: streaming service: Spotify and Apple Music are the most popular music streaming services, with other alternatives like Tidal quite close behind. If you don’t want algorithms, you can opt for Qobuz, which has better music quality, without music inserted as an advertisement, and a clean experience that is like entering a record store, without sacrificing the ability to have playlists. YouTube-based streaming: You also have available free alternatives to Spotifymany of which they use YouTube or other pages as a source. Come on, they create a streaming service with albums and everything, and use YouTube to extract the music from their videos. Create your own Spotify: You also have applications for create your own Spotify. They usually do this by having an application on the computer to turn it into a server, and then be able to play the music over the Internet on other devices. You will need to have your main computer on, although many will allow you to download music. The most popular option is set up your own Spotify with Plexbut there are other interesting alternatives. Have your music on your mobile and use a player: And then you have the more artisanal method. If you have digitized your music to convert your CDs into mp3, purchased digital music directly, or used any other method to build your own music library, you can simply put it in a folder in your phone’s memory and then use a music player. With alternatives like AIMP, Retro Music Player or Pulsar you can have everything: integration with lyrics, covers, tag editor, and everything you need. And finally, you must think If you will listen to the music having an internet connection or not. In the event that you are not going to have a connection, make sure that if you use a service that takes music from the Internet such as Spotify or the alternatives, you download the albums that you are going to want to listen to directly on your mobile. Set a focus mode The least aggressive way to limit your phone to focus on the music listening experience is set up a focus mode. With this, what we are going to do is prevent notifications from appearing or that no application or phone call can bother us while we have our mode active for when we listen to music. If you want to create a concentration mode on Android, you have to go to your mobile settings. Inside, click on the section Modes. Inside here, click on the option Create your own way to make a custom one. On iOS, the option is called Concentration modes. In both cases, you will have to give it a name and an icon. This is up to you, but I suggest it be something recognizable, such as a reference to listening to music and an icon like headphones. Each operating system has its options, but they are quite unified. The most important thing is that make two specific changes on Android or iOS when you are creating this mode: Don’t create a schedule: This is so that the mode is activated automatically at certain times. In this case, I recommend not setting a schedule and using it manually, activating it only when you are going to use it. Turn off notifications: Disable the option Allow all notificationsand don’t allow any app to send you notifications. Perhaps, you can set an exception such as very close family so that if they call you the call will ring, but what are notifications you can deactivate them all, so that you do not receive any notice, and thus you can escape and not look at what is happening. Make very few exceptions: On both Android and iOS you will be able to set an application as an exception so that its notifications appear. You may want to put something like emails, but always try to remove messaging and social media apps, and this way you will avoid the main distractions. There are apps that make your screens minimalist But of course, with all the changes we have made we have altered the behavior of the mobile, but we still have home screens full of app icons and distractions. Fortunately, There are applications to alter your home screen and make it have … Read more

We have our attention so broken that a buoyant industry has emerged: keyboards “without distractions”

In 2024 more than 90,000 books. It is estimated that in the United States the figure was much greater and reached three millionincluding self -published books. Those numbers make something very clear: The world has been filled with writers. Those who write do so in addition to many ways. The traditional typewriter has practically disappeared to give way to the computer, and the versatility of this technological product has made the experience more personal than ever. The blank folio, but on the screen Thus, while some write on the desktop computer, others do it in the laptop, but in that experience they import the details, such as the type of keyboard used – with the popular ones Mechanical keyboardsfor example – or, of course, the application that each one uses to write. The famous case of George Rr Martin with The mythical and very old Wordstar It is almost anecdotal, because there are currently many more modern rivals. Microsoft Word is the obvious option, but the rivals have pressed remarkably in this sector. Thus, a huge amount of applications and services designed for writers have appeared such as Scrivener, Ulysses, iawriter, Manuskripteither Ghostwriter. In many cases one of the foci of these applications was not just to help the writer in areas such as the structure of the novel or the organization of the characters and the plot. They also usually have a mode without distractions, which usually manifest with the digital version of the blank folio: the totally empty interface, without tool or menus bars. Only a cursor flashing and waiting for us. Welcome to keyboards without distractions These software applications are also accompanied by some hardware devices specifically written oriented. They are a modern version of traditional writing machines: products totally thought to do one thing and only one: write. Freewrite Traveler. These “keyboards without distractions“They usually integrate small screens in which the text we are writing is showing, but there is nothing more than we can do with them. They have internet connectivity, but only with the aim of being able to synchronize those texts with the cloud to save them. Nothing of web browsers, no social networks, nothing of (is supposed to) distractions. All of them try to create a” concentration bubble “so that whoever writes is centered exclusively on it. The clear reference in this segment is Freewriteof the Astrohaus company, which manufactures several keyboards without distractions with that proposal. In them we normally have: Internet connectivity Small but sufficient flash memory to store several manuscripts Internal battery Screen: Normally of electronic ink, but also LCD This electronic ink screen of several models makes it more comfortable to have long writing sessions and contributes to the autonomy of the battery being lasting. The most remarkable alternative to Freewrite machines is Pomberaof the Japanese company King Jim, which has launched some of its smodels on collective financing platforms such as Indiegogo. Pomra DM250US It is, of course, devices with a high price for how specific they are. Here it is likely that the limited production lots will ensure these products, but still Your price/benefits ratio is not remarkable. Freewrite Traveler, for example, has a price of 603.95 euros In the official Freewrite store. Pomera’s recent rival – with LCD screen – has an official price of $ 449, almost 400 euros. In Xataka we have contacted three users of these devices: two of them English -speaking, and a young Spanish. All of them have bought and used at least one of these types of keyboards without distractions or some similar alternative, and have had the kind of sharing the experience with us. Looking for digital substitute to the notebook and the ball ILIA EPIFANOV, writer and editorhe has published more than 30 works, among which are short stories, books and even comics. When he decided to buy one of these devices, he tells us, “I was looking for a compact machine and allowed me to write without distractions.” Discovered the Freewrite devices“But the price seemed high, and I also looked for something more portable. Ended up deciding on the Nokia E7a smartphone launched in 2011 that had a drop -down physical keyboard under the housing. “It is small, well done and causes nostalgia,” he said, “although it certainly has its limitations.” He admits that he would not recommend it to most people, especially since the keyboard is not suitable for use for long periods of time. But for this user one of the keys to this old device is that it is old and most of its applications are useless today. That makes it focus only as a keyboard without distractions, because as he says “I love its simplicity: you display the keyboard and simply write.” Carl Dikington “Pseudonym that.” Use in Reddit Our second guest – is an autonomous worker who writes both professionally and for hobby. He also began looking for alternatives to write without distractions, and began by the cheapest and less technological: a notebook and a ball. He soon realized that did not seem practical, and after looking for devices of this type, he opted for the Freewrite Traveler, who chose for his portability but that “if I am honest, I chose in front of others for aesthetic reasons. I simply liked her appearance, and I thought that if I was going to spend a good part of the day looking at him, I wanted me to like her design.” This type of products “do not magic,” he confessed. “You still need to force yourself to sit and write, and that will always be a complex task. And that is the real problem. We let computers distract us because we want to avoid the difficulty of writing. Eliminating those distractions does not eliminate the desire to be distracted, and the world has a lot of additional distraction sources to which we can submit.” It is an important reflection, and reveals the reality of some devices that of course avoid the distractions … Read more

A youtuber has wondered why movies always improve in black and white. The answer: “Less distractions”

The tendency to move black and white some successful films looks like a fashion more than a hollywood desperate for repairing and selling our favorite films several times. In some cases, however, the results are surprising, and there is an explanation for this: why in virtually all cases the black and white versions of films that were shot in color are so interesting, when they do not directly improve the original? Blanquinegros dinosaurs. It is the question that Youtuber Midday Reviews was asked when he checked for the umpteenth time one of his favorite films, ‘Jurassic Park’, This time in black and white. He discovered in her, thanks to an experiment that did not believe that he was going to take him to any interesting conclusion, a completely new film, one that returned to the terror to the saurios he experienced when he first saw the film, in the cinema and being a kid. The reason: less distractions. According to the author of the channel, this improvement is summarized in one point: the absence of color distracts less, and the viewer focuses unconsciously on planning, textures, lighting, microgest of interpretations. In aspects more linked to film creation, and therefore in black and white movies have a more “cinematographic” appearance. Not only because they are backward for times when films were less naturalistic and more focused on cinematographic language, but because the absence of color makes the spectator more aware that he is watching a fiction. Other examples. Midday Reviews reviews multiple examples of recent films that have received this treatment commercially, such as’Mad Max: Fury on the road‘(that George Miller himself considers The best version of the movie) either ‘Logan‘ (that He was born as an experimentbut that fans and director think that it is the definitive version of the film). Also mentions a case of which We have talked here‘In search of the lost ark’, a completely unofficial experiment, but that reaches the same conclusions as ‘Jurassic Park’: without distractions derived from color, background aspects such as edition or planning shine throughout its glory. You try. Midday Reviews recommends experiencing with your favorite films, ensuring that you will always find some interest with these colorless versions. And to demonstrate it, it puts some unusual examples: ‘Ninja turtles’ has almost expressionist lighting and planning details; And ‘Solo at home’ becomes an absolutely sinister dyes film thanks to its use of contrasts and that make it a film close to the horror genre. We have done it. Of course we have done it. We have tried an absolute icon of horror cinema: the first ‘nightmare in Elm Street’, overflowing with chiaroscuros, contrasted colors and games with lighting and colors. The result is not only a much more rough film, but completely loses the low -budget air of the Wes Craven classic, acquiring a very classic elegance. Apart from the fact that, as the video says, the lack of color allows you to repair in aspects such as the very detailed and terrifying texture of the special effects or makeup. Is it used for all cases? It will be a matter of testing, but the fun does not take away from you. Header | Warner In Xataka | The magic of the 70 mm: what makes a film recorded in this format so special and obsess so many directors

This is the new design that eliminates distractions

It’s only been a few months since Android 15 was officially released, but Google is already preparing for the next launch of Android 16. And the company has decided to change the development cycle of the system, bringing forward the publication of the system to coincide with the launch of the Pixel mobiles. As a result, the development of Android 16 is already very advanced, despite the fact that the first month of the year has not yet ended; At this point, normally the new version of Android is still in an early state, with little news to report. This year is going to be different, and some rumors even suggest that the first public beta could be launched this month of January. That also means that the new features being prepared for Android 16 are already in advanced development, and that is what has allowed Mishaal Rahman discover one of these innovations. This time, the novelty is in the notifications, specifically in the way they appear on the lock screen. With Android 16, users will be able to activate a new minimalist lock screenwhich will mainly display the wallpaper and widgets like the clock. This mode also affects notifications, which will no longer be displayed in a container in the middle of the screen, but will instead appear as a small pill-shaped notice. In this ‘pill’, only the app icon will appear that you have activated the notification. So if, for example, they send us a WhatsApp message, only the WhatsApp icon will be displayed on this pill; The content of the message sent to us or the name of the app in question will not be shown. Just by touching the icon, the notification will expand and show its content, such as the message they have sent us. To activate this new minimalist look, the user will be able to find a new option in settings of the lock screen, specifically in the section dedicated to notifications. New Android 16 notification style Android Authority The Free Android Here you will find two options: “Full List” shows all the content of the notifications as before, while “Compact” (Compact) will show only the app icon. Although it may seem somewhat extreme, this new design may be liked by many people. For example, it is a more private option, since by showing only the app icon It is not possible for someone to read the messages that have been sent to us. However, it must be remembered that Android notification settings already allow you to hide sensitive conversations and notifications. This new option would be more of an aesthetic change than anything else, to prevent our lock screen from filling up with notifications after a while. Icons take up less space and are more aesthetically pleasing, and They don’t cover the wallpaper so much that we have chosen.

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