Below are some tech tips for your Fourth of July weekend! Our 24/7 on-call support will be available throughout the holiday for any urgent support needs and can be reached at 800-550-3795, Option 2.

Fireworks photos

If you’re watching a fireworks show, chances are you may take a few photos with your phone. A few basic tips: Turn off your flash, avoid shakiness, don’t zoom in, tinker with your camera’s exposure settings, and try burst mode.

If you aren’t satisfied with the features of your built-in camera, the Wall Street Journal has some good app recommendations, including Camera+ (iOS and Android) and Nokia Camera (Windows).

Also, if you prefer to just take video, Vhoto is a cool iPhone app that finds the best photos in your videos.

Star gazing

Once all that smoke from the fireworks dissipates, you may be able to see stars — especially if you’re in an area without much light on the ground.

Sky Guide, is a digital planetarium for the iPhone and iPad that makes it easy to see all the stars and constellations nearby. When users first fire up the app, they’ll be asked to let it access their location, and it will then show them a 360 degree map of all the stars and constellations around them.

Users interested in learning more about a particular star or constellation can tap on it to pull out a drawer with plenty of facts.

For Android users, Sky Map is equally as awesome.

Digital detox

Maybe you are looking forward to spending Fourth of July weekend not having to constantly check your smartphone every five minutes — perhaps a digital detox is in order.

If that’s the case, the simple and cheap way to detach from your gadget is to, well, stop using it. Disable your internet connection, put your phone on silent — heck, just turn it off if you really don’t want to be distracted.

For iOS users, check out this guide from Lifehacker that helps smartphone addicts who want to enjoy the weekend without the distracting device.

Source: http://www.geekwire.com/2014/tech-tips-4th-july/