It’s always convenient when the many portable devices we use on a daily basis interact with and complement each other. Fitness apps on a smartphone and a smart watch, for instance, are just one very logical and natural pairing. More outlandishly, though, the Nintendo Switch’s small but mighty Joy-Con controller can serve as a controller for something else: your smartphone’s camera.
If you’ve ever tried to use your camera’s timer feature and then rushed into a group shot, only to get questionable results, you’ll appreciate this rather obscure functionality of the Joy-Con. Here’s how it works.
In September 2021, Bluetooth audio was added to the Nintendo Switch for connecting headphones. However, months prior to that, a Reddit user named Byotan showcased the Bluetooth functionality that the system already had. It’s a niche feature but impressive nonetheless.
In Byotan’s demonstration, a single Joy-Con is used (via the “A” button) to activate the shutter of an Android phone’s camera, which is set up on a stand at a short distance. You can easily set this up for yourself too.
Android and Bluetooth Versatility Strikes Again
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Here’s how to set up your Joy-Cons for remote photography on an Android device:
Open your Android smartphone’s Bluetooth settings.
Press the Sync button on your Joy-Con. It’s the small circular button between the SL and SR buttons. The indicator will quickly cycle through the player positions, indicating that the Joy-Con is searching for a Bluetooth device to pair to.
On your smartphone, you should see either Joy-Con R or Joy-Con L (depending on whether you’re using the right or left Joy-Con) in the Available Devices list. Tap it, and your Android will start pairing with the Joy-Con automatically. If you’re connecting both Joy-Con, repeat this process for the second one.
Open your smartphone’s camera app.
With the connection set up like this, pressing up on the D-Pad (left Joy-Con) or the A or B buttons (right Joy-Con) will take a photo on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, while pressing down on the D-Pad (left Joy-Con) or the X button (right Joy-Con) will close the camera app.
The specific functionality may vary depending on your device (for example, pressing A on the right Joy-Con will take a photo on a Pixel device), and the easiest way to utilize it is to configure the photo settings to your preferences using the app as usual first, and then experiment with the Joy-Con buttons afterwards. With their movement-tracking capabilities, the Joy-Cons are very capable little controllers.
It’s a little disheartening to think about just how many of our once-beloved devices have become largely obsolete. Good old CD and DVD players, for instance, have been left behind by millions with the advent of streaming services leaving a sizable dent in the very concept of physical media. A trusty printer, however, is still a precious commodity.
Industry behemoth Canon is one of the biggest manufacturers of these office staples. A crucial part of its success, naturally, would be adapting the product to the market and to customers’ requirements, ensuring convenience and ease of use. In the case of a printer specifically, the ability to connect to the device via WiFi is a huge boon for avoiding cable-wrangling or USB port juggling.
Luckily, many Canon models make this process easy. Here’s how to do it on some of the manufacturer’s most popular models, and how to adapt the process depending on whether you’re using Mac or PC.
Connecting the Canon Pixma TS702 and TS6220 to WiFi
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Canon’s Pixma TS702 Wireless (the PIXMA line remaining a standout in its field) is, as the title implies, wireless. A WiFi connection, as such, is crucial for use, as are mobile devices for its scanner function. It’s fortunate, then, that the manufacturer ensured the process of connecting it is rather simple. Here’s how it’s done on a TS702:
Open the Setup Menu by pressing Setup on the front of the unit.
Scroll to Wi-Fi setup, confirm, and opt for Manual connect.
Choose the router you wish to connect to from the Select router menu and confirm again.
On the next screen, input the password for the chosen router. After briefly holding the button to confirm a third time, the display will read, Apply?
Opt to apply the settings you’ve selected.
If the TS702’s display now features those iconic bars displaying connectivity, you have been successful.
Canon adds that, per the wireless model’s needs, the software to use the device must be installed on the device used with it.
Press the button marked by the icon of two looped paper clips, and select Yes when prompted that “Settings will be made on a computer, smartphone etc.”
As before, run the associated software, depending on whether the printer will be controlled via a PC or Mac. The associated software is available on Canon’s Support page.
Cableless setup
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Canon’s PIXMA E484, 494, and 495 models can be connected using a feature that Canon calls Cableless setup. To do this, the process is similar to that of the Pixma TS702:
Select setup from the front of the device, then scroll to Wireless LAN setup.
Confirm your choice of Other setup, followed by Cableless setup from the following screen.
As before, the relevant software for the device that will control the printer will be needed. Canon’s Consumer Product Support page provides the software for these three models for users on Windows.
As tends to be the case with manufacturers, the instructions to connect a Canon printer to WiFi don’t differ very much from model to model. The process has refined somewhat over time, though (the Product Support page for these models suggests CD-ROM installation for the software, a function that many computers won’t have access to), so it’s crucial to have access to appropriate troubleshooting help should things go awry. To this end, Canon support offers a “Select your product” search box that allows users to find documentation specific to the model in question. There are tips that can be helpful for all printers (should they be working slowly, for instance), too, though.
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