Next week is the Fourth of July, and there will be fireworks shows all over Northeast Ohio for the next week-or-so. If you're thinking of taking pictures with your phone, here are a couple ideas to give you an advantage:

First, use a tripod. Either buy a stand, specially made for your phone, or make one (plenty of ideas for DIY phone tripods are just a Google search away).

Second, lower your shutter speed. Many Android phones have either “low light” or “fireworks” mode built in (go to camera's settings). If you have an iPhone, you may have to download an app to override the camera's “automatic” settings (“Slow Shutter”, and “Litely” work well).

For added camera steadiness, some phones allow voice-activated picture taking so you don't bump the phone when you press the screen to snap a pic.

Other ideas include using “Burst Mode”. Several phones will let you press the screen once, but will snap several shots at once and composite them into the best version.  You could also try taking a time-lapse picture (will absolutely need a tripod)...or a video. Good luck!

No matter what activities the family has planned for you on Sunday, you'll be able to stay up to date with the US Open. The tournament starts tomorrow, but the real action won't be until the final round on Sunday.

The official app of the U.S. Open Golf Championship features 4 channels of live streaming coverage, live score updates, shot-by-shot states, plus a map of the course – complete with current players wherabouts! You can also set the app to sent alerts when there's a scoring update for your favorite player or players.

The US Open App is free for iPhone and Android.

Stopping for gas on the way home from work, blocking out a few hours for an oil change or a car wash are a thing of the past with this app!

Sign-up for the service and the Yoshi crew will stop by your work once a week to fill up your tank, or they'll take it for an oil change and a wash. You don't need to worry about it, they'll take care of it all for you.

Note: Nothing about this is free. There's a $20/month membership fee, plus the price of gas and oil-changes. BUT, your first month's membership is free.

Cleveland is one of 12 cities across the country where Yoshi is available.

For more information go to: startyoshi.com or download the app on your Android or iPhone

Students at Rocky River High School have developed an app that can help in an active shooter situation. The app uses crowed sourced information to track the shooter in real time.

The idea: Every student and teacher have the app on their phone. When there is an active shooter situation, they open the app and it tracks their location in real time. If they see the shooter they press on the screen and their name pops up, like a location on a Google Map, and says [for instance] “Dan Deely just saw the shooter here”.

Every time someone presses the screen, it plots a point on the school map. Not only does it show you where the shooter is, it shows where he's been, and gives you an idea where he's going. Letting students and teachers know whether to hunker-in-place, or its okay to run.

They're still testing the app, so it isn't widely available yet.

But in some of their drills, the school says they've had half the student body out of the building BEFORE there was an “active shooter” announcement over the PA system.