Tips
Get Your Gmail Organized
Filters can be a useful thing when it comes to keeping your email organized. MakeUseOf has a handy article on creating filters in Gmail, sorting your mail into convenient categories making it easier to read now or find later. Here’s the link: http://goo.gl/6UJJT
Simple Tip to Save Your Smartphone’s Battery
If you own a smartphone (an iPhone, Android phone, Windows phone or BlackBerry) you know all about poor battery life. Think about it, most smartphones have at least 5 radios in them. One for making phone calls, then there is 2G, 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and if you have a 4G phone you can make that SIX radios.
Have them all running at the same time and you can watch your battery life fall faster than the stock market when the tech bubble burst in March 2000.
What you may not know is that your cell phone provider doesn’t want you using their 2G, 3G or 4G network any more than possible. As a result if your wi-fi radio is turned on, it is CONSTANTLY looking for a wireless network to connect to and THAT will suck power from your battery. When your home, turn on your wi-fi and take advantage of your fast and free (from the phone’s perspective) Internet. When you leave home, turn off the wi-fi radio and just let the 3G (or whatever radio) handle data away from home.
Do you use Bluetooth? If not then go into your settings and make sure it’s turned off. If you’re not sure – then you probably don’t so just shut it off.
Now go forth and enjoy the freedom a full battery can give you throughout the day.
What’s Cheaper – An Ink Jet or Laser Printer???
The best answer is probably BOTH! Ink jets printers are great for printing high resolution photo quality prints. But I know that many of you have kids in school or own your own business and you print BLACK AND WHITE documents. Maybe it’s a school paper, maybe it’s an invoice in your business – either way all you need is the information, you don’t need COLOR.
If you are looking to save money – then here is my recommendation: For color printing get an ink-jet printer. My personal preferences are Canon and Epson, and my FIRST choice is Epson. The Epson Workforce 630 is my favorite as of the time of this article, it’s wireless so you can place it anywhere in your home and it also scans, copies and faxes. On sale you can find it as low between $80 and $90 – a real deal.
For plain black and white printing I recommend you get a laser printer. The toner used by laser printers is MUCH cheaper than the black ink used by ink-jet printers. A laser printer will pay for itself in a year. Both Samsung and Brother have excellent laser printers in USB and wireless configurations. You can get a USB laser printer for around $45 on sale, $80 for a wireless printer.
This is a great way to save money in the long run. If you don’t need color – print to the laser printer. If you must have color – print to the ink-jet printer. You’ll save money in the long run.
When I see a great deal on printers, I’ll post them here. So check back often.
Watching TV Over the Internet
Eventually, this is where most people will be. Right now it’s about 5% (mostly geeks) who are doing it. But if you want to see how far you can go with TV via the Internet, the Wall Street Journal has an article that looks at three set top boxes that connect to both the Internet and your TV. Right now, there is NO option that will fully replace your cable, satellite or fiber optic (Verizon’s FIOS or AT&T’s UVerse) as far as selection – they will only get here kicking and screaming. Many prime time shows can be seen the next day or at worse, maybe 2 weeks later. Sports however can be different. Most live sports are NOT available over the Internet. Getting your local channels with an antenna is your best chance so far for sports and shows like the Academy Awards.
Here’s the link to the WSJ article: http://on.wsj.com/TekChic0399
How Fast Can You Type?
Waaaaay back when I was in junior-high school (called middle-school here in Texas) we didn’t have personal computers. When we typed, we typed on typewriters. They even had a course in typing (which I took) and I finished typing 32 words per minute (which I felt good about at the time.)
Now you can take a typing test online to see how fast you type (I just took it and I did 44 words per minutes – who says you slow down with age?)
So the site is TypingTest.com. When you go there, you can choose how long you want the test to take and what the topic is you’re typing about.
Here’s the link to the site – go have fun and see how well you do: http://bit.ly/TekChic0398
A SIMPLE Way to Have UNLIMITED Gmail Addresses
No one likes spam. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a one-time use email address for those sites that require you to give them a valid email address, but you don’t want to be getting email from them every day thereafter? For example, you want to sign up at “free-music.com” but are afraid they might not be legitimate and will sell your email address. Here’s what you do…
Let’s say your email address is Jane@Gmail.com, when you sign up at “free-music.com” add a plus symbol and something unique before the @gmail.com in your address. In the example above you might use Jane+freemusic@gmail.com when you sign up. Gmail will ignore the plus and whatever follows it, so anything sent to that address will just go straight to Jane@Gmail.com.
If you start getting junkmail sent to Jane+freemusic@gmal.com, you can go into your settings and create a filter that will just delete any mail that comes into that address. You can do this as much as you want.
So next time you sign up on a web site and wish you didn’t have to give your REAL email address, add a +ANYTHING@gmail.com and you’re in business. Try it now. Send yourself an email but add the plus and the word “test” before the @gmail.com and magically it will appear. Pretty cool, huh?
Make Web Pages Easier to Read With Your Mouse
If you’re under 40 then web pages probably don’t pose much of a problem for you. If you’re over 40 you may be wondering why the type is so small. Well, it’s because you’re over 40 (go ask your optometrist.) The good news is that it’s easy to enlarge web pages, and when you combine that with widescreen monitors giving you lots of extra space on the left and right you’ve can enjoy web sites without having to reach for your glasses.
Unless you have a smaller monitor running at a resolution of 1024×768, you probably see extra black space here on my web site. To take advantage of the extra space and enlarge the page, all you have to do is press the Control key on your keyboard and turn the scroll wheel on your mouse. Give it a try – one way zooms in and the other zooms out.
You can do the same thing with just your keyboard. In Windows hold the Control key (Ctrl) and use the + key to zoom in and the – key to zoom out. On a Mac use the Command key with the + and – keys. Another trick with the Mac you can do is go into your System Preference, select “Keyboard and Mouse”, Select “Trackpad” and enable “Zoom while holding Control”. Now when you hold the Control key on your MacBook you can zoom in and out just sliding up and down the trackpad. Pretty cool.
So enjoy the extra space your widescreen monitor gives you, and if you still need to use your glasses after enlarging a web page – well, that’s life.
Fixes for the Web’s Most Annoying Problems
Lifehacker has posted fixes for what it calls the 10 most annoying problems on the Internet, including ads, bad page layout, filling in forms, signing up for accounts, and more.
So if you’re constantly being annoyed by sites and wish you could do something about it, check out the article here: http://lifehac.kr/TekChic0344
Where to Recycle Your Computer in Austin (and Much of the Country)
I often get asked where to recycle old computers and parts, and now I have a great answer. Dell has teamed up with Goodwill Industries to create Dell Reconnect. Now you can take your old computer and useless parts to your nearest Goodwill. Goodwill Industries of Central Texas processes 250 tons of electronic waste EACH MONTH! They also have a store in Austin where you can buy used computers, including some more eclectic and older computers (you just never know what may show up there.)
The best way to find your nearest Goodwill is to just go to the store locator on their web-site (http://bit.ly/TekChic0339). To find out more about their Computer Works program in Austin, go here: (http://bit.ly/TekChic0340)
Call ANYONE in the US and Canada for FREE
If you have a Gmail account, did you know you can make free phone calls? As long as you don’t mind using your computer as a telephone, Google lets you call any number in the United States and Canada for free. If you have a laptop you can use the built-in mic and speakers, if you have a desktop computer you will of course need a mic and speakers. Whether you have a laptop or desktop, I recommend you purchase a USB headset like the Logitech Clearchat (around $32) that will also let you listen to music with decent quality. There is also a wireless USB version available for about $70 that allows you to walk around while still talking. There are lots of USB headsets on the market, check Amazon or Newegg for the best prices.
If you don’t have a Google account, this is a good reason to get one. Go to Gmail.com to create an account (of log in if you already have one.) Once your account is set up, go to Gmail and on the lower part of the left column you’ll see “Call Phone”, just click on it and enter the number you want to call and presto, free phone call. No tricks, gimmicks or limits. Talk all day if you want to.
If you’re thinking “well what about Skype?”, to be completely free on Skype you can only call to another user also on Skype. For about $30 a year you can get unlimited calling to the U.S. and Canada. Both Skype and Google have very low rate to other countries. I call friends in the Netherlands for 2 cents a minute (try that with AT&T!)
The quality with Skype is excellent, with Google it is ok but not as good – buy hey, the price is right. So save those outbound cell phone minutes for the nights and weekends when you’ve got lots of them.
Posted in Apps/Tools, Tips | Tags: free phone calls, gmail, google, Skype, USB headset | 
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The ONLY Place to Buy Your Cables
I don’t care if you need an HDMI cable for your DVD player or television, USB cables for your printer or smartphone, speaker cables for your home theater or even network cables for your home network, the place to buy your cables is Monoprice.com.
Just for fun I’ll do some sample price checking for you. Let’s say I just bought a new Blu-Ray player and need an HDMI cable. If I go right now to BestBuy.com to look for one, I see the price is…. $13 for their cheapie house brand. Their “high-speed” cable is $30. Monoprice’s “high-speed” cable is $3.28.
Perhaps that 6’ VGA cable that connects your monitor to your computer isn’t really long enough, especially since you would like to move the computer farther away. Walk into BestBuy and the cheapest and you’ll pay $60 for a 16’ cable by Monster Cable. If you’re lucky enough to live close to a Fry’s, you can get a 10’ VGA extension cable for only $9. At Monoprice, a 15’ heavy-duty cable is only $4.74.
Don’t ask me how they do it. Their shipping charges are on par with most other places and their web-site and service are excellent. They also carry adapters, iPhone cables, antennas, security cameras and more. Check them out and bookmark the site.
Best Android Phone Interface
The GREAT thing about an Android phone is that the operating system is open source, meaning a phone manufacturer and service provider can do pretty much anything they want to do with it. The BAD thing about an Android phone is that the operating system is open source, meaning a phone manufacturer and service provider can do pretty much anything they want to do with it (and yes – except for one word those two sentences were identical.)
The Android operating system (which is what the phone needs to even run) is provided by Google for free. The problem is when the cell phone makers (Samsung, Motorola, HTC, Nokia, etc.) “customize” it. From there, it goes to the service providers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint & T-Mobile.) They add they own special touches on top of what the manufacturers have already added.
HTC by far has the nicest interface I’ve seen on any carrier. Sure, it’s nice if you’re a raving fan of a particular genre or feature (for example Sprint has an exclusive deal with Nascar, and a tailored app just for you football fans,) but the day-to-day use of the phone is what counts.
I’ve used and dealt with the Samsung, HTC and Motorola interface versions of Android, and I have to tell you, if you’re considering an Android phone as your next smartphone, get one built by HTC. I know you’ve probably never heard of them, but the “HTC Sense” (the name of the interface HTC puts on their phones) is by far the nicest and most featured filled of all of them.
Buying a phone used to be simple, but as their power and capabilities increase, so do the complications in choosing which one is right for you.
So the next time you walk into a phone store, don’t feel bad about spending an hour or two figuring out which one YOU like. If the sales person is impatient or rude, get another salesperson or go to another store. Spend as much time as you like before buying the phone you want – after all, it will end up costing you a couple thousand dollars.
Taking Care of Your Laptop/Cellphone Battery
All Laptops and Cellphones (along with tablets, iPods and most other portable devices) use Lithium ion batteries (abbreviated as “Li-ion”.) Ars technica has an excellent article on the truths and myths of getting the most life out of your battery. Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/TekChic0291
Posted in Smartphones/Tablets, Tips | Tags: battery life, cellphone battery, laptop battery | No Comments »
Tell a Story With Your Photos
Gizmodo has a short but informative article about how to tell a story with photos. Most of us have hundreds if not thousands of photos on our computers, and instead of just sending out or posting to friends and family our most recent vacation or of the recent snowfall, try letting your pictures tell the story. Here’s the article: http://gizmo.do/TekChic0287