AI ANALYZES YOUR TASTE IN MUSIC

Ever wonder how 79,032 music critics would rank your tastes? Do a Google search on “Pudding Cool: How Bad is Your Streaming Music?” After you sign into your Apple or Spotify account, an artificially intelligent robot will look over everything you’ve been listening to, ask you questions and combine the opinions of experts. “Do you really listen to The Girl from Ipanema by Stan Getz?” it asked me. When I said yes, it said, “Like, ironically?” When I said “no,” it said “cool.” It teased me about my other choices and asked whether I’d rather marry the Tijuana Brass, Glenn Miller or Fred Astaire. Yet my score was 79 out of 100, compared to 21 out of 100 for a […]

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FACEBOOK CLONES

Recently, I thought I got a Facebook friend request from a cousin, but it turned out to be her clone. Duped again. After accepting that phony friend request, I noticed two red flags: First, I was her only friend. Second, the clone had only three posts. When I typed her name into the Facebook search bar, I saw her real account listed after the fake one, so I immediately unfriended the faker. You might want to search for your own name to see if there are two of you. “What should I do about it?” my cousin asked. Here are the steps to follow. Go to the fake account’s home page and click the three horizontal dots near the word […]

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FREE 55-INCH TV

I can hardly wait to get my free 55-inch 4K “Telly” TV. You can get one too. In the first 36 seconds, 100,000 people signed up, mostly Millennials and Gen Zs in the higher income and education brackets. The first half a million TVs will be shipped next month, and millions more will be shipped in 2024 and 2025. Unfortunately, the Telly is getting a bum rap because of the data it collects. That’s ironic. Today’s TVs already spy on you, then sell your data to third parties. The main difference between the Telly and other TVs is that the Telly is up front about it and gives you a TV for free. Sign up at FreeTelly.com to get a […]

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CASTING ANY WEBSITE TO YOUR TV

My women’s group wanted to see a live memorial service in New Hampshire on a big screen TV in Chicago. Here’s how I cast it from the church website to my TV. First, I went to the website in the Google Chrome browser on my Windows computer. Then I clicked the three vertical dots in the upper right and chose “cast.” Up popped my TV as one of the choices. The ladies were delighted. If you’re casting from an iPhone or iPad, you may need a TV with Apple TV built in, or at least one that’s compatible with AirPlay. Once you’ve got it, follow these steps. First, start up a video on your phone or tablet. Next, look for […]

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PUBLISHING YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON

Publishing a book through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing turned out to be both easier and harder than I thought.  After tearing my hair out at first, I discovered Amazon’s template for a five-by-eight inch paperback. I also noticed a lengthy guide and a long video tutorial, but I can never sit through those. So whenever I had a question, I hit the chat button and got a live person. They didn’t always know the answer but kept me moving right along, encouraging me to skip design elements I didn’t need. Besides texting, I could have talked on the phone or emailed them. Each time, they were available within seconds. I’m working on a historical novella for a retired professor of […]

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HOW TO USE A MOBILE HOTSPOT WHEN YOU HAVE NO WIFI

Most cars today come with a mobile hotspot, allowing everyone’s devices to stay connected to the internet at a cost ranging between $20 and $40 a month. But what if you have an older car? A reader wanted to read the newspaper on his iPad in the car because he likes its bigger screen. Since there’s no WiFi in his older vehicle, he needed some way to connect his iPad to the internet.  I told him to go to “Settings” on his iPhone, then “Cellular” and tap “Personal Hotspot” to turn it on.  After he did that, his iPad was able to share the iPhone’s cellular network. “Works great,” he said.  To try it on my Android phone, I went […]

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NEW ROUTER MAKES YOU GO FASTER ON THE WEB

A reader wrote: “I upgraded my router!” Wow. I’m impressed. I never think to do that. An old, outdated router can slow down your WiFi, disrupt your connections, and leave your network vulnerable to security risks. But setup can be a “colossal pain,” the reader said. Fortunately, he discovered that all he had to do was change the new router’s settings to match the old one’s.  “A definite aha moment!”   I’ve never paid for a new router. My internet service provider, AT&T, will send out a new one for free if the old one has problems, which has only happened once.  Maybe I haven’t needed one because I “only” have 11 internet-connected devices.  The reader has over 40 smart devices, […]

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RUNNING OUT OF SPACE

Here’s something to consider when buying your next phone or tablet:  Get one that has a microSD card slot so you don’t run out of storage space. These days, a $25 micro SD card holds a whopping 128 gigabytes or more. Samsung, Sony, Motorola, LG, and Xiaomi phones all have slots for these. Alternatively, some phones, such as the Google Pixel, have dual SIM card capability. You can use a SIM card slot for a storage card. Because the iPhone and iPad don’t offer expandable internal storage, some people buy a new phone or tablet just to get more space. But that gets expensive. The iPhone 13 with 256 gigabytes is $100 more than the one with 128.   Here’s a […]

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LOCATION SHARING SAVES THE DAY

I lost my phone on a bike path the other day when it fell out of my bike basket. I emailed a friend and he knew right where it was. Thanks to Location Sharing in Google Maps, he told me it had been turned in at my condo’s front desk.   To test just how good Location Sharing is, I took long walks with my phone. Most of the time, it was two blocks off, because I kept moving. When I sat on a bench, I could be pinpointed most of the time. If I kept the Google Maps app open, it got even better. But it only became 100% accurate if I asked for directions somewhere, then tapped “start” to […]

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FROM GRILLS TO BATHTUBS

I’ve never used a meat thermometer, so when I got one for review, I turned to my grilling friends for help. They love it.   Compared to the typical thermometer on Amazon, the new Thermapen One is a a bit of wizardry. It tells you the temperature in one second. That way, you’re not standing over a hot grill getting yourself cooked while waiting for a reading. It can test just about anything, including food from a microwave, oven, stovetop, deep fryer, refrigerator or freezer. Some use it to test the temperature of their bath before they step in.  My friend started off by using it to test Impossible Burgers. The directions say to cook them for two minutes per side […]

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