ALEXA’S NEW CELEBRITY VOICES

Alexa has a new trick. You can change her voice to NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal or actress Melissa McCarthy for $5 per voice. Both of them can tell a joke or a personal story, play music, give you the latest weather, and set a timer or alarm, among other things. When I said, “Hey Melissa tell me a story,” she told me about nearly knocking Michelle Obama over by accident. When I asked her to set an alarm for me, she said: “I’m sometimes alarming myself, but I get what you’re asking for.”  Shaq recalled the time his father made him help a homeless man get an apartment and a job. They’re friends to this day.   Start by […]

Read more

DO YOU NEED AN ANTIVIRUS?

A reader asked if the free Windows Defender is enough. Should he pay for an antivirus?   After a lot of research on this issue, I say no. Windows Defender, which is part of Windows, is good enough. In an AV-Comparatives test, it stopped 99.5 percent of threats. In an SE Labs test, it stopped 99 percent. By not renewing my Bullguard antivirus, I’ll save $120 over three years.  Windows Defender does a great job on old-school viruses, according to HowToGeek, so you don’t need another antivirus. But criminals have moved on from viruses to ransomware, zero-day attacks and other nasty stuff. For that, HowToGeek recommends Malwarebytes. I’ve been a subscriber for years.  There’s a free download at malwarebytes.com. It starts […]

Read more

MIRRORING THE MESSAGE

If you’ve got a classroom full of kiddies, you don’t have to buy them all their own computer or tablet, or crowd around a single device. A $25 program called “Multiple Monitors” does the trick. It can mirror the screen from one computer on any other monitors in the room. The program is from ActualTools.com and is easier and cheaper than using HDMI splitters to connect several monitors to one computer. It works in all versions of Windows, from XP on up. Businesses could use it too. We can think of situations where you might want the same slideshow or program running in the lobby and other areas or at a trade show. There’s a free 30-day trial.

Read more

GOOD DOG

For around $300 a year, you can monitor your pet’s health better than you monitor your own. The PetPace “smart collar” tracks dog and cat health 24 hours a day.

This seems like a great thing to have if you’re away on a trip and wondering how Fido is doing at the local kennel. It sends alerts to your phone if your dog is starting to have an abnormal temperature, pulse or breathing pattern, and monitors his calories, pain, and activities, comparing them to other dogs his age. (Get up Fido, it’s time for your floor exercises.)

Read more

LATE NIGHT

Ever go into your home office late at night and want to do something on the Windows XP or Vista computer? Turn it on and — Wham! – that screen light hits you like a blow to the head. You can stop that. For reasons which shall remain forever locked in the closed minds of display engineers, most monitors have no brightness control. At least not a useful one. Bob’s previous Samsung monitor had two control levels: Blindingly bright, and knock you out of your chair. Time to download PangoBright. This is a free program that sits in the PC taskbar and lets you choose from nine levels of screen brightness: 100 percent, down to 20 percent. Late at night […]

Read more

A SECOND MONITOR

Sometimes it’s nice to have two screens, with a website or notes on one and a Word document on the other. For traveling, we like the new monitor from AOC.

Read more

MONITORING TEEN DRIVERS

The Car Chip is easy to install. You plug it into the car’s On Board Diagnostic Port, which is in every car sold after 1996. Don’t know where that port is? Neither did we, but we found it’s just under the dash to the right of the steering wheel and easy to reach. The OBDP, as the mechanics call it, is the very place to plug in the chip that will track a person’s driving habits — as well as diagnose the car’s engine efficiency.

Read more

THE TWO-SCREEN LAPTOP REVISITED

Recently, we wrote about an Alaskan company that’s coming out with a dual-screen laptop. Actually, you can make your own laptop or desktop display two screens without ever going to Alaska. You can have dual displays with Windows XP, Windows 7, the Mac and Linux.

Read more

THE TWO-SCREEN LAPTOP

At ten pounds, the “SpaceBook” is perhaps the heaviest laptop in the known universe. But weight is what you get when a laptop has two screens.

Read more

ULTRA MON

It can be really handy to have two monitors. Here’s info on two programs that work better than Windows built-in support.

(CLICK UNDERLINE BELOW HEADING FOR MORE.)

Read more