http://oncomp.com The On Computers column has been running continuously for 28 years. It is one of the largest circulation computer columns in the world and appears each week in 14 newspapers. Readership is 4-5 million. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:08:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There are 178 million users of Google’s Gmail, and probably a billion or more who use their search tools.  Google has ways to select what you get and from whom. Google.com/dashboard lets you manage your Google accounts, documents, personal information and “alerts.” Alerts are emails you can receive on a given ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/google-tips-and-tricks/ Talkatoo is a little gadget that caught our attention. It attaches to your child’s backpack and when they’re away from home and feeling stressed, they can push a button and hear Mommy or Daddy’s soothing voice.  Should be good for adults too. The device is $18 and comes as a necklace, ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/there-there/ Last week we mentioned a program from NewRad.com that lets you add voice messages to your email. One of our readers had trouble with the program, so we thought we’d point out that you can also do this in Windows without installing anything. Here’s how. First attach a microphone to your ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/sending-voice-messages-with-email/ Joy has recently been plagued with this message: ““Cannot  use Adobe Reader to open PDF in your browser. Please exit your browser and try again.” This is real annoying. Fortunately, there are other places to turn. The new PDF Reader from Nuance PDF is free and opens PDFs better than Adobe.  ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/pdf-paradise-2/ YouTube’s annotation feature lets you string videos in sequences. If they’re related in some way, you’ve made a movie. We mean a real movie. (Watch “The Birthday Party,” noted below, for a great example.) Go to ChadMattandRob.com to see some examples of short movies and find out how to do it. ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/attention-future-actors-and-directors/ Good50.com is a Google search page that's easier on the eyes.  Both the search box and what you type appear much larger. Click the "Low Vision" version to get a black background that makes it even easier to see. Speaking of accessibility options, Windows has half a dozen built in, but ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/easy-access-tips-and-tricks/ Here are some interesting topics making the rounds of the tech blogs, and we thought we'd add our two cents. 3D computers: You can get a 3D laptop from Acer for only $70 more than their standard $700 laptop. Before you say "gee whiz," co-columnist Bob Schwabach first saw 3D computers ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/short-takes-2/ A survey by PopCap games revealed that nearly a quarter of respondents play games on social networking sites at least once a week. Over half are female and their average age is 48. Among  female social gamers, 38 percent play several times a day, versus 29 percent for men. Sixty-one percent ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/female-social-gamers-rule/ -- TVGorge.com has thousands of TV shows you can watch online, including those previously unavailable outside the U.S. We thought TVGorge was better than Hulu in many ways. It had the latest episode of our favorite show, “The Mentalist,” for instance, while Hulu had only short clips of older episodes. -- ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/tv-everywhere-chat-rooms-geography-quizzes/ “Glue” provides free recommendations on movies, music, books, gadgets, TV, restaurants, etc. The recommendations “stick” to the bottom of your screen in a narrow panel when you’re at major sites, like Amazon.com, IMDB.com, (the Internet Movie Database), and iTunes.  Click “disable” to turn it off. When Joy was on Amazon.com, Glue ... http://oncomp.com/2010/03/glue-sticks-to-it/