Posted on December 31st, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
So Joy decided to upgrade her Windows 7 computer to Windows 8 — figuring how can we serve the readers if we don’t have the latest Microsoft operating system? Just so. Well, let no good deed go unpunished. From the beginning, there were warnings that should have told us we were on dangerous ground. The built-in Windows 8 “Upgrade Assistant” said we’d have to buy extra software if we wanted to continue to play DVDs. (Wait a minute: we had no trouble playing DVDs before.) Then it informed us the Windows Media Center also would no longer be available. But we could buy extra software that would perform those functions, which we had before. Furthermore, one of the Bluetooth utilities […]
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Filed under: tech support, training, Windows | Comments Off on MICROSOFT WINS, WE LOSE
Posted on December 30th, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
Sketchbook Express for the Mac or the iPad gives you a sketchpad and a lot of tools for transforming your drawings. We especially liked the mirroring tool. Draw a heart on the right and you’ll get a duplicate on the left. It’s not as intuitive as the Facebook game “Draw Something,” but it comes closer than other drawing apps we’ve tried.
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Filed under: apps, art, Mac | Comments Off on SKETCHBOOK FOR THE IPAD OR MAC
Posted on December 30th, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
Zapd is a free iPhone app for creating websites. It’s as easy to build a site as tapping your finger and may be a good way to post photos and thoughts. First you choose one of 45 themes. We thought they looked great. Then add photos or snap a few. Tweak your photos with filters and editing tools. Invite someone to collaborate with you if they have photos you’d like on the site. Your site address will have “zapd” in it, as in JohnDoe.zapd.com and can be viewed on a computer, tablet or smartphone. The websites can be private or public. It’s easier than blogging, but similar to “Tumblr,” which has 6.8 million activeU.S.users, the same as Twitter
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Filed under: apps, Internet, web | Comments Off on FREE PROGRAM BUILDS PHOTO WEBSITES
Posted on December 29th, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
Padmapper.com maps apartments for rent in most U.S, cities. Hover on a map pin and you get the price and other details.
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Filed under: Internuts | Comments Off on FINDING AN APARTMENT
Posted on December 28th, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
PopCap is giving away a hidden object game and coins for their social games. We’ve shortened the address to tinyurl.com/PopCapFreebies.
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Filed under: free stuff, games | Comments Off on FREE STUFF FROM POPCAP
Posted on December 27th, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
— The average smartphone owner spends more than two hours a day using apps,
according to research firm Flurry Analytics. That’s expected to rise further, surpassing
TV viewing eventually, according to Flurry CEO Simon Khalaf. We guess that’s not too
surprising, given that, one in five homes has a tablet computer and 40 percent use it
while watching TV, according to the Nielsen rating service.
— A footnote on the great migration from Windows 7 to Windows 8: It’s moving, but
there’s still plenty of time to panic. According to Net Applications, 1.2% of all Windows
PCs were running Windows 8 in November, which was one month after its launch.
When Windows 7 came out in 2009, it had 4.3 percent
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Filed under: apps, numbers, trends, Windows | Comments Off on NUMBERS REPORT
Posted on December 26th, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
Getting a new computer can be a hassle if you’ve got lots of programs left behind on your old one. You would think that using a drive image program to copy everything from the old drive to DVD or other storage medium would work just fine. Surprise! It works fine, all right, but only to restore your old computer back to a point when everything was working well. It won’t copy the programs of the old computer onto the new one. What about using one of those transfer programs? You know, the ones that advertise they can move everything from your old computer over to the new one. Well, they can move a lot of stuff over, but in our […]
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Filed under: anti-virus, computers, free stuff, how-to | Comments Off on A NEW COMPUTER OFTEN PRESENTS CHALLENGES
Posted on December 26th, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
We never liked the name “Hotmail,” Microsoft’s cloud-based email service. So we were glad when they recently changed the name to Outlook.com. Now Microsoft is reporting that a third of new users are ex-Gmail users. In a survey, Microsoft found that users like Outlook’s cleaner design, spam blocking, and the ease at which you can share photos and Office documents.
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Filed under: email, Google | Comments Off on CHANGING YOUR OUTLOOK
Posted on December 25th, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
Your skin can vibrate when a call comes in, if Nokia’s patent on “smart tattoos” becomes a commercial reality. You can program different vibrations for different callers. A printed circuit that reacts to the magnetic field produced by incoming calls can be worn as a stick-on or tattooed directly on someone’s skin, using ferro-magnetic ink. (We think we saw this movie.)
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Filed under: science, trends | Comments Off on AN ITCH YOU CAN’T SCRATCH
Posted on December 22nd, 2012 by Joy Schwabach
TeamSnap is free for Android or iPhone and is used by more than 125,000 teams around the world. It lets coaches add and remove players, change lineups, and schedule or cancel games. There’s also an online version for computers. The app is used in 177 countries and for over 100 sports.
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Filed under: apps, kids | Comments Off on TEAMSNAP ORGANIZES SPORTS TEAMS
