Ebates.com, the website, is now available as an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It offers rebates from over 1600 stores and opens up with the “hot deals” of the day. If you wish, your phone or iPod will alert you when a good deal comes in from your favorite store.
Filed under: apps, business, shopping | Comments Off on APP HAPPY: EBATES
Buncee.com is a free site for making digital scrapbooks and greetings. What makes it different from a lot of other greeting card or scrapbook programs is the ability to drop in YouTube videos as well as photos from Instagram, Google and Flickr.
Filed under: art, graphics | Comments Off on HOLIDAY GREETINGS
“SpeeCup” looks like a thermos bottle, but it’s a speaker. It can sit in your car’s cup holder and pick up Bluetooth music broadcasts from your iPhone, iPod Touch or Android phone. The maximum volume on this is loud enough to hear outside the car, and we thought the quality was decent too. True, a Beatle’s tune sounded a bit tinny but the classical hits and Elvis Presley songs sounded great.
Filed under: apps, gadgets, music | Comments Off on MUSIC IN YOUR CUP HOLDER
TheDoghouseDiaries.com is an odd one. Click “Archives” and “October 18” to get “What Each Country Leads the World In,” a humorous look at leading exports and culture. Canada leads the world in “maple syrup and asteroid impacts.” For Russia, it’s “raspberries and nuclear warheads.”
Filed under: education, Internuts | Comments Off on WHAT EACH COUNTRY LEADS THE WORLD IN
“Nova Elements,” a free iPad app, takes the periodic table off the wall into an atomic sandbox, where you can play with particles to create your own copper, gold or any one of the other 118 elements. You can then combine them to make molecules. It’s been downloaded over 570,000 times.
Filed under: apps, education, science | Comments Off on AN ELEMENTAL APP
Here’s the future calling: Windows 8.1 is already set up for the day when we will all have 3D printers sitting on our desk. You know, those devices that will make almost any object you select or design. Some of these printers are around $1,300 now, only a fraction of what laser printers cost back when they were new. Make your own bobble-head. You’ll still need 3D software to design your object but the software won’t care what kind of printer you have. As explained in TomsGuide.com, it will be just like when you get a new ink jet printer: Microsoft Word doesn’t need to know about the new device. It still uses the print command. Here’s the rub, as Bill Shakespeare might say: your 3D printer […]
Filed under: electronics, trends | Comments Off on WINDOWS AND 3D PRINTING
We love the new search function in Windows 8.1. Click the “Start” button and type the name of a country. “Morocco,” for example. You’ll see a list of any files that mention Morocco. (On Joy’s computer, Bob’s bio came up, since he went on an archaeological dig there.) You also get a map and basic stats about the country, such as its population and GDP. Slide to the right to see links to videos, tourist information and other links. We typed “England,” and got main attractions, tours, pictures, history and — rather oddly — some apps for New England Patriots fans. (The computer just latches on to key words.)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off on BETTER SEARCHES WITH WINDOWS 8.1
The reviews covering the new Windows 8.1 missed the thing we like best about it: the return of the “all programs” list. But there are lots more goodies than that in the new upgrade.
You need to have Windows 8 to get the 8.1 upgrade, and you do have to go get it — it’s not automatic. To get it, tap the Windows key (looks like a flag) and type “Store.” Then click on the free download link. If you get an error message like we did, try again. It took us several tries, perhaps because the servers were busy.
Filed under: troubleshooting, Windows | Comments Off on WINDOWS 8.1 HAS MANY THINGS TO LIKE
You can do a lot with LEGO blocks, but surely nothing more remarkable than what’s pictured in these two books from No Starch Press. Should keep the kids busy over the holidays. — “Beautiful Lego” ($30), by Mike Doyle, is all pictures of completed projects, and beautiful they are, everything from a haunted house that seems to be falling apart, to a fantastic city floating in space. — “More Amazing Vehicles ($20), by Kuipers and Zamboni. Using step-by-step photos and instructions, the authors show us how to build anything from a Formula One race car to a fork-lift truck.
Filed under: art, books, how-to, kids | Comments Off on LEGO BOOKS
