Posted on April 25th, 2022 by Joy Schwabach
Years ago, my mediocre piano teacher failed to show up for my lesson, even though we were meeting at her house. I heard she did it to others too. Phooey on her. I can get the best teachers in America online, and they’re cheaper. According to a 2020 report from Thumbtack, the average in-person piano teacher charges between $40 to $100 an hour. I just got 36 lessons for $25 from TheGreatCourses.com during one of their major sales. By using the free Chrome extension from CapitalOneShopping.com, the price dropped to $18. The equivalent from a live teacher would have cost $1440 to $3600. My online teacher, Pamela Pike, won the “Outstanding Teacher Award” from Louisiana State University, among other honors. […]
Read more
Filed under: apps, education, environment, facebook, how-to, Internuts, music, Windows | Comments Off on ONLINE PIANO LESSONS ROCK
Posted on April 18th, 2022 by Joy Schwabach
Are spam calls getting worse? No, but they’re still a nuisance. There were around 54 billion robocalls last year. Fifty-two billion are expected this year. The reduction may be due to recent changes by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC started requiring carriers to verify all incoming and outgoing calls. Even so, spam calls can be hard to recognize. I once got a call from a guy pretending to represent a local theater group. I should have hung up and called the theater instead of donating. Later I learned I’d been scammed. So the next time someone wants a donation and I’m inclined to give, I’ll hang up and call the organization myself. Here are a couple more tips I […]
Read more
Filed under: gadgets, spam, trends | Comments Off on AVOIDING SPAM CALLS
Posted on April 11th, 2022 by Joy Schwabach
Some people buy an Apple Watch just to monitor their health. But is it worth the $399 price tag? A reader said his doctor suggested he get one because it helped his other patients. In one case, the Watch noticed when its owner fell, and called 911. “Saved her life as it turned out,” he said. But according to experts, the Apple Watch is no substitute for medical-grade tools that do what the Watch claims to do: monitor blood pressure, test blood oxygen, and perform electrocardiograms. It’s marketed only as a “wellness” device, so it did not need FDA approval. Expensive as it is, to take your blood pressure, you’ll need a cuff to go with it, such as the […]
Read more
Filed under: apps, gadgets, games, Internuts, text messaging | Comments Off on GETTING A SMART WATCH FOR HEALTH REASONS
Posted on April 4th, 2022 by Joy Schwabach
I just whipped through my email in record time using “Shortwave” for Gmail. Shortwave was created by two guys from Google who figured out how to declutter everything. Ironically, Gmail is about to get even more cluttered. Take a look at the preview of the version rolling out this month. I love how Shortwave bundles similar emails together. That way, if the whole group looks like junk, I can sweep it off my plate in one fell swoop. This is stuff I normally would have looked at, wasted time on, been sorry I bothered. But when the subject line of a bundle gives me an instant idea of what’s inside, I have more will power. For example, in a subject […]
Read more
Filed under: apps, email, Gmail, Internuts, security, social networks | Comments Off on SHORTWAVE SOLVES THE GMAIL PROBLEM
