I remember when my sister used a stand-alone photo printer to print photos at her son’s birthday party so the guests could take them home immediately. Now you can get one that’s as small as your cell phone.

The Canon “Ivy Mini Photo Printer for Smartphones” is the best pocket-sized printer for parties, according to an extensive review by TheVerge.com. Kids love the photo stickers it prints, and adults may appreciate having new faces to stick on their refrigerator. On Amazon, the printer is $99, but I saw the same ones on eBay, brand new, for $55.

The prints are about the size of credit cards, two-by-three inches. You don’t have to use their peel-and-stick backing; just peel it off when you want a sticker. Each print costs about 50 cents. Fifty sheets of “Zink” paper are $24.

Blocking Robocalls with an App

Seniors are the hardest hit when it comes to robocalls. But the free app “HiYa,” does a good job of blocking them.

According to Mashable, HiYa is better than any other call-blocking app they tested. It has no ads, even in the free version. Unfortunately, the free version doesn’t block spammers automatically. It labels them so you can block them.

There’s a three-day free trial of the HiYa Premium, then it’s $25 a year. It can identify up to 1.5 million callers, and you can look up as many as 200 business and personal names each month, blocking whole area codes and prefixes.

But for me, it’s not cell phone spam that’s the main annoyance. I avoid robocallers by not giving my number out willy nilly. As for landline spam, I use the internet phone service provided by MagicJack. MagicJack has a clever call-blocking method. After you activate it, an automated voice will ask each caller to tap a number before it will connect. Spammers can’t do it, since they use auto-dialers. Since I started using it, I haven’t had a single robocall.

If you don’t have a landline, you can buy one at Amazon, Ace Hardware, Office Depot and other stores for between $10 and $25. The MagicJack device costs $50, then it’s $43 a year for the service. Set up is easy: Connect your phone line to the MagicJack device, then plug in an Ethernet cable and connect it to your router. If you run into problems, call tech support. It’s great. By the way, you can also answer landline calls through the MagicJack app on your cell phone whenever you’re in WiFi range.

Smart Watch Allergy

“The band on the smart watch you reviewed is good,” wrote a reader, “but my wife and I are allergic to it. It itches us.” He wasn’t sure if the band could be replaced. Yes, it can.

The smartwatch I reviewed, the Fit Vii, which costs $37 to $48 on Amazon, has a little pin on the back where the band meets the watch. If you slide it down its mini slot, the band pops off.

Likewise, the band on an Apple Watch can be replaced. Hold down the band-release button, then slide the band across to remove it. For a Fitbit, slide the flat button toward the band to pop it out. You can measure your current watchband with a metric ruler, so you know how many millimeters wide the replacement watchband should be.

Recycling Old Tech

I used to have big boxes of old cables and other tech stuff that I donated to Goodwill. But it would have been faster and easier to ship it off by UPS. I just learned that Amazon will do it for free.

All you have to do is box it up and print out the label they provide. Amazon will remove any personal info you’ve left behind on the device. Unfortunately, they don’t accept big items, like computers. Go to amazonrecycling-us.re-teck.com and click “Get started” to see the list of stuff they do accept, such as mice and keyboards. For things you bought on Amazon, try their trade-in program instead. They’ll send you a gift card for it.

Auctioning Off Tech Relics

Ever want to own a prototype of the Apple I computer? At RRauction.com, the bids have pushed the price beyond $400,000.

In 1976, Steve Jobs showed off this prototype to Paul Terrell, the owner of The Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, one of the first personal computer stores in the world. That led to Apple’s first big order, after Terrell suggested that Jobs and Steve Wozniak create a fully-assembled computer, not just a do-it-yourself kit.

Also on RRAuction.com is a TRS-80 computer Bill Gates personally used. When I looked, it was selling for around $2800. The site also has a lot of non-tech stuff, like a handwritten manuscript from Vincent Van Gogh. The bid for that was over $14,000 when I checked. I also saw a signed Elvis Presley photo going for over $11,000.

Browser Tip

If you’re using a computer to browse the web, and accidentally close a tab, hold down the “Ctrl” and “Shift” keys in Windows and tap the letter “T” to bring it back. On a Mac, substitute “Command” for “Ctrl.” Works with Chrome, Firefox, Edge and other browsers.

Internut

“The Best Affordable Windows Laptops.” Search on that phrase to see Engadget’s best recommendations. They chose the Acer Aspire 5, $460 from Adorama, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14, $400 from Walmart.com, and the Surface Laptop Go 2, $570 at Microsoft.com. I still like my Chromebook.

 

 

 

Filed under: Amazon, browsers, cameras, cheap calls, gadgets, Internuts, wearables, web