APPLE VISION PRO: A HEAVY WEIGHT ON YOUR FACE

Everyone and his dog are saying how uncomfortable the new Apple Vision Pro headset is. But what else would you expect when you strap a pound-and-a-half object to your face? Apple hasn’t revealed the exact weight yet, but 1.5 pounds is a good estimate, says tech expert David Pogue. If the weight doesn’t get to you after 20 minutes, the motion sickness and eye strain will. Or so say the people who returned the $3500 product, according to theVerge. Newbies may be wondering exactly what the Vision Pro does. Basically, it combines both virtual reality and augmented reality. When in VR, you’re totally immersed in a setting other than the one you’re actually in. When in AR, you can still […]

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EARBUD COMPANIES NOW SELL HEARING AIDS

Why are the new over-the-counter hearing aids so much cheaper than the traditional kind? Because you don’t have to pay an audiologist. Two-thirds of a hearing aid’s typical $5000 price goes for an audiologist’s professional fitting, follow-up treatment, and maintenance. But last October, the Food and Drug Administration’s ruling went into effect, allowing you to buy them without a medical exam, prescription, or professional fitting.  The Bose company, well-known for home theater and earbuds, gets great reviews for its hearing aids as well. Their over-the-counter “Lexie” models range in price from $749 to $999. Around 97 percent of users say they can hear music better, including treble tones they haven’t heard in years, according to lexiehearing.com. Around 91 percent say […]

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COPY THAT

A reader says he uses the free LibreOffice as a Microsoft Word equivalent, but wishes he had an “extended clipboard.” That’s a program that lets you keep copying items from the web or elsewhere without losing the first thing you copied. He writes: “If I can’t find some program or add-on that will let me send 10-20 items to a clipboard to then mass paste to a Word document or spreadsheet, looks like I will be forced to buy from Microsoft. Prior to Windows 10, I had been using Office XP Pro for many years on all my computers. Any suggestions?” We suggested “Comfort Clipboard,” free for 30 days and then a one-time charge of $20. The reader says: “I […]

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CAPTURING THE SCREEN

After extensive research – we talked to several people – we found that most people don’t know how to capture what they see on the computer. This is shocking but true. Why would you want to do that in the first place? Well, if you can capture the screen image or any part of it, you can print that out, email it, use it yourself, or post it to Facebook. Somewhere in all that there may be a copyright involved; so it you think there is, don’t do it without permission. You can capture anything you see on your computer screen. No exceptions. And there are lots of different tools for doing it. What’s more, you can add comments, include […]

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THE FREE GIFT LIST

Years ago we would do a gift guide at this time of year, but we gave it up. Why? One reason is everyone and their Uncle Max does them and you can’t help but see several such lists each holiday season. The other reason is Bob came to distrust them.

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OUR FAVORITE FREE PROGRAMS

Our readers like free and so do we. Here are a few of our favorites. The free VLC Media Player from Download.com  is great for playing back audio and video files that your computer can’t handle. The audio files Joy recorded on her new Android smartphone, for example, weren’t playable on the PC. But the VLC player handled them easily on both Mac and PC. To make and send the recording, she tapped “attachment” from the phone’s email window and then “Voice recorder.” She tested it by  interviewing Bob about the stock market. Our two favorite free security apps have versions for Windows or Mac. Anti-Malware from Malwarebytes.org is a great program for blocking and getting rid of spyware. To […]

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IMAGE MAKING

A reader with an image problem loved our suggestion that he download “Screen Hunter,” a free program for capturing anything you see on your screen.

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REMOTE VIEWING

The easiest way to get help in solving a problem on your computer is to let a helper see your screen and take over the computer from afar. TeamViewer is a free program …

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CAPTURE THE SCREEN

Screen Hunter is a free screen capture program from download.com.

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BE A CAPTURE WIZARD

Create training videos with CaptureWiz, or capture video off the web.

(CLICK UNDERLINE BELOW HEADING FOR MORE DETAILS.)

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