On Computers

My women’s group wanted to see a live memorial service in New Hampshire on a big screen TV in Chicago. Here’s how I cast it from the church website to my TV. First, I went to the website in the Google Chrome browser on my Windows computer. Then I clicked the three vertical dots in the upper right and chose “cast.” Up popped my TV as one of the choices. The ladies were delighted. If you’re casting from an iPhone or iPad, you may need a TV with Apple TV built in, or at least one that’s compatible with AirPlay. Once you’ve got it, follow these steps. First, start up a video on your phone or tablet. Next, look for […]

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Filed under: AI, fitness, gadgets, Google, Internet, Internuts, TV, Windows | Comments Off on CASTING ANY WEBSITE TO YOUR TV

After the FTX bankruptcy debacle, people lost faith in cryptocurrency. Even I did, though I bought a sweater with bitcoin in 2017. It might be different if I lived in another country. Take Lebanon, for example. According to a report last month, people who try to get their cash out of a bank have to give up 85 percent of it.  CNBC quoted an architect who said he now gets 90 percent of his payments in bitcoin there, which he swaps for a “stablecoin” called tether, which he exchanges for US dollars. “One of the big attractions of cryptocurrency is its independence from governments and traditional financial institutions,” said Joel Ewing, the president of the Bella Vista computer club in […]

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Filed under: 3D Printing, crytpocurrency, environment, games, Gmail, TV, wireless | Comments Off on THE FUTURE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY

I’m saving over $200 a year on magazine subscriptions with a free app called “Libby.” All you need is a library card. Once you sign in to the Libby app, available on a phone, a tablet or at libbyapp.com, you get access to 4,034 magazines. They also have 23,748 audio books and 57,401 e-books. You can borrow up to ten books, ten audio books and ten magazines at once. I checked out People Magazine’s special edition on the Beatles, Time Magazine’s issue on the Roosevelts and The Economist. Normally, The Economist alone would cost me at least $99 a year. I also looked at Reader’s Digest, The New Yorker and The Week Magazine, though I already have the paper copies. […]

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Filed under: apps, gadgets, Google, Internuts, TV, Windows | Comments Off on USING AN APP TO SAVE ON MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS

Your smart TV has a lot more than Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Check out these channels for movies, documentaries and other, mostly free, stuff. If you don’t mind commercials, “Freevee” is a new, free channel from Amazon which can also be watched on the web. I tried it both ways, first watching on the web, then installing it from the Google Play Store on my TV, which I found under “apps.” It has a lot of kid favorites, like the animated dance movie “Leap,” as well as great selections for adults, like “Emma,” based on the book by Jane Austen, and “Knives Out,” starring the late great Christopher Plummer. When the Campbell’s soup commercial came on, I didn’t mind. I […]

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Filed under: apps, gadgets, text messaging, troubleshooting, TV | Comments Off on EXPLORING EXTRAS ON YOUR SMART TV

Which is better for watching movies, a TV or a projector? Years ago, a Moroccan invited me to his apartment to meet his wife and baby. After dinner, we watched a Jacques Tati movie. Rather than use a TV, he projected it from his computer onto a big white wall. It made perfect sense. Why bother with a TV when you can get a movie-size projection? A $100 projector can give you a 10-foot wide viewing area. I saw one from Epson, a quality brand, for  $70 on Amazon. But according to CNET, TVs are the better buy, thanks to a rapid drop in prices and improvements in technology. The big ones used to cost upwards of $10,000. Now you […]

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Filed under: apps, cheap calls, facebook, TV | Comments Off on TVS ARE BETTER THAN PROJECTORS

Windows is famous for its startling “blue screen of death.” I got a lighter shade recently. Then my hard drive died. I could have opened my PC, removed the hard drive and installed a new one. Instead, I asked the local repair shop to back up my files on an external drive and install an SSD. The SSD, or “solid state drive,” will be much faster and more reliable.  The shop charged $150 for the backup, much more than the $99 fee BestBuy charges. But that’s because the dying drive made it a slow recovery process. BestBuy’s price also varies with the ease of recovery.  The shop said that installation of the new drive would cost me $275. So before […]

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Filed under: apps, business, facebook, games, Internuts, TV, Windows | Comments Off on BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH PROVES DEADLY

You could pay $700 for a “Meural” art frame that shows off digital art. Or for $40, you could have 500 paintings on your TV. The “Billion Dollar Art Gallery” puts the world’s greatest art on a flash drive you stick into the back of your television. For me, watching the paintings go by in a spectacular video is better than seeing them in a museum or trying to put something together myself. The painting lingers for a moment before the title and artist info appears. Delightful music plays. I was enchanted. Not only did I see my favorite Renoir, Mary Cassatt, and Winslow Homer paintings, I saw lots of fantastic art I’d never seen before. If you pause the […]

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Filed under: Amazon, art, books, environment, gadgets, Internuts, TV | Comments Off on BILLION DOLLAR ART GALLERY ON A THUMB DRIVE

After 11 years, my friend’s computer conked out, due to a hard drive failure. I tried to talk her into replacing it with a refurbished PC. No dice. Her first thought was taking it to a repair shop. Angie’s List said it would cost $300 for the drive and installation.  Not only did that sound like too much, but an 11 year-old all-in-one PC with a bad hard drive is likely to have other problems. So she got an HP Elitedesk 800 G1 desktop, which came with a monitor and mouse for $324 from Walmart. I was glad to see it had eight gigabytes of RAM and an Intel i5 processor. (You can compare processors at CPUboss.com.) Unfortunately, the Elitedesk […]

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Filed under: computers, email, Gmail, Internuts, photos, TV | Comments Off on BUYING A RENEWED PC

I ignore Facebook friend requests from strangers unless I’m sure they’re faithful readers of this column. But some are tricky. An apparent captain of an enormous shipping line requested a connection. I thought for a minute it was a legitimate request. One of my friends, a savvy public speaker, was Facebook friends with him. I decided to investigate, in hopes of warning her if he turned out to be a fake. His Facebook photo, profile and name matched that of the captain he claimed to be, which I found on LinkedIn and on the shipping company’s website. So I accepted his request. Minutes later, I decided it was a risky experiment, so I unfriended and blocked him. That didn’t prevent […]

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Filed under: books, facebook, gadgets, photos, science, social networks, TV | Comments Off on FAUX FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK

Every year I consider dropping cable TV. Then I call AT&T and they offer me a deal. Using an ace negotiating technique — I simply ask– I got the bill down from $165 to $90  before it rose again. The discount ends every year if I don’t call to renew it. So this time I told AT&T: “ I don’t need cable; I have Amazon Prime and Netflix.” (If I miss “60 Minutes,” I’ll put rabbit ears on the set.)  AT&T offered me Internet-only service for $40 a month with a 1024 gigabyte limit. Is 1024 gigabytes enough? Currently, I’m averaging only 50 GB a month. What if I become a movie maniac? That’s OK too. A high-definition movie uses […]

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Filed under: browsers, Google, Internet, Internuts, text messaging, TV | Comments Off on NOT READY TO CUT THE CORD? THEN AT LEAST PAY LESS