On Computers

A magician asked me to make him a website. But what about a free business page on Google, Facebook or both?  Years ago, I created a Google business page for testing purposes. Though people thought I was a computer store, I was still getting legitimate calls until I finally removed it. For small businesses, a free Google page is often enough. With a Google Business page, people can easily find you. For example, they could type “magician near me” to find my friend.  A Google or Facebook business page can include hours and services, as well as photos, videos and responses to good or bad reviews. Some restaurants use only a Facebook business page for their online menus. Over 200 […]

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Filed under: AI, art, career, facebook, Internuts, printer, security, TV, voice recognition, web, YouTube | Comments Off on NEED A WEBSITE?

A reader asked me how he might safely donate a computer to a local refurbishing group. “Our son-in-law takes the hard drive out and destroys it with a hammer,” he said. “Is that the best way?” Unless you have business secrets or a celebrity past, you probably don’t need to destroy or remove perfectly good equipment. Instead, try the free Windows program “Eraser,” which uses Department of Defense-level data destruction algorithms to get rid of files permanently. For Macs, there’s “Clean My MacX Shredder,” $40. Both are highly recommended by TechRadar. But for most people, a factory reset is enough. Even for an expert, it would take specialized software to restore your files after a reset, which often doesn’t work. […]

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Filed under: 3D Printing, AI, apps, art, career, printer, robots, science, security, text messaging, trends, voice recognition | Comments Off on GIVING AWAY OLD COMPUTERS

In its never ending struggle to conquer the world, Amazon is moving Alexa into your car. Well, maybe not your car, but a lot of cars. We have a couple things to say about that. Okay, maybe three things. For those who came into the movie late, Alexa is this know-it-all device you can ask about anything and it will often come up with the right answer and play music too. But it chops up classical pieces. (It’s best to imagine that somewhere in the middle of the Emperor Concerto, Beethoven dies, and that’s all he wrote.) Coming out in early February, the car version will plug into your cigarette lighter and all will be well with the world. The […]

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Filed under: Amazon, apps, gadgets, graphics, voice recognition | Comments Off on ALEXA IN THE CAR

We just played “Animal Trivia,” “World Foods Trivia” and “What’s Your Nickname” without touching a phone, computer or board game. We used Google Home, the digital assistant. We paid $130 when it first came out but now there’s a new version called the “Mini,” which you can get for $49. This matches the price for Amazon’s “Alexa.” Holiday shopping is on the horizon and people are going to be making decisions and price is often the deciding factor. So are there differences? You bet. Most would consider them slight, Bob thinks they’re enormous. Bob prefers Google. Joy on the other hand, thinks Alexa has lots of advantages. Whaddaya gonna do? She particularly likes an Alexa game called “Yes, Sire,” in […]

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Filed under: Amazon, apps, art, gadgets, Google, graphics, voice recognition | Comments Off on THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

“Crowd-sourcing,” also called “crowd-funding” is like found money. Instead of one sponsor, you have hundreds, perhaps thousands of strangers donating to your cause, with few strings attached. A new book, “The Crowd-sourceress” by Alex Daly, ($17 at PublicAffairsBooks.com) offers advice on how to do it. Over 100,000 projects have been funded by Kickstarter.com, one of several crowd funding services, since it began in 2009. We are talking big bucks here. It’s common to hit a couple hundred thousand and can sometimes bring in a couple million. This has even drawn the attention of major corporations, like Samsung, General Electric and Hasbro. Because after all, there’s no interest charge, unlike borrowing from a bank. Sometimes there’s also no accounting. When you […]

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Filed under: Amazon, apps, crowdfunding, education, Google, voice recognition | Comments Off on THE CROWD “SOURCERESS”

Google Home plays music, brings you news, puts videos on your TV and answers questions. “Internuts:” (interesting websites) include Lighter.world and a site for writers.

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Filed under: gadgets, Google, health, news, TV, video, voice recognition | Comments Off on SOMEONE IS LISTENING

Google Glass enthusiasts make it sound like everyone will soon be wearing a glasses frame able to project a tiny display. None of this is breakthrough technology; it’s dependent on massive storage capacity and ultra-fast processing by somebody’s data service somewhere, like Google, or the NSA.

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Filed under: electronics, gadgets, Google, voice recognition | Comments Off on GOOGLE GLASS COMPETITOR

People love to talk. Just look at all the TV shows that are about nothing else. But here in the computer world, we want to see that talk printed on the screen and the page. So, every time we mention a program for converting talk to text, we get a lot of reader response: Is it any good, they ask? Does it really work? People have a lot to say.

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Filed under: apps, voice recognition | Comments Off on JUST TALK NATURALLY

When the iPhone’s voice-activated personal assistant “Siri” came out, the reaction from reviewers was ecstatic delight. Wow, you could ask questions and the phone would answer; sometimes making wise-cracks.

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Filed under: Android, iPhone, voice recognition | Comments Off on BACK TALK FROM YOUR CELL PHONE

You probably know that the latest Apple iPhone 4S has “Siri” which responds to your voice. Owners of Android phones can get something similar, called Sonalight. Both these apps are free.

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Filed under: apps, text messaging, voice recognition | Comments Off on TEXTING WHILE DRIVING