On Computers

My nine year-old Okidata color laser printer spews pale pink ink all over my documents and makes a black streak on the side of every page. Should I dump it or have it fixed? The Okidata tech support guy said the drum is busted, done in by the cheap toner I bought. I’d been buying knockoff toner from Amazon ever since I discovered that a full set of certified Okidata cartridges costs over $400. But those cartridges can print 6,500 pages in magazine quality, perfect for my greeting cards. The cheap toners don’t last and have lousy color, in my experience. In December, for example, I spent $55 on a set from “EasyPrint.” Six months later, one of the four […]

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Filed under: Amazon, games, Google, Internuts, photos, printer, text messaging, word processing | Comments Off on CHEAP TONER RUINS LASER PRINTER

The Lyft app often gets my pickup point wrong. Sometimes, I have to walk to a popular restaurant in order to be found. I had an awful time at the airport recently. When I put in the name, O’Hare International, the app should have prompted me to choose a specific pickup zone. It didn’t do that, so I typed in O’Hare’s address. What a mistake. The driver never came near to where I was standing. In the cold frosty air, I twiddled my frozen thumbs. I texted him repeatedly to say I was in “Green Zone D.” I also left a voicemail. When he called me back, I shouted “Green Zone D” over and over. The connection was faulty but […]

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Filed under: apps, business, drones, social networks, word processing | Comments Off on GETTING A LYFT

I asked a friend who has arthritis in his hands and feet to test a cordless massage gun. He gave it a pleasantly-massaged thumbs-up. A good massage increases circulation, decreases pain and removes stiffness. My friend reported back: “The Merach Pocket Nano Massage Gun is better than my Wahl Heat Therapy Therapeutic Massager, with one caveat. The hard plastic tips work well enough on muscles and fleshy parts, but pose a problem for bony parts. For instance, I usually run my massager over the tops of my hands. With this, I can only comfortably do my palms.” But it turned out that massaging the palms worked its magic all the way through to the bony parts as well. It also […]

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Filed under: Android, gadgets, health, Internuts, video, word processing | Comments Off on MASSAGE GUN GETS A THUMBS UP

Normally, we use the editing tools at Photos.Google.com to crop or enhance our pictures. But recently we discovered PicsArt.com for free special effects and templates. You don’t have to create an account to use the site, and you might not want to. We saw several complaints at commonsensemedia.org. Some users said that after using the link at PicsArt to share their creations, they were bombarded with pornographic images from other members. One user complained of signing up for a “free trial” for certain templates which turned into a $48 charge on their credit card. We tried signing up at the site but none of that happened to us. The PicsArt app has 130 million active users, according to Wikipedia. We […]

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Filed under: Amazon, art, graphics, Internuts, photos, video, virus, word processing | Comments Off on REPLACING THE BACKGROUND

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. Blah! Blah, Blah, Blah. If you say this when you call tech support, you could be practicing a George Gershwin song. But in fact, you want to talk to a person. We got this tip from a savvy reader who told us that if you just keep saying “Blah” when the robot comes on the line and asks you what you want, you’ll eventually get a person. The robot’s initial response will be “I didn’t understand. Would you please repeat it?” Go ahead. Give it more Blah. If you keep at it – not for long – the robot will say “Let me get you someone to help you.” Hallelujah! That’s why you called in the […]

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Filed under: gadgets, Internuts, word processing, YouTube | Comments Off on GETTING A HUMAN

Joy’s Pixel 2 smartphone was blasted by a worker with a hose when she left it in a zip-up container by the side of the pool.  Google sent a free replacement, but it wouldn’t make calls. We went through many layers of tech support,  chats, email, and phone calls. The phone kept saying “no mobile networks.” In the meantime, we  discovered a free app called “Hangouts Dialer.” With it, you can make free calls over WiFi. We’d already been using Google Hangouts, which brings our voice mail messages and texts inside Gmail. To get our phone working, Google sent us a physical SIM card to use instead of the “eSIM” we started with. This made us wonder:  “What’s an eSIM […]

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Filed under: apps, cheap calls, health, Internuts, word processing | Comments Off on SIMPLY SIM

A reader writes: “My Norton anti-virus is coming up for renewal and  I’m thinking of trying to go for free with Avast anti-virus. Is that what you guys use and, if so, are you reasonably happy with it?” We’re not surprised that he thought we were using Avast,  because our last two mentions were positive. Avast won PC Magazine’s “Editor’s Choice” award in the freebie category. Techlicious recommends its cell phone app. But one of our readers said he got overcharged by Avast tech support. And our favorite tech guru said: “I have heard about this. Avast is outsourcing their tech support to scammers! Someone told me that they followed the support links from Avast only to get a scammer […]

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Filed under: anti-virus, apps, Internuts, security, spam, spreadsheet, virus, word processing | Comments Off on THE RIGHT ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

We’ve never written about headphones before because we were never impressed before. And that’s because every time a new set came out, bingo, every writer in America was immediately notified. But “SleepPhones,” $40 from Acoustic Sheep, (see them leaping the fence?), answers something we’ve all wondered about. How do we learn Zulu in our sleep? Acoustic Sheep makes a cloth headband with tiny equipment inside. Wear them to bed; they’re as comfy as any soft headband. Though designed for listening to music, Nature sounds or audio books as you fall off to sleep, Joy likes it for yoga. To avoid waking Bob, Joy sometimes puts it on her head in the middle of the night, whenever she has excess energy. […]

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Filed under: Amazon, fitness, gadgets, music, word processing | Comments Off on SOFT IN THE HEAD

Our friend Olga called us from the Dominican Republic, using the free app, “WhatsApp.” It’s a great way for travelers to avoid having to buy a local SIM card for their phone, or face expensive roaming charges. But we’ve often wondered what other advantages WhatsApp has, considering all the alternatives, including Skype. One big one is simplicity. Because WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, you automatically see Facebook friends who use it. With Skype, you must know the person’s user name. Our friend Olga didn’t use her last name so she was particularly hard to find on Skype, but easy to find on WhatsApp. However, call quality on Skype is usually better. You can use either one for a video chat, […]

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Filed under: Amazon, apps, batteries, career, cheap calls, Microsoft, numbers, word processing | Comments Off on WHAT’S APP, DOC?

Many readers have written to rave about the search engine “DuckDuckGo,” because it promises privacy as you search the web. But we learned that it’s only partially private. DuckDuckGo itself doesn’t track your movements, but you can still be “seen” by the websites you visit, for marketing purposes. An alternative is Startpage.com. Search on anything and when the results come up, click “Anonymous View” next to the site you wish to visit. Your computer’s address will be masked. So will your location, your browser, operating system and personal information.  So … when you go on Facebook or Twitter, those sites can’t share your activities with the websites that advertise with them. We actually don’t mind advertisers collecting data on us, […]

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Filed under: apps, trends, web, word processing | Comments Off on WHO’S ANONYMOUS?