Tech Geek and More
Technology Explained for All
Technology Explained for All
Jun 23rd
From a post earlier today on the Windows Team Blog (LINK: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2010/06/23/announcing-the-new-windows-live-essentials-beta.aspx (http://windowsteamblog NULL.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2010/06/23/announcing-the-new-windows-live-essentials-beta NULL.aspx) ), the latest version of Windows Live Essentials will be out tomorrow, June 24th.
The following Microsoft Video shows some of the latest features to Windows Live Essentials
Windows Live Essentials includes Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Sync and Family Safety. Essentials is available for free and in many cases may already be installed on your PC with Windows.
(http://windowsteamblog NULL.com/cfs-file NULL.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Blogs-Components-WeblogFiles/00-00-00-53-82-metablogapi/1537 NULL.Essentials_5F00_5BD7465E NULL.png)
In the upcoming release, we focused on achieving two important goals with Essentials:
Windows Live Essentials beta requires Windows Vista or Windows 7, and is available in English, French, Dutch, Japanese, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, or Spanish.
As previously announced (http://windowsteamblog NULL.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2010/06/02/preview-of-the-new-windows-live-essentials NULL.aspx), this release of Essentials is focused on two things: connecting Windows 7 to the cloud services you already use, and making everyday tasks simpler, so that you can do more on your PC.
Connecting Windows 7 to the cloud
We’ve designed Essentials to connect your Windows experience to the web services you already use – not just the ones from Microsoft. The new betas of Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Writer, and Messenger (http://explore NULL.live NULL.com/windows-live-messenger-beta) connect to photo and video sharing (SkyDrive (http://skydrive NULL.com), Flickr (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/), YouTube (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/), Facebook (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/), SmugMug (http://www NULL.smugmug NULL.com)), social networking (Facebook (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/), MySpace (http://www NULL.myspace NULL.com), Linkedin (http://www NULL.linkedin NULL.com)), email (Hotmail (http://www NULL.hotmail NULL.com/), Gmail (http://www NULL.gmail NULL.com), Yahoo! Mail (http://mail NULL.yahoo NULL.com)), blogging (Spaces (http://spaces NULL.live NULL.com), WordPress (http://wordpress NULL.com), Blogger (http://www NULL.blogger NULL.com)), and document productivity (Office Web Apps (http://office NULL.live NULL.com)) services. And the new Windows Live Sync keeps your files synchronized across multiple PCs and in the cloud. You can even directly access your PC over the web with Sync’s new remote desktop feature.
Making everyday tasks simpler and enabling new possibilities
People like to get creative on their PCs as much as they like seeing what everyone else has been up to. Whether it’s Retouch, Panoramic Stitch, or Photo Fuse in Photo Gallery, Auto Movie in Movie Maker, or Photo Mail in the new Windows Live Mail, we think you’ll be excited by the new additions to Essentials that make advanced tasks, well, easy. If you haven’t yet tried PhotoFuse to merge together the best of several photos, it’s a lot of fun. (http://techcrunch NULL.com/2010/06/02/microsoft-rolls-out-impressive-enhancements-to-windows-live-essentials-suite/)
As soon as the beta goes live tomorrow (we’ll update this blog post when it does), you’ll be able to get it from here (http://explore NULL.live NULL.com/windows-live-essentials-beta). (LINK: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta (http://explore NULL.live NULL.com/windows-live-essentials-beta))
Jun 21st
Stardock (LINK: http://www.stardock.com/ (http://www NULL.stardock NULL.com/), a pc software company specializing in Windows experience software and PC games, has come up with a filter to block the sound of the VuVuzela for those watching any of the online streams of the World Cup. The filter called Devuvuzelator does not require actual installation can be downloaded at (LINK) http://www.stardock.com/labs/devuvuzelator/ (http://www NULL.stardock NULL.com/labs/devuvuzelator/)
Here is the explanation from the site about the Devuvuzelator
I tried it with one of this mornings matches and it works very well. Unfortunately this software is Windows only.
Jun 20th
Hello everyone,
Thank you for visiting TechGeekandMore.com (TGM). Over that past year and a half, this project has taken a life of its own. When I 1st started TGM, I figured that it could be a way that I could keep my tech skills sharp, while allowing me to pass helpful information to family, friends, and whomever stumbled across my little ol’ site. Honestly the fact that I now average about 5000 page views a month still BLOWS MY MIND (OK that may still seem like a small number to some but to me its huge).
Since I can remember, as soon as someone found out that I’m a computer guy when shopping or at a party or just out on the street, I would always get the “Oh can I ask you a question”……. I guess its the same thing if your a doctor, or lawyer, or well you get the idea. Many of the posts on TGM since the beginning started with someone “asking a question” when I was out and about.
As well as running TGM, I too and a constant web surfer, and when I surf, I hate going to sites where you have to search for the story among all the ads or even worse ads in between each paragraph of the story that I’m reading. I always said that I wanted to keep TGM different. So far TGM shows 1 ad and it is located at the bottom of the main page. The ad is for iDrive, a very good online backup service that TGM recommends. TGM is a paid partner/reseller for iDrive, however, we would still recommend it even if we weren’t.
Now comes the part when I need to ask those of you who visit TGM for help. I don’t want to make TGM look like all the other sites, filled with ads all over the place, but the costs of running TGM is getting a little high and even though I am a computer “Geek”, in this economy I’m not getting paid (from my real job) like I used to be. So I’m asking those visitors to TGM that can afford to donate anything at all ($1, $2, $5, $10, or anything at all), if you could please consider helping me and TGM out. On the top right corner of the site you will see the “Help Support TGM” donate button. This will lead to the PayPal page for TGM, your donations are secure thru PayPal.
I hope that TechGeekandMore has been able to help resolve your computer issues, or at least educate you so that your tech life is a little easier. With your help, I hope to be able to continue this.
Again to all the visitors to Tech Geek and More – Thank You
Alex Novelo – Head of Tech Geek and More
Jun 12th
Adobe has released an update to its Flash Player (New Version 10.1) and Adobe AIR software to correct 32 issues that could lead to everything from the application / your computer crashing all the way to someone else (“Bad Guy”) being able to take control of your computer. The bad guys in the past week figured out how to use the vulnerabilities to be able to infect peoples computers, this update corrects those issues.
This Adobe advisory (http://www NULL.adobe NULL.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb10-14 NULL.html) outlines the severity:
Critical (http://www NULL.adobe NULL.com/devnet/security/security_zone/severity_ratings NULL.html) vulnerabilities have been identified in Adobe Flash Player version 10.0.45.2 and earlier. These vulnerabilities could cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.
The vulnerabilities in this patch batch affects all major operating systems: Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris; Adobe AIR 1.5.3.9130 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
**NOTE THAT THIS ISSUE DOES AFFECT SOFTWARE INSTALLED ON WINDOWS, MAC, AND LINUX.
Here are some things to keep in mind.
- If you have more than 1 browser installed on your computer (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc), you MUST check this on each one of the browsers, even if you only use one. Check on any that are installed.
- You need to verify the Adobe Flash Player version number installed on your system, Adobe recommends that users access the About Flash Player page (http://www NULL.adobe NULL.com/products/flash/about/), or right-click on content running in Flash Player and select “About Adobe (or Macromedia) Flash Player” from the menu.
- In addition, check on your installed programs list (Windows Users – Start-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features). Check and see that it doesn’t list multiple installs of either Adobe Flash or Adobe AIR. If it does from that screen highlight –> select uninstall to all but the latest one.
- If you would like to make absolutely sure that all older copies of Adobe Flash are uninstalled or if you are having issues doing the upgrade, go to the Adobe knowledge base page (tn_14157) which is at (LINK) http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html (http://kb2 NULL.adobe NULL.com/cps/141/tn_14157 NULL.html) and download the Adobe Uninstaller. This will go thru your computer and automatically delete all versions of Adobe Flash. Then you can just install the latest version.
- The following 2 links are the direct downloads from Adobe for Flash (NOTE that 1 link is for Internet Explorer and the other is for the rest of the Browsers).
http://fpdownload.ad…h_player_ax.exe (http://fpdownload NULL.adobe NULL.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax NULL.exe) (IE)
http://fpdownload.ad…lash_player.exe (http://fpdownload NULL.adobe NULL.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player NULL.exe) (All other browsers)
Keeping your computer safe is not just about updating the Operating System and having an Anti-Virus program. These days the bad guys are looking for anyway into your system. Imagine that when you left your home, you locked all your doors, but left a Window unlocked because the lock was broken. A bad guy could use that Window to get inside. So what would you do, replace the lock of course. This issue with software is the computer version of just that situation.
Jun 11th
Here is a quick note about the Qik video chat program that comes on the HTC EVO 4G by default. IT NEEDS AN UPGRADE. The version that comes with the phone does not work with the 2 camera set up that the EVO uses. The front facing camera will not work with the system. If you have an EVO and plan to do video calls, you will need to run this update 1st. To get the update, go to the Android market place and search for Qik. Then on the list that you get, look for the version that specifically says that its for the “EVO 4G”. Once you see it. select it for download and run the install. That is all there is to correcting this issue.
Jun 11th
Once of the big questions with the NEW Sprint EVO 4G involves the battery performance. I have had a couple of people tell me that they can get 7 or 8 hours of good use out of the battery, while others have said that its been less than 1 hour of good use before needing to recharge again.
I have only had my phone for 1 day**, and so far I got 12 really good hours of use, but I went in and turned off everything I wasn’t using when I 1st got the phone. The following information from Sprint (LINK: http://support.sprint.com/support/article/Improve_battery_performance_on_your_HTC_EVO_4G/case-wh164052-20100601-130442?&INTNAV=SU:DP:HDIA (http://support NULL.sprint NULL.com/support/article/Improve_battery_performance_on_your_HTC_EVO_4G/case-wh164052-20100601-130442?&INTNAV=SU:DP:HDIA)) is what I used as a guide to what to turn off.
Last Updated: Jun 09, 2010
Battery performance depends on many factors, including network configuration, signal strength, the temperature of the environment in which you operate your phone, the features and/or settings you select and use, items attached to connecting ports, and your usage patterns for voice, data and other programs.
There are several differences between other phones and your new HTC EVO™ 4G that can impact your battery life:
Because of all these new wonderful capabilities and features, it is up to you to manage your battery life experience. Here’s how!
Multiple radios
The multiple radios use battery life even when you are not using them. To improve battery life, turn off your Bluetooth, GPS, 4G, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi hotspot if you are not using them.
Preloaded widgets are available for your Home screen to conveniently monitor use of radios:
Live Wallpaper and backlight settings
Live Wallpaper uses significantly more battery than standard wallpapers when your screen is ON
Email Applications Settings
Preloaded Applications
There are several preloaded applications which update based on frequency settings:
These applications have a settings menu that typically can be accessed by using the Menu button while you are in the application. In the settings menu there is an item called Update Schedule
(Menu > Settings > Update Schedule; this may slightly vary from App to App).
In general, the less frequently you allow these applications to update, the better your battery life. If you find there are applications you don’t use at all, for the best battery life experience, configure the application to either not sync at all or to sync at the lowest frequency. You can also end the application or service by going to the Running Services Widget mentioned above.
Google Talk
When you sign up for the Google Market or Gmail with your Gmail account information, you are also signed in to the Google Talk instant messaging application. The Talk application tracks the presence of your Google Talk contacts in order to let you know who is available to instant message. Each presence change uses power, even if you do not have the Talk application open.
If you do not use Talk on your device or do not mind if it is only operating when you actually have the application open, then you can eliminate this extra battery consumption:
Note: Make sure you always exit the application by selecting Sign Out to reduce battery consumption. Exiting the application by use of the back or home keys will not sign you out and battery life will not be improved.
4G
The 4G radio should only be turned on when the improved network speed is required for an application, such as YouTube, Web Browsing or Sprint Mobile Hotspot. When not in use, it’s important to use the built-in 4G widget to turn the 4G radio OFF.
If you have your 4G radio ON, but are no longer in 4G coverage, then your device will be scanning in an attempt to re-acquire the 4G network. Your battery can be significantly drained by scanning, so if you know you will be out of 4G coverage for an extended period of time or if you are not acquiring a 4G signal as indicated in the task bar, it is important to turn your 4G radio OFF.
Even when in 4G markets, particularly when mobile, you may be going in and out of 4G coverage. If you notice that you do not have a 4G signal at any point in time, turning off the 4G radio will save you significant battery life. Simply turn it back on to check for 4G coverage when you are back in 4G coverage.
To check for the latest 4G coverage in your area, click here (http://shop NULL.sprint NULL.com/en/stores/popups/4G_coverage_popup NULL.shtml).
3rd-Party Applications
Be especially cautious with all 3rd-party applications that you download from the Android Market. Often times these applications have not been designed with battery life in mind. Many of these applications significantly impact your battery life and quite often they remain running even when you exit the application. It’s important for you to understand the behavior of all the applications you download and to: