Home Page News

I miss my Google homepage. It was a place where I could quickly see News, Weather, Sports, E-mails, and Facebook all on one dashboard. Well good news! I found a replacement. One that tries to mimic the iGoogle page and comes pretty close. It's called igHome http://www.ighome.com.

You can drag and drop the widgets to place them just like the iGoogle page only igHome seems even easier. I'm just getting started but within a few minutes I had an acceptable page set up. News, Weather, E-mail, Facebook, Linkedin, and Google+. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Talk To Your Computer - Now!

It may seem like science fiction but the day is coming when you will interface with your computer via speech. This change has begun. Having a computer understand human speech is a very complicated task. Primarily because people speak in so many different ways, and various quality levels. Still some of the most talented people on earth are working on the problems. I think you will see a day when the keyboard is only used for very special applications. Maybe you've noticed it happening already. I talk to my car to place hands free calls. Do Google searches using voice search.

I need to work with Siri on the iPhone & iPad. Don't wait for this technology to come to you. If you can speak clearly you can start using it now. If your using the keyboard effectively you had to learn to type. The mouse took some getting used to. That whole vertical to horizontal conversion thing. Why wait for speech recognition to come to you? Start learning to talk to your computer today!

Air Droid an Android App You May Want

I installed a new app on my phone this morning. It's called Airdroid. It allows you to access everything about your Android phone from your browser on your computer (so any computer with internet access should work Windows/Mac/Chromebook/Linux). The screen looks like this...

In the picture I'm sending a text via my phone but using the keyboard on my computer. I also pulled up pictures, and my contact list from my phone onto my computer screen in my Chrome browser. After installing, running the app, and signing up on your phone. Just go to http://web.airdroid.com/ on your browser and sign in. Your phone is quickly accessible from your computer.

Click Here to go to the Google Play Store page for Airdroid.

Android Security You Should Use

You can locate your phone, have it sound off (even if muted), lock it from use, and even wipe it to make it useless.

On your Android phone find an icon labeled Google Settings. Open the app and select both Remotely locate this device and the Allow remote lock and factory reset check boxes. Touch the Activate button.

From your browser goto https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager. Log into your account and your device(s) will show up. You now have absolute control over your phone.

Adobe Password Reset

I received this email today. Millions of other Adobe users will also receive the same email. If you do you should heed what it says. Besides regular Adobe products you may see an effect of ebooks, due to Adobe being the primary provider of Digital Rights Management (DRM) for epub ebooks.

Coming Back Soon

Due to changing addresses I've been unable to post. I will be back soon.

For longer battery life, change these iOS 7 settings | How To - CNET

This information is too good not to post a link. If you have a iOS7 device. An iPhone or iPad updated to the new iOS7 battery saving tips. Click this link and read the article.

For longer battery life, change these iOS 7 settings | How To - CNET:

'via Blog this'

Windows 8

I held a class on Windows 8 this week. Eleven people came. When I asked how many of them currently used Windows 8 ten hands went up. The follow up question was "How many of you like Windows 8?" No hands went up. There was a collective giggle across the room. You could tell every one of them was relieved to find that they were not alone in their disappointment with the newest Microsoft operating system. To reenforce that I told them that they were not alone. That the reviews were not good, and that Microsoft's Windows 8 tablet had cost them a $900 Million write down. That the stock had plummeted as a result, and recovered with the announcement of Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer's retirement.
As I described how Microsoft had tried to unite a tablet operating system with a desktop operating system you could read lips around the room "oh that's why it's like that". Then I told them some keyboard shortcuts that would improve navigation. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/keyboard-shortcuts
Finally we looked at how they could have the start button back, with a program called Classic Shell.
http://www.classicshell.net/ If you have Windows 8 and you don't like it don't worry your not alone.