TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

Too many people are trying to steal your data, whether it's on your computer or stored on-line. We all have a duty to be cautious, so let's consider how. In Short Circuits: If you have an old computer or other electronic device that still works, you can sell it. But what if it's broken? You may still be able to sell it and keep it out of a landfill. Some electric utilities make it possible to keep an eye on real-time usage. An update to Adobe Audition has added several new features. One of them is small but uncommonly useful. In Spare Parts (only on the website): LampLess projectors still have light sources, so are they really "lampless"? Maybe it depends on your definition. • Amazon can now deliver packages to your car if you live in one of 50 specific cities, have a current Acura RDX, and park it in the right place.

You may be surprised by the price of the best camera in the world, but extensive research and testing have revealed that it probably costs less than you would expect. In Short Circuits: If your Windows 10 computer seems slow, it might be the result of having too many applications open in the background. Far too many developers think their app should run all the time, but it's easy to turn off the ones you don't want. Police departments are using social media and some have even developed apps for mobile phones with the objective of making people aware of police activities. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Sudden panic about a photo app that's been around for two years is unwarranted but it does raise some valid questions. • Youngstown is about to lose its newspaper and an experiment in electronic journalism will take its place. • A new round of idiocy is circulating on Facebook, calling for people to copy and paste some word-salad text to keep Facebook from using their photos. As with most of these, it clearly a fraud.

If you're struggling with Microsoft Word or Publisher to create newsletters and other publications, Affinity Publisher might be just what you need. Surprisingly, it's also good for much larger documents. In Short Circuits: As a follow-up to this week's review of Affinity Publisher, let's take a look back at how much publishing has changed since the mid-1980s when the first electronic typesetting applications came to desktop computers. If you sometimes see page not found errors when you try to connect to a website, it's not your fault. It is, however, something you can fix. In Spare Parts (only on the website): As useful as Google Backup and Sync is, sometimes it doesn't sync or back up and you'll have to find a way to fix it. • Mobile internet speeds in the United States are improving, but we we're still in 40th place worldwide.

For most of us, Windows 10 is Microsoft's best operating system, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved. Let's take a look at some ways that you can modify a few settings or learn a few tricks that will make it better. In Short Circuits: In a few days Google will modify how Photos and Drive interact with each other. Changes made in one location will no longer be reflected in the other. That's the way it should have been all along, but the change will probably cause some confusion. Starting more than a year ago, Microsoft stopped making backups of the Registry as a way to make the operating system consume less disk space. That decision might make you nervous; if so, there are two ways to fix it. In Spare Parts (only on the website): When the power goes out, a UPS unit can save the day and good home units are available for less than $100. • Small businesses and home businesses often fail to prepare for a cyberattack. If this describes you, consider two points that are important to your financial survival.

If you like the idea of combining multiple photos to create a cool high-dynamic-range look, but haven't been able to get the results you want, now would be a good time to take a look at Aurora HDR from Skylum. It works as a standalone application or as a plug-in for Adobe's applications. In Short Circuits: Facebook constantly adds features I don't want and displays far more ads than seems reasonable. Social Fixer makes Facebook tolerable by removing stories, games, and other components you don't like. I've encountered another laughable porn scam. Let's take a look at the email and see why it's obviously a phony. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Microsoft's safety features make recovering from a problematic update easier than in the past, but the leftover files can get in the way. You can remove them. • Notepad is a handy Windows utility. Notepad++ is even better and it's free.

After trying to convince Windows users that its own proprietary display engine was better than the ones used by Chrome and Firefox, Microsoft has given up on EdgeHTML. The next version of Edge will be based on Chromium. In Short Circuits: Recently released updates to Adobe Lightroom Classic include a powerful new feature that most people probably won't use, but those who care deeply about color purity will be delighted. For the majority of users, a new Texture slider will have more appeal and Adobe says that automatic adjustments have been improved. No matter how fast your computer is, you probably wish it could be faster. Let's consider a couple of options to make it so. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Previewed at last year's Max conference, Adobe Gemini will be known as Fresco and is coming soon. • Big changes for the New York City subways and buses as the MTA works to convert from plastic Metro Cards to a system that accepts payment from electronic wallets and various kinds of payment cards.

I'm a proponent of password managers, but I've chosen to switch from one password manager to another even though the one I'm switching from is still a worthwhile and viable application. In Short Circuits: When I receive an email account deactivation notice, I instantly recognize it as phony because I am my own email system administrator, but what if you receive a deactivation message that seems to be from your ISP or from the corporate email manager? Some of the new top-level domains (ICU, for example) seem to have only spammers and scammers as clients. I have a solution. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Sony is now a respected camera manufacturer and the company has more than 50 lenses for their digital SLRs, which puts the company on par with Nikon and Canon. • United Airlines is rolling out an application that's designed to help passengers get to connecting flights even if their inbound flight arrives late for a tight connection.

After stumbling more than a little with the initial 2019 release of PhotoRaw, On1 has remedied most of the performance problems with the 2019.5 release. In Short Circuits: Not content to interfere only with US elections, Russia is now actively opposing development of 5G cellular networks in the United States with disinformation campaigns while encouraging 5G development in Russia. Scaremongers have been spreading concern about cellular signals and Wi-Fi for years even though there is no scientific evidence to support their outlandish claims. Your smart phone probably does a good job with high dynamic range photographs, but a real cameera (even a point-and-shoot camera) can do even better. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Apple is splitting ITunes into 3 separate applications and there's finally a new Mac Pro for those who need desktop power, but at a huge price. • Flipboard has been hacked. Although the service doesn't store any important information about users, there's still a cautionary tale here.

Tech support seems a lot more complex than it really is. Once you realize that hardware and software companies really don't want to hear your tech support questions, the path to solving your own problems becomes clearer. In Short Circuits: Windows 10 version 1903 should have been released in March, but it's just now being pushed out. If your computer hasn't yet been updated and you wonder why, let's explore that topic. What's in 1903? There are some useful features and you may think that one of my favorites is downright silly. If so, I'll have to agree with you. Windows users can choose from 3 text-based consoles now. Do we need them? We do and I'll explain why. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Maybe you thought you'd never use high school math, but you found that's wrong and Texas Instruments is rewarding exceptional math teachers. • Prices for security cameras continue to drop and they are now well within the reach of most people. • Sometimes virtual reality is better than real reality. Let's think about that for a moment.

Luminar is a new photo editing application. Although it may not yet be a serious competitor for Adobe's Lightroom Classic, it does offer some useful features and works with Lightroom. In Short Circuits: Fans of magazines will find two on-line options worth checking out: Apple News Plus (formerly Texture), which has a $10 monthly fee, and Flipster, which is available for free to patrons of many libraries. Microsoft has an easy way to add emoticons to any document or email, but still lags when it comes to adding more common symbols. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Robocall scams are becoming more prevalent and senior citizens are proving to be lucrative targets for the scammers. • One manufacturer of drones will be adding new safety features to many of its products.

TechSmith has added two features to Camtasia that anyone who makes instructional or promotional videos will doubtless want. In Short Circuits: Increasing numbers of crooks want to install malware on your computer and they're getting better at doing it. Fake Facebook accounts seem to be on the rise. You may receive a friend request from someone who is already your friend. That's just one of several ploys used by "Fakebook" mongers. In Spare Parts (only on the website): This week, a look at why you need to update your WhatsApp application if you haven't done so already. • And Microsoft tried to do it in 2015 but will, without question, end all support for Windows 7 in January of 2020.

Email continues to be the most common vector for distributing malware and attached documents slip by defenses all too often. In Short Circuits: Have you received a message from someone who says that he's broken into your computer, has embarrassing pictures taken with the computer's camera, and will send them to each of your contacts unless you pay? Oh, and he has one of your passwords, too. It's a fake and we'll consider how it works. Windows 10 version 1903 will be pushed out to computers sometime this month and Windows Insider members already have it. Wouldn't it be nice, when you need a copy of a document, to have a scanner in your pocket? Actually you do have a scanner in your pocket and Office Lens makes it more useful. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Adobe has added some new features to its cloud-based Color application. • If you sometimes use your browser's incognito mode, it's good to understand its shortcomings.

If you're planning to commit a crime, you might want to leave your phone at home because Google's Sensorvault knows where you are, where you were, and how long it took you to get from there to here. Sensorvault has data going back several years and, in some situations, police can access it. In Short Circuits: Internet crimes cost individuals and companies nearly $3 billion last year and that's just the crimes that were reported. Changing passwords frequently has been promoted as a good security measure, but that's no longer considered to be correct. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Turtle Beach has released a moderately priced set of headphones for gamers and they include a feature that's been available only in high-priced headphones until now. • Geometiles represent an attempt to make math concepts interesting and fun for students. • Creative Technology's updated Pebble Plus speakers will be of interest to those who want good computer sound but have a limited budget.

Carrying important information around on an unencrypted phone, computer, or thumb drive is dangerous, but you might think that encrypting important files is difficult. It's not. In Short Circuits: The prices for solid state disk drives continue to drop and 2TB SSDs are now available for about $100. If you've ever had to deal with a stubborn Windows update that simply will not install, you might find the process I used this month to be helpful. Adobe is working on a new feature for Illustrator -- one that may seem more than a bit odd to you, but I think digital artists will like it. In Spare Parts (only on the website): The on-line reservation service OpenTable is promoting the use of "Dining Mode" for Mothers Day (and maybe other important and not-so-important occasions). It involves ignoring your phone. • A company has released a system that can generate up to 70 trillion passwords per second. Does that make you nervous?

Look up tables, LUTs, are an important new feature for Alien Skin's Exposure X4.5. LUTs are used in the creation of motion pictures, but they can also be used to great advantage by still photographers. In Short Circuits: Now is the time to get rid of Internet Explorer. The first step involves installing a more modern browser and making it your default, then you can remove IE entirely. The latest version of the Android operating system, Pie, has been pushed out to nearly all models of most manufacturer's phones and there are lots of worthwhile features. The US House has passed a bill to restore internet neutrality, but it's being blocked in the Senate. For the second time in a month, Facebook suffered a worldwide outage. This week's was much shorter, but Facebook managers refuse to say what happened. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Artificial intelligence is being used to hire healthcare professionals. • Some physicians' offices are being equipped with software that monitors patients in what the developers are calling a holistic manner. • SiriusXM and Pandora are adding podcasts to their existing mix of entertainment programs.