Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
Archive for May, 2007
How To Turn On Parental Controls in iTunes
May 31st
Every kid has an iPod these days. In fact, you kid probably has multiple iPods as the old ones have become outdated and you’ve bought the latest iPod Nano for them.
At 99 cents a song and now tv shows and movies being distributed through iTunes, you may want to be a little more careful about what type of content your kids are allowed to preview, watch, listen and download through iTunes.com.
iTunes does have parental controls built into the application and it’s easy as 1-2-3 to turn them on. . . Read the rest of this entry »
Google Tip: Street-Level View (real photos) On Google Maps
May 30th
Amazon‘s A9 service used to feature “Block View” photos of 2 dozen major US cities, but sadly they discontinued that service. It was a real compeitive edge when A9.com had it, but now it looks like Google will use that same concept to their advantage.
Google Maps did spark the last round of competition in the mapping world by adding click-and-drag functionality to online maps and also integrating satellite views to the service. Quickly others followed suit — all to our benefit.
Now, Google is doing it again… Read the rest of this entry »
GPS on the Blackberry 8800 With Google Maps
May 29th
It was only a matter of time before the GPS device on your car became obsolete!
And of course Google is the one that’s about to kill the entire Garmin-TomTom-Magellen-industry. How?
With Google Maps integrated with GPS live on your cell phone! The Blackberry 8800 which comes GPS-enabled on ATT Wireless / Cingular allows applications on the device to use the location services and GoogleMaps is an elegant solution . . . Read the rest of this entry »
Get Instant Flight Status Information On Your Cell Phone
May 28th
My wife was traveling the other day while there’s some rain and storms forecasted for parts of the country that might throw off her travel schedule. So I wanted to keep tabs on her flights to make sure she got off the ground was going to make it to the destination ok.
One way is to call the airlines directly for flight status which I have usually done. A quick tip for calling the airlines so you don’t have to memorize telephone numbers is TellMe. Just dial 1-800-555-TELL and say “Airlines” and then at the next prompt, say the name of the airline. TellMe will connect you free of charge to the airline’s customer service number. Great for when you’re in the car or on the go and want to multi-task.
But you still have to deal with the complicated “IVR” – interactive voice response systems of airlines. What a pain in the neck. There’s got to be an easier way to get the information I need . . . Read the rest of this entry »
Vonage Tip: How To Turn Anonymous Caller ID Block On or Off
May 27th
One of the reasons why you signed-up for Vonage is the pleathora of features that come included in the calling packages – unlike the a la carte pricing that Verizon and other landline local carriers charge.
If you have Caller ID, you want to know who’s on the other end before you pick-up. But sometimes, people BLOCK their own Caller ID, so that you have no clue because they become anonymous. In fact, sometimes the Caller ID display literally says “Anonymous”.
Did you know that there is a feature that blocks those calls which are witholding their own Caller ID number when calling you? Read the rest of this entry »
DRM Problem Using the Sansa Connect with Yahoo! Music Unlimited
May 26th
Recently, I came across a question about using Yahoo! Music Unlimited, which is a great deal at $6/month for unlimited access to 2 million mp3 songs. It’s great on the PC, but even better when you can access any song on your mp3 player or smart phone too.
The user had a Sansa Connect mp3 player which is on the list of “out of the box” compatible devices with Yahoo! Music, yet gets an error message whenever trying to load music onto the mp3 player.
Here’s how to get around the following error message comes up whenever trying to download music to the Yahoo! Jukebox on the device:
Kid-Friendly Web Browser for Safe Internet Surfing
May 25th
Although you may have considered installing some sort of web-filtering software or plug-in for your web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox, there’s another approach that might be more appropriate and easier to use for the kids: an actual kiddie web-browser.
With filtering software, you always risk the chance of something getting through that is not appropriate by your standards. The opposite approach isn’t to filter the internet, but allows access only to sites that you know for sure are kid-safe — something like those public kiosks or retailer’s terminals that allow you to browse only selected sites & pages. Everything else is off limits.
Here’s one example that’s easy to use and free: Read the rest of this entry »
I love tech, gadgets and the web. Hope you pick-up a useful tip or two here today that helps you use technology to your advantage! Better yet, why not share your own expertise in a comment on a post today to help the other readers that land here for answers!