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1/17/2014
eMarketer Daily - Mobile Music Listeners Press Play on Smartphones
Tech Tips Weekly [ Digital Music Sales Fall For The First Time + Create A Free Collage Cover Image For Facebook + Amazing New Home Automation Technology ] 1/17/14
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| In The News 01-17-2014 Digital Music Sales Fall For The First Time Digital music sales fell for the first time since Nielsen SoundScan started keeping track of them. For 2013, they dropped 5.7%. However, digital music fared much better than physical CDs. Sales of CDs dropped 14.5%. Vinyl albums actually saw a small jump to 2% of the market. Digital albums account for 40.6% of sales and CDs, 57.2%. What's to blame for the decrease in sales? Most likely steaming services like Pandora and Spotify. Instead of purchasing music, more and more younger consumers (traditionally the largest consumers of music) listen to it on apps. Court Orders That Anonymous Online Reviewers Reveal Identities A court in Virgina has ordered that the identities of the people posting anonymous online Yelp reviews of a carpet cleaning company be revealed. The court ruled that those reviews aren't protected by free speech because it believes those people weren't real customers of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning. Yelp has fired back that the carpet company hasn't shown why it needs those posters' identities. Google Merges Gmail & Google + Contacts Google is merging Gmail & Google + contacts. Google + users will now be able to e-mail someone, even if they've never been given that person's e-mail address. When Gmail users start to type an message, they'll be given suggestions from Google + connections. The company emphasized that users are in control of whether they can be reached this way. The company has been pushing users towards Google + with features like this and Google + account requirements to comment or post on YouTube. ~ Cynthia Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version -- Jim from New Jersey writes: I'm one of the XP hold-outs: I am not willing to upgrade $400 for a modern computer for downloading emails and basic web browsing. My computer is somewhat limited and probably won't tolerate the upgrade to the next Windows version. What options do I have? First of all Jim, I'd check out this article to learn about the tools Microsoft offers to help you see if your computer is up to an upgrade. You're right, $400 in awful lot of money to spend for basic web browsing and e-mail. If that's all you want out of a computer, may I suggest you consider switching to a tablet? A good basic Android tablet will more than meet your e-mail and web-browsing needs. We've offered several models here for around the $100 mark. You can certainly find a nice one for less than $200. There's also the option of an iPad, but the iPad Mini starts around the $300 mark and the larger models will run you as much as a good laptop. If you'd like to stick with Windows, there are Windows tablets starting at less than $200. You could also pickup a Chromebook laptop for around the $250 mark. ~ Cynthia Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version
Alice writes: I use AVG antivirus on my XP computer so won't this keep me safe? If not then I have the windows 7 disk, but can I use this on my XP? Thank you for your help. Windows is stopping all security support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014. That means there will no longer be a team of highly-trained security experts whose job it is to stop attacks against Windows XP working to protect the system. Companies like AVG, Norton and McAfee get their fixes for Windows XP from Microsoft. Microsoft has key information about the program that you would need to fight attacks. No new information from Microsoft means no protection against anything that hackers come up with after Microsoft stops providing security updates. Why is this such a big deal? I've covered the subject a lot in the past few months. This article explains how Windows XP Could Become A Security Nightmare and this one covers a lot of the questions and comments we've seen in regards to XP. Your AVG will continue to protect you against viruses discovered prior to the end of XP support. But don't expect any new updates after April 8, 2014. Unfortunately, those with bad intent aren't going to lose interest in XP systems. They will likely become more interested knowing that these systems are unprotected. ~ Cynthia Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version -- Create A Free Collage Cover Image For Facebook What do you have as your cover image on Facebook? A boring, poorly cropped photo you took during your last vacation? That's what I had until I found a way to create a beautiful collage Facebook cover image online for free using Picmonkey. Picmonkey is a free online photo editing service that has lots of preset options you can use. Even if photo editing is not your strong point, you'll be able to create amazing collages and edits using Picmonkey's presets. Today I'm going to show you how to create a Facebook cover image in less than five minutes. First of all let's go to Pickmonkey and click on Create a collage menu entry: Now let's add some images to our collage. I'm going to add photos of my paintings:
Once the photos are uploaded, let's select a collage template. Pickmonkey has a template for Facebook cover images, so you don't have to worry about the size of the final image. To select the layout you need, click on the Layout icon, then click on FB Cover and select the template you like:
Now click on the Images icon to go back to your photos, then drag and drop your images into the template. You can drag them around and center them the way you want. Notice how the correct size is already preset: Now I want to add text to my collage, so I'm going to click on the Edit button in the top menu. Make sure you are completely happy with your collage before you move on to the Editor because you won't be able to rearrange your images once you do that:
Now I'm happy with my collage, so I'm going to click on the Save button in the top menu and save the download the final image to my computer. I've only use a few Picmonkey options, so make sure you check them all out when you work on your collage. I'm sure it will look great and you'll get hundreds of "Likes" from your friends. ~ Liz D. Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a question for us? Ask it here!
The Three Guarantees in Life: Death, Taxes, and Hard Drive Crashes! 80% of People Don't Back up Their Files... 100% of Hard Drives Eventually Crash! THE CLICKFREE 500 GB BACK-UP DRIVE IS AUTOMATIC! The EASIEST Back-Up System in the World! 500GB - Automatic Back-Ups - USB 3.0 - Fully Compatible with USB 2.0! CLICKFREE IS THE EASIEST BACKUP SYSTEM IN THE WORLD! No Drivers - No Setup - Just 100% Plug & Play Automatic Backups! 256 Bit Password Protection - Multiple Computer Support!
A Sad Fact, But a True One.... Hard drives are sensitive, complex mechanical devices. No matter what, 100% of the time, they will eventually fail - causing a crash. This can be a disaster. What will you do when this happens? Sure, you can pull out your program CD's (like your Windows program) and reinstall your operating system. But what about ALL OF YOUR DATA? You know, pictures, videos, files, settings...the list goes on and on. If your system crashes, I've got news for you: that stuff is gone for good! Now consider this: there's hundreds of millions of computer users out there, and 80% of them do NOT back their files up. Why? Because until now, backing everything up was a long and complicated process. You'd have to find specific things to back up, deal with directories, file extensions, etc. IF you were able to figure it out, there's no way you'd have the time to back up every single thing. I mean...you've gotta sleep sometime, right? These problems are over for good! We've found an automatic backup hard drive that does ALL of that work for you! Did I mention it's automatic? Oh...well guess what? IT'S ALL AUTOMATIC! The ClickFree Automatic Backup Hard Drive is here! NO software. NO set up. NO time consuming steps. All you have to do is PLUG IT IN and it AUTOMATICALLY finds, scans and saves ALL of your files - you don't have to do anything! It's a MASSIVE 500gb of AUTOMATIC back-up space! It's USB 3.0 and FULLY compatible with USB 2.0: If you're working from a new USB 3.0 machine, you're not gonna believe the speed! And if you're working with USB 2.0 like most of us, don't worry - this is FULLY compatible and gives you the absolute maximum speed possible! It's the best of both worlds, and prepared for the future! EXTREMELY user friendly: it'll even categorize your music, pictures, videos and documents into separate areas for maximum organization! Oh, and it works on multiple computers - you've gotta check this thing out! Think about everything you keep on your computer: TONS of photos. Your ENTIRE music collection. Work documents, important files and sensitive information. And don't forget about those vacation and family gathering videos. You've gotta back that stuff up! The ClickFree Automatic Backup Hard Drive Makes it EASY! If You Think it's Hard or Time Consuming - YOU'RE WRONG! Seriously, this thing couldn't be any easier to use: EVERYTHING IS AUTOMATIC! All you have to do is pop it into your USB port and let it do it's thing. As soon as it's done, you'll be presented with ALL of your files, backed up and organized! And there's a TON of cool features on this thing, too. Check this out: Easy Viewer: open this up, and you can view ALL of your saved files the same way they were saved. You'll know exactly what you're looking at and exactly where it is! Easy Music: This is COMPLETELY iTunes compatible! Take your iPhone, iPod or iPad, and this copies ALL of your media, backs it up, and automatically places it in your iTunes library! It's always there, and it's always backed up! Multiple Computer Backups: Go ahead and use it with any and all of your computers. From your work PC to your home computer - Windows OR Mac - doesn't matter, this can do it! Observe the image below. This is what you're presented with after ClickFree automatically backs up all of your files. Remember, this starts as soon as you stick it into your computer. You don't have to do ANYTHING to get to this step: A MASSIVE 500GB with Maximum 256 Bit Security! Think about that - 500gb is more space than most computers have! You're not going to be running out of space any time soon, that's for sure! And since you have so much space, you can EASILY use this for multiple computers - from your work PC to your home computer! In fact, it was designed with multiple computer use in mind. And don't worry about security, either. Check this out! Have no fear - your files and media are protected by a 256 Bit security feature! No matter what, even if this hard drive was stolen, there's ZERO chance that anyone will be able to hack it and get into your files. It's 100% worry free MAXIMUM security! Check Out the Video - See for yourself how EASY this is! You're Not Gonna Believe the Price! Do you get it yet? There's absolutely NO reason not to own this - and for OUR price...you can have it for literally a FRACTION of the box store prices! This is 500 gigs we're talking about! This might be hard to believe, but we have our ways...so for today and today only, you can get the ClickFree 500GB Backup Hard Drive for just $59.97 with FREE US shipping included! http://store.worldstart.com/product/8678 PS: extremely limited stock - these will be gone in a matter of a few hours, so get yours NOW!
Deb writes: I'm not sure exactly what questions I will have, but my friend bought a wireless printer to use with her iPad and iPhone. She asked if I can hook them up for her. Is that possible? Deb, congratulations on being appointed to volunteer tech support. It can sometimes be a thankless job. The good news is that it's perfectly possible. Let's hope your friend purchased a printer that is AirPrint compatible. That enables printing from Macs, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch without the need to install drivers. Your friend will need to have the latest version of iOS installed on the phone and iPad. Printermodels by Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, Fuji Xeros, Gestetner, HP, Infotec, Kyocera, Lanier, Leveno, Lexmark, Oki Dta, Olivetti, NRG, NTT, RICOH, Samsung, Savin, Sharp, TA Triumph, Toshiba ad Xerox all support Airprint. You should be able to find instructions for connecting the particular printer among the printer's documentation or on the manufacturer's website. Then printing is just a matter of selecting ... Want more? Head on over to WorldStart!
-- Amazing New Home Automation Technology Shouldn't our homes be run by robots and computer generated personal assistants by now? While we haven't quite perfected the robot yet, some of these ideas may not be far from reality with the latest advancements in technology, like big data cloud computing. In the world of home improvement, home automation is creating exciting possibilities. Home automation essentially refers any technology that makes controlling a home's functions easier and more convenient. These products are generally attached to a central system that can be controlled from a smartphone or tablet.
More and more people across the world are realizing its benefits. Home automation for example can be used to protect a home and keep homeowners up to date on any strange activity surrounding their house. It can also be used in entertainment systems, allowing users to control sound, lighting thermostat and other home functions from a single location. Apart from these basic functions, home automation is expanding into exciting realms. The following are devices to look out for in the future... Check out WorldStart to read more!
Eleanor from Ohio writes: I have a Windows XP. How do I copy a recipe from Facebook without copying a whole lot of pages? Thank you Eleanor. Well Eleanor, if you're like me, your Facebook feed is filling up with photos of tempting photos of food with recipes in the caption. That's a real problem when I'm checking it late at night. Is 11 p.m. too late to start cooking with canned biscuit dough? If you try to save or print an entire Facebook page, you'll end up with a lot of stuff you don't want. Here's how to do it. Say you want to save a recipe for Crock Pot Orange Chicken. Here's what it probably looks like. Make sure the entire recipe is visible. In this case, we need to click on ... Just click WorldStart to learn more! -- Robert from Bossier City, LA writes: I know, eventually, I will need to replace my Windows XP computer. I am wondering if I can use Windows 8 with a mouse and keyboard not using the touchscreen at all. I haven't seen any information on this and since no computer company is really getting into how Windows 8 works, I am curious if there is a way to use Windows 8 without having to touch the screen? Thank you. Answer: The good news is that you do not need a touchscreen to operate Windows 8. While many of the features of Windows 8 are more intuitive with a touchscreen display, you can still navigate with a mouse and keyboard. Below is a list of the gesture motions for Windows 8 and the corresponding mouse and keyboard actions... Go to WorldStart for the rest of this tip! For stories, jokes, quotes and cartoons every day, sign up for our Just for Grins newsletter.
My 80s TV I'm going to issue a warning right up front with this site. It is addicting! I had to seriously limit the amount of time I spent there in order to write it up, because it was so easy to become engrossed in a television program. When you arrive at the site you'll be greeted with a vintage looking television, and have a list of different types of programming on the right side of the TV. The first thing I did was click the None link beneath the list to uncheck everything. That way you can just select the type of programming you want from the list. Your options are Cartoons, Comedy, Commercials, Drama, Gameshows, Kids, Movies, Music, News, Other, Soaps, Specials, Sports, Talkshows, and Trailers. The numbers next to them show you how many are in that category. After you've selected your options, just click Power to turn the television set on. And then you can watch whatever randomly came up. Or you can use the channel buttons to surf through your options. I really enjoyed surfing through the programming, so much so I lost track of time checking out cartoons and comedy, so check this site out when you have time to watch some television! ~Amanda Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version -- Print Friendly I hate when I got to a webpage and need to print something out but there's no print friendly option be found. I still have nightmares about printing in the 90s as a teenager; I would want to print one recipe or poem and bam, 100 pages later it would print the page I wanted. Now it's gotten a lot better, but some places still don't offer a print friendly option. Never fear, you can just go to Print Friendly and get a print friendly version easily. Navigation is easy! First you'll need a site you want to make print friendly. You'll copy the URL of the page you want to print and then paste it in over at Print Friendly in the blank text bar! Then click Print Preview. It then generates a print friendly version of the page URL you pasted in. You can also check out the how it works video on the main page. It runs 1:42. I think the video shows exactly what I was talking about in my opening to this review. Their example site would be 16 pages and with Print Friendly it becomes 4. It also shows more deftly than I describe the options you have for minimizing excess clutter on the page you don't want. You can remove all the images, choose sections of text not to print, all so you end up with just the information you want. Another great feature offered is the bookmarklet, that you can drag to your bookmark bar for easy access to Print Friendly when you're surfing the web. If you have trouble with dragging and dropping it to your bookmark bar (I had to open a new tab in Google Chrome so I could see my bookmark bar) you can check out the Instructions link for help! (I checked Google Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer – there's a button for all of them. What are you waiting for? Go save Print Friendly to your bookmarks or use their handy button today for those time when you need to print friendly! ~Amanda Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share?Send it to Amanda at amanda@worldstart.com
BUY ONE GET ONE FREE! Clipping Your Nails Just Got WAY Easier! TWO Magnificant LEDs! Stainless Steel Construction! DURABLE! COMPACT! ILLUMINATED! IT EVEN COMES KEYCHAIN READY! You Can Stop Biting Your Nails Now! (After All, That's Pretty Gross!)
Sometimes Simple Is The Best Solution! I love finding cool gadgets! But sometimes ya gotta go back to basics! Toenails, fingernails... they keep growin' and growin'! You gotta keep those things under control! Not only does it end up looking bad, but it's a health risk! My son gave himself a pretty nasty slice in the leg with his fingernail the other day! It happens! Now, you don't need a crazy over-the-top solution to get your nails trimmed properly. But those old clippers also aren't doing you any favors. After all, you don't want to mess around with sharp blades when you CAN'T FREAKIN' SEE, RIGHT?! WHA-POW! I've got these amazing stainless steel fold-away clippers that have TWO LED LIGHTS BUILT RIGHT IN! Oh yeah, baby! It's a new spin on an old favorite! You just got home from work, you go to take your socks off, and - argh! The socks got caught on your nail! Bust this little bad boy out! A clip here, a snip there, and you're looking like a million bucks! And since you could finally SEE where you're clipping, you didn't accidentally cut yourself, you didn't cut 'em too short, and you didn't miss a single spot! (By the way, if you've got little animals, these actually work pretty well to keep them trimmed up too!) Keychain Built RIGHT In! I don't know about you, but I tend to lose nail clippers all the time! They get left here, there, everywhere... and when I really want 'em, I can't find them! NO MORE! Just hook one of these to your keychain and you'll never lose them! They're lightweight and fold-up so they're perfectly compact! They're just great in every way! Even the PRICE is insane! With the buy one, get one free deal... you get TWO of these for just $3.97!! If your order is over $5, you get FREE US SHIPPING TOO! You could double up, get FOUR of these, and not even have to pay shipping! YES!! http://store.worldstart.com/product/9393 This sale WILL end Saturday and the price goes up to $8.97 - why pay so much more when you could get 'em cheaper right now?!
January Wallpaper Is Ready! Happy New Year! Our free January desktop background wallpaper is ready to go! Make sure you check out the 100+ other selections on the site! All can be found here and are 100% free: http://www.backcountrygallery.com/wallpaper/ Oh, and if you enjoy these images, please tell your friends!
For these and other great selections of desktop wallpaper, head to: http://www.backcountrygallery.com/wallpaper/ As always, the wallpaper is 100% free, so enjoy!
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WorldStart Tech Tips 2014-01-17 
