RichC | November 16, 2011
I’m anxious to try Google.com/flights for my next trip planning although I’m not sure it adds much besides the interface over competitive flight planning websites. The search giant has created a convenient way to compare the pricing and scheduled flight times, but in testing a few closer airports and flights it didn’t turn up any […]
RichC | November 15, 2011
Thanks to Google+ friend Paul Young, I had a chance to play with Google’s new Music beta on Monday. I can’t say that I’m a must have music listener (I’m not), but I do enjoy listening to tunes once in a while. I’m partial to Pandora but have enjoyed Spotify and do listen to several […]
RichC | October 31, 2011
Since HP’s new CEO, Meg Whitman, reversed course on spinning off their PC division (link), many who use and appreciate Touchpads and Pre smartphones have been hoping the same thing might happen for the webOS division. Some believe (or believed) that there was new hope for webOS devices like the Touchpad and Palm Pre smartphones […]
RichC | October 18, 2011
Perhaps it is my age … or just not paying attention to the changing terms associated with portability when talking computers, but as I contemplate upgrading my daily computer I realized the terms have changed yet again. My first “portable” computer went by the trade name Compaq … but it was basically a transportable. At […]
RichC | October 14, 2011
If you enjoy taking and working with photos, you might appreciate the advancements coming to software to help with optically blurry photos. The demonstration is not particularly easy to see (video below), but the reaction of the crowd was enough to thinking a plug in for Adobe Photoshop might be in our future. Check out […]
RichC | October 6, 2011
I’ve been thinking about the passing of Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) and realized that there wasn’t enough time to include all I wanted over a lunch hour. First, his innovative vision, business savvy and keen sense of “what customers wanted” have earned him a place in my list of […]
RichC | September 28, 2011
Stopped to check on the big NYC coverage from Amazon for their new eInk Kindle Touch reader device and highly anticipated Kindle Fire 7″ tablet device. A couple surprises are the “Silk” browser and pricing at $199. For those looking for a competitor to Apple’s iPad … look elsewhere. The new Kindles are more of […]
RichC | September 2, 2011
Google web-based products such a docs and calendar were once upon a time available for off line use; thankfully they are now being re-launched. Things are slowly coming back to a more useful state with the new off line viewing (read only) extension for the Chrome browser. I’m looking forward to hopefully once again being able […]
RichC | September 1, 2011
My friend Jeff and I were talking about computers, tablets, readers, phones, mp3 players and cameras the other day at lunch and debated what we really wanted. After seeing the “rumored” Windows HTC Eternity spy shots, I’m rethinking the gadgets and devices that being carried – and also having to keep charged. The more I […]
RichC | August 25, 2011
"I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it, and I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.” — Steve Jobs (56), resigning CEO continuing Chairman of the Board Although for the most part, my Apple loving days are probably in the past, I’m saddened to […]
RichC | August 3, 2011
I’ve recently made a switch to a new search engine after reading Google’s Terms of Service Agreement a little more closely. The wording of the TOS along with my security conscious friend’s regular reminders regarding web privacy and information security triggered a search for a better search engine. DuckDuckGo.com offers a free, lean webpage search […]
RichC | July 16, 2011
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RichC | July 9, 2011
First Impressions: After a couple of days playing with the new social networking service being rolled out by Google call Google+ (or G+ or Google Plus), it is my conclusion that it is it is far better than the ungainly Google Wave — which really isn’t what most think of as social networking services. Google+ […]
RichC | July 8, 2011
I’ve been somewhat disappointed with my memory hogging Mozilla Firefox 5 browser install (as I have with the last couple versions) so decided to go out of my comfort zone to give their Aurora 7 browser (pre-beta) a try. Supposedly it will be faster to load and a much better memory manager for most users […]
RichC | June 30, 2011
Upgraded to WordPress to 3.1.4 ; fixes potential security issues: This release fixes an issue that could allow a malicious Editor-level user to gain further access to the site. Version 3.1.4 also incorporates several other security fixes and hardening measures
RichC | June 30, 2011
Although Mr. Mossberg is rightly critical about some of the shortcomings regarding HP’s late entry into the tablet computing market with the webOS Touchpad, he had a few complements too (LINK). Clever Interface I like the interface a lot. Instead of a screen full of app icons, the main screen of the TouchPad’s operating system, […]
RichC | June 26, 2011
Although I’ve not been overly concerned with “my personal” Internet browsing and how my habits are being watched, I am conscious that more and more of online habits are being tracked and marketed to interested parties. It does seem a bit intrusive. After reading a few more articles on the subject the use of https […]
RichC | June 24, 2011
Firefox 4 has only been around for a few months, but Mozilla’s Firefox 5 is already being push to users (beta out about a month). According to reviews, the version 5 of Firefox has "more than 1,000 improvements," which include the "Do Not Track" privacy feature and support for the CSS Animations standard, among other […]
RichC | June 20, 2011
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RichC | June 11, 2011
Planned on making this a Tech Friday post, but Saturday will have to do. I’ve been talking with a few people who have adopted Gmail as their primary email and semi-forget about security issues. It is increasingly a problem as evident by the concern over government officials email accounts possibly being accessed. Although most of […]
RichC | May 6, 2011
Who doesn’t struggle with the bloated Adobe PDF Reader or the pricey full-featured Adobe Acrobat Pro PDF products? I’ve used both products over the years and have been frustrated by the cumbersome Adobe software. Although I still use an older full version of Acrobat upon occasion, I have fund Foxit Reader and more recent lightweight […]
RichC | April 27, 2011
Most of us understand computer tracking cookies and many users (and web browsers) to make easier for users to keep some of their information private. Obviously advertisers and content providers see your online information valuable (just as do physical store offering credit and ID cards for discounts, etc). The latest stories in the news have […]
RichC | April 21, 2011
I’ve enjoyed my older Anniversary Edition Eye-Fi SD card for a couple of years now and have appreciated the way it uploads photos to my waiting computer via my home wi-fi access point. I’ve been watching Eye-Fi innovations and have often thought how much much more convenient it would be to have photos uploaded directly […]
RichC | April 12, 2011
After a couple years of using two of the Palm Pre Touchstone induction chargers, they are great. Although I complain regularly that the battery in the Pre will not make it an entire day, it generally isn’t a big deal since I keep one Touchstone on my desk and the other on my nightstand. About […]
RichC | April 4, 2011
Having one company divulge my personal information is bad … but having three (to date) divulging my name and email information is ridiculous. One would thing that that companies like Chase, Walgreens and Tivo would fear a class action suit enough to be a bit more protective with their clients privacy? In other words, don’t […]
RichC | March 30, 2011
The next big Google thing? Not wanting to fall too far behind leading social sharing sites (primarily Facebook), Google is rolling out it’s new socially connected experiment they are calling “+1.” The new “+1” button is an opt-in service and will permit socially connected users to give their stamp of approval to a search results, […]
RichC | March 24, 2011
The DSL connection at the hotel was shockingly fast so I took advantage of the speed to update my Windows 7 with a Service Pack 1 update … and decided to update a couple of Internet browsers too. After installing Mozilla’s Firefox 4 and realizing that several of my add-ons needed to be disabled, I […]
RichC | March 2, 2011
The big tech announcement today came as Steve Jobs introduced a follow up iPad 2 to Apple’s previous tablet success. Apple has pretty much been the only game in town since the introduction of the iPad. This year’s model isn’t necessarily full of surprises, but does hold the price point while adding a camera, some […]
RichC | February 24, 2011
Hulk? Well it all depend on what we’re comparing … but the latest in micro computers has made my notebook and the Apple Mini computers look like antiques. One wonders if before long computers will not just be embedded in devices like watches or jewelry as I once imagined, but be embedded under the skin […]
RichC | February 23, 2011
I can always count on my friend Scott to come up with a good link or photo when I’m not in the mood or don’t have time to post something to my blog. This Firefox ‘crop circle’ photo caught my interest when he mentioned it the other day – very “geeky.” <== click for larger […]
RichC | February 21, 2011
I like the concept of the Motorola Atrix which combines the larger working area of a lightweight laptop display/keyboard/battery and the portability of a pocketable smartphone. I’m not sure that I’m ready to give up a full-powered Windows 7 notebook, but IF the new Windows 7 mobile OS running on an Atrix-type phone with a […]
RichC | February 17, 2011
On the days that I am connected to the Internet during Wall Street’s market close, I often stream a tiny Slingplayer window of CBNC’s Closing Bell. Today I chuckled at someone on the trading desk holding up a “Hi Mom” sign (left). Also changes in technology has helped investors and traders in recent years by […]
RichC | February 10, 2011
Archiving Wednesday’s HP-Palm Veer, Pre3 and TouchPad product announcement event video — yesterday’s posts 1 and 2.
RichC | February 9, 2011
I particularly liked the new advertising coming to my email from HP above … nice! (I’m also including the specs and a couple hands-on first-look videos from Engadget below) Hands-on video from Engadget: Touch-to-shere demo: Press Release: HP TouchPad Brings webOS to the Big Screen First webOS tablet works the way you do, introduces fun, […]
RichC | February 9, 2011
No major shocker from HP-Palm today, who as expected announced new hardware utilizing webOS on a computer tablet; the 9.7” TouchPad was announced today at a San Francisco press event. Technology watchers tweeted with excitement as Jon Rubinstein highlighted some interesting innovations. The “touch-to-share” between devices, where a Palm Pre and TouchPad transfer information […]
RichC | February 9, 2011
The latest install of the Tweetdeck (v0.37.2) Twitter client added a new feature, a shortcut link called deck.ly, that allows for longer messages. Although the feature enables significantly more text to be included in a tweet, it does take away from the simplicity of Twitter … and the necessity to be concise. Personally I doubt […]
RichC | January 25, 2011
After switching to Verizon’s webOS Mobile Hotspot on my Sprint connected Palm Pre in order to be able to tether my phone, I had all but given up on MyTether. Although I’m not an everyday “tether-er” … having the ability to connect my notebook computer to the Internet in a pinch is important. Thankfully Raja […]
RichC | January 16, 2011
Once upon a time, I packed a small portable printer — Canon i70 — in my car when I traveled, but found it to be a hassle to keep it working. Fast forward to 2011 and I have found a possible use for a small lightweight printer – on the boat. Who knows if it […]
RichC | December 31, 2010
Either I was way too early in adopting Palm’s webOS and the Palm Pre smartphone, or the powers that be are dropping the ball in moving ahead quick enough to satisfy me with their OS and product line. It is too bad that Palm, then HP, did not develop the alliances with partners and market […]
RichC | December 30, 2010
The gurus at WordPress.org have tweaked their programming code and issued an Important Security Update. Take note if you are self-hosted WordPress user and update your install as soon as possible. Version 3.0.4 of WordPress, available immediately through the update page in your dashboard or for download here, is a very important update to apply […]
RichC | December 3, 2010
Admit it, you’ve been pretty annoyed receiving emails with extensive signatures or while reading in forums where regular users post distracting, offensive or just plain long-waste-of-screen-space signatures. This practice is one of my pet peeves when visiting certain‘permissive’ forums that allow ‘spam-vertising’ by user signature or avatar. This becomes doubly irritating when the same user […]
RichC | November 19, 2010
The boot modifying program called Soluto seems to help keep my Windows 7 notebook computer’s cold boot a bit snappier. Although my older Windows machine may not be up to netbook, tablet or Macbook speeds, the improved one minute and 44 second boot is better than without the Soluto tweaks. The company’s tagline as “anti-frustration” […]
RichC | November 12, 2010
Although I’ve used a few different online dictionaries over the years, I’ve concluded that using a program called WordWeb is better than all the cookies, flash cookies and beacons. According to a WSJ article this summer, sites like Dictionary.com were pretty intrusive. More than half of the sites examined by the Journal installed 23 or […]
RichC | November 7, 2010
Perhaps I’ve been living in a cave or something … but just recently heard about the legal battle over the Nissan.com domain while talking with a client this week. He mentioned the story I’m sharing below after we talked about a minor frustration I was having over domain name – all ended well. I told […]
RichC | November 5, 2010
Here’s a last minute Tech Friday idea; a website that creates your own newspaper from Twitter connections. Paper.li is a service that assembles a newspaper-like page with links, photos and media from Twitter users, lists or #keywords. Within a minute you can publish and share a randomly composed page of interesting, or not so interesting, […]
RichC | October 16, 2010
Not that I’ve been all that regular at posting a “tech tip” on Fridays, but I did try out a new video recording program this week. It is called At-Large Recorder 2 (Windows only) by Applian Technologies and is a DVR of sorts for the Slingbox … which is a piece of hardware that broadcast […]
RichC | October 12, 2010
While struggling to stay productive during my out of town trip last week, I found it necessary to tether my computer to my Palm Pre a couple of times. On previous trips I bragged about MyTether as a way to do this, but after a summer webOS update it no longer works … so I […]
RichC | October 1, 2010
It’s been on the list of things to do, but since my personal blog isn’t necessarily a ‘must read’ for people, I’ve been slow to adopt a better commenting methods or in this case “discussion” method — Disqus = dis·cuss • d?-sk?s’. After reviewing and listening to the opinions of tech savvy friends, I’ve opted […]
RichC | September 27, 2010
How do you keep all of your online passwords safe and secure? I’ll admit, I wasn’t all that smart about managing mine. About a month or so ago, a technology friend of mine shared his method of using the stand alone KeyPass Password Safe on his PC and explained how he then plop the encrypted […]
RichC | September 10, 2010
I’ve used Mozilla’s Thunderbird email client for quite a few years now and as it is with most software, it all in what one get use to using. Recent upgrades have required me to make adjustments to my set-up and I grumbled a bit … but for the most part upgrading to 3.1.3 has been […]
RichC | August 30, 2010
Every once in a while, the point of sale technique works on me … and today was the day. I coughed up $1.43 for a Palm Pre app called Neato! It’s a simple little application that runs on the webOS smartphone and receives webpage links, copied text and maps from a computer browser using a […]
RichC | August 15, 2010
I’ve used the same antivirus software on my PC for over a decade and have been pleased with how the company has supported updates and discreet reminder in both the free version and low priced home protection. Unfortunately things have changed for me, after struggling with an upgrade to the 5.0 update, I shifted back […]
RichC | August 11, 2010
According to Sherri Wells, a leading expert on SMS messaging, the “SMS (Short Message Service) was developed in 1985 by a collaborated effort between Germany and France and was created by Friedhelm Hillebrand, Bernard Ghillebaert, and Oculy Silaban .” Ms. Wells also states that the first practical message was “Happy Christmas” and was sent in […]
RichC | August 10, 2010
The VOIP service called NetTalk now has a videophone software application for both it’s new DUO and TK6000 device. To used the videophone, the device must be plugged into the USB port rather than functioning as a stand alone box that plugs directly into the router (one of it’s most compelling features). I have not […]
RichC | August 9, 2010
I’ve been having problems emailing photos from my Palm Pre (or computer) to Twitpic since last week, which is photo sharing service tied to my Twitter account … not that it’s all that important … but the digging turn up just how rapid the growth has been. Pretty rapid: In the couple of years since […]
RichC | August 5, 2010
Although I’m finding myself using a 3G cellphone connection for my computer less and less as free wifi spots are opening up everywhere I tend to travel, I do find myself thankful to keep MyTether on my Palm Pre for those moments I need a wireless hotspot. While stopping for lunch today, the normal wireless […]
RichC | July 24, 2010
I regularly email customers and friends with something that needs a follow-up from them, but I often forget to check back IF I don’t hear from them. Simple things like setting up a meeting or gettin gan ok on a proof often go unanswered … easy to do. I’ve tried adding it to my calendar […]
RichC | July 15, 2010
Unfortunately I’ve been forced to end my fax to email service after well over a decade. At one time I had several EFAX or JFax (J2/JConnect) phone numbers, but as business changed so did justifying ‘paying’ for service. I did appreciate receiving faxes to my email box and have used several other freebie sending options, […]
RichC | June 22, 2010
I found this online security story from one of the tech blogs I read interesting. This is from Paul Thurrott who co-wrote the book Windows 7 Secrets who shared a bit about his kids online spending spree. This is amusing to me because my kids are 8 and 12 years old. You may have heard […]
RichC | June 3, 2010
After HP purchased Palm, most developing and carrying around webOS mobile devices had a sigh of relief believed that having a bigger company behind Palm would give them a chance to compete in the crowded handset device market. Unfortunately HP CEO Mark Hurd isn’t seeing things the way Palm advocates did? Thanks for the link […]