Data Doctors Tech Tips

If you are one of the many that opted for one of Apple's large screen iPhones but you only use it in the portrait mode or up and down mode, you are missing a lot of cool features. In just about every app you use, from the calendar, to your mail and messaging apps and even simple notes, there are optional features when you flip your iPhone sideways to the landscape view. For example, when you view your mail sideways, you can use the split screen option, which can show your messages on the left side, with a preview of the highlighted message on the right side. Viewing stock quotes sideways will also makes use of the split-screen mode to provide more detailed info on the highlighted stock symbol on your list. Typing with your iPhone sideways gives you slightly more room per key and in some cases, can add some very useful additional keys to the screen. You will start discovering all kinds of new features just by turning your phone sideways, so remember this whenever you're using all your apps.

If you have ever had the need to create a floorplan for a room or an even worse, an entire building by hand, you know how much time it'll take. Anyone that's in real estate, construction or regularly has to work with floor plans should look into the RoomScan Pro iPhone app. The RoomScan app makes use of the awesome sensors in the iPhone to easily create a floor plan by putting your iPhone on each of the walls in a room. You simply place your iPhone on the first wall and wait for a beep, then move on to an adjecentt wall to continue the process. After you place it back on the original wall, you will get a double-beep to indicate that the measurements are complete, which allows the app to build the floorplan. You can even build floor plans for an entire house using RoomScan including a feature for when you may not be able to physically reach a wall. To see this five dollar app in action, check-it out at http://locometric.com

Whenever you have to deal with any kind of official documents, there is a good chance that you willl need to get them notarized. This then requires that you track down a public notary and go to them in person, which can turn into a big hassle. Well the next time you're faced with this scenario, remember that there is now an app for that! It's called Notarize. Notarize is essentially a remote notary service that's fully electronic and based in Virginia and legal in all fifty states. The process is pretty straight forward; you start by uploading your document then provide identification, complete the necessary fields in the document and then connect via a video call with a licensed notary. They will watch you sign your document, then they electronically notarize it through the app. When it's completed, you can print, save or share the officially processed document electronically. While this approach is much more convenient, this convenience will cost you as the Notarize processing fee is $25 per notarization. The actual Notarize iPhone only app is free, so keep it in mind the next time you need to http://www.notarize.com anything!

Many of you wake up to the rising sun without needing an alarm clock to wake you while lots of you may struggle even with multiple alarms. If you are on the struggle side and have yet to find the right alarm solution, look into the Mimicker Alarm app. What makes this alarm app different is that it will require you to 'mimic' a task in order to prove you're wide awake. You get to choose between repeating facial gestures by taking a selfie, capturing a specific color by snapping a picture of something or repeating a bit of a tongue twister that the app will listen to to determine if you are really awake. Let's face it, tapping the snooze button never requires much in the way of thinking, which is why so many of us have not been successful with it. This app will require you to actually process info and act on it accordingly. The free Mimicker app is only available for Android smartphones; if you know someone who tends to constantly over-sleep, have them checkout this app! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.mimickeralarmandhl=en

How many times have we all said "darn auto-correct!"? Most of us have a love-hate relationship with this common tool, but I may have a tip that may help get you over to the 'love' side of this technology. You can hack auto-correct so you can use it as shorthand for your commonly typed chunks of text. For example, you can add your address to your auto-correct database using an abbreviation like A D R S assigned to it. Once it's been added, you can just type 'adrs' and then hit the space bar to make your address suddenly appear without all the extra keystrokes. Any device that has an auto-correct feature, whether it's a word processor or your smartphone, can be modified in this way to make it more useful. There is really no limit to how many items you can add, you are only limited by your imagination, just remember to avoid using real words as your shortcut. Using both numbers and letters in your shortcuts can help; give it a shot, I think you'll love it!

The overwhelming majority of e-mail messages circulating the globe every day are useless junk messages but the filtering technology that tries to stop it all isn't all that great. Did you know that the words and other items you include in your message can make your messages look like junk messages to an automated spam filter? Common things, like unneeded images or specific words can really increase your spam score and these filtering parameters continue to change. Wouldn't it be great to be able to test the spamminess of your messages to see if something you're doing is causing your messages to get filtered? Well, there is a free web tool for this exact purpose located at http://mail-tester.com and it can quickly evaluate your emails to give you a spam score. It is really easy to use, because you simply send a message to the address they provide and then click on the link below it. You will get an instant spam score along with a detailed report on your message structure including if you have been blacklisted which is really bad. Start pre-testing your marketing messages at http://mail-tester.com

Browser tabs have changed the way most of us use the Internet because they allow us to open multiple websites during the same browsing session. But it's really easy to get carried away by opening too many tabs, each of which takes memory, so it's critical to close those unneeded tabs to prevent your browser from becoming slow as a slug. But, haven't you inadvertently closed the wrong tab on occasion, making you have to wade through your History trying to figure out what you still want to read? Well this tip is the solution for the errant closure of the wrong tabs. The next time it happens to you, just hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys in any browser, then tap on T as in Tom. The last tab you closed will automatically reappear in all of its glory without the hassle of searching through your browser history. If you need to restore more than one of the closed tabs, just keep repeating the Ctrl, Shift T key combination and they will reappear in the order you closed them!

Documentaries have grown in popularity over the years especially with the help of companies like Netflix which make it easier to find great films. The large uptick of great films in the documentary genre have created equally as great resources for discovery great documentaries. One of those resources, 'Documentary Heaven' is exactly what their name is suggesting...an excellent way to discover documentaries. This enormous online collection of films are organized into 39 categories, so you can quickly explore them based on your area of interest. It's no surprise that I like both the technology and music categories including some of the 'Behind the Music' episodes that I really love. The best part of this resource is that the documentaries are totally free to watch from your mobile device or computer. New films are uploaded on a regular basis so there is likely something new for you to watch every week. It would take years of viewing just to watch what is already on the site. You can check out these great documentaries at http://documentaryheaven.com

If you enjoy taking pictures with your iPhone and you've had it for a while, it's probably full of images. It's also likely that a large number of those images are useless or unwanted, but you haven't had the time to get rid of them. Deleting unwanted images from an iPhone is no easy task, because Apple makes you go through the process based on tiny thumbnail images. If you're looking for a more efficient way to clear out all your old iPhone pics, take a look at a free app called Cleen, which is spelled C L E E N. It's like the 'Tinder' app for managing your images, because it uses the same gestures as the popular dating app. You simply swipe down to delete an image, swipe up when you want to keep them and to the left if you just can't decide, which allows you to deal with it later. After you swipe through all your images to let your wishes be known, simply tap the trash can icon and viola, they'll be gone!

I can not believe that you were caught doing this on video! Have you seen this yet? This is one of many 'social engineering' scams that are growing in popularity with the intent to dupe unsuspecting people all over the Internet. They can get you so concerned about what the video contains, that you will likely let your guard down. If you do fall for this scam message, the site you end up on that has the 'video' will most likely tell you that you need to update something called a 'CODEC' or some random video player in order to watch the video about you. If you are worried about what is on this incriminating video, you'll probably let your guard down and permit a malicious program to be downloaded and installed. That will be all it takes to trap you in a silent scam that can allow any number of other attacks to occur. If you allow this malicious software to be installed on your computer, it can allow remote hackers to do just about anything they desire! Don't expect to see a notice of their arrival as they won't announce themselves. We have been seeing an uptick in this scam, so be on your toes and don't ever install any video player or update that just pops up on your screen.