Data Doctors Tech Tips

Apple's iPad and iPhone have become popular devices in many homes with young children, so managing what can be done with them is important. There are some pretty solid parental controls built-in, but if you're looking for more extensive controls, check out an app from Intego called Family Protector. It provides parents with more control over what and when your child uses on an iPad or iPhone, and can be managed and monitored remotely. It allows you to block in-app purchases, adult websites, disable the camera or FaceTime and it creates logs to make sure you'll know exactly where they're going online. You can even automatically lock devices when it's mealtime or bedtime to eliminate distractions. With older kids, you can lock down the devices remotely until your child checks back with you when they are unresponsive. You can check out the system for 14 days and if you like it, it will cost run $5 a month for up to 15 devices at https://www.intego.com/family-protector

If staying connected to your Wifi network is a constant challenge, today's tip is for you. In some cases, there may be a simple fix for a consistent dropping of your connection:change the channel! For the common 2.4 Ghz frequency, there are 11 channels, but which one should you use? For the most part, the best channels are 1, 6 or 11 because they are known as non-overlapping channels,but it's still a guessing game, right? The 2.4 Ghz radio band is on open spectrum that can be shared with just about everything wireless around you: cordless phones, baby monitors, garage door openers and even some Bluetooth earpieces can be just the beginning of the devices that can caues interference with your wifi connection. Even worse, if you live close to others, the wifi network from your neighbor can also cause some interference in your home. To help better select your channel, WIndows computers can download the NetSurveyor app which is free and will give you a graphical report on your least used channels. Mac users can run a built-in utility know as Wifi Scan within the Wireless Diagnostics menu to accomplish the same thing. I've got links on how to use both at DataDoctors.com/radio The Windows NetSurveyor App: http://nutsaboutnets.com/netsurveyor-wifi-scanner Mac Wifi Scan directions: http://www.letstalk-tech.com/access-wifi-scanner-macos-sierra

Just about all of us are slaves to our email to some extend and finding ways to better manage the onslaught is one way of staying productive. One of the ways that lots of companies are trying to manage things is by turning the inbox into a CRM tool. CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Management, is the primary offering from companies like SalesForce. If you are still looking for something that will work for you, an interesting option to turn your Inbox into a CRM tool is available from a company called Streak. It was created because of the frustration of constantly popping between the inbox and other programs to keep track of things was inefficient. Streak, which is a Gmail add-on that is free, has specific templates for everything from sales to customer support, tracking software bugs and hiring processes. It also includes 'snippets' which are preformatted chunks of text that can be used to quickly respond to a common interaction. There's also an iPhone app which allows you to use it while you're on the go. If you use Gmail and want help with the overload, visit Streak.com

There are many tools on the Internet that allow you to share your desktop remotely with someone else that's online. Many of them make you install special software as the host and also requires the computers remotely sharing your screen to do so as well. If you aren't paying attention, some of the tools can also allow the people sharing the connection to see things you didn't intended to share. For an option that's really easy to use, does not require you or the person on the other end to install special software and limits sharing to just websites, checkout Surfly. It's a great tool for demos, helping your friends and family or sharing web-based content with a small group. The hosts mouse pointer appears with a red glow around it and those viewing can't click on anything, so you have complete control. It doesn't allow the sharing of video content, but when it comes to helping non-technical users with basic website related questions, it's a pretty handy tool. Just setup your free account and create a special link to the site you want to share and email it to your viewers. They don't have to sign up for anything, they just click on the link you send and viola, they see you're what's in your browser! Give it a try at Surfly.com, that's S U R F L Y.com

Someone recently asked me a question that at first sounded strange, but made sense after I had thought about it. He asked if I had any suggestions for adding Bluetooth to his non-Bluetooth speakers. While Bluetooth speakers are pretty inexpensive, the really cheap ones don't sound great. So if you're like him and have a spare set of speakers that sound good or just want the ability to stream music to a home sound system from your phone or tablet, check into Logitech's Wireless Speaker Adapter. It's really easy to setup device that looks like many of the streaming devices like Roku or Apple TV and has both 3.5mm and RCA audio connectors. Stand-alone speakers must be powered or connected to an amplifier for it to work and the device needs to plug into AC power as well. At forty bucks, it is an inexpensive way to send music from your devices to any powered speaker system you own. I've posted the link to learn more at DataDoctors.com/radio http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/bluetooth-audio-adapter

If you happen to be sci-fi fan and also love to take pictures with your iPhone, I've got an out of this world app suggestion. Instead of creating those boring everyday images and using mindless photo editing buttons, the Alien Sky app lets your imagination run wild. Why keep using common colorization filters to try to make your images pop when you can take them to a whole other level with awesome space effects. The Alien Sky app lets you create futuristic images by blending in high resolution space images and vivid lens flares to all of your images. They offer lots of space objects like planets, moons, bright suns, star systems, comets and entire galaxies to really generate conversations on all your social posts. The app has over 150 effects which gives you complete control over other-worldly customization, allowing you to recreate alien visions and photos that will stop people in their tracks. Now you can convert those old blasand#233; pictures into fantastic alien-looking photos with this 99 cent app. The direct link to the Alien Sky app is posted at DataDoctors.com/radio http://www.brainfevermedia.com/alienSky.html

For all those road warriors out there, you know that there are 2 constant issues for all your mobile devices: storage and battery power. No matter how much storage space you might have, at some point you'll run out of space and be faced with the "what can I get rid of" problem. And since it's constantly in use, you'll eventually end up with the low battery scenario usually when you are nowhere near a power outlet. Both of these common issues along with some other potential benefits are the purpose for a product from Kingston called MobileLite Wireless. It is a card reader that can attach to any smartphone, combined with a battery charger with wi-fi built-in. It can serve as an external storage device that can also charge your devices and stream content to them as well. It can also help you upload images to your social profiles from any standard digital camera card without having to use a computer. It's a pretty unusually helpful gadget for less than $50 that can expand what you can do while you're on the road. Sound interesting? Get the link to learn more at DataDoctors.com/radio http://www.kingston.com/en/wireless/wireless_readers

The art of photo retouching is what allows fashion magazines to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary using expensive software programs like Adobe's Photoshop. Not only are they expensive programs to buy, they're pretty complicated and can take a rather long time to master. The fashion industry has been chastised for going overboard, but there are actually those times when having basic touch up abilities can come in handy. An app called Perfect365 provides some quick and easy retouching options on most major mobile devices, so you no longer have to wait until you get back to your computer to make adjustments. You can use their pre-defined 1 touch cleanup or makeover button or manually touch-up any part of an image yourself. The app can remove dark circles under the eyes, blemishes or soften skin and whiten teeth with a few taps of the screen. Ever wanted to give yourself a facelift or nose job? Now you can do it virtually. For an app that makes it a snap to go from drab to fab, checkout Perfect365 which is available for iPhone, iPad and Android users. The links to download the free app is posted at DataDoctors.com/radio iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/perfect365-custom-makeup-designs/id475976577 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arcsoft.perfect365andhl=en

A favorite web resource of mine has gotten a makeover which makes searching the web's history a bit easier. It's called the Wayback Machine and it's part of the Internet Archive which has been recording the web since 1996, so you can go back in time to see what the web looked like. They routinely take screenshots of the web and currently have over 279 billion web pages saved. Want to see what your firm's website looked like a decade ago? Just bring up the Wayback Machine and type in the web site and you'll get a timeline of all of the available screenshots. The archived screenshots just grab home pages, so that's all you'll be able to see, but the update to their technology will allow more items to be archived in the future. It's a lot of fun to see popular tech firms like Microsoft and Apple looked like in the past! Check it out at http://Archive.org/web

Ever noticed that some smartphone chargers seem to take longer to charge then others? If so, you aren't imagining things because the output power of your charger known as the amperage or even a bad cable can make a big difference. The lower your amperage, the longer it'll take to charge the battery. Of course, it is always best to use the charger that came with your device, but when that isn't possible, using a charger with the proper amperage rating is always recommended. Usually, you need a special type of device to measure output current, but if you have an Android smartphone, there is an app that'll make it easy to see the differences for your various chargers and cables called Ampere. The Ampere app will monitor battery charge and drainage, temperature and overall health of the battery. Bringing up the app while using your various chargers and cables will quickly reveal the combination that will does the best job. Get the free Ampere app at the Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gombosdev.ampereandhl=en