Data Doctors Tech Tips

When a tough situation rears it's ugly head on your computer and you want to find a toll-free tech support number, Google's a great place to find it, right? Wrong! So many people are being victimized because of this thought because they call what they believe to be an official phone number for tech support that they got from searching Google. Searching for 'Norton Antivirus Tech Support' for instance, will display many companies posing as official tech support but they have absolutely nothing to do with Norton. Many of them prominently post toll free numbers, knowing that lots of people will just call the first number that appears in the search results. We know of one elderly victim that was scammed out of over $7,000 because she thought she was working directly with Norton. If you want to avoid this con game for any company that you want help from, the best way to get the real number is to manually type the company web address and add the word support to the end. Like norton.com/support for instance. I've posted more tips for avoiding this clever scam at DataDoctors.com/radio http://www.datadoctors.com/help/columns/22031-Beware-the-Latest-Tech-Support-in-Search-Scams

Popular startups like Uber and AirBnB have led to what is being called the sharing economy that leverage the power of the smartphone in your pocket or purse. Well, now a startup called Roadie is attempting to compete with UPS and Fedex with a concept they call a neighbor-to-neighbor shipping network. The service is designed to match people that have something they want delivered with people that are already going between those same two points. These 'Gigs's as they're called are insured up to $500 for your protection, so you can think of it as carpooling for packages. You can post a Gig on the app simply by describing what you want delivered and the route which allows potential 'roadies' which are the drivers to complete the task. The app allows you to track the progress of your delivery or even connect with your driver along the way. Waffle House locations were one of the first official Roadie Roadhouses where you can meet to exchange packages with special treats for the drivers. If you love the sharing economy and have something unusual to get sent somewhere, checkout http:\\Roadie.com as an option.

Hey honey, I need help printing something from my iPhone! My wife's recent request reminded me of a tip I gave a while ago that's become even more useful today. We all seem to use one of Google's services every day anyway, so why not start using their free remote printing service called Google Cloud Print from just about anywhere as well! You simply need any type of Google account to get started with an easy setup of the printer on your computer to make it available via the Internet. You can then print from any mobile device like your smartphone or tablet or you can send important print jobs from your office PC or Mac to your home printer and vice versa. You can even invite your friends, family and colleagues to print to your printer; especially helpful when someone is having a printing emergency! Cloud Print works with any cloud-ready or standard printer from a larger number of apps or programs. Sound like something you'd like to have in your back pocket? Just visit http://Google.com/cloudprint to get started.

Bluetooth enabled speakers are a wonderful way to improve the quality of sound coming from smartphones, tablets or laptops, but that also means you have to carry them around with you. If you'd prefer a Bluetooth speaker that can be synchronized to play music throughout the house, Pure's Jongo wireless speaker system may fit the bill. There super flexible system can make use of both fixed and portable wireless speakers that can play the same music stream coming from your smartphone or tablet. Their unique 'CaskeID' technology that's built into the Jongo system allows for exceptionally accurate synchronization across all your speakers. That means if you're in range of any Jongo speaker with any of your Bluetooth enabled devices, you can control all the other speakers throughout your house as long as they are within range of your wifi network. This specialized approach leverages the convenience of Bluetooth with the bandwidth and long range of wifi to provide a flexible whole house sound system. You can even turn any traditional stereo and speakers into an extension of the entire system with one of their extender devices. Learn all about it at http://Pure.com

Have you ever seen a high-resolution image printed directly to glass at an art gallery and viewed it with awe. Well, now you can have those same incredible glass photos hanging in your house with a few clicks of the mouse. A web service known as Fracture and they allow you to upload any image and then choose from one of 5 frame sizes that go from 5x7 up to 22x30 in landscape, portrait or even square images. The process of getting it setup takes a few minutes and you can choose from options that cost $18 to $125. The selected image gets printed directly on the back side of a piece of glass, then completed with a black backing and sent to your house in a couple of days. This way of displaying your favorite pictures makes for amazing wall art or an awesome gift for special moments in your life. If you don't have anything you shot yourself, you can select from the photos and art from their Art Store to create famous Fractures of your own. Check it all out for yourself at https://www.fractureme.com

The hard drive in your computer is like your refrigerator; no matter how large it is, you'll going to fill it up, eventually. And just like with your frig, tossing out old or unnecessary junk is whole lot more cost effective than buying a bigger one. The big issue for most of users is that they haven't a clue what's hogging up their drive space, so knowing what to get rid of is a little puzzling. For starters, getting rid of old programs you stopped using is a great start and if you're storing lots of video or have a massive music library that you no longer use, they're taking up a good chunk of space as well. Windows users that want a little help should checkout a free program called TreeSize. Windows refers to its directory structure as a tree with each folder being a branch so the TreeSize program can show you how large each branch is so you can quickly track down the space hogs. A Word of Warning: Never ever delete anything that you don't recognize and make absolutely sure you've got a verified backup before you attempt any king of cleanup of your hard drive. I've posted the link at DataDoctors.com/radio http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free

Summer is here and so is travel season which can lead to vacation road trips filled with amazing and unexpected experiences. I really enjoy finding those "off-the-beaten-path" or truly quirky joints on my excursions and generally find that talking to a local is one of the best sources of discovery. If you love finding the fun and unusual on your road trips, checkout a website called Roadtrippers.com. You can search for attractions, accommodations, entertainment, food and drink, history, nature or just about anything that will make your road trip interesting by setting your starting and ending points to get started. By adding stops along the way, you can calculate how long the trip will take and even get a general prediction of what you'll spend in gas to make it happen. After you've created your road trip, you can sync it to their mobile app for turn-by-turn directions to every destination on your road trip. If all that sounds like too much of a hassle, you can use any of the pre-existing road trips like Haunted Hotels or Route 66 and then modify the itinerary to meet your needs. Anyone planning a summer road trip should checkout RoadTrippers.com

Fashion magazines use the process of photo retouching to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary but usually with really costly software programs like Photoshop. Not only are these programs expensive to buy, they are complicated and have a large learning curve. The examples of them overdoing it are posted all over the Internet, but that shouldn't keep you from making use of basic touch-up tools for your own images. An app called Perfect365 offers quick and easy retouching options which you can use on your smartphone or tablet, eliminating the need to download them to your computer in order to get the job done. There are makeover settings and predefined one-touch clean-up settings or you can manually work with any part of a image on your own. Perfect365 can remove blemishes and dark circles from your eyes as well as soften skin and whiten teeth with a few taps of the screen. You can even get crazy and give yourself a virtual nose job or facelift. If you get the urge to take your images from drab to fab, checkout Perfect365 for just about any mobile device: iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows 8 or Windows Phone. Check it all out for yourself at DataDoctors.com/radio http://www.arcsoft.com/product/consumer/apps/#pP365

Let's start today's tip with a review of a little geek speak: word cloud A word cloud is a visual depiction of a large amount of text, with the most prominent words specially placed with bold colors or larger fonts. I've found that the best way to easily pull important themes in large bodies of text is by using word clouds. If you're a business that with customer feedback, for example, instead of having to manually review each one to compile themes, you can quickly mine the data with an online word cloud generator. One of my go-to tools is at http://tagcrowd.com because it's quick and easy and powerful. You start by creating a single plain text file with all of the information you want to work with without worrying about formatting or structure. You then copy and paste the text into the site or you can upload the text file, CSV spreadsheet or document or even point at test via a web URL. I find TagCrowd, that's T A G C R O W D.com to be an excellent tool for presentations and meeting especially when discussing large chunks of data.

Many of us have to use reading glasses to use our smartphones, but get frustrated trying to keep track of where you used them last. Buying a large number of them so you can leave them where you typically use them is one solution, but wouldn't it be more effective to keep your reading glasses with your smartphone all the time? A company called ThinOptics feels your pain and created a pretty clever solution to this common problem: super thin reading glasses that fit into your smartphone case. The got rid of the arms and you just clip them onto your nose, making them thin enough to be stored in the case of your smartphone. The cases work with iPhone or Galaxy phones directly or you can get the universal add-on pad for just about any case. If you suffer from 'where did I put my reading glasses' syndrome, Thinoptics solution runs between $25 to $39, so it could be more cost effective than buying a large stash of glasses. Learn all about them at http://ThinOptics.com