Data Doctors Tech Tips

If you think about it, the ability to schedule an email has lots of great applications, but very few people consider taking this approach. Since Gmail is the most popular platform in the world, finding a tool that allows its users to add some time-based functionality made sense to us. A productivity tool for Gmail called Boomerang offers a lot more than the ability to schedule the delivery of your messages, but that feature alone may be enough to add it to your setup. The core service the add-on provides is for those that have a ton of messages that hit them every day. You can schedule messages to reappear based on a more appropriate time, so you don't have to create a separate reminder to deal with the message. It also offers some CRM capabilities by tracking messages for replies and suggesting a follow up for messages that have not been answered.and#160; Manage your Inbox more effectively with the free tools fromand#160;https://Boomeranggmail.com

That smartphone you can't live without is an incredibly powerful computer that would have been considered a supercomputer in that not so distant past. These tiny little devices are capable of capturing our world in high resolution without you having to go to school to learn how to take photos. There's so much automagical technology built into our phones that will analyze the setting and quickly make decisions on your part in an attempt to create the best possible image given the circumstances.and#8232;and#8232; BUT, none of that amazing technology will be of any value if you don't get one of the basics down when you take your pictures and that's composition. and#8232;and#8232;A great way to learn how to take better pictures is by using an app called Camera 51, because it will alert you when your current shot isn't the optimum shot. It uses on-screen suggestions whenever you are taking a picture with the app, which will help you understand what you are doing wrong.and#8232; If composition isn't something you understand very well, start learning today with the Camera 51 app: https://www.camera51.com/camera51-app

When was the last time you were at a website or tried to buy something and you were asked for an email address? Even physical retail operations often ask for an email address for a variety of reasons. Most people just use one email address for everything, which makes it impossible to easily cut off or track down the original source of the junk you don't want in your Inbox. You can easily sign up for a second email service just for incidental needs, but that would require you to remember to sign into or check the other account. If you're a user of Gmail, there's a much simpler way to manage this problem by using disposable aliases. Gmail allows you to add a plus sign and any random text just before the @ sign as an alias. Example: [email protected] Once you start using this method when asked for an email address, you can easily divert any messages that come with that address to a separate label, to the trash or even forward it to another account automagically! The best part of this option is that there are no limits to how many variations you can come up with and there's nothing to setup or configure to make it work!

Anyone that has ever had to physically drive around the streets of any city to research location information should always start with the awesome Street View option in Google Maps. Google's vehicles equipped with 360 cameras have been driving the streets all over the globe for over 10 years, but they made it even better a few years back. Whenever you start your street view from any desktop computer, it will initially show you the most recent set of images that have been captured. The hidden feature that is less known is the timeline option, which can be activated by clicking on the icon that looks like a clock in the corner to the upper right. The number of times the street view capture vehicles have recorded that street since they began in 2008 will be represented by a dot on the timeline. The best part of this time based shift is that it's not limited to just the street you started on as all the same images that were captured that year can also be navigated. It's great way to explore your old home town or the neighborhood you grew up in from the comfort of your own home!

The world has changed its entertainment viewing habits from traditional broadcast services to online videos. When it comes to online video, nobody has more people watching then Google with YouTube. If you've always thought about creating your own YouTube channel, today's tip is for you. Whether it's for a small business or just capturing and sharing family related moments in life, you can control who gets to see anything you upload to your channel. Getting started may seem a bit overwhelming, but once you get some of the basics down, it's a really easy platform to make use of. The best way to get your sea legs on YouTube is to visit Google's Creator Academy that is chocked full of instructional videos and how-to's. All you need to do is spend a few minutes everyday at https://creatoracademy.youtube.com and you'll be building your own channel in no time at all.

The cyber-security world views the tax season as Christmas for Crooks because they put a full court press on filing fraudulent tax returns. Since the vast majority of taxpayers will receive a tax refund, the bad guys feel empowered to pull off this scam. If they get their hands on your Social Security Number, they can essentially take over your ID for the purposes of filing a tax return before you do. Anyone unfortunate enough to be a victim of this crime will get caught up in a quagmire of red tape to unwind the fake return and won't see their actual refund for a long time. Since we know that so many major breaches have included SSNs, the opportunity to do this has grown exponentially, but do your best to protect your SSN and file your return as early as is possible each and every year, as this type of fraud isn't going to go away any time soon.

Who doesn't love new technology as a gift during the holiday season? Well, with all the new tech comes to need to do something with the old tech. For those that haven't thought about it, your old technology contains lots of toxic chemicals, so if it powers up, it can't be disposed of through the normal garbage channels. Before you assume that your old tech is useless, check with your local schools, charities or even your friends and family to see if someone else can make use of it. If no one wants it, you next step is to make sure you dispose of it responsibly. When it ends up in our landfills, it introduces those toxic chemicals to the earth and potentially our ground water. To date, despite attempts to get people to be responsible, a very small percentage of electronic waste is disposed of properly and is still ending up in our landfills. Help us spread the word and remember that all Phoenix area Data Doctors locations serve as a year-round drop off point for all your e-waste products.

Anyone that's uses a computer all day at work knows how it can lead to less than desirable posture, which can lead to other problems. An ongoing problem from bad posture when sitting at the computer is CTS or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Depending upon how long it goes untreated, the only relief could be through a surgical procedure and downtime to recover. The good news is that it can be easy to avoid by changing how you sit at your desk. The chair height is the starting point, so make sure it set to allow for a ninety degree bend of your knees with your feel flat on the floor. The position of your wrists should be as close to parallel to the floor as possible, which may require you to reposition your keyboard. If you want a physical aid to keep your wrists in the right position, checkout the offerings from IMAK at https://www.imakproducts.com

People are talking about your business online, every day and it's important to know what they are saying. If you haven't started finding ways to monitor your online reputation, today's tip is a good first step. Google setup a simple keyword based monitoring tool called Alerts (https://www.google.com/alerts) some years ago and it super simple to start using. The website lets you enter your business name as the keyword, along with an email address to send to the alerts to. Keep in mind, if you business name has more than one word, you should put quotation marks around the business name to avoid getting irrelevant alerts on each individual word. When it comes to negative feedback from your customers, if you don't know what they are saying, you can't fix the problem or even appear to care to the rest of the Internet. Ignoring negative feedback as if didn't exist can be very harmful to your reputation. Responding in a caring way shows the rest of the world that you care and want to do what you can to make your customers happy. There are lots of other monitoring tools for social media networks, but starting with Google Alerts should help you get started.

The tactics to take over your online accounts continue to grow in sophistication, which is why setting up 2 factor authentication on your online accounts is imperative. This approach to security is best understood with your debit card, which requires 2 different ways to authenticate access: Your physical card and the associated PIN. I equate not having 2 factor turned on as having a debit card that didn't require a PIN in order withdraw cash from an ATM... super dangerous. The second factor of authentication is something you typically always have with you - your smartphone! Even if a thief steals your username and password, unless they also steal your smartphone and figure out how to unlock it, they won't be able to get into your personal accounts. It's become available for just about every online account you may have, so learn how to set each one of them up atand#160;https://twofactorauth.org