Data Doctors Tech Tips

The four major cellular carriers are constantly battling to attract you as a subscriber with what often sounds like a sensational offer seemingly every week. The reality of these 'deals' is that if their quality of service where you spend most of your time is spotty, an 'incredible deal' is pretty useless. Before deciding to jump from one company to another, there's a wonderful tool that can help you make a more informed decision. Rootmetrics.com lets you properly evaluate the major network's coverage where you work, live and travel. I always start with where I live so I can get a good overall rating for each company that covers reliability, speed indexes and data speeds as well as call and text performance so I know the strengths and weaknesses of each where I would need them. One of my favorite features is the ' overage Map' because it provides detailed cell-based maps of call quality, data speeds and the availability of 4G LTE service from each company. Root Metrics also has a mobile app which you can use to help gather performance information when you are out and about. The recommended links: Explore the Coverage Map: http://webcoveragemap.rootmetrics.com/us Mobile apps: http://rootmetrics.com/en-US/content/our-coveragemap-app-is-now-better-than-ever

The Internet and especially social media allows us to follow all of our favorite celebrities but did you know that this can actually be dangerous? Malicious hackers are both cunning and evil in their methods and they specifically target the U.S. because of our celebrity obsessed culture. They often create Internet-based scams that can allow them to silently sneak into your device using your favorite celebrity as bait. In most cases, if they offer you a link and you click on it, your screen will have a pop-up window explaining that your video player needs to be updated in order to watch the video. Anyone falling for theses scams is essentially granting remote control access of their device to a remote hacker. Anytime you see any site or link telling you that you that your media player is out of date, consider it a big red flag. Ask yourself why you would suddenly have the need for something special in order to watch a video when you've been watching lots of them almost every day. The simple answer is: YOU DON'T! Celebrity-based social engineering continues to be an effective trick in the hacker's bag of tricks, so don't fall for it!

Regular listeners of our tech tips know about my endless quest to discover the very best ways to display the digital images that I'm constantly creating. You may have seen beautiful high-res images that are printed on to glass in an art gallery, which are incredibly eye catching.and#160; Well, you too can generate incredible images printed on glass photos right from he convenience of your computer with just a few mouse clicks.and#160; An online company called 'Fracture' is a specialty printing option that lets you upload images to one of five different frame sizes ranging from roughly 5 by 7 to 22 by 30 in either portrait or landscape or square orientation.and#160; The process will only take a couple of minutes with prices range from $18 to $125.and#160; Fracture prints your image directly on the back of a piece of glass, then adds a black backing and ships it to you in a special package. This way of displaying pictures makes for amazing wall art or makes a great gift for those people and moments special to you.and#160; Check it all out at https://fractureme.com

Anyone that's ever worked in an office is familiar with Microsoft Word and using the macros feature that lets you insert portions of text usee on a regular basis using a saved keyboard shortcut to save time. We're all spending a lot more time creating things online, so having macro capabilities in the browser can come in really handy. Anyone using online productivity tools like Google Docs could benefit from this capability by installing a free add-on for the Chrome browser called Auto Text Expander. You can use the 'Auto Text Expander' add-on to create shortcuts for really long e-mail addresses, commonly used phrases or for creating varios e-mail signatures that are easy to insert. The add-on allows you to create your own collection of shortcuts like using 'bizadd' to insert your business address or 'persig' to insert your personal email signature; basically, it's helpful for any type of information used on a regular basis. Once you have generated a shortcut, they're usable in any text field for virtually everything you do online, from e-mail to social media to blogging. Download link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/auto-text-expander-for-go/iibninhmiggehlcdolcilmhacighjamp

That hard drive in your computer is a lot like your frig; it doesn't matter how big, you will fill it up eventually. Just as is the case for your refrigerator, tossing out your unneeded items is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a newer, bigger one. The primary problem most user run into is that they haven't a clue what is taking up their storeage space, so they have no idea what they can get rid of. For starters, uninstalling any unneeded software and if your drive is filled with tons of video or music files that aren't important, tossing those space hogs will free up a lot of space as well. Windows-based computers can get a helping hand from a program called 'TreeSize' which is free. The structure of file storate in Windows is referred to as a 'tree' with folders representing branches and individual files are the leaves. The TreeSize tool quickly shows you the size of each folder so you can easily determine what's taking up all your storage space. WARNING: Never should you delete items when you don't know what they are and always be sure that you have verified your backup before starting to delete anything from your hard drive. http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free

The growing popularity of food photography has created both haters and lovers of this social media phenomenon. If you are one of the lovers of snapping pics of your food in public places, there are a couple of tips you should keep in mind. The first tip: turn off you flash! It not only is irritating to those near you, the image of the food will be overexposed turn out bad. If you have a low-lighting setting, make sure you turn down the brightness of your screen to start as use a candle or another person's screen to warmly light your subject. Another thing that can be a minor irritation for others is the sound of the shutter each time you snap a picture, so mute that as well. Choosing the right app to take the food pics will also make a difference in your results, so you may want to opt for a better option than the built-in camera app and use something like VSCO's Cam app instead. VSCO Cam is especially helpful with those low lighting situations with a whole host of editing options after you take the shot: http://vsco.co/vscocam

Let's start today's tip with some Geek Speak: Bundleware Anyone that's ever downloaded a free program or even a simple software update may have noticed that they suddenly have a new toolbar that snuck into their browser or worse, the start page has been changed. That when you know that you're a victim of 'bundleware'. Sneeky software companies often include a third-party program hidden in their installation process because they get paid to do so. They know that most users are going to click Next, Next, Next, I agree! A good habit to get into when installing anything on your computer is to ignore the 'recommended' option and start choosing the 'custom' option so you can see what kind of third party programs they're trying to sneak past you. For more protection against bundleware scams, checkout a free utility called 'Unchecky' that acts as a kind of checkmark watchdog. Unchecky automatically unchecks thrid-party offers and also warns when you are about to install unwanted offers or utilities. If you're tired of you browser being overrun with unwanted junk add-ons, take control of your computer installs with http://unchecky.com

Anyone with younger children knows that using one of the many baby monitors on the market can be very comforting. An alternative to traditional dedicated monitors or for those taking kids on a road trip is available through an Android app called Dormi. The Dormi app will turn any 2 Android devices of any kind into a private baby monitoring system that can be used from any distance. Because you're using Android devices, Dormi can use either wifi or cell connections, so it can work in the next room or the next state. The app also allows you to talk to your child through the devices when a calming voice can help and it lets you know what the battery level is on the monitoring device. The basic service is completely free for up to 4 hours per month or you can buy the app to get unlimited use forever. Anyone with an old Android device sitting around somewhere could use Dormi to bring it back to a useful life for a parent in need.

This tip can be the greatest thing since sliced bread for anyone that owns rental property or for those that rent from a private party. If the process of collecting or paying the rent is still by check, both renters and landlords know what a pain it can be for both sides. Cozy is an excellent web resource created to make the monthly rent paying process simple. Any landlord can register their rental property and associtated bank deposit information in a matter of minutes, which then allows their tenants to start paying the rent online. Cozy is really helpful when there are multiple tenants in the same property because it allows roomates to each pay their share online eliminating the "chase the roommate"game. If that wasn't cool enough to get started, how about all of this convenience at no cost to either the landlord or the tenant. Cozy offers lots of extras for landlords including online rental applications, screening tools and they can even list thier property via their online network. No more hassles with collecting or paying the rent at http://Cozy.co

We're all interested in staying physcially fit, but how often do we get busy and run out of time to get in a decent run or gym session. Anyone that is time constrained and unable to get any kind of regular exercise in should try shifting their attention to an easier goal to achieve: a 7 minute workout using a mobile app. This approach can be used anywhere, anytime and doesn't require special equipment. Experts have created a twelve step intense workout that just uses body weight, chairs and walls all in only 7 minutes of exercise. Research clearly points to the value of even a couple minutes of intese physical activity at your maximum capacity can produce muscular changes that compare to routines like running or bike riding for an hour. If seven minutes is still too much time in your schedule, you can start with the 4-minute workout app that is similar to the process originally used by Olympic athletes from Japan. Both of the TinyHearts apps are available for iPhone or iPad users and an alternative is available for Android users as well. Although staying fit is a bit of a time committment, starting with one of these options may help you create good habits that can lead to a consistent increase in activity. http://tinyhearts.com/7-minute-workout-quickfit https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.minhphan.android.seven