Rick's Daily Tips

Rick’s Daily Pick: Ancel AD410 Enhanced OBD2 Scanner

Posted on December 30, 2024

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

My “Pick” for today is this super-handy Ancel AD410 Enhanced OBD2 Scanner.

Do you own a car, pickup truck or SUV? If so, you need this little gem.

Why? Because it’ll tell you what’s causing that dreaded “check engine” light to come on AND it’ll help keep the mechanic honest when you take your vehicle in for repair (the vast majority of mechanics are in fact honest, but as they say, “Trust, but verify.”)

Click here to read more about the Ancel AD410 Enhanced OBD2 Scanner on Amazon.

Picture of the Day: “Montreal at Night”

Posted on December 30, 2024

Today’s POTD features a beautiful nighttime view of the Montreal, Québec skyline. I hope you like it.

Enjoy these “Pictures of the Day”?

Monthly Tech Giveaway – December 2024

Posted on November 30, 2024

Note: The links on this page are affiliate links.

December’s winner will receive this fantastic CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD3 Intelligent LCD 1500VA/900W UPS System.

Are you prepared for the next time your power goes off?

This little gem will keep your computer powered up long enough during short term power outages to save all of your open files and perform an orderly system shutdown.

Alternatively, it’ll keep your modem and router (or your gateway) powered up and online for a good while.

All subscribers to the Standard edition of my Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter have an equal chance to win.

Premium subscribers have two chances to win (their email addresses are added to the “pot” twice).

Not a subscriber? Just enter your email address in the form on this page. Once subscribed you’ll be eligible to win each month’s drawing – starting with this month. Better yet, opt for a Premium subscription for double the chance to win!

The drawing for this month’s prize will be held on the evening of December 31 and the winner will be notified by email. The winner will be selected at random.

Good luck!

How to preview a link in the Chrome Android app before you actually open it

Posted on December 30, 2024

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I have four different web browsers on my Android phone, and I use all of them at various times for different purposes.

The browser I prefer to use when reading articles and blog posts is Chrome because it has several features that I happen to find extremely useful.

One feature that I absolutely love (and use often) is “Page Preview“, a nifty little tool that allows you to preview the web page a link is pointing to before you actually open the page in a browser tab. [Read more…]

Q&A: Will installing an SSD void my new laptop’s warranty?

Posted on December 29, 2024

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Question from Markus: Hi, Rick. I recently bought a new laptop that came with a 1 year manufacturer’s warranty, but I paid extra for a 3 year extended warranty.

I’d really like to swap out its 1TB hard drive for an SSD (as you often recommend).

I have not read anything anywhere about potential consequences if one does this. Could this possibly be considered an “unauthorized” activity and therefore void either the laptop manufacturer’s warranty or the extended warranty that I purchased? [Read more…]

How to recover an accidentally deleted Gmail contact

Posted on December 29, 2024

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Have you ever accidentally deleted a Gmail contact that you didn’t intend to delete?

Even worse, have you ever logged into your Gmail account and discovered that all of your contacts had mysteriously disappeared?

Unfortunately, these things happen from time to time, and we often don’t realize it until several days have gone by.

Luckily, it’s very easy to recover any Gmail contacts that were deleted within the last 30 days. [Read more…]