Rick's Daily Tips

Twitter: Photos no longer count against the 140 character limit when tweeting

Posted on September 21, 2016

One of the most frustrating things about using Twitter has always been having to limit the total number of characters in a tweet to 140 or less.

Simply put, it’s often pretty hard to get your message across in just 140 characters!

Even worse, photos and various other “extras” that are often added to a tweet can make that job harder still.

Although users have complained about the 140 character limit for years, Twitter has always resisted making any changes to the iconic, but frustrating limit. [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I exclude the pictures on my iPhone from my iCloud backups?

Posted on September 19, 2016

Question from Taylor K.: Hi Rick! I have a question about iCloud backups that I hope you can answer for me.

I took your advice and set my iPhone to automatically back everything up to iCloud. Today I noticed that my backups have just about used up all my iCloud storage, and most of that space is taken up by my pictures.

Is there any way to exclude the pictures on my iPhone from the iCloud backups? I always copy the pictures I take to my computer anyway so I don’t really need them backed up to iCloud too.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Review: How To Make Money Blogging: The 14 Day Guide To Starting A Successful Blog

Posted on September 16, 2016

New blogs are created every day, for a variety of reasons. Some aspiring bloggers simply want to share their thoughts and expertise with the world while others want to generate a steady income. But the fact is it’s possible to do both!

If you’ve been kicking around the idea of starting a blog of your own, a great way to start is by reading How To Make Money Blogging: The 14 Day Guide To Starting A Successful Blog (#ad) by Michael Wiechert.

In this wonderful Kindle e-book, Michael walks you step-by-step through a 14 day series of steps for planning, setting up, writing, promoting and monetizing your new blog. Nothing is left out.

I’ve been blogging for over 5 years and thought I knew pretty much everything there is to know about the subject, but I was wrong. This is truly a blueprint for success that is a must-read for anyone who wants to start and run a successful blog.

Here’s an overview of what you’ll learn during the 14 day plan: [Read more…]

How to check if your Galaxy Note 7 smartphone is on the recall list

Posted on September 16, 2016

galaxy-note-7 As I mentioned in this post, Samsung issued a world-wide recall a couple of weeks ago for all Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that have been sold to date due to a dangerous battery issue.

Since then they have been able to determine which specific phones have the defective batteries, and they have modified the recall to cover only the affected devices.

If you own a Galaxy Note 7 you can now easily check to see if your phone still falls under the recall notice. You can choose either of two methods for checking your phone’s recall status: [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I reset my Windows login pin, but keep using the same pin?

Posted on September 9, 2016

Question from Bob S.: I had been using a pin instead of a password and that worked just fine.

I had some other issues and needed to do a safe boot. Then back to regular boot. Now it is asking for my password instead of a pin to log in.

I want to use my pin, but I don’t want to change it. The only options I have are change or remove the pin.

Is there a place I can say use my pin instead of my password? I want to keep the same pin I have been using. Don’t want to change it.

Any thoughts on what I might do? Thanks in advance … Bob

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]