Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Marcel Q.: My old HP laptop stopped working a few days ago and I decided it was time to replace it instead of having it fixed (again!).
I bought a new Lenovo laptop and I like it OK, but making the leap from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 is turning out to be a pain. It’s so different from earlier versions of Windows!
For 3 days now I’ve been trying to figure out how and where to adjust the power options. Can you tell me how to find them?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Ellis R.: Rick, I just created a blog on Tumblr and I’d like to make it private. In other words I don’t want anyone except myself to see it.
I know this is a strange request, but I have a reason for it. So can you tell me how to make my blog private? I’d really appreciate it.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
It has recently come to light that Google’s Chrome web browser (which I LOVE by the way) is a battery hog when used on a laptop, and this is something that I had preciously been totally unaware of.
I hadn’t noticed it because I do the vast majority of my work on a desktop PC, but after checking it out by running tests with my laptop, I can tell you that it is indeed true.
Apparently the culprit is something called the “System Clock Tick Rate”. In simplified terms, this is the rate at which the system “wakes up” a sleeping CPU to check to see if anything is going on that needs to be taken care of. [Read more…]
Have you been wanting to sign up for a Google+ account, but you’re apprehensive about having to use your real name on your profile? Well now you don’t have to.
Google has finally lifted the “you must use your real name” restriction, something that potential users have been complaining about since the day the service was launched. [Read more…]
A new feature introduced with iOS 7 makes it easier to conserve your iPhone’s monthly data allotment. You can now tell iOS which apps are allowed to use cellular data and which ones must wait until you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.
As you probably know, data that’s sent and received via Wi-Fi doesn’t count against your monthly data allotment, so using as many apps as possible only when you’re connected via Wi-Fi can save you a bundle on monthly data overage charges.
It’s easy to tell iOS which apps you want to restrict to using Wi-Fi only. Here’s how: [Read more…]