To find the best deals on holiday gifts (for others or even for yourself!) it's a good idea to take time to research the best prices using online price comparison sites before making a purchase. ABC NEWS reports in this video that Consumer Reports recommends Price Grabber as the best price comparison site:
Welcome to Cyber Monday! We hope you are finding great online shopping deals! Here's this week's update of technology tips, tricks and news:
Holiday Shopping tips
PODCAST: Tech for Fitness
How to Get Your Videos Found Via Search
NEWS
Black Friday sees online spending rise
FCC updating 911 for the texting generation
Study: Wealth dictates Web use, tech adoption
To all of our clients, family, friends, Facebook "likers," Twitter followers, blog readers and newsletter subscribers, we'd like to say a big thank you to you for your support and patronage of New Millennium Computers NY. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Best,
Mike & Momodou
Get special offers including free shipping at hundreds of merchants during the holidays and throughout the year. On the day of Cyber Monday there will be hourly specials and exclusives from your favorite online retailers. Sneak peeks of the hourly deals will be shared via email alerts so make sure to sign up for special savings and the latest offers.Happy Shopping!!!
In addition to hourly deals, the new site offers:
- An improved site design and user friendly interface
- A 'green' category for environmentally safe products
- A sophisticated new comparison shopping engine*
Check out the latest technology tips, tricks and news we've pulled together from around the Web.
How to Choose the Right Web Server
For our readers who are marketing their businesses using social media, learn how to Source and Credit Content
Parents, use Excel to help your kids study their spelling words
How to Customize Windows desktop gadgets
Via @nytimestech - Bits: Facebook to Start an E-Mail Service http://nyti.ms/arPpxO
Hyper-networking: A new teen health risk category?
As NBA Begins, Nike and Adidas Ads Battle For The Web
Microsoft lets Hotmail users set encryption by default
Google Announces 'Instant Previews' Search Feature
The always helpful Microsoft Office blog shared some great templates for creating Thanksgiving inviations, place-cards, menus and greeting cards. If you've got a long iist of people to send invitation or cards to, try a mail merge to save yourself from having to address each envelope by hand, fiund a great tutorial from Microsoft here.
Microsoft does offer templates for all holidays throughout the year, check out the full list, here.
Social networks are built on the premise of sharing, but often users post personal information such as birth dates, phone numbers, addresses and employers on their social network profiles without realizing that they may be "sharing" this information with people they don't know - people that may be able to access this information if users don't take measures to protect their information. For instance, if any of your Facebook privacy settings are set to "everyone" then it can be found by anyone on the Internet (including potential and/or current employers).
Take a few minutes to read the privacy policies of any social networks of which you are a member and find out the steps you need to adjust the privacy settings of your social networking profiles to a level you are comfortable with and safeguard your personal information. Here are some links with tips on how to adjust privacy settings on some of the most popular social networks:
See also:
This week we are discussing ways to protect your privacy while browsing online. One of the key threats to your online privacy is malware which can be picked up from email attachments, clicking on links to unknown websites, clicking on pop-up windows, file sharing via the web or free downloads. Microsoft describes the term malware as being derived from the "two words 'malicious software,' and refers to any software that is designed to cause damage to a computer, server, or network. Viruses, spyware, worms, key loggers, and Trojans are examples of malware. If you click links that are disguised as images, audio, or video files which might appear on suspicious websites or in Instant Messages (IMs) or email messages, you might expose your computer to malware. In some cases, malware can even be hidden in files that have been uploaded to reputable websites. Malware can:
To help protect your computer from malware, you should should install anti-virus software including a firewall and be sure to update the software regularly. As an extra preventive step, adjust the security settings on your browser to control the types of websites that can be accessed, block pop-ups, how cookies are handled, etc.
If you have malware on your computer and need help removing those files, give us a call at
See also:
*Source: www.microsoft.com/protect/learnabout/iemalware.aspx
For more news and video from the WSJ's "What They Know" series of reports, visit their website here. Below is a video from the series discussing how a customer is profiled on websites.
- The study found that the nation's 50 top websites on average installed 64 pieces of tracking technology onto the computers of visitors, usually with no warning. A dozen sites each installed more than a hundred. The nonprofit Wikipedia installed none.
- Tracking technology is getting smarter and more intrusive. Monitoring used to be limited mainly to "cookie" files that record websites people visit. But the Journal found new tools that scan in real time what people are doing on a Web page, then instantly assess location, income, shopping interests and even medical conditions. Some tools surreptitiously re-spawn themselves even after users try to delete them.
- These profiles of individuals, constantly refreshed, are bought and sold on stock-market-like exchanges that have sprung up in the past 18 months.*
A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals that just 4% of online adults use location-based "check-in" services. But just ahead of the holiday shopping season, Facebook has launched it's new Deals service which offers deals to consumers when they "check-in" at participating businesses using Facebook Places. Facebook offers a tutorial for business on how to create a "deal," watch the video here.
For Facebook users, here's an introduction to finding deals on Facebook:
Hello all, welcome to Monday. We hope you are adjusting well to the time change! Check out this week's technology tips, tricks and news below!
A Fall Guide: How to Pick Your Next Computer
MS Word tips
Email:
How to Remove Location Information from Picasa Photos
Use This Shortcut to Quickly Drag Files to the Desktop
How to Make iTunes Keep Volume Consistent
LinkedIn to let members recommend products
Privacy & Security issues:
Social media:
EBay Attempts to Clean Up the Clutter
AT&T’s Bet on Health Technology
Sesame Street' skit slaps 'an app for that' concept
Text Temptations Affect Teens' Sleep
VIDEO: The Wall Street Journal's review of Canon’s new 18 mega-pixel camera
Some novelists, poets, researchers and other writers are choosing to digitally self-publish their works as electronic books or "e-books." With the popularity of devices such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Apple’s iPad, and other e-readers and tablet PC’s, sales of e-books are increasing making this a great alternative to publishing via an established publishing company. And if you are eco-conscious, some argue that e-books and readers may have a smaller carbon footprint that traditional print books.
Some key things to remember if you are publishing an e-book:
Amazon has a great video tutorial on how to publish to Kindle.
The CreativePenn.com offers tips on publishing for the iPad, here.
Check out ABC News’ coverage of authors who have self-published e-books.
See also:
Many of us spend the majority of our worksdays sitting in front of a computer but we should make an effort to take breaks throughout the day to refresh our minds and bodies in addition to taking care to prevent occuaption health hazards such as carpal tunnel syndorome. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration offers some great information on occupational standards, hazards and solutions here.
WedMD.com has a great video with tips on setting up an ergonomically healthy workstation and some exercises that can be done in your desk/office area, watch it here. If you want to relieve upper back, neck or shoulder pain from your long workdays, here's another great video from Desk-Trainer.com with some excercises you could do while seated in your chair!
And after your long day at work, you may want a mental break and the opportunity to destress. Karen Rose, Master Herbalist and owner of Sacred Vibes Healing spoke with Black Enterpise's Business Report about using aromatherapy to relax after a long workday, watch the video here.
