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Some of you over the holidays received a computer for a gift. If you received a PC as opposed to a MAC you probably got a trial version of a program to secure your computer against viruses, spyware, etc. Once this trial period is up (usually after 30 days), you need to pay to renew this program. The cost of this can be as much as $80 per year.
If your computer is for personal use or you use it for a very small business, you do not need to pay for internet security. There is free security software that you can use instead. Some of it is good. Some not as good. Assuming that you keep your computer for 5 years, you are paying $400 to protect it that you can avoid spending. Save $$$. I use security software from a highly respected company. It is legal and not a pirated copy. Computer Concierge NY LLC can install this on your computer too. Given an $80 per year charge for security software once the trial period ends, my cost to you to install it will pay for itself in less then a year. If you expect to keep your computer 5 years, our cost to install will pay for itself several times over the life of your computer. Did I mention, the software is absolutely free?
Have a new computer and unsure how to set it up? There is more to setting up a computer than taking it out of the box and following the online instructions. Our costs for a basic computer set up can save you as much as $300 over the life of your computer assuming you are keeping it for 5 years. The set up includes the same free security software used on my computer. The $300 savings more than doubles the costs to set up your computer.
One other thing. A major consumer electronics retailer that sells and services computers will not tell you of this free software. If they install your computer, their costs to you will be higher than what we charge. They will not install this free software for you. They will likely try to sell you what you do not need. They have done it to friends and customers of mine. They tried to do it to me.
If you have questions about this or other technology issues I can be reached at 917.572.3468. I look forward to saving you money. I also can train you to make better use of your technology.
If you are looking for a good note taking program that you can sync with your smartphone then Evernote may be for you. Its number of users have increased quite a bit since it became more user friendly for Android users. It can be used to store notes, pdf files (which you can annotate) and is great for clipping parts of a website that you wish to save to later use. While it is in the cloud, you can save a version that rests on your hard drive as well. You also are given an Evernote email address to use in case you or someone else wishes to add to your existing notes or create a new one. This is good where your spouse,friend,etc can send you a picture of what a particular item you are shopping for looks like.
As mentioned you also can take and store pictures. You can take a picture with your smartphone and upload to your Evernote account making notes about the picture once it is uploaded. Those who have an Eye-Fi card in their digital camera can send pictures directly to their Evernoteaccount from it.
It is a great program for note taking and organizing your notes. Similar notes can be categorized as notebooks which is a collection of notes. The search feature is also very good. You can search by keywords, tags, and titles. Evernote is good for making notes which you could use with pictures to better clarify and also for its ability to clip parts of a webpage. You can also convert speech to text. This enables you to send voice notes that are converted to text.
An area of concern is its ability to share your notes with others. You have the ability to share your notes with everyone, selected people or no one. Sharing is based upon notebooks which as mentioned is a collection of notes. Even with the paid version I do not see a way to allow those you share your notes with to edit and make changes to them. I find the lack of this feature and the fact that sharing is by notebooks and not individual notes to be a concern. When I make notes that I wish to allow others to make changes to I use Google Docs where you can allow changes to be made by others for individual file(s).
For those who like a good way of taking and organizing notes on the run, need a good way to organize your notes and have your own personal digital assistant this is a good program check out. It may suit your needs and do it well. Even if you do not have a smartphone, you may do well using it.
When many people first got a personal email account it was an America Online (AOL) one. Their browser was user friendly and the easy to navigate AOL features that were user friendly. We remember the old AOL CDs that were mailed out and in stores all over. There was the monthly subscription fee which enabled access to a dial up connection and all the other AOL features.
Today having an AOL email address is free. That is one of the changes that AOL has made over the years. Another change is they are no longer known as America Online but rather the initials AOL.
Like Gmail discussed in a previous blog, attachments are limited to 25mb. AOL however does have unlimited storage. There also is a filter for incoming emails that allows you to handle them in the manner you choose depending on the criteria that is set. You still have the option of playing a sound when new mail arrives. Some of us may remember "You've Got Mail" when there was a new message in your inbox. Well when you sign into your AOL account using the AOL browser, you still get that message when you have new email.
One of the better features of AOL mail is when replying to someone else's email you have the ability to highlight any text from the stream that you want to remain in your email that you are preparing, then click the "Reply" button. It will then automatically list the highlighted text, with a header on it in your email. You also have the ability to block email from specific addresses you specify. This filter can also be set to allow email from specific addresses as well.
I am not too comfortable with the interface of the Contacts List. For starters there is nowhere to input a website address. The contacts do not open quickly as well. The contacts can be found easily in AOL mail on the left hand side. When using the AOL browser it is not as easy. If you are not familiar using the AOL browser you may forget that it is in the "Mail" menu under "Address Book".
There is also no automatic save feature like there is when using Gmail. You need to click on "Save Draft" otherwise you could lose the email you are preparing should your computer freeze or another issue arises.
There are those who may like AOL with their own browser. It is not for everyone but those who have been using it for many years may feel comfortable with its familiarity.
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