TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

The 2020 version of On1 Photo Raw has some surprising features but hasn't entirely eliminated performance problems that I found last year. In Short Circuits: Windows 10 has a silly annoyance that I've been trying to fix for far too long. Now I've found a partial solution that at least reduces the frustration. • Development continues on the Chromium-based version of Microsoft's Edge browser and a b...

About the time you think you're aware of every possible photo application, one you've never heard of pops up. That's the case with the Movavi Photo Editor from Siberia. Yes, Siberia in Russia. In Short Circuits: An article on CNet claimed to describe how professional photos can be taken with phone-based cameras. Let's explore that thought. • If you have one or more external USB disk drives attache...

Adobe has designed Photoshop Elements for people they call "Memory Keepers" and the just released 2020 version of the application brings lots of improvements and several new features. In Short Circuits: If you'd like to refresh your ability to read, write, and speak a foreign language or learn an entirely new language, Duolingo is a good place to start, and it's free. • You've probably heard about...

Consider what happens if some creep impersonates your Facebook or Instagram account. It's nowhere near as bad or as serious as having your identity stolen, but it's still a major annoyance. Reducing risk and avoiding the problem is best, but be prepared just in case you become a victim. In Short Circuits: If you're having a problem with Windows, the Feedback Hub (once available only to those in th...

The just-released verson of Acronis True-Image backup adds what the company calls "dual protection" to ensure that you'll always have a backup of your backup. In Short Circuits: Adobe's Elements applications, Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, continue to add features that are powered by the company's Sensai artificial intelligence engine. Facts are important and they seem to be in short su...

The newly released Exposure X5 gives users powerful new ways to control distortion, vignetting, color fringing, and chromatic aberration -- problems that can damage the look of an otherwise good photograph. In Short Circuits: Microsoft has added some new controls for the mouse cursor. There's now a range of 15 sizes for the pointer and, even better, you can set the color of the mouse cursor to mak...

When cameras used film, we didn't have much control. Pros and serious amateurs had darkrooms or used professional labs, but most of us couldn't even crop an image without using scissors to cut the print. Now everyone can do what only the pros used to be able to do and much more that pros never dreamed of being able to do. In Short Circuits: Lynda.com can be your key to becoming a better photograph...

You know the hard drive in your computer will fail someday, so you've been making regular backups. But what if you can't restore files from the backup when disaster strikes? Preparing for recovery is the step that's all too easy to miss. In Short Circuits: Suddenly your computer starts acting like it's full of congealed tar balls and who's to blame? Sometimes it's not malware or Microsoft. Every c...

In an effort to be helpful, smart phone manufacturers, service providers, and apps want to send messages and reminders. There are ways to tame the deluge. In Short Circuits: BIOS updates are always problematic. Should we install them or ignore them? The old advice was generally to ignore them, but that advice needs to be modified when security issues are involved. Did you sign up for the $125 Equi...

We hear about ransomware attacks that affect cities and, while they are frequent targets of malware, some crooks target small businesses and home users because they know the targets will be softer. In Short Circuits: Sometimes it seems that electronic devices go out of their way to make our lives miserable and, when they do, finding a solution to the problem can be challenging. If you've been thin...

Corel Draw has been around for a long time and the recently released 2019 edition of the graphics suite continues the company's long running emphasis on ease of use. In Short Circuits: Some of us love the Windows Start Menu. Some of us hate it. Either way, there are actions you can take to improve how you get to the programs you use most often. You might think that I'd be sad to say that Alien Ski...

Anyone who owns a scanner -- regardless of make, model, or type -- should take a look at VueScan because it's probably better than the software that came with your scanner. In Short Circuits: Website owners often receive emails from China with warnings that someone is trying to register their website name. In short, it's a scam intended to separate your money from you. Another scam that I hadn't s...

Powerful features and low cost are rarely features of a single computer application. Normally you get one or the other but software developer Serif is trying to provide both in its new series of Affinity products. In Short Circuits: Adobe has added several new features to its photographic applications and has updated many others. The result is one you'll like. If you'd like to frighten yourself, h...

If you need a computer for school, you'll find lots of choices. Maybe too many choices. It's not a one-size-fits all situation, so picking the right computer involves matching your needs. In Short Circuits: Some scammers are just plain stupid, so let's take a moment to laugh at one that fits that description. It's getting harder to use the Flash Player in most browsers and it will be impossible by...

Life has never been better for those who prefer to read books on electronic devices and libraries offer a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction materials for patrons. In Short Circuits: There is a threat on the horizon for electronic books and audiobooks. Four major publishers are planning to severely limit library access to electronic versions of their books. Do you need a utility to confirm th...

WordPerfect hasn't been the dominant word processor since the 1990s, but Corel's development efforts for the past 23 years and WordPerfect's long-time killer feature (Reveal Codes) make it exactly the right choice for some users. In Short Circuits: Sometimes a new application doesn't install properly. When that happens, finding a workaround starts with reading and understanding diagnostic messages...

Too many people are trying to steal your data, whether it's on your computer or stored on-line. We all have a duty to be cautious, so let's consider how. In Short Circuits: If you have an old computer or other electronic device that still works, you can sell it. But what if it's broken? You may still be able to sell it and keep it out of a landfill. Some electric utilities make it possible to keep...

You may be surprised by the price of the best camera in the world, but extensive research and testing have revealed that it probably costs less than you would expect. In Short Circuits: If your Windows 10 computer seems slow, it might be the result of having too many applications open in the background. Far too many developers think their app should run all the time, but it's easy to turn off the...

If you're struggling with Microsoft Word or Publisher to create newsletters and other publications, Affinity Publisher might be just what you need. Surprisingly, it's also good for much larger documents. In Short Circuits: As a follow-up to this week's review of Affinity Publisher, let's take a look back at how much publishing has changed since the mid-1980s when the first electronic typesetting a...

For most of us, Windows 10 is Microsoft's best operating system, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved. Let's take a look at some ways that you can modify a few settings or learn a few tricks that will make it better. In Short Circuits: In a few days Google will modify how Photos and Drive interact with each other. Changes made in one location will no longer be reflected in the other. That's...

If you like the idea of combining multiple photos to create a cool high-dynamic-range look, but haven't been able to get the results you want, now would be a good time to take a look at Aurora HDR from Skylum. It works as a standalone application or as a plug-in for Adobe's applications. In Short Circuits: Facebook constantly adds features I don't want and displays far more ads than seems reasonab...

After trying to convince Windows users that its own proprietary display engine was better than the ones used by Chrome and Firefox, Microsoft has given up on EdgeHTML. The next version of Edge will be based on Chromium. In Short Circuits: Recently released updates to Adobe Lightroom Classic include a powerful new feature that most people probably won't use, but those who care deeply about color pu...

I'm a proponent of password managers, but I've chosen to switch from one password manager to another even though the one I'm switching from is still a worthwhile and viable application. In Short Circuits: When I receive an email account deactivation notice, I instantly recognize it as phony because I am my own email system administrator, but what if you receive a deactivation message that seems to...

After stumbling more than a little with the initial 2019 release of PhotoRaw, On1 has remedied most of the performance problems with the 2019.5 release. In Short Circuits: Not content to interfere only with US elections, Russia is now actively opposing development of 5G cellular networks in the United States with disinformation campaigns while encouraging 5G development in Russia. Scaremongers hav...

Tech support seems a lot more complex than it really is. Once you realize that hardware and software companies really don't want to hear your tech support questions, the path to solving your own problems becomes clearer. In Short Circuits: Windows 10 version 1903 should have been released in March, but it's just now being pushed out. If your computer hasn't yet been updated and you wonder why, let...