TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

A pair of Microsoft HoloLens devices were destroyed this week when a SpaceX rocket exploded, but NASA astronauts will still probably see the HoloLens before you do; instead of depending on the Windows search function, take a look at what Agent Ransack can offer; In Short Circuits: How to plan for reinstalling Windows (and whether you need to) and Microsoft seems to be planning to return to the chi...

Lots of photography topics this week as we take a look at applications that run on Android smart phones and tablets, then consider how to turn a scanned newspaper photo into something useful. The crooks who run CryptoLocker malware may be honest thieves, but they're still costing victims millions of dollars. In Short Circuits: Speaking of LOTs, hackers grounded many of the Polish airline's airplan...

Password management company LastPass says that it found hackers on its network and I'll explain why this isn't a surprise or something to worry about. Adobe Creative Cloud 2015 was released this week and brings several new and welcome features. In Short Circuits: IBM fully commites to an open source application, Kaspersky warns about some high-powered malware that has set its sights high, and thos...

ThumbsPlus is preparing to release an updated version of its photo management application, security is suddenly becoming a VERY BIG TOPIC for business managers and government officials, and in Short Circuits: a clever way to manage messy wires, the text you send could end up in court, and most of us are carrying more devices around these days. In Spare Parts (only on the website): A new security o...

Between now and Labor Day, you'll probaby take lots of pictures. Picnics, visits to the zoo, maybe a vacation, and family get togethers. But then what? Why not make a slide show without the slides, the projector, and the screen? The cost of data breaches has increased greatly over the past year. In Short Circuits: Launch day for Windows 10 is now official: July 29 and Amazon has a new program that...

Sometimes you can't install a program update and attempting the usual fix (uninstalling) doesn't work either. Microsoft has a helpful application. Research by Google makes it appear that many of us can't remember where we were born, but it's worse than that. If you've recently installed Android Lollipop on your smart phone, check the phone's data usage. In Short Circuits: Finding a way to eat and...

We know more about Windows 10 now, including how many versions will be provided, but still not when. In Short Circuits: I received a firm reminder of how sneaky phishing messages can be, the United States continues to be the largest supplier of e-mail spam, and after several years of rapid growth tablet sales are off a bit this year. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Look who's the biggest thr...

I never fail to be amazed by how many applications are available either for free or at a very low cost. There's no question that commercial software often gives users the largest number of features, but sometimes not all of the available features are needed. Sometimes what's available from a free program is enough. And sometimes what's available from a free program is better than what's available...

If your Android smart phone's battery life is far too short after you upgraded the phone to Lollipop, I have some suggestions; Microsoft's Ignite Conference in Chicago this week shows how committed the company is to winning over IT managers; In Short Circuits: The speech recognition market is growing fast, Microsoft has filed suit against a fraudster, and you'll be shocked by how much Comcast and...

Adobe's latest version of Acrobat goes a long way toward fulfilling absurd demands from users; Samsung has finally started pushing updates to the latest version of Android (Lollipop) to phones, but not yet to tablets; Microsoft is now at build 10,074 of Windows 10 and Project Spartan has a real name. In Short Circuits: This week is the 34th anniversary of the first commercial mouse, if you have an...

Sometimes a single event or a single topic is enough to fill the entire program. That's the case this week with Adobe Lightroom 6. In Short Circuits: Looking for ways that bad guys might hack vehicles that are connected via the Internet of Things and a few more Microsoft 10 tea leaves. In Spare Parts, only on the website: You can't get coffee from your smart phone, but you can pay for it with one;...

Amazon is making a concerted effort to convince more people to use its Prime Music Service and, if you're already a Prime subscriber, it's a good choice. The demand for body cameras is increasing and that's causing new companies to enter the marketplace. After investigating Google for 5 years, the European Union has finally struck. In Short Circuits: In addition to suits filed by Internet service...

After less than a week, Microsoft replaced Windows 10 build 10041 with 10049, so let's see what's different. What to do when a disk begins to fail. In Short Circuits: Finding malware in Google's Chrome Store calls into question Google's claim that it vets all applications, ISIS attacks a TV network in France and websites worldwide, and the FBI warns of fake government sites designed to steal infor...

A smaller version of Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 will soon be available and at a lower price, Adobe continues to release mobile applications that allow designers to stop using scratch pads when they're away from the computer, and most people now agree that data on a computer is more valuable than the computer. In Short Circuits: I have a quick update on Windows 10, which now works on the notebook co...

The Belarc Advisor looks like a tool for serious geeks, but it has features everyone can use. Development of Windows 10 lumbers forward but Spartan, the replacement for Internet Explorer, still isn't available in the preview program. In Short Circuits: Installing the Windows 10 preview doesn't always work the way you think it will; in a "surprise" move, big ISPs have filed suit against the Federal...

Photography has changed a lot in the past few decades and you might have fun going back to look at older images. Automating routine, repetitive actions has always been one of my primary objectives -- perhaps because I'm lazy. If you are, too, let's look as some programs that will help. In Short Circuits: A look at Microsoft's changing business model, Premera says it has exposed personal informatio...

Trying to sort thorough smart phone applications can be a challenge so this week we'll look at several that I've found useful; adding RAM is the easiest way to speed up a computer and there are some new technologies on the horizon; and in Short Circuits: Adobe marketing tools give companies new ways to interact with (and some might say control) consumers and are you ready for a password manager th...

A new version of Xara Photo and Graphic Designer offers useful new photographic features and updates some of the vector-image features; BriefMe is either the future of journalism or the end of journalism -- or maybe something else entirely. In Short Circuits: People say that they're unimpressed with customer service (This is news?), China's Huawei plans a round watch to compete with Apple's square...

Net Neutrality is official, for now, but will it last? Adobe Photoshop turns 25. In Short Circuits: A startup company has an idea for faster wireless service and the Lenovo SuperFish debacle may have revealed more serious problems. On the website only, Spare Parts includes worries by smart phone users about being tracked and a project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to modi...

Tweaks, fixes, and utilities are this week's topic, ranging from NiNite for safe updates and when delays are good, to organizing ebooks and music files, to God Mode and GE Geek. In Short Circuits: The Equation Group plants US-based malware worldwide and thieves steal perhaps a billion dollars from banks around the world. On the website only, Spare Parts includes movement toward full solid-state st...

Sometimes downloading open-source software such as FileZilla can be dangerous because the host site adds unwanted applications to the installer; to avoid giving away important information when using a Wi-Fi hotspot, it's a good idea to run a virtual-private network application; in Short Circuits: Microsoft pushes into mobile computing and unreasonable fear that televisions spy on their owners; on...

Let's look at Camtasia, one of the easiest ways to create video documentation for teaching; as news reporting moves increasingly from print on paper to print on screen, new methods of organizing content are appearing; and the FCC plans to take the first step in a journey that will end at the Supreme Court. In Short Circuits: Guess who doesn't score very well in using social media and if you've bee...

We're seeing an increased number of browsers, but all of them are based on just a few rendering engines; one of the new browsers that's receiving a lot of attention is Aviator and we'll take it for a test flight. In Short Circuits, Fantasy Football and the Super Bowl, high technology used by craft brewers, a birthday for one of the first killer apps, and the FTC continues to take aim at UNLIMITED...

Microsoft turns the Windows world upside down and that's the only account in the main section of the program. In Short Circuits: Battery manufacturers get a charge out of portable devices and a quick message from the Internal Revenue Service. And, only on the website, Spare Parts.

If you use a GoPro video camera or any other method to capture extreme sports, you should take a look at Magix Fastcut. Adobe released Lightroom Mobile for Android this week and that means I can stop harassing the product managers. It also means that you can perform some pretty cool photo editing tricks on your phone. In Short Circuits: Some towns and cities are trying to provide broadband access...