TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

Whether you need a huge camera with a lot of heavy and bulky lenses, just a smartphone, or something in between depends on how you approach photography. Let’s explore that. In Short Circuits: Most new computers come with solid-state drives. If you have an older computer that you’re not yet ready to retire, now would be a great time to upgrade the boot drive to an SSD. • Beeper is a new approach to...

A VPN is essential whenever you use a mobile device with a public Wi-Fi hotspot, but it can also improve privacy and security at other times. It’s important to understand the trade-offs, though. In Short Circuits: Some internet crooks are stupid and I like to make fun of them, but there’s no shortage of crafty criminals. We all need to be aware that they exist and to beware of their tricks. In oth...

Your browser blocks ads and pop-ups, you use incognito mode, and you don’t allow sites to access the computer’s hardware. Safe, right? Your browser can still be fingerprinted and you can still be tracked. In Short Circuits: Canary is an email application that runs on Windows, MacOS, IOS, IPadOS, and Android. In addition to artificial intelligence for creating or responding to messages, the app str...

Small specialized apps generally known as “utilities” can solve problems and add capabilities not provided by the operating system. We’ll look at new functions in PowerToys utilities from Microsoft and from two individual developers. In Short Circuits: Adobe released Firefly a few weeks ago for people to try and now the AI component has been added to the beta version of Photoshop that’s available...

Instead of massive home stereo systems, most of us now listen to music on our computers. Adding a software equalizer can improve sound, even on less-than-perfect sound systems. In Short Circuits: Photoshop Camera is free and it may be the best way to have fun with the camera that's in your smartphone, but it's not compatible with every device. • Meta has agreed to a $725 million settlement to end...

Even if your scanner came with a scanning application, using the scanner will be easier and more productive if you buy a copy of VueScan. In Short Circuits: I’ll tell you about some of Adobe’s new photo suite features soon, but one that stands out above all the others is a game changer called Denoise. • Geoffrey Hinton, Google’s former chief artificial intelligence scientist, retired abruptly and...

Anyone who wants to create a website needs to start by selecting either an application that edits website code or a service that offers site design tools. Many choices exist, but the two primary contenders are Dreamweaver and WordPress. In Short Circuits: A virtual private network on your computer is on the way to becoming essential, and Google’s VPN service that’s part of Google One might be suff...

Windows has features that, while not quite annoyances, don’t work the way you’d like. The Ultimate Windows Tweaker fixes a lot of these not-quite annoyances, and it’s free. In Short Circuits: When I bought a new keyboard, I noticed a lot of extra keys. Some of them are surprisingly useful. • Trying to print a website page is often an exercise in frustration because website pages are rarely designe...

When I set up a new computer, MacroExpress Pro is one of the dozen programs that are installed immediately. Those who don’t need all the power of the pro version may find one of the three more basic options useful. In Short Circuits: DPReview has been an essential resource for anyone who uses digital photography, but Amazon has ended its quarter-century run and soon all traces of the site will be...

Reinstalling Windows 11, as I did a few weeks ago, gave me the chance to rediscover some of the “features” Microsoft offers that don’t work quite the way I want them to. Let’s look at some annoyances that are easy to fix. In Short Circuits: Maybe you consider the seemingly never-ending announcements and notifications from Windows 11 to be an annoyance, too, and you have have more control than you...

So many people complain about Windows, but then don't take the time to figure out how to fix what's bothering them. It's usually not difficult, so let's consider some of the annoyances that can be fixed with minimal effort. In Short Circuits: If you have a computer that's running slow and you've already replaced the mechanical hard drive with a solid-state drive, adding memory might help. • A comm...

You probably already know about the importance of keeping your computer, notebook, or tablet clean and up to date just as you ensure that your car is maintained properly, but what about your smartphone? In Short Circuits: When you're on vacation with the kids, having some motion pictures along can make travel time easier, but nobody wants to carry a stack of discs. Legally it's a gray area, but yo...

If you need to be able to capture screen shots, but the Windows Snipping Tool is insufficient and commercial applications are too expensive, there's ShareX. In Short Circuits: Anyone who has tried to schedule a Google Calendar event on the last day of each month has found that it's not possible. There's a workaround, though. • Does your Windows computer share too much information with Microsoft? Y...

ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence applications are responsible for a lot of questions about the future. Will AI help us humans, create insurmountable problems, or be no big deal? In Short Circuits: Music lovers who have trouble finding a local station they like will be happy with StreamWriter, a free application that not only plays music from thousands of radio stations but also makes it e...

Many businesses issue two or more computer monitors to each employee because they've discovered a modest hardware investment improves productivity. Maybe it's time for home users to have more than one monitor, too. In Short Circuits: Users of Adobe's Creative Cloud can download and test beta versions of more than a dozen applications. The betas run alongside the installed release versions. • A han...

Version 2 of Affinity's Photo, Designer, and Publisher apps give users surprisingly powerful features at a modest cost. In Short Circuits: PortableApps, one of my favorite programs, has recently added more applications including a lot of useful utilities and the ability to use specific typefaces wherever you are. • T-Mobile continues to be the poster child for accidentally exposing information fro...

Until now, Adobe's Lightroom and Lightroom Classic offered no way to add more than a single mask to an image. That's no longer the case and the change gives users the ability to make modifications that would previously have required using Photoshop. In Short Circuits: Netflix has been trying to find a way to limit password sharing and is testing one option in South America. • How long will the dis...

The internet has lots of rabbit holes that are good for passing time, enjoyment, and (sometimes) education. Let's take a look at a few. In Short Circuits: An email that appeared to be from a high school classmate asked for a favor. It's been several decades since we graduated and the request seemed odd. Then it got odder. • If you prefer to maintain a clean Desktop, you might find Microsoft's repe...

Microsoft OneNote has been around since 2003 and it's one of a small set of applications that I use every single day. OneNote stores all kinds of information and makes finding it easy when you need it. In Short Circuits: This seems to be the year of the phony prize. All you have to do is fill out a quick survey and you'll receive a $100 gift card or a $200 set of tools or the latest model IPhone....

After one too many breaches at LastPass, I started looking for a new password manager and decided to give 1Password a try. It works well and there's one feature that every password manager should have. In Short Circuits: DOS commands are old, many dating back to the early 1980s, but many are still useful. Spending a bit of time with the antiques now might save time later. • Although password manag...

Having "enjoyed" an extended hospital stay late last year and an even more extended period of starting the recovery process, I learned that hospitals have changed a lot in recent years and that one absolutely essential possession to take along is a smartphone. Sometimes system updates cause problems for users. Such was the case with an update for my Samsung smart watch, and it's apparently not the...

In addition to a search engine that doesn't track users, DuckDuckGo offers email protections such as the ability to provide someone you may not trust with a one-time address that can be eliminated. In Short Circuits: Being able to send an encrypted email message is helpful when you need to send sensitive or proprietary data, but the process is challenging. ProtonMail makes it much easier. • Micros...

Two-factor authentication isn't yet the new normal, but it should be. Some businesses that should provide better security for their customers are lagging, and many users seem more interested in saving a few seconds than in securing their finances. This must change. In Short Circuits: I've described my backup system so often that you may think recovering a file isn't a big deal, and that's true unt...

Version 22H2 of Windows 11 will catch your eye with numerous user interface enhancements, but the real reason to get the update sooner rather than later is the emphasis on security. In Short Circuits: Microsoft PowerToys adds some must-have features in version 6.2. If you haven't yet installed the free utility, these may be the extras that convince you. • Adobe is paying an enormous amount of cash...

Desktop computers are smaller than they used to be. Tower boxes are shorter, but if you really want to save space, consider a notebook computer, possibly with a dock. Notebook systems cost more and desktop systems still have certain advantages, but the trend it toward smaller devices. In Short Circuits: LastPass reported a "security incident" in late August and doomsayers made a lot of noise. As i...