TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

Cellular providers boast that 75% of the US already has 5G coverage, but there's more than a little hyperbole there, and Russia is doing everything it can to discourage development in the US. In Short Circuits: You've probably used Google Translate, but there's a competing service from Germany that might be worth trying. • In 1992, Microsoft introduced Windows for Workgroups. The revolutionary Win...

When somebody tells you that they've received a new friend request from you on Facebook and you know you haven't sent one, you may think your account has been hacked. That's probably not the case. The account has probably been cloned, and that problem is easy to fix. In Short Circuits: Would you be surprised that scammers target people who follow a police department's Facebook page? That seems lik...

Any time spent waiting for a computer is wasted. Computer speed is a factor of its several components, but many applications can be bogged down by a slow disk drive. In Short Circuits: Windows 10 includes some deprecated features and services. These can be eliminated, and it's easy to do. • The National Institutes of Health has established "All of Us", a medical research project that uses data fro...

Security threats surround us. Several months ago, I signed up for a Liker account as a possible alternative to Facebook. In mid-March, Liker abruptly shut down because of a serious data breach. They say they'll be back when they've reworked their code to be more secure. Threats can come from anywhere. In Short Circuits: When it's time to replace a computer monitor, you might consider a television...

If your car doesn't have a dash cam, maybe it's time to add one. Even good models are reasonably priced now, so let's consider which features to look for. In Short Circuits: Do you need a $6000 camera that takes only monochrome images and doesn't even have a zoom lens? Quick answer: Maybe, but only if you know why you need it. • Large trade shows had been in trouble since 9/11 and the travel restr...

Anyone who's fond of print journalism might like to have immediate access to seven thousand or so newspapers and magazines. You can, and for just $30 per month. Or maybe for free. Let's look into that "free" part. In Short Circuits: Photoshop Camera is a most amusing free app from Adobe. If your phone is compatible, you'll be amazed by what can be accomplished without a computer. • Security firm K...

Maybe you've heard that the DuckDuckGo search engine is better than Google because it protects your data and doesn't track you. While those are valid points, they are among the least important reasons to use it. Let's look a advantages and disadvantages. In Short Circuits: Kroger is one of several companies that suffered a data breach because of outdated software used by a company that was hired t...

A British software publisher with fewer than 100 employees seems to be challenging Adobe with its 20,000 or so employees worldwide. The planet is large enough for both and each organization has useful features to offer its clients. In Short Circuits: If you have a print version of an encyclopedia at home, you're unusual. Even Britannica no longer publishes books, and Wikipedia has largely taken ov...

Stop emailing files to friends, family, and co-workers! Google Drive is one of the easiest ways to share files, and you may not need more storage space than what comes with the free plan. In Short Circuits: If you like the vertical tabs I described last week in talking about Microsoft's new Edge browser but don't want to switch to Edge, there are add-ons for Firefox and extensions for Chrome-based...

We've had access to home computers for more than 40 years and online financial services for at least 25 years, but we're still using old-style passwords to protect our information. In Short Circuits: By adopting Blink, the rendering engine that powers Google Chrome, Microsoft is developing a workable Edge browser that offers some useful new features. • Wacom finally has a digitizing pen that works...

The graphical user interface didn't yet exist on personal computers 40 years ago, so we needed to understand the command line and batch files. These are still present under the hood on today's computers, and we'll take a long look at why they're still useful. In Short Circuits: Television programs and motion pictures on DVD can cause people with less than perfect hearing to lose some of the dialog...

Digitizing old photos and negatives can deliver modest quality quickly or high quality slowly. There's no way to get fast high-quality files, but there are some options. In Short Circuits: We'll look at three scanning methods you can choose from when you have both photographic prints and negatives, as well as consider which might be better in any given situation. • The first question most technici...

Luminar AI from Skylum adds artificial intelligence to the company's photo processing application and reduces the complexity of the user interface. In Short Circuits: Normally shutting down or restarting Windows is done from the Power section in the Start menu, but there are times when having those options as icons on the Desktop, or using the command line, can be helpful. • If you've ever wondere...

If you've recently bought a new computer, or plan to buy a new computer soon, you may be wondering what to do with the old one. There are many options, and the worst possible choice would be to put it in the trash. Let's consider better options. In Short Circuits: Last week I described how I gave up on repurposing an M.2 drive from my primary computer as a fast cache drive. Using a $15 case for th...

Sometimes it's possible to turn what should be a quick, easy task into a frustrating multi-day adventure. Usually this happens because of incomplete planning, and yes I do have an example. In Short Circuits: Troubleshooting a strange problem can take time. Hardware and software like to drop red herrings that confuse the troubleshooter, but everything makes perfect sense once you figure it out. • S...

If you're thinking about buying a new computer in 2021, it's important to think about what's inside the computer and about what you need the computer to do. In Short Circuits: Covid-19 vaccines are available now, but will be in short supply for the foreseeable future. If you receive a message that promises faster access for a fee, it's a fraud. • Some Windows 10 computers repeatedly ask the user t...

Some applications update themselves, but many don't. A utility called Patch My PC can help with more than 300 programs that may be installed on your Windows computer. In Short Circuits: This year's Pantone color of the year is actually two colors. I'll explain the reasoning for that and we'll take a look at Ultimate Gray and Illuminating Yellow. • The latest version of the MacOS, Big Sur, adds fea...

There's no podcast this week, but if you have a minute and a half, we can take a quick look back to 2000.

Renaming files is easy when you have just one or two, but there's a big difference if you have dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of files that need to be renamed. Fortunately, there's an app for that. In Short Circuits: Laptop computers are quickly replacing big desktop systems for most people, but usually there are too few USB ports. A USB hub can help, but maybe a dock would be a better choice...

If you're looking for the world's best photo editing program, PhotoDemon probably isn't it. Even so, it has some intriguing features, and that makes it worth looking at. In Short Circuits: Would you walk on the Amazon Sidewalk? Let's consider the good features and the cautions of neighborhood mesh computing. • We'll also take a quick look at Adobe Illustrator's new features for 2020, including a n...

Anyone who owns a scanner will get better results by dumping the application that came with the scanner and using VueScan instead. There are even more advantages if you have multiple scanners or multiple computers. In Short Circuits: Although I've mentioned replacing mechanical drives with solid-state drives before, I have a real-life example of how easy the process is. • If you think Facebook isn...

There's no podcast this week, but if you have a little less than two minutes, we can take a quick look back to 2000.

Exposure X6 honors its legacy of creating outstanding film looks, and builds on its raw image editing capabilities. It's worth a look as a standalone application as well as a plug-in for Adobe applications. In Short Circuits: Ninite offers a free and easy way to keep more than 100 applications up to date, and for $12 per year, it can be even easier. • There's a new version of Evernote, but Microso...

I always enjoy working with individual developers who create small, specialized utility applications. Nir Sofer is one of these people. He has created more than 100 utilities, and this week I'll tell you about five that I consider to be quite useful. In Short Circuits: Have you put off upgrading some of the major hardware components in your computer because you fear it will invalidate the Windows...

The 2021 version of Adobe Photoshop introduces a series of splashy new artificial intelligence features and a variety of other useful capabilities. In Short Circuits: Mozilla has created a virtual reality conferencing system called Hubs. It's not Zoom, and it's not intended to be. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Sales of robotic devices continue to increase by more than 20% year over year. •...