TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

TechSmith's SnagIt has one new feature for 2021 that justifies the cost of the update all by itself, but that feature is not alone. In Short Circuits: The annual Adobe Max conference attracted half a million attendees this year instead of the usual 15 thousand or so. • Most of us wish smart phones cost less, but we're willing to go into debt for them because they're considered essential by so many...

Some people like to replace their computer with a new model around the end of the year, and because the end of the year is approaching, this might might be a good time to think about how to save money on the deal. In Short Circuits: Ad blocker plugs-ins for browsers can be handy, but there's another option that uses a file that dates all the way back to the first networked computers. • Ebook organ...

Big data and artificial intelligence offer a lot of promise, but there are also formidable challenges. Unless proved otherwise, perhaps we should consider these technologies dangerous, or at least potentially hostile. In Short Circuits: The Windows 10 October 2020 update is coming. It's available now only to those in the Windows Insider program, but it won't be long until it's pushed out to all us...

Sometimes a magic wand can be handy. Like when you need to use a computer that isn't yours and you don't want to leave any data behind. In Short Circuits: All operating systems have a couple of useful utilities that can show where a problem is when you can't reach a website or any other device with an IP address. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Google Maps has a new layer that might be on yo...

Zoom Meetings has become almost the de facto standard for business meetings, conferences, webinars, and even screen sharing. It's all just talking heads, though. This is a problem that can be resolved by using PowerPoint. Carefully. In Short Circuits: If you have an application on your computer that forces you to right-click the icon and specify that it should run as Administrator, there's a way t...

Have you ever turned your computer on and found that your carefully organized Desktop icons are all over the screen? If the location of Desktop icons is important to you, there's a way to glue them in place. In Short Circuits: Tablet and convertible computer users often close applications without intending to. There's a way to fix this, but it's not as easy as it should be. • If you're a Facebook...

In addition to Excire's new standalone Foto application, the company has updated Search, a plug-in for Adobe Lightroom Classic. In Short Circuits: Is Facebook's new interface terrible? Many say that it is, but I'm willing to give it a chance, and I'm liking it more as a browser plug-in called Social Fixer continues to improve its abilities to remove the dreck. • Have you seen the video of the two...

MacroExpress is an application that has been on every Windows computer I've used since sometime in the late 1990s. It's one of those rare applications that I consider to be absolutely essential. I'll explain why, and maybe you'll feel the same. In Short Circuits: No, you don't have to verify your account. Any email, instant message, or phone call that says you must "verify" your account informatio...

Serif's Affinity division has released updated versions of Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher. Despite the low prices of these applications, they pack surprisingly robust feature sets. In Short Circuits: Scammers stay up to date on news, and COVID-19 has been profitable for them. So profitable that Medicare and the Centers for Disease Control have launched a campaign to expl...

If you've ever bought a piece of hardware that didn't quite live up to its hype and its reviews, you're not alone. I have a story for you that involves sequential failures to satisfy. Perhaps it'll be worth a chuckle or two. In Short Circuits: Microsoft has added a security function in version 2004 of Windows 10 to identify and block potentially unwanted programs, but it has a serious shortcoming....

The free, open-source office suite, LibreOffice, is out with version 7, and it has an impressive bunch of new features, improved performance, and enhanced capabilities to deal with Microsoft Office files. In Short Circuits: Microsoft created restore points for Windows systems in the distant past, and you may think that your Windows 10 computer is protected by the technology. Surprise! Unless you h...

Skylum's Luminar 3 has made remarkable strides on the way to Luminar 4. The application is less than four years old, yet it offers some delightful surprises. In Short Circuits: If you'd like to be able to create a temporary address that you can provide when you're not quite sure you want to give someone your real address, Mozilla's Firefox Relay may do the job. It's in private beta now. • Remember...

As the number of digital images we accumulate increases, possibly at an alarming rate, finding one specific image becomes challenging. Artificial intelligence can help. In Short Circuits: Device drivers are among the most problematic issues for Windows users, but they're virtually invisible and that makes keeping them up to date difficult. There are applications that can help, but they need to be...

A strong password helps to keep your information private, but a single error can give control of your accounts to crooks. Setting up two-factor authentication is the best way to add security, and you may be surprised by how easy the process has become. In Short Circuits: Adobe has two painting applications, one for people who know how to draw and paint (or want to learn) and another for those who...

Online backup systems often offer the ability to recover more than just the most recent version of a file, but there are less expensive options if you're willing to give up that useful feature. In Short Circuits: Despite their advantages, tablet computers have one huge disadvantage: Price. When you're shopping for a Windows tablet, it's possible to save money on storage space if the device offers...

The software world continues its transition to software as a service, and users see small changes frequently. Adobe delivers two large updates every year, one of which arrived in late June with lots of new features. In Short Circuits: Microsoft seems to be suggesting that the Control Panel will eventually be removed from Windows 10. That will happen only after all Control Panel functions are migra...

Your smart phone or tablet doubtless includes an email application, but there's probably a better option. Let's look for one. In Short Circuits: Up-to-date weather information is good to have and there are several services that use differing approaches to present that information. • Many email application can be set up to delay messages you send. That's a handy feature if you frequently think of s...

It's essential to use a virtual private network on portable devices that connect to Wi-Fi hotspots or open networks. Although it's a good safety practice to also use a VPN on a desktop system with a wired connection, you may find that it's not possible. In Short Circuits: If your office job still has you working from home, you should have a virtual private network, and we'll look at some other imp...

Don't expect to do any heavy-duty editing or spreadsheet development on your smartphone or tablet, but now several Office 365 apps let you work with Office suite documents wherever you are and on whatever device you have. In Short Circuits: Maybe you think you've seen the Taskbar and Desktop refresh repeatedly, but thought you're halluciniting. You're not. It is. And there's a way to fix it. Maybe...

The latest Ipads from Apple can be bought with an overpriced keyboard and an overpriced pencil. If you add the extras, you'll almost have a computer, and it might replace your portable computer. We'll take a look at pluses and minuses. In Short Circuits: When you're looking for the cause of a problem or considering an upgrade, you may need to find out what's under the computer's hood. Speccy, HWIn...

If you encounter a computer problem that can't possibly be happening, it's important to realize two things: First, it is happening, and second, there is a reason it's happening. Finding the reason and fixing it are the entertaining parts, if you have a warped sense of "entertainment". In Short Circuits: Thunderbird is an email application that will probably never see another major update, but it's...

Just like cars, trucks, airplanes, furnaces, and bicycles, hardware and software can fail even if you perform all the suggested maintenance. Maintenance does allow you to find upcoming problems and fix them before they happen, though. Routine troubleshooting is easy and doesn't take much time. In Short Circuits: Portable USB solid-state drives were once a luxury for those who needed lots of fast e...

Your internet service provider has a domain name server, but you don't have to use it. There are good reasons why you might want to ditch the provided service and use a better one. The change is easy to make, you'll get better service, and it won't cost anything. In Short Circuits: Computers that run on MacOS are less of a target than those running Windows, but threats do exist. Let's consider som...

Zoom was poised to sweep all other online meeting applications away, and then security concerns surfaced. Big ones. Zoom has moved quickly to resolve the issues, but now the company is facing an up-hill battle against competitors. In Short Circuits: If you'd like to download videos from YouTube and other services, you may have noticed that it's not a straightforward process. Downloads are legal as...

Apple and Google plan to allow their smart phones to talk to each other. The goal is to help with contact tracing for those who may have been exposed to COVID-19. It seems like a good idea, but it also seems doomed to fail. In Short Circuits: The creeps among us on the internet have shifted into high gear with links to bad websites and malware-laden downloads. If you've ever wished that you had a...