New Year’s Tech Resolutions

Published on: December 21st, 2017

RINGING in the New Year often means cleaning out things from the old year, so we have included an article chock full of Tech Resolutions to help you start 2018 afresh in your electronic realm.   Speaking of new things, did you know that you can get a clean screenshot without picking up everything visible on your desktop? Read on for tips showing the various simple ways to do just that. Lastly we explore the creation of a thumb ring that has an embedded microphone and gyroscope which picks up and interprets “Fingersound.” There are some interesting applications for this new technology.

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New Year’s Tech Resolutions

In 2018, make technology work smarter for you. From organizing photos to setting up automated backups (something we here at Computer Troubleshooters would love to help you do!), here is a list of easy-to-accomplish resolutions. My favorite? Unsubscribe from unwanted emails (but don’t unsubscribe from ours!).  I unsubscribe every time I get an unsolicited, unwanted email, and it keeps my inbox clean and quiet. The unsubscribe link is usually at the very bottom of the email message. Click it and toss all those unwanted emails from your inbox permanently.

More simple tech resolutions for 2018

Some more resolutions to consider for the New Year:
* Get rid of your old, unused gadgets by selling or recycling. Here are some ideas:
Staples has a broad recycling program that may earn you money for trade-ins, Here
Check out MazumaMobile.com for recycling iPhones, iPads, Apple watches, etc., Here

* Right after changing all the batteries in your smoke detectors, go ahead and change all your important passwords.

* Sift through your phone contacts, updating addresses and deleting those no longer needed.

 

There’s More Than One Way to Grab a Screenshot in Windows 10

Imagine you have several windows open at once and you want to take a screenshot of one of them. You hit the Print Screen button (to the right of F12 on your keyboard), and then hit “paste” and it appears on your document – and it picks up every visible desktop icon, bits and bytes of every open and visible screen. Now you have to edit the image to get it down to just want you want. Tedious and time consuming, isn’t it?

Or, you could press and hold the “Alt” key, then hit the Print Screen button. When you hit “paste,” just the very topmost screen will appear. No editing required. How simple is that? For this and other easy Print Screen alternatives for Windows 10, click into the full article and start saving time and reducing the tedium!

Perfect your Screenshot techniques here

Source:
Joel Hruska, ExtremeTech.com

 

Exploring the Next New Thing in Virtual Reality: Fingersound

Researchers at Georgia Tech have created a “thumb ring outfitted with a gyroscope and tiny microphone” that people can use to “trace letters and numbers on their fingers.” The figures appear on a nearby computer screen. When thinking about applications, how subtle it would be to silence your ringing phone by surreptitiously simply drawing an “x” on your hand.   Read about “Fingersound” and how the embedded mic and gyroscope track and detect gestures, etc.

Explore the Thumb Ring and Fingersound here

Source:
Jason Maderer, Georgia Institute of Technology, November 29, 2017