NetSurferNews

Apple Mini IPad Tripod Holder

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 17:22:00 +0000

Delkin has produced a tripod holder for the Apple iPad mini that lets you attach the Mini iPad to a tripod - which make a great video camera by the way! I have used this Delkin tripod mini iPad bracket extensively and it is sturdy and holds up well. Try it with the SteadySnake at SteadySnake.com and I have seen most people use this to read their iPad in bed, hands free.

Windows XP Support ending in April

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 17:16:00 +0000

Microsoft will be discontinuing support for Windows XP in April of 2014. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/endofsupport.aspx There are still many people who are running it, especially over 70% of the computers in China run Windows XP. Is there an upgrade path to Windows 8? according to Microsoft (as late as last month), you will need to reformat your hard drive to install Windows 8 from Windows XP. Will this create a rush to buy new computers? or will people look at Mac computers? I foresee that many businesses will plan on upgrading their computers where needed, and try to get a work around to programs that require Windows XP to run such as using a compatibility mode or a virtual drive. Home users will be a bit slower to adopt the new O?S and may look for Windows 7 PCs (available at Dell in small business and some store such as Microcenter). Most will go for the low end PCs, as the Apple MAC prices will scare them away, though there have recently been some MAC laptop specials.

How to Use up those ODD amounts on Rebate Credit cards?

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 02:49:00 +0000

A friend of mine had a great way to get rid of those rebate credit cards you get with odd amounts on them, that are so hard to use. Go to Amazon, and order an EXACT amount gift card, email it to yourself and then on Amazon put it back into your account by redeeming the gift card.

The Final Death call for Windows XP

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:35:00 +0000

Microsoft has announced the Windows Xp will no longer be supported after April 8, 2014. I guess they picked the 8th since no one would believe April 1st. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/end-support-help What about all the millions of PC's out there with Windows XP? With a number of people, if it still connects to the Internet, they will not upgrade. Many businesses have started migrating to Windows 7 (after deciding Vista as not worth it, sort of like Windows ME, which Microsoft would like to forget). Will this be a big boost for the PC industry as people have to upgrade or will it be a boost for Apple if they go for a new iPad tablet instead of a PC? Time will tell.

Windows SkyDrive- Update your Old account to save to 25gb

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:48:00 +0000

If you had an old Microsoft Windows SkyDrive account for cloud storage, you need to go into it and select, "Keep my 25 GB of storage" or it will revert back to 7gb of free storage. Seems like they are going down in size. Which is interesting since they just announced Google Drive.... go figure.

Getting ads on your Android Phone?

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:45:00 +0000

Getting annoying ads on your Android / Google phone? Quite a number of ads are using push technology to push ads to you but never asked your permision to allow these ads to be placed on your phone as NOTIFICATIONS! When I started getting these adsas Noticiations, like an ad that was important (how annoying), I did some research and what you really need to do is find the aaplication you downloaded and uninstall it. I used a program called Addons Detector which I downloaded to my phone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.denper.addonsdetector&feature=related_apps . Allowed it to run and install. I then selected Scan from the big middle button, then selected AddOns. What next came up was a list of applications which use addon programs. Most use Googel Analytics (that is ok at the moment). I was looking for any program with "AIRPUSH" which is used to send ads out to customers (seems to give the vendors lots of money). Which app was it? SpeechTrans by Nuance was the BIG culprit, so I uninstalled it by hitting the home button, settings button, manage Apps, selecting the program and hit UNINSTALL. Shame on Nuance for doing this push ad to their customers!

Mark Twain Autobiography for FREE

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:10:00 +0000

Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clemens, also known as a 6th cousin to me (that is what the family says anyway), wrote his autobiography with the previso that it not be published for 100 years. So it is now out on Amazon, etc. but wouldn't you like to review or even read it in it's entirety for FREE?

The Mark Twain Project has it listed in it's entirety for FREE - Link, along with the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : an electronic text and the Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians, and Other Unfinished Stories .

Another great present from NetSurferNews!

Kindle for Free?

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:54:00 +0000

Want to use Kindle books but want to try it first? Or maybe you do not want the shell out $189 for a reader?

At Amazon, there are Kindle applications for Ipad, MAC, Windows PC, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7, so you can read Kindle books on just about any Internet enabled device!

There are hundreds of FREE books such as out of print or promotional books for free to download- Link, such as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ,Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll,The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin, etc.

This way you can try it for FREE and see if you like the e-book format on your IPhone, Droid, Blackberry, or even netbook. What a way to save money!

Sanyo VPC-HD2000 parts (replace the remote)

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:30:00 +0000

As many of you know, we have been writing (and using) the last 2 High Definition Sanyo camcorders (the Sanyo VPC-HD1000, VPC-HD1010 and now the VPC-HD2000). The Sanyo VPC-HD2000A (A is for the US version) is a fabulous camera / camcorder! See our review at NetSurferNews.com

But when you are taking several hours of taping each week, giving it the "use" test, things tend to get LOST. And the remote is very very small- about 1 inch square.
My Editor has now lost 3 of them, over time.... he loses lots of things, so this is nothing new (grin). And several years ago, we asked if we could get a replacement and Sanyo said, "No they were not sold separately".

So I tried again, and things have changed! They now have a company called PacParts.com that will sell some of these hard to find items for the Sanyo HD2000 video camera. And in fact the remote will work on all 3 cameras (you can change the code so it will not change the other camera if you have 2 camcorders shooting at one time).

The remote for the HD-2000 was only $28.67 and it is located in Gardena, CA (south of Los Angeles), so we picked it up and now all is well again with the Remotes and the Sanyo HD-2000!

Internet Explorer 8 not Display Browsing History - Fix

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:04:00 +0000

When you upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, and all of the suddent you cannot get a drop dwon in the address bar to display your previously visited websites, there is a fix.

Go to Tools, Internet Options, select the Content tab at the top. Then select Auto Complete, and under "Use Address Bar For", select on "Browsing History" and also "Favorites", and your browsing history will again show up under the address bar! Then IE8 is now fixed for remembering your previously visited websites.

Removing Malware

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:52:00 +0000

It happens to everyone now and again, no matter how hard you try- or how many Antivirus, Spyware cleaners, etc you intall. One of our PC's got the "Your system is Infected" as your desktop wallpaper display, you can no longer get to the task manager to shut down any unwanted programs, etc. You run through several antivirus programs such as Vipre, McAfee Enterprise, Trend Micro Online (House Call) and Webroot Spysweeper with Antivirus and all to no avail. It is still there and you cannot change the desktop wallpaper to remove it, even turning off System restore and going into Safe mode (it was a Win XP computer).

How To Clean this Malware
First off, make certain everything is backed up (it was). There is an excellant How-to over at GeeksToGo.com under their Forum, Security » Virus, Spyware and Trojan Removal. They have a great Malware Cleaning guide which I followed:
Malware and Spyware Cleaning Guide.

The steps are as follows and they are very well scripted and well thought out:
1.Preparation- Install a Temporary File Cleaner and run it- TFC (Temp File Cleaner)
2.Preparation- Create a System Restore point using the utility SysRestorePoint
3.Preparation- Make a Registry Backup using ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT)
4. Step One- Scan for Malware/Adware/Spyware using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

There are a few more steps on GeeksToGo but after doing the steps 1 to 4 the PC was cleaned up, the desktop wallpaper "Your system is Infected" was destroyed, and we could get to the Task Manager again. All is well in Computerdom, again!!

Why Use DECT 6.0 Cordless phones vs. 5.8 GigHz?

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:50:00 +0000

We wanted to upgrade our cordless phones, but we have a long house and most phones to not reach, plus needing a 2 line cordless limits our selection. Our local Fry's store had a real deal on a 5.8 Gighz, so I started asking around. Which did I want to invest in 5.8 Gighz or the newer DECT 6.0? I asked Joe Melfi, of D-Link to comment of what he would recommend. He stated that you definately would want DECT 6.0 as it was more secure, had a longer range and there were not other wireless/baby monitors/microwaves that would interfere with this channel.

So the 5.8 GHz phone I had purchased at Fry's (and not opened), I did return. The Consumer Electronics Show was coming up and I thought I would ask there.

I ran into a very nice fellow from VTech at CES and he explained that Vtech had acquired Lucent's consumer phone business and licensed the AT&T brand on wireline telephones and accessories in the United States and Canada in 2000, so they knew quite a bit about phones. He emphasied that you do want DECT 6.0 over the 5.8GHz for the same reasons mentioned above. But when I mentioned I was having problems finding the right phone, he stated that since DECT 6.0 was a GLOBAL standard there were a lot more phones available from vendors, who could sell a Global phone, not just a differnet phone for the US. This will lead to quite a few more phones being available, since the vendors would market the same phone worldwide. There will more extended range 2-line DECT 6.0 AT&T phones out in the Fall, he stated.

So stay tuned!

Sanyo HD 1010 High Def Video Camera- GREAT

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:59:00 +0000

This is the newest version of the Sanyo HD 1000 that we reviewed at NetSurferNews - it is now the HD 1010 version which will take 16 GB SDHC cards.

From Amazon:
Records in HD 1080p or 1080i high-def digital video; takes 4 megapixel still images
Playback recordings on a 2.7-inch LCD display
Includes 10x optical zoom, plus video and still image stabilization
Features sequential shooting (7 FPS), plus face detection technology for video and photos (up to 12 faces)
Comes with web cam functionality; USB 2.0 and S-Video output; SDHC flash memory compatible, plus 40 MB internal memory

Craigslist Search tools

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Many of you have found Craigslist.com as a way to buy and sell our various and sundry items.

How to make it work for you in searching more than one cities in Craigslist is the point of this blog! Here are two websites that let you search multiple cities at once on Craigslist.

Check out several sites:
Craigshelper- http://www.craigshelper.com/ you can search multiple cities/ states. You may want to use the single-frame results mode (check the options on the toolbar to the right), if you are only searching a few cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County. You can use Internet Explorer.

CrazedList- http://crazedlist.org/ - you have to use Firefox (it does not work in InternetExplorer) but this is a powerful search- all from the first page (selecting the cities and search term, with/without pictures, etc.) . According to Crazedlist, "Crazedlist allows you to search multiple craigslist.org sites at once. However in order to do so you must disable referrers in your web browser. Doing so prevents craigslist from knowing that you have come from this site and prevents them from blocking your results. " Therefore it requires Firefox.

Happy Craiglist-ing!

Windows XP: The Long Goodbye

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:54:00 +0000

After the successful launch and establishment of Windows Vista, Microsoft officially discontinued the sale of Windows XP on June 30, 2008. To continue to meet the needs of the huge number of users currently relying on Windows XP, Microsoft will be providing support for the operating system until 2014. To help ease the transition from Windows XP to Windows Vista, Microsoft posted Windows XP: The Facts about the Future, answering common questions, providing links to XP resources, and helping users compare features in Windows XP and Windows Vista. (from Microsoft)

SanDisk Ultra® II SD Plus SD card with USB Built-in

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 23:35:00 +0000

SanDisk Ultra® II SD™ Plus USB 2GB

This is an awesome SD card- it has the USB connector built right into the SD card. It comes in a very nice keychain holder and when you need to take the pictures off, you just bend it and the USB connector appears. And the speed of the card itself is fast (Write/Read performance: 9MB/sec, 10MB/sec ) so no more waiting for those downloads. It is USB 2.0. I woul dhighly recommend it for us road warriors - no need to carry a USB reader anymore.

And how much do you say? Current prices are about $30-$55 when you can find it- it is a very hot item.

Analog Cell Phone Service Discontinuing

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:26:00 +0000

Back in 2002, the Federal Government started allowing cell phone providers to start dropping the Analog cell phone signals. The end date for analog service is Feb. 18, 2008.

According to news reports, only about 1 million people still have analog phones which can be easily switched out.

Now most people have switched over to digital cell phone service, but one group of people who will be in a lurch are the people with OnTrack in their cars who use that service to provide emergency road assistance. General Motors started changing some of the cars in 2002 to digital service but as late as 2005 some cars still had the old analog system. Some of the cars can be upgraded but many cannot be. Check with your GM dealer.

Another potential problem is wireless alarm companies who did not switch their clients systems.

We made the switch long ago. In fact, from most cell phone providers, you can no longer get dual band (analog and digital) phones. As they pack new features into phone such as MP3 and video, that feature got left behind. And with good reason. Digital signal is more secure.

Bye Bye Analog...

AOL Kills the Netscape Browser

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:15:00 +0000

AOL just announced that their support of the Netscape browser will end. There will be no updates after Feb. 1, 2008. They are urging the Netscape users to migrate over to Firefox.

Netscape was orginally started in 1994 as the original browser. Then Microsoft came along with Internet Explorer in late 1995 and gained a huge market share. Netscape was the focus of a federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.

Since AOL is now focusing on ad-supported web business, any support for Netscape takes away from their core business, so it was decided to let Netscape die.

There is a link on our blog to download Firefox as a replacement.

Tech File: Tips for buying, using digital cameras

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:51:00 +0000

(Note: Our Editor, George Margolin quoted in San Jose Mercury News, 12-17-07)

Tech File: Tips for buying, using digital cameras
By Larry Magid, San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched: 12/17/2007 01:33:39 AM PST

Lots of us are getting digital cameras for the holidays. My gift to myself was a Canon S5 IS. Unlike the other cameras I've owned, this one has a 12x optical zoom and a body that looks almost like one of those professional SLR (single lens reflex) models, only smaller. At $330 on Amazon.com, it's a lot of camera for the price. But you don't have to spend that much to get an excellent digital camera.

Even if you spend less than $100 on a digital point-and-shoot camera, you'll wind up with all the equipment you need to take excellent photographs. Kodak's C513, which sells for only $79 at Kodak.com comes with a 3x optical zoom, a 5 megapixel sensor and a 1 gigabyte storage card. My older Kodak camera takes great pictures.

One thing you don't get with many small cameras is an optical view finder. For those too young to remember, all film cameras had a little hole near the top that you looked through. Today, most people take pictures by looking at the LCD screen at the back of the camera. One advantage to an optical view finder is that the image won't wash out in bright sunlight. Another is that when you're holding the camera up to your head, you're helping to stabilize it. Mainly for us old folks, it's a force of habit. I'm just used to holding the camera up to my eye.
Some small cameras still have view finders, such as Canon's PowerShot SD850 IS which sells for about $250.

Another thing I prefer is cameras that take AA batteries. They're not as efficient as some of the proprietary rechargeable batteries, but they are cheaper and easier to come by. Worst case, you can buy disposable AAs. But you and the environment are much better off with rechargeable AAs, including a relatively new generation of rechargable batteries, such as the Sanyo eneloop that come ready to use and have up to a year of shelf life. Some small cameras from Kodak, Nikon and others use AAs, though most small digital cameras use proprietary batteries. To my delight, that larger Canon camera I bought last week uses four AAs and is rated for 450 shots on a single charge, depending on use of flash and the LCD display.

When it comes to a zoom lens, pay attention to the optical zoom but ignore digital zoom specifications. Optical zoom involves the movement of the lens to give you a good close up. Digital zoom uses software to simulate a zoom, resulting in a loss of quality. Besides, all digital editing programs give you the ability to blow-up images on a PC or Mac, which is all that a camera's digital zoom accomplishes.

How you use a camera is probably more important than what camera you buy. I'm no expert but I've been taking lessons from my friend George Margolin, an award winning photographer and former technical editor of Popular Photography. Margolin agrees that "virtually any of today's digital cameras will take very good pictures," and he recommends using the camera's "auto" feature for most picture taking.

Still, there are times when you might want to override the automatic settings, such as when taking pictures in low light or photographing a moving object. For that, Margolin suggests using the scene function (often abbreviated "SCN") available in many cameras. That function typically provides various modes, such as bright light, sports, beach, indoor and snow. Most cameras also have a "macro" setting that you can use to take close ups of small objects such as jewelry or flowers.

Most cameras also have manual settings that can get you into trouble if you're not careful but free you up to take some great pictures if you learn to use them. You often can adjust the aperture or F-Stop (size of the lens opening) and shutter speed and set the "ISO," which is the equivalent of using a different speed film.

A lower number such as 2.8 would give you more light than a higher number but also shorter depths of field. A shorter depth of field means that more of the background will be out of focus, which can be good or bad depending on your composition. Decreasing the shutter speed can help compensate for low-light conditions but also increase blur if there is any movement or shaking.
Margolin says that the flash can sometimes be useful even in bright sunlight when there is light behind your subject or if you're photographing someone with dark skin. He also says to pay attention to the way you compose a picture. Things in the background you might not notice such as trash on the ground affect the quality of the picture.

If you use a zoom lens, be aware that you can get increased blur if you or the subject is moving. A 3x zoom triples the impact of any motion compared with no zoom. If you have a very large zoom, such as the 12x in my new camera, be sure the camera has image stabilization to compensate for movement.

Just as a food processor can't turn a bad cook into a great chef, a great digital camera won't transform the likes of me into an Ansel Adams. But, unlike a film camera, a digital model lets you practice for free to make the most of whatever camera you have.

CompUSA closing Retail Stores,Macrovision to buy Gemstar

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 21:30:00 +0000

CompUSA will be closing all the remaining 103 Retail Stores, after being sold to an affiliate of restructuring firm Gordon Bros.. According to the press release, they will remain open through the holiday season, whcih could mean bargains for people who are near a store. They pulled out of the LA/OC area earlier, so there are non locally.

Macrovision will buy Gemstar which owns TV Guide as well as the online TV listings that were commonly included with ATI All-in-Wonder graphics cards. And yes, I did use the online listings- it was handy to have. That part may become a pay service as Macrovision sells security tools.

Macrovision to buy Gemstar

Black Friday results for the OC

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:42:00 +0000

Yes, they are saying sales are up, but of the hundreds of people I have polled in the OC, very few actually made it out on Black Friday. Yours truly was out at 3:30am for a 5pm opening, but we had set our expectations on not one of the hot TV's or cheap computers but on a 22 inch monitor for $169. After being 150th in line, each of the two of us managed to each get a monitor, and of course we had to pick up that 4gb flash drive for $21.

In my opinion, the sales were not as discounted as in previous years, but I am seeing more people shop at the bigger discount stores. Have a Happy Holiday and Enjoy life!

Vista to be Subject of Hackers in 2008

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:25:00 +0000

There have been very few malware targeted at Vista operating system in 2007. According to Computerworld, this is not necessarily because of it being a secure system, but falling below the radar of the virus makers. It is estimated that adoption will be about 10% by next year and will raise Vista to the level that will attract virus/malware makers. Apple had the same benefit of being below the radar and is less of a target also for virus/ malware makers.

It will interesting to see how Vista will handle the attacks expected.

Black Friday- Good or bad?

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:48:00 +0000

Many websites are listing the Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving when the retailers go from red ink to black ink- making money) ads such as http://bfads.net and http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/ Two weeks ago Walmart started the fray by have Secret Shopper Friday sales and ordering all the Black Friday websites to take down the Walmart items for Black Friday. I just noticed a new ad for Office Depot where some of the Black Friday items will be available this Sunday- 5 days before Black Friday.

Are retailers starting early because they forsee a less than stellar Christmas season and are trying to jump start it early? Are there going to be less big discounts - after purusing the Black Friday ads, it seems to be not as many huge discount items? I forsee that shoppers will have to look sooner for the discounts-such as starting this Sunday! Wait until after Christmas for sales? No, many sales will start before Christmas.

What are the big ticket items? GPS's, TV's and to a lesser extent laptops (as most have one) seem to be hot, though most are not forseeing any huge huge deals on TV's - just a few hundred off here and there.

Happy Shopping!

XM and Sirius agreed to merger

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:43:00 +0000

XM (Valued at $2 billion)and Sirius (Valued at $5 billion) at their respective stockholder meetings on Tues, agreed to a merger. What is holding it up? The FCC (Federal Commerce Commission) has been working on it for a while to determine if it is a monopoly and it would then be illegal for these 2 huge satellite companies to merge.

D-Link Routers and NAS

noreply@blogger.com (NetSurferNews) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:27:00 +0000

We just had D-link out to our AITP meeting. A couple of products that were really interesting:
1. NAS - Network Attached Storage - D-Link model DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure RJ45, USB 2.0 which will hold 2 SATA hard drives and will connect with Gigabit speed to your network. It can also act as a USB print server as it has a USB port on it you can attach your printer to. It would be great for a backup for all your pictures or MP3 files.

2. Gaming routers using 802.11N- There will be a new one out soon that will just set up with your games- you just select the game and it will open the appropriate ports. The forerunner to this new router was the D-Link DIR-655 which D-Link presentors recommended as the best 802.11N router to buy (for normal consumers) - it also has Gigabit wired connections to your local network. It will reach further than the previous generation of 802.11 N routers.

3. HD Media Center /Wireless- The newest DSM-750 Wireless N HD Media Center Extender allows you to wirelessly connect your TV, stream music, photos, and HD videos stored on a PC to your home entertainment center. It can send over a wireless 802.11n or wired Ethernet network or even connect to a NAS (where you may be storing all your media files).

Further details at: www.dlink.com.