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Running multiple applications

Since Windows 3.1 in the early 90s, we have been able to run multiple programs at the same time with our computers. Probably the easiest way to take advantage of this feature is learning to use the Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut. At least four times this week, clients asked me what I was doing to switch between open windows so quickly. When I showed them the Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut, the seemed to be both mesmerized and intrigued.

Click on my tip below to watch the video tip explaining and demonstrating this fundamental skill that all computer users should master:

Use Alt+Tab or Command(Apple)+Tab to quickly change applications – Video Tip

Pandora Internet Radio – Video Tip

Pandora.com qualifies for yet another Web 2.0 application. Pandora started as a project to find the similarities in music and why we like certain music and why we don’t. The Pandora folks eventually made all their study of music into an amazingly customizable and accurate music service. To sign up is free although I recommend paying for the service if you use it a lot. Once you sign up, you start by building your own radio stations based on your favorite songs or artists. After you build your first station, Pandora starts to play songs related to the song or artist you started with when you built the radio station (which entails that you simply type the name of a musical artist or a song name and click Create).

As the songs play, if you tell Pandora whether you like the selection or not (via a click on a thumbs up or thumbs down icon), it will continue to more accurately pick music for you. You must see the short video below to see how it works, and better yet, give it a try to see why it is such an exciting and useful Web 2.0 application!

Treo, what Treo?

iPhone 3G Screen ShotAfter two solid months of using my iPhone 3G, I decided it was time for a short update. As many of you know, I used a Palm device for many years, ending with the Treo from 2003 through this August. When the first iPhone came out, I was intrigued, but thought Apple missed the boat, for me, by not utilizing the fastest cellular data network and not allowing 3rd party applications. When they announced the new iPhone last January and finally released it this summer, they had added the fast cellular network service and opened the system for third party development. It caught my attention in a big way this as it has 7 million other new iPhone 3G owners since its release in July.

Overall, the iPhone has performed wonderfully and with the exception of no cut, copy and paste (when Apple?  when?) it has performed admirably. I have been able to duplicate all the functions I used the Treo for, and added many new capabilities. I use the phone the most…after all, it is a cell phone. The visual voice mail system that lets you pick which message to listen to first or have the ability to visually pause, rewind or fast forward voice mail is stunningly implemented and makes managing voice mail much easier.

For extra applications, I settled on SplashID to manage my passwords, Grocery Zen to create shopping lists (I get through the store in at least 25% less time now), Now Playing to look up movie times, Pandora for listening to music (don’t have much time to do this, but it works well), Woot On! to check the daily Woot, but especially helpful when there is a Woot Off, WeDict for a dictionary, Wikipanion for great mobile access to Wikipedia, SportsTap keeps me up to date on sports I follow, Units application for converting volume, length, weight, etc. I also downloaded and occasionally use Word Warp, Sudoku, Tris (tetris clone), reMovem, and Blocks Classic for quick games. For future travel, I downloaded the mobile versions of Yelp and Hotels.com.

The built-in email application works well, and I use it daily in addition to browsing the web. The iPhone truly has exceeded

Does this give you any confidence in Microsoft’s direction?

You may have heard that Microsoft teamed up with Jerry Seinfeld (reportedly to the tune of $10 million dollars) to come out with an ad or two to counter Apple’s popular TV spots dissing Windows Vista. Overall, they are spending $300 MILLION dollars on the campaign.

Watch the video to see what Microsoft’s ad agency came up with for the opening salvo. After you watch, let me know what you thought of the ad by leaving a comment below.

Backup your digital photos with iPhoto – Video Tip

Macintosh users take digital photos too. And they also need to make sure their photos are backed up safely. Thankfully, the bright men and women at Apple computers have built in a great picture management software called iPhoto. Within iPhoto, you will find a straight forward method of backing up your photos.

Here’s how:

1. Start iPhoto
2. Hold down the Command key on your keyboard and select which folders, albums, or events you want to backup
3. Click Share from the menus
4. Click Burn button on the menu that appears
5. Once the burn is finished, the disk will eject.

I am still partial to Picasa for picture management, but Google still hasn’t released a version for the Mac yet. However, as you can see, the iPhoto makes pretty easy work of backing up your photos.

My iPhone 3G is on its way

Finally, after an almost 4 week wait (between working with my current provider and ordering the new phone), my new iPhone 3G is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Last year when the first generation iPhone appeared on the scene, I spoke up and said that the iPhone was too expensive, too slow, and not expandable (lack of add-on applications).

Being a long time Palm user, then the Palm smartphone series user, I saw that the first iPhone, though compelling, lacked some features to justify its high price ($599 last year). I made the move this year because Apple and AT&T added the high speed 3G network, add-on application support, and reduced the price to $199 and $299.

I no longer recommend Ubuntu or Macintosh

If I keep recommending Linux/Ubuntu and Apple Macintosh to my customers, I will have to find another line of work.

Admittedly, I came to the Linux table very late (just over a year now) and have only been luke warm to Macintosh over the years. Windows Vista put me over the edge last year, and I started looking seriously at other operating systems. What I found in both Ubuntu and Mac OSX was an extremely stable, secure, easy-to-use operating system. I estimate that over the past 18 months or so, I have recommended and help setup more than 2 dozen Apple computers or Linux computers that I either installed Ubuntu on or were bought new.

How to get music off of your iPod

The iPod has set the standard for media players. It’s ease of use and intuitive interface make it a device that media lovers of all ages and expertise can easily pickup and use.

However, the iPod has one disadvantage when compared with almost every other media player on the market. Once your music is stored on the system, there is no simple way of getting it back off again. If you switch computers or simply want to make a backup of your tunes, you must find a way around this system Apple has put in place to prevent you from pirating the music that has been purchased from iTunes.

Microsoft Office function without the MS price – on a Mac! – Video Tip

This is the first of what we hope to be many Macintosh video tips here at HelpMeRick.com. We posted a similar tip to this one a few months back for Windows and Ubuntu users, but this one applies to Mac users only.

In this tip, I describe to you how you can use the free NeoOffice product from neooffice.org to seamlessly create Microsoft Office compatible documents. Of course, the software also allows Mac users to open any Office document as well. NeoOffice gives Mac users complete abilities to share documents with any Windows user or fellow Mac user.

This short video demonstrates how to set your copy of NeoOffice so that it automatically saves your documents in the Microsoft Office format: