Technically Easy

Category: Software

  • The FLAC File: Replacement for MP3 Files?

    The FLAC File: Replacement for MP3 Files?

    FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files aren’t as popular for playing audio as MP3 files, but FLAC files do offer better audio quality than MP3 files. When audio was first being downloaded from the Internet back in the 1990s, MP3 files were chosen because they offered good quality, but more important, small file sizes. Back when people were connecting to the Internet through dial-up modems, smaller file sizes were preferred. I remember waiting 15 minutes while a 3 MB MP3 file downloaded.

    These days, high-speed Internet connections are more the norm, so downloading a 30 MB file can take less than a minute. Because of this, many people have started to switch from downloading MP3 files to FLAC files.

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  • Work Smart, Not Hard With These 5 Efficient Apps And Online Software

    Work Smart, Not Hard With These 5 Efficient Apps And Online Software

    Are communication and organization lacking in your business? Do employees have a hard time sharing files or getting assignments completed on time? There’s an app for that. More than just an app, there are online software programs that can be accessed by smartphones or tablets from virtually anywhere in the world. Learn about resource planning, then streamline your company and your employees.

    Before spending too much money on software that may not solve the problem, consider these 5 apps and online software programs that can streamline communication and efficiency.

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  • The Biggest Myths About Antivirus Software

    The Biggest Myths About Antivirus Software

    On many computing platforms, antivirus software is considered one of the basic pieces of software that every user should have. It’s true on Windows, but applies to other desktop platforms and even to mobile systems such as Android. The prevalence of antivirus software has led to a number of myths about it, though. Here are some of the most prevalent myths regarding antivirus software.

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  • Fix: My Keyboard Keys are Messed Up

    Fix: My Keyboard Keys are Messed Up

    Occasionally, I have been having a problem with my keyboard when in some applications. Sometimes as I am working in Firefox when I try to insert a punctuation symbol such as a double quote (“) another character – È – would be displayed on the screen. When I switched to another application the double quote would appear properly.

    As this would happen on a frequent basis at times, I would get frustrated as I would need to restart Firefox to have the keys return to normal. I figured that this was a Firefox issue, so I didn’t look it up, but just restarted Firefox each time. When I finally researched the problem I found that it was related to Windows and the language settings within Windows.

    Correcting the Messed Up Keys

    If you have found a similar problem of punctuation keys not displaying the correct symbol on the screen, you have probably pressed the shortcut keys to switch between input languages or keyboard layout. This is easy to do as the shortcut keys are close to each other on the keyboard:

    Switch Input Language: CTRL + SHIFT

    Switch Keyboard Layout: LEFT ALT + SHIFT

    If you don’t want to use either a different input keyboard or keyboard layout you can disable the shortcuts by using the following steps:

    Note:

    The steps below are for Windows 7. While I haven’t tried the steps on Windows Vista or Windows 8, they may be the same, if applicable, for those versions, as well.

    1. Click the Windows orb in the lower-left corner to display the menu and the select “Control Panel” from the menu.
    2. In the “Control Panel”, click the “Change keyboards or other input methods” option under the “Clock, Language, and Region” section.
      3. Windows 7 - Change keyboards or other input methods
    3. Under the “Keyboards and Languages” tab, click the “Change keyboards…” button.
      4. Windows 7 - Change Keyboards
    4. Select the “Between input languages” option in the “Hot keys for input languages” list and then click the “Change Key Sequence…” button.
      5. Advanced Key Settings - Change Key Sequence
    5. For both “Switch Input Language” and “Switch Keyboard Layout” select the “Not Assigned” option. Click the “OK” button to save your choice.
      6. Change Key Sequence
    6. The value “(None)” should be displayed under “Key sequence” beside the “Between input languages” option. Click “OK” again to save your choice and close the window.

    Once you have performed the above steps you should no longer be able to switch languages or keyboard layouts accidentally within an application.

  • Acronis True Image 2014 Review

    Acronis True Image 2014 Review

    A few years ago I had an issue with my wife’s laptop – it ran out of disk space on the installed 160GB hard drive. It was a horrible issue, I know. I eventually went and bought a 500GB hard drive, but my wife didn’t want anything to change after I installed the new hard drive – she is not a fan of technology changes.

    In order to ensure that her laptop was the same after the installation of the new hard drive, I decided to clone the information from the original 160GB hard drive onto the new 500GB hard drive. After performing searches online regarding the cloning process I decided on a piece of software called Acronis True Image. The entire process went off without a hitch and the new 500GB hard drive was installed and my wife couldn’t tell the difference – except she could now fill up the hard drive with more data.

    A few weeks ago I was asked by Acronis to review their new version of the True Image software aptly named Acronis True Image 2014. Remembering my experience of using their product in the past, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to have a look at what their software could do. After using the software for some time, it immediately became clear the True Image has undergone many changes since the version I used a few years ago.

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  • 5 Things We Want WhatsApp To Upgrade

    5 Things We Want WhatsApp To Upgrade

    WhatsApp in the past few years has outdone every other application and has become an epic episode itself. The base of WhatsApp is obviously text messaging, and somehow text messaging was quite popular before WhatsApp was even conceived. But with the advent of WhatsApp in the market, everything else seems perturbed just because of WhatsApp. It not only has freed us from the traditional text messages, but has given us an opportunity to get indulged in an unlimited messaging trend. Not to forget it already has more than 200 million users, which will soon cross its own benchmark.

    Having said that, WhatsApp sure has a lot of bonus points in its basket, despite that we can’t ever be satisfied; after all thats what humans are like. From comprehensive daily use, there are certain things that can be improved a bit further to make the app even better. If given a chance, everybody would come up with their list of things that they would wish WhatsApp to upgrade.

    But for now here’s our list..

    5 Things We Want WhatsApp To Upgrade
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  • Why Has Your App Been Rejected by iTunes?

    Why Has Your App Been Rejected by iTunes?

    Developing an app is an ambition that many of us hold. Although with the range of development software and platforms available today, it is actually fairly easy to build an app from start to finish, building an app that is sure to be approved by your target marketplace is another challenge in itself.

    For many app developers, whether they’re building an app as a marketing tool for a business or creating a game simply to make a profit, iTunes serves as their main target.

    One of the biggest frustrations any developer can experience is if their app has been rejected when submitted to the iTunes store. Here are some of the reasons this might happen, and ideas of what you can do to prevent your app experiencing any problems.

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  • Did You Know…eBay Facts and Strange Sales [Infographic]

    Did You Know…eBay Facts and Strange Sales [Infographic]

    Did you know that there are many weird and wonderful listings on eBay? Of course you did! Who doesn’t waste time looking for weird items on there? As long as you don’t make a purchase all is good!

    Here is some technical information for data enthusiasts (nerds) about eBay. Did you know that eBay has 10 petabytes of data stored in their Hadoop and Teradata clusters? For the ordinary folk who doesn’t know what a Hadoop is, it is primarily used by engineers who use data to build products. And, Teradata is primarily used by eBay’s finance team to understand eBay’s business!

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