Make Photos Better - Crop!

A tool in most photo editing programs is Crop (see article section in this article). Essentially Crop allows you to 'zoom' in on a photo and select the best of that photo. I use Picasa by Google as my 'Go To' editor, but there are many online editors (see Pixlr) that offer editing, Grop essentially can substitute for zoom and works best if the original photo is taken on high resolution.

Should I Remove It?

We all know that over time, your PC gets slower and slower due to the downloading of software - purchased, trial or free applications that no longer are useful or are infrequently used. You can use Windows Add/Remove feature in the Control Panel, Sometimes however, you come across a program that you just don;t know whether it is safe to remove. Enter Should I Remove It? Try it ... you will like it. I do like their survey of the top downloaded programs for Windows (on their web site home page).

15 Gig Online Free - Secure (they say)

New online site Copy is offering 15 Gig online storage with promise of storage, sharing and security (you control who sees what). This storage offer matches Google's 15 Gig online space. May be worth a try to check it out and see how it handles photos and more. I have not tested so far ... but have an account. In a future post, we plan to review and recommend ways to make the most of free online services. As always - be careful and 'Trust No One' ... know where and who you share or store/backup personal information! 

Go to their site here for the details and set up your account.

Evernote - Could It Be the Holy (productivity) Grail?

I started using Evernote as a note taking tool about 9 months ago. Why? As I search the web as well as business/personal productivity forums ... Evernote continually comes to the top of the reviews - both their free and fee based versions. I guess a lesson I have learned when competitors compare themselves to a product (car, app, phone, etc.), is 'grab the one they compare themselves against!. I now use Evernote Clipper, Tag ideas, create Notebooks, email directly into Evernote and more! Just as their theme suggests 'Never Forget' ... this tool can help everyone remember. Make Use Of has the unofficial manual for Evernote that is worth a look. (Personal note: this is one app I 'actually' would consider paying the annual fee for their Pro version - now don't fall over!) Read more her.

Stop Chrome from Exposing Your Saved Passwords

Google Chrome is my favorite browser for my laptop and Desktop. However, Chrome allows anyone with access to your PC to be able to 'see' saved passwords (Facebook, email, etc.) with a little searching around.

Solution: Use a two-step solution. First: stop saving passwords in Chrome by going to Settings > Advanced Settings and un-checking the "Offer to save passwords" box under "Passwords and forms." Secondly, install the highly rated free Password Manager LastPass to save and 'remember' all your passwords needing only to remember one Master Password. Read more here.

Stop Online Tracking of Your Web Use

Disconnect (Firefox/Chrome/IE/Safari) blocks third party tracking cookies and gives you control over all site scripts and elements from a simple-to-use toolbar menu. It also protects you from tracking by social networks like Facebook, Google, and Twitter, which use your browsing even off-site to collect data about you. Read more ...

Using Picasa to Move Photos from Your Camera to PC

We have reviewed many tools for managing digital photos. Picasa is one photo edting tool that is on the top of our 'best' list. It is free, it is relatively simple and has many editing features most will not use.. Click this link to understand how you can download photos from your camera to your PC using Picasa. For Step by Step instructions see our Member's Guide.

Increase Chances to Recover Phone, Tablet, etc.

Improve your chance to recover a lost or misplaced phone, tablet or mobile device. How? Create an ICE (in case of emergency) and 'If Found' Home Screen for those devices. Check the image on this post: go to the built-in Notes app on the mobile device, put in "If found" and "In case of emergency" contact information (consider putting a few blank lines at the top). Then simultaneously press the Home button and the on-off button (on the iPhone this takes a screenshot of that information). Next, go over to the "Photos" app, find the screenshot, tapped it, set it as your wallpaper. Done!

5-Step 5-Minute Weekly Review

Get your week in order nd planned through this 5-Minute Weekly Review:

1. Todo List - Review your todo list. Prioritize must do's, Delete obsolete tasks. 

2. Calendar - What are your upcoming appointments - tomorrow and next week and next month, too.

3. Notes - Review any weekly notes and tke action or archive in your 'system'.

4. Goals - Where do you stand on your goals? Plan your short term progress or actionable next steps for this week. 

5. Someday List - Is the emphasis of your Someday list on the word never. Review your long term list and pick one item each week that you put off and get it done -or- remove. Soon, that Someday list won't look as daunting.

Your weekly review doesn't have to take a large amount of time.

Spending 5 minutes each week reviewing these 5 items will put you in the know for the coming week.

Read more at ... Craig Jarrow

Find and Delete Duplicate Photos

Searching for how best to remove the mass of extra (duplicate) photos I have on my PC, I came across several 'duplicate image removal' programs. I decided to see what was available besides manually sorting photos by Date Taken and viewing each photo. Two programs worth noting are VisiPics and Auslogics. After seeing the algorythms and control VisiPics offers I decided to use VisiPics. Note: walk though the VisiPics Tutorial a couple times.