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.

Good Article - Free Apps for Windows

I have used (successfully -or- better yet, without issues). Check the article for more info on these applications to keep your PC 'clean': 1) PC Decrapifier; 2) Revo Uninstaller; 3) Duplicate Cleaner; 4) Defraggler; 5) CCleaner; 6) Should I Remove It. Read more ... here

A Free Photo Backup Model

With cameras on Apple and Droid devices, in addition to the proliferation of social networking, photos are HOT! Now we need a process and way to backup and store those precious memories.

Here are the three services I use to share and store my digital camera and iPod photos (besides backing up on my PC). I will provide more detail with my post-processing steps in a future post, and a cool site that allows easy transferring photos between these services. But for now, check them out and sign up for your free account:

• Google+ (unlimited free photo storage and sharing)
  
• Flickr (1 Terabyte free storage and sharing)
• Facebook (unlimited sharing)
  

Little Known Power Saver - Hybrid Sleep

Microsoft designed Windows 7's power management with an eye towards

ease of use. Such an approach often sacrifices versatility for simplicity. Luckily, stronger power options are there if you know where to look.

See Hybrid Sleep.

Supersize Your Free Cloud Storage

Check how to gain lots of free storage http://www.pcworld.com/article/2037131/supersize-your-free-cloud-storage-to-100gb-or-more.html#tk.nl_down.

Organize Your Photos - Zoner Photo Studio

Where are all your photos ... in My Pictures, under My Documents or somewhere else. Do you need to tweek your photos to make them standout? I have the program for you. Zoner Photo Studio. We have introduced photo editing at our recent tech and photo seminar in the community last month and many had asked whether Picasa is the best for their use. 

Picasa is a great tool (and free) from Google. But once you begin exploring it's capabilities and features - many have needed to move their hobby of editing up a notch. So, do you move to GIMP (a free Adobe PhotoShop clone with a steep learning curve), or Photoshop Elements (a pared down version of Adobe PhotoShop)? My answer is have the best of both worlds - Zoner Photo Studio. 

Check the comparisons here http://www.zoner.com/en/buy and consider Photo Studio 15 for 30 days. In my opinion it is 1) the best photo management tool around, 2) clear and direct editing tools, 3) easy support on Zoner or through Google Search and 4) support for RAW.

I use Zoner Photo Studio Pro 14 and love it.

Online Security - Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication requires you to enter two login tokens before you can access an online account. The first token is your standard password (something you know), while the second is a login code randomly generated by a smartphone app or sent via SMS or email (something you have). See PC World Two-Factor