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Techie Tip Tuesdays...

Unfortunately, Techie Tip Tuesday will not be happening today. I'm wrapped up in banking issues, tour management, focusing moving lights, and being a rockstar. Thanks to all who stopped by wanting to add your piece - save it for next week!

Techie Tip Tuesdays: iTunes, Apple, and Online Movie Trailers

Welcome to TECHIE TIP TUESDAYS!

HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time participating, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, do a post today on your blog about a helpful hint/tip you've discovered about anything technological - blogging, SEO (search engine optimization), computer keyboard shortcuts, mobile phone features, image editing software, free applications, etc. Then, put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) in the little form at the end of this post. Thanks.

iTunes, Apple, and Online Movie Trailers

Well, I'm finding an interesting trend here - this week's Techie Tip has to do with movies as well... only this time, I'm talking about movies in theaters. When I go to a movie, I know that if it says it starts at 1:30pm, the actual feature film I'm going to see won't start until 1:50pm at the EARLIEST - the first 20 minutes generally are a couple of commercials and then movie trailers. But I always make a point of making sure I'm there for the trailers - I love to see what's coming up!

Since Apple has started providing movies via iTunes, they've done a great job of setting up a part of the iTunes store where you can watch movie trailers, and it's great! You can pretty much find any upcoming movie there... I will sit down with Erin some evenings and we'll just go and see what's coming up in the theater. If you're NOT an iTunes user, you can actually accomplish the same thing via Apple's website - just click here to go and see what's coming up. Just make sure you have a few minutes to waste - often the trailers are a little longer than they generally are in the theater which is an added bonus!

                

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Techie Tip Tuesdays: Blockbuster Online

Welcome to TECHIE TIP TUESDAYS!

HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time participating, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, do a post today on your blog about a helpful hint/tip you've discovered about anything technological - blogging, SEO (search engine optimization), computer keyboard shortcuts, mobile phone features, image editing software, free applications, etc. Then, put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) in the little form at the end of this post. Thanks.

Blockbuster Online

My wife and I enjoy watching movies and we find that we have a large amount of time on our hands when we travel on the road (it's not always that easy to read in the back seat of a bouncing vehicle!). The problem we ran into with movie rental stores was that we were often out of town for longer than the alloted 5 days, so if we rented some movies to watch on the road we would have to pay some pretty steep late fees by the time we were able to return them.

Enter Blockbuster Online. My wife and I have been extremely happy with the way this program works, and I feel like it's got some advantages over Netflix, which I'm sure a number of you are using as well. Here's what I like about Blockbuster's programs: not only do you get the movies extremely quickly (normally it takes no longer than two days from the time I get an email telling me the movie's been shipped) or get to keep them for as long as you want (i.e. no late fees!). But - depending on the program you sign up for - you can also return your movies to a local Blockbuster store and get a free rental there, plus you can get a coupon every month for a free in-store rental. We pay $20/month (which ends up being about 4 new release rentals a month) and we definitely get our money's worth (the number of movies we watch each month depends on how many days we spend on the road).

Are you using Blockbuster Online or Netflix? Which one do you like better?

Techie Tip Tuesdays: Print Screen for Mac Users

Welcome to TECHIE TIP TUESDAYS!

HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time participating, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, do a post today on your blog about a helpful hint/tip you've discovered about anything technological - blogging, SEO (search engine optimization), computer keyboard shortcuts, mobile phone features, image editing software, free applications, etc. Then, put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) in the little form at the end of this post. Thanks.

Print Screen for Mac Users

I made the switch to Mac about 5 years ago now and it was the greatest computing move I ever made. I've found that there are simply too many cool little extra features that I can do on my Mac that I sure don't remember being able to do on my PC. So some of my computing tips are only going to be applicable to Mac users as that's the world I live in these days.

One of the tricks I've learned that has proven extremely helpful for blogging is the "print screen" feature. Say there is an image or something on a website that I want to include in my post but can't find an actual .jpg file. If you hold down the apple key (command)+shift+4 all at the same time, you'll find that your mouse cursor will turn into crosshairs. You can then drag a rectangle around whatever it is on your screen you want to capture; once you let go of your mouse button it will automatically save it as a .png file on your desktop called "Picture 1". All you have to do is find it, name the file anything you want, and change the .png to .jpg (this will be an easier file for the majority of computers to read).

I hope this proves helpful. Make sure you leave your tip for Techie Tip Tuesdays!

Techie Tip Tuesdays - Mobile Phone RSS Readers

Welcome to the first edition of TECHIE TIP TUESDAYS!

HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time participating, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, do a post today on your blog about a helpful hint/tip you've discovered about anything technological - blogging, SEO (search engine optimization), computer keyboard shortcuts, mobile phone features, image editing software, free applications, etc. Then, put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) in the little form at the end of this post. Thanks.

 

Mobile Phone RSS Readers

Back in the fall finally took the plunge and became the proud owner of a Blackberry (or "Crackberry", according to some). This was (and still is) my first smartphone, and I have really enjoyed it. Because I travel a lot I don't have a lot of time to sit in front my computer and read through the various blogs I frequent regularly. So instead I've downloaded an RSS Reader for my phone which allows me to peruse my favorite blogs/news sites wherever I am via my phone (you have to have a data package on your phone for this to work). I've used two different applications so far and have been pretty happy with both:

Viigo has been a great tool - I was using it exclusively before I discovered the next reader.

NewsGator Go! is a product of the NewsGator company who, for those Mac people, created NetNewsWire (an RSS feed reader), which, coincidentally, is now free. What I like about this application is that it works together with the RSS reader on my computer, so if I read an article on my phone it will show up read when I look on my computer.

So there are a couple of options - applications that I've personally used and have liked. I'm sure there are others - what are you using?

Coming Next Week: Techie Tip Tuesdays

I've been inspired by a couple of fellow bloggers to start a weekly post that depends a lot on your input and contributions (see Works-For-Me Wednesday and Watercooler Wednesday). It's called "Techie Tip Tuesdays" - the name should be pretty self-explanatory. Every Tuesday I will be posting a tip somehow related to technology - blogging, how to use your phone/computer better, etc. If you want to participate, you post a blog about technology as well and let me know via the box at the bottom of my post (you'll see it on Tuesday).

That's the brief explanation - if you get a chance, I would appreciate it if you quickly read through the guidelines for Techie Tip Tuesdays before Tuesday - that will help both of us a lot.

Thanks - I hope we can learn together how to make the best use of our technological tools in this information age.