YouTube

October 11, 2013

YouTube: It’s All In There

YouTube (www.youtube.com) is a free video-sharing Internet web site visited by more than one billion unique viewers each month, watching more than six billion hours of video, with almost 100 hours of new videos added each month.

Why so popular? Well, for one, you can find a video to show you how to do almost any task, learn a skill, and a lot more. 

And entertainment videos let you see videos of every music genre, movie clips, exercise instruction, and more. Children’s songs are a big hit: a video of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” had more than 250,000,000 views. Luciano Pavarotti’s last performance of “Nesum Dorma” garnered eight million views, Tina Turner’s 2009 performing “Proud Mary” had 5 million views—you get the picture.

Historic events on are also a big hit: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, the 9/11 terrorist attack, and a lot more.

                

Video content is totally user generated, so quality ranges from decidedly amateur to slick and professional.

Uploading a video is easy, and viewing can be either for those you select or for anyone.

Caution here: YouTube depends on user-generated content and does very little censoring, so some videos are not suitable for youngsters. The search Safety Filter is not perfect, so you need to carefully monitor children’s use.

But there’s a lot on YouTube that’s useful, educational and entertaining. Check it out!

More on our web site: www.norma-tony.com

MOOCs

September 14, 2013

 

MOOCs

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offer terrific Internet educational opportunities: use them to take courses from Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and UCLA, and many others, all from the comfort of your home, office or any place where you have an Internet connection.

Many MOOCs are free, although college credit may be available for some for a fee. More than a thousand courses are available; topics range from quantum physics to music of the Beatles, sustainable agriculture, Roman architecture, Smart Growth for Private Businesses, and many others.

Need proof? Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) from Stanford attracted 160,000 people from 209 countries for the first class; it’s still popular for teaching modern Artificial Intelligence, techniques of machine learning, robotics, and more. The course is free and given by Peter Norvig, now director of Research at Google, and Sebastian Thrun, Research Professor of Computer Science at Stanford.

Yes! There are other less technical courses, such as:

Online Games: Literature, New Media and Narrative, a seven-week course given by Jay Clayton, Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. This course explores what happens to traditional stories and films, such as Lord of the Rings, when they become the focus of an online game. You get a certificate of completion when you finish the course.

Learning materials for MOOCs are available via video, books, lectures, demonstrations, Internet searches, blogs, tweets or Facebook, and most importantly, interaction with other students.

Course listings and more at www.coursera.org. Don’t miss out!

More on our web site: www.norma-tony.com

Why Skype or Oovoo?

August 16, 2013

Why Skype or Oovoo?

Skype and Oovoo let you use the Internet for making voice or video calls anywhere in the world. Use either program to show off the new baby, talk face-to-face with someone you can’t visit in person, read a bedtime story to a child at home, and to “be there” to share projects and ideas and the like.

Educational options abound: “sit in” on a lecture and interact with the instructors, take courses not offered at your school, watch a ballet class from an instructor in London or Paris, take piano or art lessons, practice speaking foreign languages with students from other countries, hold debates, do presentations, collaborate on projects—the list is endless.

Business uses include holding conferences or training sessions, demonstrating products or services, and extending customer services, among many others.

Oovoo (www.oovoo.com) and Skype (www.skype.com) are free for the basic services, but a plus for Oovoo is that you can hold free video chat sessions for up to 12 people, each displayed in his or her own window.

The downside: these calls and videos use the Internet, so there’s no guarantee of privacy—you’ll need to use common sense and care in what you say and what you video.

More on our web site: www.norma-tony.com

Nanny Cams

That cute Teddy Bear sitting on the shelf in your child’s room may be watching you--if it’s a “Nanny Cam.” These cameras are a type of video surveillance camera designed to watch children or elderly adults to ensure their safety.

The simplest Nanny Cam is a video camera set to view the intended scene and wired directly to a remote monitor, such as a camera in the baby’s room and the monitor in the kitchen. But new technology lets you do much more . . . 

Now there are wireless cameras that access your home network to display the live camera view on compatible devices such as a computer, iPad, smart phone, or TV. If your home network can access the Internet (most do), you can get the live view anywhere you can connect to the Internet: the office, golf course, store and such. Other features include motion detection, auto recording, and auto notification. So the camera can be set to automatically start recording video whenever it detects motion in its field of view, and at the same time send an email or text message to a your phone.

You can use all this amazing stuff  for much more than “nanny” duty. Now you can have cameras placed to watch over swimming pools, garages, driveways and just about any place. Cameras can be obvious ( fake cameras sold for this purpose) or masquerade as a book, clock, plant, smoke detector, wall outlets and more. And some cameras have an infrared mode so you can see in the dark. Some cameras feature remote pan, tilt and zoom controls. 

The legal stuff:
There are privacy/legal issues in using surveillance video cameras. Federal law prohibits secretly recording oral communication, so most nanny cams sold can’t record audio. States laws vary though, some allow audio recording after consent of individuals being recorded, others have no special laws regarding the audio.

It’s currently legal in every state to make a video-only recording of anything in your home, at any time, without informing anyone. The fact that the camera is hidden has no effect on this concept; however, privacy issues do come into play, and it’s best not to include in the field of view scenes outside your home boundaries, such as the street or the neighbor’s back yard. We advise using common sense, but you already do that, right?

So - for as little as $69.95, you can use video cameras to address many issues of security and safety (even keeping track of your pet).

2013 International CES

We’re just back from the 2013 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show). Here’s what caught our eyes and ears as we roamed the conference halls and sat in at the press conferences:

NEW New:
    Small, truly portable power supplies that use fuel cell technology to recharge or power small mobile devices such as smart phones, iPads, iPods (but not yet laptops). These fuel cells provide 6-15 recharges before you need to replace the fuel capsule.
    A window cleaning robot. This little device crawls around your window on tiny suction cups built into tractor treads. It really does do windows.
    Earphones that use bone conduction to hear music or cell phone, leaving the ear canals unobstructed for hearing ambient sound, conversations, traffic noises.

 
TV: The new crop of TVs are bigger, brighter and, oh my, is the display sharper than we’ve ever seen. Large 55" versions of the long-anticipated  OLED (organic light emitting diodes) displays were especially notable. Want big? How about 80" and 90" displays (with price tags to match). A few “ultra HD” 4K and 8K sets were also on display. Look for improved sound quality from the TV’s built-in speakers. And most TVs are “smart,” connecting to the Internet with a built-in browser or included apps from TV and music providers such as Netflix or Pandora.

 Bling: One exhibitor proudly proclaimed “Bling My Thing!” Not what you think, but referring to a way to decorate your mobile devices as a fashion statement. Colorful crystal-encrusted covers for your smartphones, iPads and even earphones were everywhere. Likewise, wild and crazy colorfully designed covers for a variety of devices. Want a pink or purple wireless pedometer? We saw them--and lots more.

 
Home Networks: Products from Netgear expand the reach of your home wireless network to eliminate those annoying dead zones. Simple, plug-in and self installing.

Home Automation: Central control and monitoring, local or remote, for entertainment, heating and A/C, lighting, security and more in your home are available from several vendors, but prices are still high for the better quality systems and most need professional installation.

More details coming. Stay tuned.

Tips and Tricks for Internet Searching

You know the information is on the Internet somewhere, but with BILLIONS of Web pages and sites, how do you find what you want?

Use search engines -- those specialized Web sites such as Google.com, Yahoo.com, Bing.com or ask.com. Enter words or phrases related to info you want, and the search engine displays a list of Web sites that include your search words or phrases.

Each search engine has its own set of rules so may not display the same results. Try more than one site or use meta search engines, such as Metacrawler.com or DogPile.com, which simultaneously search several search engines.

Or, narrow your search by using:

* phrases in quotes that search for a whole phrase rather than individual words.

* the + or - signs to include or exclude specific words.

* advanced search to specify languages, file formats or other parameters.

* a wild card symbol * when not sure of word ending.

* natural language, such as “My computer locks up when I try to save a Word document to a thumb drive.”

* a comprehensive list of search engines www.search-engine-index.co.uk.

* parental controls for safe searching; also www.askkids.com.

* help menu from each site.

Be patient and persistent to get results.

Explore (surf) the Internet with www.awwwards.com for sites that have won awards for good design and useful content, or try www.stumbleupon.com. But be sure your anti-virus and anti-malware is installed and up to date.

Apple iPad

The newest iPad (www.apple.com) is named simply iPad , but behind that simple name lies an amazing array of new features--so of course we had to buy one . . .

 Here’s some of what we like: The iPad physically looks almost identical to the iPad 2, but it’s a shade thicker and a bit heavier. The hallmark feature is the 9.7" Retina display that provides 3.1 million pixels total (1536 X 2048), four times more than the iPad 2 and one million more than HDTV. Couple this with the new quad core processor and a new operating system, you get a sharper, more colorful photo display, smoother video, movie and gaming displays, sharper text and improved Internet browsing.

Also new: a dictation feature that’s active with any app requiring keyboard entry. Just tap the Microphone Icon, speak, and iPad types. Major cool.

The forward-facing camera is also greatly improved. Video is now offered at 1080p HD and is amazing when viewed on the iPad's screen or, using an optional HDMI connector, on your TV screen. And--the iPad still has the features that made iPad 2 so popular: such as a GPS locator, Bluetooth connectivity, motion detector, contacts, calender, multi-touch swipe navigation and the like.

There are two basic configurations for iPad: WiFi only or WiFi + 3G/4G, each with a choice of three memory capacities: 16GB, 32GB or 64GB (Photos, videos, music, movies and apps tend to accumulate so--think carefully about intended usage.) iPad prices range from 16GB WiFi only at $499 to the 64GB WiFi + 3G/4G variety at $829.

We love our iPad for the new display, faster processor, improved camera and new operating system. Check it out!

Untangle the Charger Tangle

We found some terrific solutions to the problem of all the stuff needed to charge our many devices in need of charging.

 

The new Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet (www.newertech.com, $19.95) is a simple, elegant solution: the A/C adapter goes inside the wall outlet. The device includes two USB charging sockets and two standard AC sockets in a single compact unit that neatly replaces a standard wall-type receptacle. A sliding safety shutter covers and shuts off power to each USB socket when not in use. Special circuitry provides only the amount of charging current required for each connected device.

Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet is available in four wall plate colors and installs easily. A reminder here: Be sure to turn off power to receptacle you are replacing before installation. Printed directions are included, and a video tutorial is online.

Fueltank (www.callpod.com, $49.95 UNO, $89.95 DUO) is ideal for charging in the field and provides two to eight recharges of your mobile devices before Fueltank itself needs recharging. A handy carrying pouch is included.

The Mohzy loop (www.mohzy.com) is a short, flat charger cable with a standard USB connector on one end and a microUSB connector on the other. The microUSB end will fit many cellphones, mp3 players, GPS, and other devices. An Apple adapter allows use with iPhones and iPods. The standard USB end can connect to any USB port capable of providing charging current, such as an AC wall adapter, computer, car lighter adapter and others.

Mohzy loop has lots of colorful designs available, and magnetic ends serve as clasps for transforming the loop into a bracelet or for looping around purse or briefcase handles. Very easy to bring along anywhere and always be ready for charging.

Check out these charging devices soon. No need to put up with those tangles any more.

Graphics Pen Tablet . . . Great Fun

A graphics pen tablet is a terrific device to use with your computer. This flat pad lets you use a special pen to draw anything you want and then have your drawing displayed on the screen. Graphic tablets usually have drawing tools such as color brush, felt tip marker, chisel point marker, pencil for drawing (and an eraser for mistakes or changes) and much more.

 

We especially liked the intuos 5 touch (www.wacom.com), a professional grade pen tablet that has the common capabilities for graphics pen drawing and lots of other features too, such as:

* 2048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity for easily drawing a line or stroke of any width or make the line darker or lighter just by pressure on the pen.

* Full touch screen so you can enlarge, pan, rotate, and navigate your artwork using your finger(s).

* Eight ExpressKeys to program commonly-used functions, a touch scroll wheel, and reversible ergonomic design for left- or right-handed use.

 

Bundled with the intuos 5 touch tablet are several programs that allow you to start using the pen tablet right away:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 for PC and Mac, a photo editor.

Nik Color Efex Pro 4 Select Edition, a collection of photographic filters.

Autodesk SketchBook Express, a drawing program. 

Corel Painter™ 12 (free 90-day trial), the world’s leading digital art software.

Anime Studio Debut (Smith Micro), a fun and quick way to create animations.

The intuos 5 touch Pen Tablet comes in three sizes: Small, 6.2 x 3.6 in., $229; Medium 8.8 x 5.5 in., $349; and Large 12.8 x 8.0 in. active screen sizes, $449.

Using the intuos 5 touch Pen Tablet and the included bundled software is great fun for lots of your photographic and artistic computer projects--an experience not to miss.

More info on our web site at: http://www.norma-tony.com

I Didn’t Know You Could Do That With a Word Processor

Word processing isn’t just for writing; there’s LOTS more you can do, such as:

Spell Checking: Set your preferences to check spelling as you go;  save all those embarrassing mistooks!

Tables: Organize info in separate squares (across and down); edit, add shading, colors, headings, sort alphabetically or numerically.

Templates: Pre-formatted documents to use as is or customize with your text and graphics. Make professional looking greeting cards, invoices, brochures, invitations, business cards, certificates, newsletters, calendars and more. Just fill in the blanks!

Columns: Another way to make info easy to see and find; similar to tables but no lines around items.

Tabs: Tabs can be centered, left, right, with dot leaders or line up at decimal point or symbol.

Special Characters/Symbols: Multinational, math, scientific, iconic characters or symbols, accented letters, smiley faces and lots more, just select to insert at cursor.

Page Numbering: Numbered at center, left, right, top, bottom; auto re-numbered after changes. Saves lots of time.

Headers and Footers: Include text, lines, file name, path, time, date, page number on each page; auto reformat after changes.

Bulleted and Numbered Lists: Bullets, numbers, symbols inserted at  start of each line; numbered lines re-number if you add or remove items.

Explore these and other possibilities. Details on everything at:

http://www.norma-tony.com

Home Networks

Why would you want a home computer network?  To make it easier to share data, video, picture, and music files between two or more computers, play video games with friends, share a printer and more.

One example: if you have two or more computers and only one Internet connection, a network lets both computers share the connection to get to the Internet to download files, check email and more.

Set up a wireless network, and you can share Internet access and files with computers, iPads, smart TVs, video game consoles, some smart phones and more anywhere within range of the network.

Add a media server (a dedicated external hard drive) to your network, and make data, media and other files accessible to anyone on the network without having to keep one of your computers running all the time.

Home automation and monitoring devices may also need a home wireless network  so you can control lights, alarms, A/C, surveillance cameras and more from anywhere in the home and, with Internet access, across town or around the world.

And - a network connected game console(s) lets you play video games in teams or alone against opponents anywhere in your home or around the globe.

OK, now you know why you need a home network.
Here’s what you need to set it up:

Home Wireless Networks 101:  You need a modem, router and a wireless adapter (the modem converts the phone DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) or the cable signals to computer signals; router connects to the modem and provides multiple direct wired connections for your network devices; wireless adapter broadcasts your network signal, well, wirelessly, throughout a limited range).

If your computer is now connected to the Internet, you already have a modem supplied by your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Some phone and cable companies supply you with a combination modem/router/wireless adapter in a single unit as part of your data contract, but some require a one-time or monthly fee for its use. And some ISPs offer services of a technician for the initial install and setup of your network.

If you need special features (i.e., greater wireless range, faster speed to handle streaming HD movies to your smart TV, or possibly to avoid interference with your cordless phones), you may have to buy your own wireless router to connect to the modem already supplied by the ISP.

Retail choices of wireless routers can be bewildering, but a good starting point for comparison is Netgear’s N600 series, available at Staples, Best Buy or similar; some stores also offer onsite help for installation and setup.

And - a word to the wise: your wireless signal may extend to your neighbor’s house or anywhere else in the immediate vicinity of your home, so be sure to create a password at the time of initial setup of your network to secure your network against unwanted users.

One final thought: A respected provider of connected services predicts that by 2016 some 10 billion connected devices will be in use (that’s more devices than there are people on the planet). So get connected!

Tech Glam and Glitz

Who says techie stuff can’t be glam or glitzy – not us.

Take smart phone covers for instance. Snap on a cover to suit your mood or the occasion. Hearts and flowers for Valentine’s Day, snowflakes for winter, abstract art for those wilds moods or  sparkling crystal beads for those formal occasions. Or create your own design, including a custom message and a photo of your favorite person, pet, place and such. Ditto for your iPad 2 or other tablets. At www.skinit.com or www.mybat.com

Why carry your USB thumbdrive around in your pocket or purse when you can wear it as a heart-shaped pendant, with or without encrusted crystal beads, or on your wrist as a bracelet.

Speakers to use with your computer can have great sound and imaginative looks too. Check out the Harmon Kardon SoundSticks III. Really cool. Same goes for earbuds for your smart phone, iPad or MP3 players; earbuds come in every color and style and, of course, with crystal beads when you want to really stand out. Chicbud.com even has models with retractable cords to reduce the dangle.

Tech savvy does not mean dull and boring.

International CES 2012

International CES 2012 gave us a lot to look forward to. Of all the WOW products we saw, the larger, brighter and more colorful OLED TV displays from LG and Samsung took top honors. “Smart” Internet-connected TVs link you to everything from movies to photos to YouTube and much more.

“Smart” phones have terrific new features too: Samsung Notes, with a built-in drawing screen lets you write or draw freehand--just use its stylus and go wild. Nokia and others offer much improved 8-megapixel cameras.

Home automation technology is big, and now there are common control formats. Lights, heating/AC, security, entertainment and more are at your command with a tap on your smart phone or iPad screen; do it all from home, across town or anywhere in the world.

Home wireless networks are better than ever. NetGear introduced dual-band wireless routers, range extenders and a media server that can simultaneously play video, show pictures and backup your systems. NetGear’s Genie software helps make sense of your whole setup.

Fun and useful gadgets were everywhere: surveillance remote control helicopters and cars, glitzy cases, a cool charging device on a small loop doubling as a stylish bracelet. Some here, some coming soon, but you’ll love ‘em all.

Future technology was there too, with eye-tracking and hand or body motion control for your computer or TV set, with all kinds of possibilities for gamers, disabled and many others.

Lots more to come--here and on our Web site http://www.norma-tony.com

Tech Gift Ideas for the Holidays

Apple iPad 2 ($499, WiFi) is our top choice. It’s a tablet computer that lets you surf the Internet, send and receive email, double as an eReader, take photos and HD video, display your location, keep your calendar, play games and hundred of thousands of other things using apps available from the App Store free or to buy.

Another good choice: eReaders. Amazon’s Kindle ($79+) and Barnes and Noble’s Nook ($99+) are the most popular. Both offer access to a huge selection of books, magazines and the like. Some versions include Internet browsing capability, photo slide shows and more.

Tablet computers or cell phones users will like the Breffo Spiderpodium ($16+). Eight bendable legs to configure as a stand or wrapped around poles will hold a device in the position needed.





Looking to spend less? Check out USB thumb drives (2GB to 124GB, $10+). They come as a Swarovski crystal pendant, hidden in a Swiss Army Knife, in mini animal or character statuettes, a pen, shaped as surf boards and lots of other shapes.

How about Just Dance 2 or 3 ($40) for the Wii gaming console?   Great for fun exercise or just dancing.

Digital Photo Picture Frames ($59+): Just add photos for a personal gift they’ll love.

It’s OK to give a useful gift too: Rebit ($179, 2TB), a backup system to safeguard all computer files; details in previous posting below.

More on each of these on our web site at www.norma-tony.com.

Easy Backup and Recovery

We’ve been doing manual backups of everything on our computers forever. The process takes a lot of time, but we don’t want to deal with what can happen when you have no backups . .

We wanted a simpler way to secure our computer info and aren’t comfortable just yet with “Cloud” backup, so when Norma switched to the Mac world, there it was: the Time Machine: continuous backup to an external hard drive. No muss, fuss or bother--but a huge timesaver when the dreaded hard drive failure happened. 

 After that, we searched for a similar way to secure Tony’s PC. We found Rebit (Rebit, Inc., 2TB $180, www.rebit.com) backup hard drive and recovery software, which backs up everything on your PC-—and keeps on doing it with every file you create or change. Ditto system files and the like.

Disaster recovery is easy. If your PC suffers a hard drive crash, just install a new hard drive and boot the computer with the included Rebit Recovery CD. You can select the point in time you want to restore from (usually the most recent), and your hard drive is restored exactly as it was at that time.

Rebit is a must have for easy, ease-of-mind backup and recovery. We did notice a modest slowdown in performance in Tony’s PC, but we think it’s a small price to pay for knowing we can recover what we need if we have a computer problem (again). There’s more info at: http://www.norma-tony.com/093011.htm

Google Calendar - Free and Easy

“Free” and “Easy” are part of what makes Google Calender (www.google.com/calendar) a terrific help in keeping you organized. Use it to add single events (Little League game, doctor appointment), recurring events (birthdays, anniversaries, other yearly events), or monthly or weekly activities. Make it fun, decorate with a birthday cake, soccer ball . . . you get the idea.

Display business, personal, organization calendars and the like by different colors, separately or with all calendars together, by day, week or month. Google saves your calendar on its cloud servers, ready to use any time, from anywhere.
 

 

Share your calendar with family, friends, business associates or organization members, sync with your desktop calendar, access it on the go or print a hard copy. It’s available in 40 languages and tracks appointments across time zones.

Need to set up meetings between members of your organization? Just pick a date and time, and Google Calendar checks each member’s calendars; if that time and date is clear, it adds the event to each person’s calendar. If not, it suggests alternate “clear” times for everyone. Saves all those phone calls or emails.

Ditto for a family or school reunions and the like. Or use the calendar to send invitations and track replies.

Google Calender can send you reminders of events via email, text message or a popup window and lets you add a mini-version to your Internet browser’s home page so it is always there.

No excuse not to get organized now. Free and easy works! More info in our column at www.norma-tony.com

Searching The Internet: Tips And Tricks

You know the information is on the Internet somewhere, but with BILLIONS of Web pages and sites, how do you find what you want?

Use search engines -- those specialized Web sites such as Google.com, Yahoo.com, Bing.com or ask.com. Enter words or phrases related to info you want, and the search engine displays a list of Web sites that include your search words or phrases.

Each search engine has its own set of rules so may not display the same results. Try more than one site or use meta search engines, such as Metacrawler.com or DogPile.com, which simultaneously search several search engines.

Or, narrow your search by using:

* phrases in quotes that search for a whole phrase rather than individual words.

* the + or - signs to include or exclude specific words.

* advanced search to specify languages, file formats or other parameters.

* a wild card symbol * when not sure of word ending.

* natural language, such as “My computer locks up when I try to save a Word document to a thumb drive.”

* a comprehensive list of search engines www.search-engine-index.co.uk.

* parental controls for safe searching; also www.askkids.com.

* help menu from each site.

Be patient and persistent to get results.

Explore (surf) the Internet with www.awwwards.com for sites that have won awards for good design and useful content, or try www.stumbleupon.com. But be sure your anti-virus and anti-malware is installed and up to date.

Fun, Creative Story Writing Using Technology

We’ve discovered some terrific programs that can spark the creative spirit in children and give parents and grandparents hours of fun watching what happens:

StoryBird book cover

Storybird (www.storybird.com) encourages building a story from a set of images you drag and drop onto the page and then add text to develop the story. The images are wonderful, drawn by professional artists and are mostly “open ended,” suggesting multiple interpretations. Create as many pages as you want, rearrange or edit and save.

An added value is in getting two or more children to toss ideas back and forth and collaborate on a project. They’ll have a ball doing it. Publish the story free on the Storybird website to share and have others comment on, or pay a fee and have it printed as a keepsake.

Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu) lets you create interactive stories, games, fun animation and more, all while learning some principles of logic programming by snapping together color coded blocks that represent various commands. 

Commands control the actions of on-screen figures, sound, music and narration, take input from the keyboard or mouse and more. Children soon get beyond the nuts-and-bolts of programming commands to the fun of interactive story creation.

Zooburst (www.zooburst.com) lets you write stories and illustrate them with provided images, which can be assembled into a 3-D pop-up page viewed on screen. For even more fun, add pop-up text balloons or record your voice, speaking as a character when clicked or, using a webcam, include yourself surrounded by the 3-D story characters.

These are fun ways for youngsters–or adults--to create stories.

Free Music From the Internet

A great choice of free music is available to stream from music services such as Pandora, or Spotify, allowing you to listen to a vast selection without having to rip CDs or copy files.

Spotify (www.spotify.com) is new in this country and offers streaming music from a choice of more than 15 million songs.

Spotify offers several choices: What’s New details newly-released albums, including album art and track listing. Top Lists show the hottest tracks or albums chosen by other users. Feed connects to other users to share new finds or playlists and the latest news from Spotify.

We used the provided free software to build playlists by dragging and dropping tracks. Play for enjoyment, share with friends using Facebook, or sync the playlists with your iPod, iPhone, Android or (soon) iPad.

Spotify’s free version includes ads and a time limit. Premium version ($9.99/month) has no ads, unlimited access, enhanced sound quality and allows streaming to mobile devices.

Pandora (www.pandora.com) takes a different approach. Custom “radio stations” are created after you enter an artist, song or genre that’s used to match more than 100 characteristics to produce a playlist for you.

Refine the selections by indicating those you like or don’t. You won’t see the playlist, and selections are randomized, but when we used Pandora, we were usually happy with their selections.

The free version lets you set up radio stations and stream music, has a time limit, and includes ads. Pandora One ($36/yr) offers unlimited time, no ads and improved quality sound. Mobile versions are available for iPhone, iPad and iPod.                                   

More Life With An iPad

 We keep finding fun and effective ways to use our iPad, but we’re also hearing from readers who found it helpful in other ways. A reader who has a medical condition that made it impossible to hold books for reading or sit without pain when using a computer found the inherent mobility and flexibility of the iPad helped with both problems. The reader said “the iPad gave me back my books, my computer games and Internet!”

The included Internet browser, based on Apple’s Safari, allows searching, surfing and more. Internet uses open a world of opportunities. We can go to our favorite sites from our iPad with touch ease and enjoy all the Internet has to offer--all with us wherever we are. Also bundled with the iPad is Apple’s Mail program, which can support several email accounts, so we each can check our email and reply, print or delete messages. Internet and email do require being logged on at a WiFi hotspot (including your home wireless network) or having the 3G/4G version of the iPad, and printing requires a network connected printer.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of all we can do, and we’re  still learning. Stay tuned.