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