Techbyter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) With Bill Blinn

If you're still looking for a worthwhile resolution, how about improving your computer backup system? And if you don't yet have a backup system in place, how about establishing one? Fraudsters are getting better every day. Millions of e-mail messages containing links to malware are sent out every day and so are legitimate-looking requests that can give a thief enough information to steal your money or your entire identity. In Short Circuits: Apple will pay Italy $350 million to settle tax evasion charges. Although I spent a lot of time talking about Windows 10 in 2015, it's been a busy year for other platforms, too. Android in particular. Let's take a look at Android's big deals for 2015. Sometimes the first program of the year reveals lots of new features on the TechByter Wordwide website. Sometimes it's big changes in formatting. And sometimes the changes are relatively minor. This year, they're all but non-existent, but I'll tell you want to look for. Spare Parts (only on the website): WatchGuard Technolog

Batteries have finite life spans and a utility that's available in Windows 8 and Windows 10 can help you identify when it's time to replace the battery. Even security applications that are intended to protect your computer can sometimes be used maliciously. The European Union moves forward to enable legislation that will enforce privacy laws with severe fines. In Short Circuits: A Chinese company says that its Privacy Eraser won't really erase your privacy and IBM has a plan to clean up air pollution in Beijing and elsewhere. Spare Parts (only on the website): Microsoft cooperates with the Linux community to provide certification for Linux on Azure and the battle to defeat cyber criminals continues.

Despite the appeal of on-line music streaming services, there's still a valid reason to have an MP3 player application on your computer. If you're thinking of learning a new language or refreshing your knowledge of a language, the free Duolingo service would be a good place to start. In Short Circuits: Some people are trying to avoid having their computers updated to Windows 10. If you're in that group, I have some tips that may help. The 2016 version of Acronis True Image backup comes with several new features. In Spare Parts (only on the website): There's an increasing demand for video conferencing, but the technology still faces some significant challenges and Microsoft has released information about this year's top searches on Bing.

Undoubtedly you have an antivirus application on your computer, but that's no longer enough protection. UltraEdit Studio, my preferred text editor, is now available in a 64-bit version that works faster than the 32-bit version. In Short Circuits, Adobe's November 30th Creative Cloud update may not be revolutionary, but it brings several new and welcome features to the applications; if it seems too good to be true (you fill in the rest); and if you're not in an area with a telephone area code overlay, you probably soon will be. I'll take a look at what's happening in my own back yard. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Underwriters Labs warns about counterfeit USB power supplies for Apple devices and car sharing providers are quickly moving to mobile applications.

TechByter Worldwide is taking its annual Thanksgiving break.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 is an impressive piece of hardware with some significant flaws. Windows 10 Build 10586 may already be on your computer. If not, it soon will be and the first major update to Windows 10 adds useful features. In Short Circuits: Let's consider why this week's program might look and sound a bit different and November 22nd is a day of both sadness and joy. In Spare Parts (only on the website): The Toronto Star and the Scripps News Service investigated how encryption that you may be using to keep information private on your smart phone sometimes hampers law enforcement agencies and Microsoft and Red Hat have announced a partnership that they say will help customers embrace hybrid cloud computing.

We'll take a look at the latest iteration of On1's set of tools for photographers and examine how they can improve photographs of people. Following up from last week's recommendations for secure browsing, I'll describe the process I use to stay safe on the Web. In Short Circuits: How to enable the built-in Administrator account in Windows and although Microsoft is reducing on-line storage for Office 365 users, it's still substantial. In Spare Parts (only on the website): A new Microsoft data center will open soon for users in Europe and Fujitsu examines the future of computing over the next 5 to 10 years.

The Cyber Threat Alliance says that it has cracked the code on CryptoWall, malware that's associated with $325 million in payments to crooks, but there's bad news, too. A single image created by today's digital cameras, shooting in raw mode, wouldn't even fit on the original PC hard drives. And that's just one crazy thing about today's technology. In Short Circuits: The end is approaching for Windows 7, a first glance at On1's Photo 10, and Firefox seems to be fading away. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Traditional camera manufacturers are being overrun by electronics manufacturers, the launch of Halo 5 was the biggest ever for the franchise, and there's a utility that claims to eliminate dead links on websites and in documents.

One of the more helpful sites for Windows users is The Windows Club, but be careful with downloads from the site. We'll take a couple of looks at security: On-line reviews may not always be as trustworthy as they appear and watch out for "free" offers on Facebook and elsewhere. In Short Circuits, Western Digital plans to acquire SanDisk and a new approach to stifling on-line bullies. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Microsoft finally opens its flagship store in New York City and it's very close to Apple's flagship store and the rush to move software as a service applications to the cloud is accelerating.

If you're looking for an application that edits photographs, creates logos, designs websites, and publishes documents, you should take a look at Xara Designer Pro. Is TechByter Worldwide a safe website? SiteLock helps me to ensure that it is. In Short Circuits: How many federal agencies are keeping track of information about you? Comodo and Acronis have combined to offer some useful capabilities. And GoDaddy says that it wants to level the playing field for women. In Spare Parts (only on the website): If you're a fan of FileMaker Pro, you can buy the latest version and get an extra copy for free and we'll take a look a computer you can throw out the window (but I recommend that you don't.)

Password managers make it possible to maintain and use complex and secure passwords, and there are several to choose from. If you're someone who likes to write website code instead of using a WYSIWYG development tool, Brackets would be worth looking at. In Short Circuits: If you recently upgraded to Windows 10, you're probably eligible for a money saving deal on Office 365, but there might be a better option. The biggest tech deal in history has Dell Computers acquiring the much larger EMC Corportion. Several weeks ago, I described switching to Bitdefender. This week I'll tell you why I can no longer recommend the product. In Spare Parts (only on the website): The market for wearable electronics is large and growing larger every day and software as a service is seen as a new vector for malware.

Experian, the company that T-Mobile uses to confirm customers' credit-worthiness has been hacked, exposing data about 15 million customers who signed up between September 2013 and last month. Adobe's updated Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements bring welcome features to the consumer-level applications. In Short Circuits: Skype offers a gift that most people won't be able to use; In Los Angeles, Adobe Max wowed the 7000 who attended; and Microsoft announced the new Surface Pro 4. In Spare Parts (only on the website): A small party that's participating in Swiss elections calls itself the Anti-PowerPoint Party, It's October, so stores want you to start thinking about spending money for Christmas presents, and a beer fridge (available only in California now) connects to your Wi-Fi system so you'll know when you're running low.

The files on your computer are worth more than the computer and having a reliable backup is the only way to ensure their safety. Acronis True Image is a good insurance policy. LG enters the tablet market in the United States with its Gram series of lightweight computers that look a lot like Microsoft's Surface computers. In Short Circuits: Acronis teams up with Quantum-Safe Encryption to make cloud storage safer and in an Odds and Ends article, we consider this week's Adobe MAX and why companies choose goofy spellings for their corporate names. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Russia's prime minister touts the country as a good location for innovators, protective software publisher ESET acquires DESlock, and the Department of Homeland Security points out some security failings.

Photographers sometimes need to know where the sun and the moon will be so that they can plan a photo. If that describes you, take a look at Sun and Moon Calculator. The latest Windows 10 release in the Fast Ring gives a hint about improvements that will be coming soon. In Short Circuits: Microsoft has released Office 2016, Skype suffers a major malfunction, and WizMouse brings one of the Windows 10 features I adore to earlier versions. In Spare Parts (only on the website): A survey suggests that far too many people send their children off to college with unprotected computers and Concept Blossom says that it should be OK to re-use passwords on multiple sites. Is this dangerous?

Microsoft Security Essentials catches most malware that's in the wild, but is relatively weak when it comes to identifying new types of threats. Some antivirus programs use too many system resources and others display bothersome messages and try to sell you new services. We need something, but what? Windows 10 has generally been a solid performer for most people. That doesn't mean I haven't encountered annoyances and some people have found serious problems. We'll take a look at some of the annoyances I've found. In Short Circuits, most Americans think the presidential campaign will be hacked, DefCon Cyber scores your security risks, and Intel wants to be inside your mirror, dress, and bra. In Spare Parts (only on the website): OpenText delivers analytics in the cloud; Localeur Expands, but still hasn't come to central Ohio; and Shakespeare comes to your smart phone.

On-line instruction is a growing business and TrainSimple is in the process of expanding from being an Adobe-only shop to one that provides numerous classes for creative folks; if you're looking for an application that removes programs you no longer want, maybe the IOBit Installer is what you need. In Short Circuits: A government agency close to home (Miami County) had to pay cyber-crooks to recover data, the 64-bit version of The Bat passes inspection, and the Secret Service says mobile payment fraud is on the rise. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Things are changing so fast that it's becoming a problem and cloud-based storage is a business that's growing fast.

The Bat, an e-mail program that's popular in Europe continues working to find a following in the Americas. High temperatures are a threat to your computer, so you might want to add a couple of free utilities that monitor how hot it is in there. In Short Circuits: Adobe's InDesign now offers a preview feature that makes it possible to publish a document on-line and if you're a Windows Insider in the Fast Ring, you received a new version of Windows 10 this week. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Microsoft has published a list of Windows 10 shortcuts that every user should know about, US Internet users show an interest in European Union legislation that forces websites to remove information if people ask to have it removed, a Spanish company claims to have solved a World War II mystery, and night-time surveillance from the air is surprisingly good.

Turning a brown camel into a purple camel is just one of the things you can do with Xara Photo and Graphic Designer. Microsoft will release the latest version of Office next month and this month I've been looking at LibreOffice. In Short Circuits: A couple of city council members in Munich say Linux and LibreOffice are too hard to use and Windows 10 has surpassed 75 million installations in less than a month. In Spare Parts (only on the website): A hackathon is coming up this week in Punjab, if you wonder how important photography is in understanding the past, take a look at some motion pictures of New York City from around 1900, a look a security risks in the Internet of Things, and a way to find out exactly where the sun and moon will be in the sky.

Adobe's new and updated free mobile applications bring more power to your Apple phone or tablet and to your Android phone. In Short Circuits: No, Windows 10 isn't perfect and I'll describe some of the problems you might see; additionally, I'll tell you about a method I've found to leverage the Task Bar, Start Menu, Live Tiles, and All Applications to create a highly usable working environment. In Spare Parts (only on the website): Auto theft investigators say they think "mysterious devices" are being used to steal cars; Acronis launches a new version of True Image, including cloud-based backup; Western Digital makes it possible for users to have up to 96TB of network attached storage at home (but I suspect the main users will be businesses); and Underwriters Labs says that a bunch of its serialized holographic approval labels have been stolen.

If you already have Windows 10 or expect to have the upgrade soon, you might find a dozen or so terrific tips (and a dud or two) useful. In Short Circuits: How to find out if your Android device is vulnerable to the Stagefright bug, using a checksum to verify a file's integrity, and Google now wants the entire alphabet. In Spare Parts (only on the website): The history of photography in 12 short videos, Sony tries to capture the world's runners, changes in the health-care industry lead to a high-tech scramble by pharmacies, and bringing technology to bear on fraudsters.