Tips for Email Safety

WTAM 1100 – Geek Squad – September 27th, 2011

Even with all the new services online, such as social networks, a Pew Internet study found that reading and sending email remains top dog.

I spoke to Bill Wills on Cleveland’s WTAM1100 Newsradio this morning about a few tips to help keep your email safe.

Avoiding Fake Microsoft Scam Phone Calls and Emails

WTAM 1100 – Geek Squad – September 12th, 2011

There seems to be a rise in the number of phone or email scams falsely using the Microsoft name going around lately. I had a chance to speak to the Wills & Snyder show on Cleveland’s WTAM 1100 Newsradio this morning.

For more information on these scams, and how to protect yourself, visit the Microsoft Safety & Security Center.

Back to School – 5 Tips to Protect Your Kids Online

WTAM 1100 – Geek Squad – August 8th, 2011

As students return to school this month, they’re finding that more of their homework time is spent online. Many schools have taken to putting up homework assignment calendars online, as well as creating shared document areas on their websites to collect homework electronically. As a parent, you might be asking yourself how you can help protect your kids while they use the Internet as part of their back to school routines.

I had a chance to speak to Bill Wills of the Wills and Snyder show on Cleveland’s WTAM 1100 News Radio about 5 tips to protect your kids online that may help.

Amazon Takes Their Music to the Cloud

Amazon updated their MP3 download offerings this week with the introduction of their Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player service. The service provides 5GB of free online storage through their existing S3 cloud storage, but if you purchase an MP3 album from Amazon’s digital download store, you’ll get 20GB of space for 12 months free. Any music you purchase and have automatically saved to your Cloud Drive won’t count towards your space limit.

You aren’t limited to Amazon music, however, as you can upload your existing library with the downloadable import tool. Your complete collection can then be played through the Cloud Player website or the Android app that’s now available. No word on when or if there will be an Apple iOS app in the future.

It’s an interesting play in a world of digital downloads, and certainly one that will help draw users of iTunes and other online music stores to Amazon. On the other hand, it’s not quite the death of streaming services like Napster or Rdio.

If you find yourself buying more than one album per month, the pure streaming option these services provide may end up being cheaper, at least if you always have access to the Internet. Even in situations where your access may be limited or intermittent, such as with your smartphone, these services are now offering offline caches that allow you to store and play music while your device loses its signal.

Still, there will always be though who value owning their music outright versus streaming, even if that ownership consists of what is essentially a license to play a file downloaded from an online store.

Videos for Valentine’s Day

In a world as connected as ours, Valentine’s Day offers some interesting new challenges, as well as opportunities, for those who make heavy use of technology. A recent Twitter post from @GeekSquadUK asks, “Can a Facebook message be as romantic as a bunch of flowers?

As a Geek, I think so. Of course, that Facebook message will need to uniquely and creatively gets your feelings across to your loved ones. Continue reading “Videos for Valentine’s Day”