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Enhancing Your Holidays With Technology

11/17/2014

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This season brings with it many wonderful sights, sounds, and smells as we prepare for and enjoy holidays with our friends and loved ones. Today I’m going to share with you just a few things that may enhance and brighten your days. So grab a mug of some warm spiced cider and join me as I tell you more.

Memory Making, Crafting, Decorating and More
Want to make a Thankful Tree? Preparing to “deck the halls” but ready for a new look or inspiration? Getting ready to make a few do-it-yourself gifts for your special friends or family? Pinterest is a great resource! Pinterest is a virtual pin board where you can collect or “pin” pictures-links to favorite web sites, blog posts, etc. With their nifty search feature, you can find specific ideas that may fit your interests. After you sign up for Pinterest, you’ll have thousands of memory-making, crafty, decorating, you-name-it holiday ideas at your disposal. Download the Pinterest app to your smartphone for easy access to your pins.

Recipes
Ready to try out a few new Christmas cookie recipes? Finding good recipes doesn’t require much more than being able to do a Google search. I look for recipes that have been rated by users to be 4 out of 5 stars or more. My favorites include Allrecipes and The Pioneer Woman, but there are many good ones out there. There are some recipe apps you can download to your other devices as well, including an Allrecipes app. Pinterest is also a great resource for recipes.

Music
Want to listen to old Christmas classics like Bing Crosby or perhaps a newer favorite such as Michael Bublé? Head on over to Pandora where you can create your own radio station to suit your holiday preferences. If you want free listening, it comes with a few ads. They offer a ad-free version for a price. Download the Pandora app to your smartphone if that’s your sort of thing too.

Shopping
Perhaps you’re like me and you don’t necessarily appreciate the big trip to lots of stores, the hours of shopping, the waiting in line, and the cold. I’ve discovered something in the last two years that I have loved: online shopping. True, it’s not really that new, but I’ve only recently transitioned to doing more of my Christmas shopping that way. I love that my “big city mall-type” shopping is minimal these days.

Amazon
My favorite way to shop online is through Amazon. Amazon has so many options - toys, household items, books, movies--almost anything you could buy at a store you can find on Amazon. Some of our extended family uses the “Wish List” feature, which really simplifies things at times. There is also an Amazon extension that lets you add items from other websites to your Amazon Wish List. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can “invite” family to join in the Prime program and they can get the same free, 2-day shipping option. Additionally, Prime members have access to some free videos and TV shows--so you might even be able to watch your favorite holiday classic as you wrap the gifts you have ordered. Speaking of wrapping, you can have Amazon wrap your gifts for you, kind of handy if want a gift delivered to someone far away. And of course, they have an app for your use as well. 

Apps
If you do head to the stores for your shopping, you may want to see if your favorite stores have an app that you can download to your smartphone, they may offer coupons through their apps.

If Black Friday shopping is your thing, you may enjoy the following apps:
  • Black Friday Shopping
  • RedLaser
  • Shopular
  • TGI Black Friday
  • ShopSavvy

And as much as I want to present you with technology-related options, this is also a great time to visit your local businesses. They have a lot to offer and you may be pleasantly surprised with your finds. Economy-wise, it’s always a great choice to shop local.

Joe and I hope that regardless of how you spend your holidays, they can be a special time for you and your family as you focus on The One who came to bring “peace on earth, good will toward men.”

--Tiffany

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Do you have a question or topic you’d like us to address? Email and let us know! 

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Web Browsers

11/13/2014

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What is a web browser? A web browser is the program that you use to access and browse the Internet. This week we’ll look at a few of them--Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Tor and Safari. While there are many others to choose from, these are the more prominent options available.

What Makes a Browser?
Most web browsers include the following elements:
  • An Address Bar - This is where you enter the URL or address of the website you want to visit.
  • A Home Button - This is a button that returns you to your starting point, aka your home page.
  • A Stop Button - This is used to cancel a page that is loading.
  • A Refresh Button - The Refresh button reloads the current page.
  • Back and Forwards Buttons - These buttons allow you to move back to the previous page or forward to the next. (Often displayed on the top of your browser as left and right arrows.) 
  • A Search Bar - This is used to search the Web, most modern browsers now combine the search bar with the address bar.

Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer or IE is the web browser included with the Windows operating system since 1995. Due to the widespread use of the Windows operating system, Internet Explorer was considered the default web browser for many years. With a 27% share of the market, Internet Explorer is currently the second most popular web browser.

Mozilla Firefox
Firefox debuted in 2002 and was first named Phoenix, then Firebird before the final change to Firefox, due to naming conflicts with other software companies. Today, Firefox is currently the third most popular web browser in the world with a 22% market share. Firefox is free to download and is built on an open source platform. It is also one of the more secure web browsers available. To learn more, check out the Mozilla Firefox site. 

Google Chrome
Coming in at number one in popularity (and my personal favorite), and with a 45% market share, is Google Chrome. Built on the open source Chromium Browser, Google Chrome has surged ahead of the competition since it’s introduction in 2008. Google Chrome has a very clean looking interface with very few buttons, no toolbars allowed, and extensive enhancements available from the Web Store. Google Chrome is also very secure and will often prevent you from visiting a malicious website (although you can override this feature). Google Chrome is also very customizable, although some of the more advanced tools are hidden.

Opera
Although not as well known as “the big three” Opera is a great web browser with a very clean interface and a greater focus on privacy than the others. Although originally a paid product, Opera is now available for free. With original development way back in 1995, many of Opera’s features have been copied over the years by other browsers. Opera has seen greater success in the mobile world and is also at the core of the Nintendo Wii’s web browser.

Tor
Tor is a web browser originally designed for the US Navy to provide the user with a secure, private, web browsing experience. Because of its unique encryption and information relay, your browsing sessions are far less traceable. This makes Tor an excellent choice for anyone concerned about online security and privacy. .

Safari
Safari is the default browser included on devices from Apple since 2003. There was also a version for Windows but it was discontinued in 2007. If you don’t own a Mac, you’re most likely to use Safari on iPad or iPhone. Like its counterparts, Safari can sync your content across multiple devices.

Conclusion
There’s no “best” browser. If you like what you’re using, then that’s great! If you are dissatisfied, download another popular browser and give it a try. We often have more than one browser installed on our personal systems and will use them for different things. Occasionally, you may have trouble with your browser properly displaying a web site. An easy possible solution is to simply switch to another browser and try the same site on there. Try different browsers to see what they have to offer!  

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Do you have a question or topic you’d like us to address? Email and let us know! 
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