Which Data Plan Do I Need?

Smartphones brought with them the idea of wireless data for the masses. Being able to access the internet when not at home was not new when the iPhone came out in 2007- business people had been doing it with their Blackberries for years before then- but since then it is now a given than phones can access the internet anywhere, and increasingly common for laptops to be able to do so as well. With this, people have increasingly been asking "Which data plan do I need?"

Here are the main things to consider when looking at data plans:

1. How much data you need- The first thing to do is consider how much data you need. Will you be streaming Netflix regularly or just checking your email every once in a while? Different uses use different amounts of data. The only way to really know how much data you use is to do it and adjust (you can usually increase your data service later, but not decrease it), but you can find a good file-size estimate here on What Size Flash Drive Should I Get?
2. Coverage in your area- Next, shop around for coverage in your area. Cheap data does you no good if you can't connect when you want! Compare their coverage maps, making sure you're looking at data coverage and not voice coverage. Additionally, most major carriers will have separate maps for the different speeds of data- LTE, 3G, Edge, etc. If you're not familiar with these terms, How Fast is 4G? may help. Use these maps to narrow down to carriers that will give you the most coverage in places you'll be spending most of your time.
3. Price per gig- For this, compare the price per gig for the remaining possible options. Buying "in bulk" will generally get you a better deal per gig, but don't fall into the trap of paying for more data than you'll honestly use. Look at your budget and what you can reasonably afford.
4. Speed of download/upload- At this point you'll have narrowed it down quite a bit and there will likely only be two or three contenders. At this point you may need to do some digging, but look at their data speeds. The higher the number, the better the speed generally speaking, though there are lots of nuances that can affect that. You'll also see two sets of speeds: upload and download. Upload is when you're putting information up into the internet, and download is when you are taking information down into your device.

After all these things have been considered, if two services offer the same price per gig of data, and have roughly the same coverage, go with the cheaper option.

How Do I Keep My Electronic's Battery Healthy?

It happens to phones, laptops, tablets, and everything else that uses rechargeable batteries (which seems to be increasing with every year). At first everything is fine, but slowly... eventually... you notice that the battery just doesn't seem to hold a charge as well as it used to. Maybe you used to only have to plug your phone in once every couple days, but now you have to charge it multiple times a day. Maybe your laptop used to never dip below 60% between uses, but now you get low-battery warnings regularly. Here are some tips for maximizing your electronic's batteries:

1. Check your settings- There are many things you can turn off, minimize that will help save on battery usage. Similar to how a car that's laden with weight uses more gas, a computer with lots of things turned on will use more electricity.
1. Turn off unneeded settings- New devices will often come with certain settings turned on by default to help maximize your user experience, but you may find that they're not needed for what you use the device for. For example, many devices come with bluetooth turned on. Bluetooth is a wireless technology used for connecting to different devices like wireless keyboards, your car, or wireless headphones. (You can read more about bluetooth here: What is Bluetooth?) 

   

   If you see this symbol, it likely means bluetooth is turned on for your device.

2. Dim your screen/keyboard backlighting-  Most electronic screens nowadays have the ability to adjust their brightness levels, and some computers even have light-up keyboards to make it easier to type in dim lighting. While these make it easier to use the device, they can also use a lot of battery power. Set your screen brightness as low as is comfortable for you, and if your device has it (Apple products like iPhones, iPads and Macs have this, for example) turn on auto-brightness so the screen automatically brightens and dims according to the amount of light around.
3. Put your device to sleep/turn off as needed- Not using your device for awhile? You can turn the screen off by either clicking the lock/unlock button (for mobile devices), or you can put your laptop to sleep by simply closing the lid. Depending on how long you'll be away from you computer, you may choose to turn it to screensaver, put it to sleep, hibernate, or turn it all the way off. You can learn more about which option is best for you here at When should I turn off my computer?
2. Don't completely drain it- Completely draining a battery (to the point the device shuts off) is bad for the battery, and while doing it once or twice likely won't have any noticeable effect on it's long-term lifespan, repeatedly doing it will put unnecessary wear on it. Think of it like exercising- you go until you're tired, but not until you pass out from exhaustion.
3. Don't be afraid to use it either though- On the other end of the spectrum, some people get laptops, but then leave them plugged in 99% of the time because they're afraid of using the battery. This can be just as harmful as the battery can "forget" how to hold a charge. Using the exercise analogy again, you don't train for a marathon by sitting around conserving your energy for weeks before.
4. Avoid extreme temperatures- "Don't leave electronics in any conditions you wouldn't leave your child." Both extreme heat (leaving it in the car for hours in the middle of summer) and extreme cold (leaving it in the car overnight during winter) can have detrimental effects on your battery. The optimal operating temperatures for lithium ion batteries- the kind used in most rechargeable electronics- are the same temperatures that you'd feel comfortable in. Because of this, also be mindful about using laptops on beds where blankets and pillows will retain heat and warm up the laptop unnecessarily- use a surface that wicks away heat like a wooden desk or plastic stand. You can read more about other weather dangers here at Hidden Winter Hazards for Your Electronics.

What are 3D Printers?

Recently, I purchased a 3D printer. With the new job snuggly under my belt and the baby now at a more reasonable age, I thought the time was ripe to get a new technological hobby. Something I noticed though is that when I tell people I have a 3D printer, more often than not they ask me if I have, or plan to, make a gun. At first I found this shocking, but now I've come to expect it. Despite what major news outlets might lead you to believe though, 3D printers aren't just weapons waiting to happen. On the contrary, they're wonderful machines that have been improving lives for everyone and will continue to do so. So, what exactly are they?

I will have follow-up posts about them as I continue to learn myself, but in a nutshell, a 3D printer is a printer that can make things. The one I have is called a Solidoodle 2, and looks like this:

I'll be writing up another post that explains all the parts in more detail, but all 3D printers have these basic things:

• Filament- This is the "stuff" that makes the items. Usually this is a plastic, but some 3D printers can print chocolate, wood, glass, or even organic tissue.
• Extruder- This is the part that both melts the filament and moves to make the shapes needed to produce the item.
• Axes (singular- axis)- These are the things- usually rods- that the extruder moves on to make its shapes. There is always an X (left and right), Y (forwards and backwards) and Z (up and down) axis.
• Bed- This is the platform the printed object sits on while it is being printed. These can have a surprising amount of variety to them and can affect the print drastically.

I will continue to write articles explaining these marvelous machines more in the future, and will hopefully have some pictures of things I've printed to post here soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions about them, please feel free to email me. Additionally, I will be having public Google Hangouts when I'm using the printer, so if you follow TechKNOWLEDGEy Today on Google+, you just may get to see me and ask me questions live!

Are Child Headphones Worth It?

With the increasing use of technology by younger and younger children, the amount of accessories marketed directly for them is increasing. Everything from child-friend iPad cases to security software for mobile devices and child headphones. These headphones are smaller than most, but still over the ear style. Usually costing the same or slightly more than comparable headphones, it's wise for a parent to shop around and do research before purchasing a pair.

Child headphones are, like I said, smaller to accommodate the smaller cranium sizes of youths making it much more comfortable for a child to wear than larger adult sets. This isn't a big deal for short-term use, but for longer periods like watching a movie in the back seat of a car on a long car trip, it can make a difference, though the exactly amount or type has not been studied thoroughly.

They also have built in volume controls. This is by far my favorite feature of child headphones. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally blasted my own ears starting some music when the volume had been turned up without me knowing. Built in volume controls mean that even if the device they're plugged into is set to play loudly, the headphones have a maximum level that will lower the volume to a safe level for their ears.

Lastly, they look cool! I mean, check out this pair by DreamGear. With cute pictures and characters on them, children often get attached to their headphones as it allows them to have their set that. This means they'll (theoretically) stay away from your expensive Bose set, and opt for their own.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Be careful giving your child any electronic device or accessory and leaving them unattended. Smaller children may chew on cables or get tangled in the wire. Always exercise common sense and caution when giving your child a new item. I personally did not let my child use her headphones unattended until she was five, and I still do not let her use them for more than 10 minutes at a time except for special occasions like the aforementioned long car trips.

How Do I Make a Picture Smaller?

It's probably happened to you. Someone you know sends you a photo in an email, it takes forever to load, and then WHOA! That's why it took so long! When you look at the photo you realize you're just seeing the top corner of someone's head. This photo is huge! Why is it so big? Can you shrink it?

When this happens, it's because the photo has a high resolution and no limit on the physical size of the photo. The resolution of a photo is measured in megapixels, which is a measurement of how many pixels are in a square inch of the photo. Check out this article for a quick lesson on megapixels and cameras: What's the Difference Between JPEG and RAW? Generally, when you send a photo in an email, or open it in an editing program, the program will shrink the photo down to a more manageable viewing size. Sometimes though, when someone has a photo with a high megapixel count, they choose to send it in its actual size which is great when viewed on large screens, but quite overwhelming on anything else.

So how do you adjust this? The easiest way is to save it to your device. If, for example, you viewed the photo in the email of your smartphone, saving the photo and opening it in the phone's photo viewer will resize it to the proper level. The same is true if you save it to your computer. While some photo viewing programs won't automatically resize, most will. If you're look for recommendations, Apple's iPhoto for the Mac or Google's Picasa for the PC are both good, free programs that allow editing, resizing, organizing and even sharing of photos.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Not sure what size photo to send to someone? Here's a good rule of thumb: How will they be viewing the photo? If they'll be viewing it on a smartphone, send a smaller version; this will minimize how much of their data plan is used loading it while giving them good enough quality for their screen. If, on the other hand, they'll be saving it on their home computer to later edit or print, send as close to actual resolution as you can. Computer can handle larger files more easily, and a higher quality photo is easier to edit and saves more of details.

What is Email Forwarding?

Have an old email address that you still rely on but hate to give out to people anymore? Maybe it has a precious name, is from an old provider or is just downright embarrassing. Thankfully, most email providers nowadays offer email forwarding.

Email forwarding works a lot like actual mail forwarding. If you move to a new house or apartment, you can have the post office forward your mail to your new address while you change your address over with everyone who sends you mail. That way, when they receive a letter addressed to your previous address, they send it to your new one instead. 

Email forwarding is like that. When you tell an email account to forward, it'll automatically send a copy of any emails you receive to another email address you specify. That way, you can see all of those emails in another inbox and needn't access that old account anymore.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Unlike postal mail forwarding, email forwarding doesn't expire so you can set it up and forget about it.

What Kind of Computer Do I Have?

If you have ever had a problem with your computer, you've probably spoken to a technician who has asked you what kind of computer you have. With a scared deer-in-the-headlights look, you shrug your shoulders and simply hand them the computer. How does one find out what kind of computer you have? Do people really memorize their processor and RAM? How you find out your computer's specifications depends on the kind of computer you have, obviously, but it is generally a very straightforward process.

If you have a Mac, click on the Apple logo in the top left-hand corner of your screen. "About this Mac" will be the first option on the drop-down menu that you get. Simply click on that and a small window will pop up telling you your processor, RAM, and what version of the operating system you have. If you click on the "More Info" button, then you will get all of your computers specifications. This can come in handy if someone needs to figure out when your computer was made.

If you have a PC, click on the Windows button in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen. You will see the word "Computer" on the right-hand side of the pop-up menu. Right click on that and select "Properties." This will pop up a screen that will give you similar information to what the Mac version shows you as well.

Practical Tip of the Day:
On the Mac, if you click on the words "version 10.[x.x]" you will notice that the words change to "Build [XXXXXXX]", and if you click again it will change to your computers serial number. This is the easiest way to find this information out. If you ever seek warranty work on your Mac, you will need to know this information.