Tech Tips [ Tablet Typing Speed Secrets Revealed! + Did Your Flash Drive Break Your PC? + Is Amazon In Deep Trouble? ] 05/04/2012

WorldStart Tech Tips 2012-05-04 Having trouble viewing parts or all of the newsletter? View the entire newsletter here! In The News 05-04-2012 Your Weekly Update In The World Of Technology Xbox AND Kinect For $99?! (With A Contract!) For awhile now phones and other mobile devices have tried to be more and more like gaming systems, providing better and faster games and graphics. Now it looks as if Microsoft is turning the tables and trying to make gaming systems more like phones. Microsoft, the creator of the popular Xbox, announced earlier this week it would sell its gaming system and the motion-sensor add on Kinect together for only $99. The bundle would include a 4GB Xbox 360 and Kinect sensor BUT only for those that commit to a 2 year, $15 per month, contract. The current retail price for the 4GB Xbox is $199.99 and the retail price for the Kinect is $149.99, bringing the total retail value to around $350. The retail price for the bundle when bought together is only $300. The two year contract and subsidized bundle, which is something we often see in the mobile device market, is expected to be available as early as next week. The monthly subscription will most likely include Xbox Live Gold as well as potential content from cable and sports providers. The move by Microsoft is seen as a strategic move to put more Xbox's in living rooms and have them serve as a full-fledged family entertainment system as opposed to just a gaming system. So is the new deal worth it? The total cost with the two year contract and bundle would come to $459. The retail cost of the bundle by itself ($300) and a two year Xbox Live Gold subscription ($59/year) would come to $418. The big question will be if the extras included in the subsidized contract will be enough to justify the higher overall price tag. The Kindle's Disappearing Act Target is giving the Amazon Kindle the boot. The popular retailer confirmed this past Wednesday that they will be phasing out Kindles and Kindle-branded products by the end of spring. Target released a statement regarding the move, stating that "we typically don't discuss our relationships with vendor partners." The phasing out of the Kindle comes as a surprise, especially since the Kindle Fire was Target's best selling tablet on last year's Black Friday. One potential reason is the recent plan to include Apple mini-stores within various Target locations. These mini-stores will sell both iPhones and the Kindle Fire's direct competitor, the iPad. It's merely speculation but many believe that Apple's new presence was putting pressure on Target to remove the Amazon products. ~Mike Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version *Note: 3D Images are moveable/turnable on the sceen to allow you to see a flat image from any viewpoint. The image is displayed as a flat image on the screen but provides you the ability to rotate and twist the model to see it any way you like! 3D glasses NOT required. Hey! Nice Body! Wanna Know More About It? Finally! KNOW What Your Doctor Is Talking About! HUMAN BODY 3D - THE MOST EXTENSIVE PROGRAM EVER! Learn Every Bone and Organ - From its Location to its Function! 3 Complete Programs in One: 3D Body Atlas, Medical Dictionary, and Human 3D! Complete With Clickable 3D Graphics... And TONS Of Simple Descriptions! YOU'RE ABOUT TO BECOME AN EXPERT WITH EASE! 3D Glasses Absolutely NOT Required! Get to Know Your Body! The human body is fascinating! From the bones that allow us to walk upright to the organs that digest our food, there's a TON going on! Ever wondered how anything truly works? Ever wonder why we have certain bones and organs that don't seem to do much of anything (trust me, they do!)? Ever wonder what the heck your doctor is talking about??? You can learn EVERYTHING you've ever wanted to know about the Human Body in one amazing, EXTENSIVE program - you've gotta check this out! 3D Atlas - Stunning Animations and Simple Understanding! This program alone is worth the cost of admission! Seriously, everything you've ever wanted to know about the body is displayed for you with clear, concise graphics and in-depth (yet simple) descriptions. As you can see from this particular graphic, this is super easy to use. You're presented with a clickable skeleton. Click on any region of the body for a detailed picture. You'll notice underneath the picture it tells you what each part of said organ is, and from there you can click on it and then open it up in the Medical Dictionary (which we'll learn more about below!). The side menu here allows you to focus on specific areas and regions. Click on any of the side menu buttons for a different aspect. For example, the first option is a Locomotor System that tells you each and every bone you click on. The next option is the muscular system, then digestive, urinary, sensory, endocrine, lymphatic, nervous system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system and the reproductive system. Each menu option brings up a different clickable, interactive graphic that will allow you to hone in on any area you so choose, and learn everything there is to know about it! Human 3D - An In-Depth Tour of the Body Get to know your body, both inside and out! The Human 3D program is broken up into three parts: Anatomy, Physiology and guided, virtual tours of each. You're about to become an expert with ease! This is perfect for your reference, and it takes you to any region of the body you're interested in learning about. This is EXTENSIVE: both the anatomy and physiology sections contain menus with each and every aspect of the body. Click on whatever area you're interested in (from a HUGE list), and that opens up another menu that directly focuses on each individual part. Click on one of them for the full description of what they are, where they are, and the purpose they serve in your body! Complete with 3D graphics, models, and simple-to-understand explanations, you'll become an expert in both Anatomy and Physiology in no time! No 3D glasses are required! Click on the guided tours and you'll be walked through each section of the body you're interested in learning more about! This is also complete with illustrations and full of informative descriptions! Use the EXCELLENT Menu for ease of navigation! You can look at things in X-Ray viewer, a 3D Anatomical Atlas, you can create bookmarks and notes, search, even print off illustrations and descriptions! Medical Dictionary - Extensive, Informative, Simple! The body is a complicated and beautiful thing. It may seem intimidating trying to learn about what makes us...well, us - but you can learn it at your own pace with excellent descriptions that ANYONE can understand! The Medical Dictionary is SO COOL! Here, you're taken to a massive, extensive database that contains everything you could ever want to know about the body. Type literally anything in the body into the search, and you'll be flooded with information! From a basic general description to each little part that makes up an organ, you'll learn what it does, where it's at and what makes it up. Obviously, this is complete with colorful, helpful graphics that provide an in-depth overview of specific areas and what they do in your body. Here, we're looking at the lungs. As you can see, you get a general description along with a clickable graphic. Each separate part of the lung is pointed out, as you can see, and you can learn about each part individually if you so choose. Bottom line - the Medical Dictionary will help you learn about anything you want, and you'll be able to understand it because it was written for people like us! Extensive Program - Endless Knowledge - Outstanding Price! If you want to learn EVERYTHING there is to know about the human body, you can get this program or you can take a college class. Which do you think is cheaper? For today and today only, the entire Human Body 3D package can be yours for just $14.97 with FREE US SHIPPING! http://store.worldstart.com/product/7805 When the Sun Goes Down - Light This Up! THE BIG BACKYARD LANTERN ILLUMINATES THE WORLD! 24 LED Power - 100,000 Hour Bulb Life - Built-in Magnetic Compass... THE MOST RUGGED, COMPLETE LANTERN WE'VE EVER SOLD! Hang it, Carry it, Take it Everywhere! It's the Perfect Portable Lantern for the Great Outdoors... Take it Camping, Hiking, Boating - Or Hang it in Your Back Yard! This is the PERFECT Lantern for the Great Outdoors! You NEED a Better Light... Let's Say...You're in the woods, at one with nature. Camping with your family is one of your favorite things to do - but you need a SUPER lantern to compete with the Mother Nature's total darkness. Not only that, you also need a compass to keep your sense of direction...what do you do? Consider this: it's getting dark, and there's not much time left before it's totally pitch black outside. You're out in the woods, hiking around and trying to find kindling for the fire when all of the sudden, you realize you're lost. You need bright light AND a compass! Ready for the PERFECT Combination? Check this lantern out! It's got all of the features you're looking for and then some! When it comes to knowing all about lanterns, you can count on your friends at Worldstart to point you in the right direction... 24 LED Bulbs are RIDICULOUSLY BRIGHT! Lets face it: your lantern, like most of 'em out there, is weak. That lazy yellow light the rolls out of it is insufficient for real lighting. How do you expect to successfully use a lantern that doesn't actually do what it's supposed to? You NEED bright - and this one's got it! If you've ever seen what just one LED bulb can do, then you might have an understanding at the MAGNITUDE OF BRIGHTNESS that you'll get with 24 LED bulbs! Get ready to see EVERYTHING - whether you're out camping, hiking, boating, or lounging in the back yard. The last lantern you'll ever need! Energy Efficient? Try 100,000 HOURS of Life! That's right - you know the deal by now. LED Bulbs last a really, really long time - even if you NEVER turn 'em off! Think about it: 100,000 hours is 11.5 years! Yeah, you could leave it on that long, NEVER TURNING IT OFF, and NEVER have to replace a bulb! Magnetic Compass - NEVER Get Lost! Talk about the PERFECT BLEND of unique necessity with today's technology! Why we haven't seen a lantern with a compass on it before is a mystery - because it's a TOTAL NECESSITY! Let's say you're out camping at night and need to go out looking for fire wood. Or a bathroom. ANYTHING - when it's dark and you're out in nature, a compass is the first thing you should have! And if you're boating - again, you need a compass first and foremost! This BRILLIANT design idea is creating HUGE waves in the world of lanterns! Check it out - right on top of this powerful lantern sits an accurate, easy to read magnetic compass! Need We Say More? Probably not - you get the idea! This is the PERFECT lantern! But just for good measure, check out some of the other specs that make this lantern so special! Safe for using indoors or outdoors! Lightweight, Tough AND Durable! Top Handle for EASY Carrying AND positioning/hanging Runs of 4 "D" Batteries (not included) TOTALLY ENERGY EFFICIENT! AMAZING DEAL TODAY! When we tell you a lantern is special, you know it means something. We've been testing them, writing about them and selling them for years! When we tell you this one totally rocks, you know we aren't joking! So for today only, as a special Sunday deal for our special subscribers, you can get this 24 LED Magnetic Compass sporting piece of brilliant lighting technology for just $14.97 WITH FREE US SHIPPING INCLUDED! http://store.worldstart.com/product/7559 PS: we can't guarantee stock on these past today, but if there's any left Saturday, the price jumps back up to $18.97 - so don't wait, order now! Joe from WI writes: I just purchased a 50GB flash drive. I have Vista for an OS on a HP laptop. I always leave my thumb drive plugged in. After shutting down and doing a restart I cannot get the OS to fire up. All I get in the top left corner is a flashing dash. When I use the flash drive in my daughter's laptop it works perfectly. Any ideas? The answer is deceptively simple. Your computer is setup to be able to boot off external devices such as USB devices, and this is causing your computer to try to load an operating system from the USB flash drive. The way to fix this is to go into your computers BIOS and change the boot options to either not include USB devices or place them after the hard drive in the boot order. How to access the bios will vary manufacturer to manufacturer, but usually when you first turn on the PC you will either hit F10, F2, Delete or F12 to access the BIOS configuration. Once in there, you want to change your boot order and make sure booting from USB devices is not selected or that it's lower on the list than your hard drive. Here is a helpful link to how to change the boot order on HP laptops: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=18703&docname=c00364979 Hope this helps, Joe! ~Tim Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a question for us? Ask it here! Quick iPad Period Placement Surprisingly, the iPad touchscreen keyboard responds well to my frantic tappings – far better than I ever expected a touch-screen keyboard to react, actually. But when you're chugging along at 170 words per minute, and want to eek out a little more speed, every shortcut helps. So when you're typing away at your iPad, and you want to add a period at the end of a sentence, don't waste time with extra keypresses – Just check this tip out! (Want these tips in their entirety? Sign up for Premium!) Hal from Chicago, Illinois, writes: When I went to use the Send-to option on a desktop file the other day, it was gone! Can I get it back? Hi, Hal! Yes, you can get it back. First off, let's go through a couple of things for the folks out there who are unfamiliar with the Send To option. When you right-click a file or folder on your desktop, a menu pops up. This menu is called a context menu. In that menu, you have the option to send that particular file to a number of different places; it depends on your computer. Sometimes the Send To option disappears for some reason. Below is an example of what mine looks like when Send To is in the menu and when it isn't: Make it happen over at Worldstart! (Want these tips in their entirety? Sign up for Premium!) Friday Funnies! For stories, jokes, quotes and cartoons every day, sign up for our Just for Grins newsletter. Stormtroopers 365 When I ran across this Flickr set I knew I had to share it with you. The photographer snapped a photo a day of stormtrooper action figures for a whole year. The images start on April 3 of 2009 and go to April 4th of 2010. A friend of mine who knows I'm a knitter (and a Star Wars fan) sent me this picture of stormtroopers knitting via Facebook, and then I investigated the whole stream. If you want to view the photo set in chronological order, you'll need to start on page five and work your way back to the first page. If you don't care about the order they were posted, you can just start right on the first page with any photo that strikes your fancy. Besides the photo set, you can also find a video made with the action figures, and extra photos, by clicking More Details About Stormtroopers 365. By checking out Stormtrooper 365 Extras you can find deleted scenes, alternate versions, and behind the scenes photos from the Stormtrooper 365 series. The cool thing about the behind the scenes images is that they have detailed captions and even areas of the images that when you mouse over them show even more information about the shot like this image. Navigating through the images is easy. Just select the image you want to start with and then you can use the Prev and Next buttons to flip through them. I hope you'll enjoy this whimsical stormtrooper themed photo set as much as I did! http://www.flickr.com/photos/st3f4n/sets/72157616350171741/ ~Amanda Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share? Send it to Amanda at amanda@worldstart.com ** 32GB - $29.97 - NEVER BEEN CHEAPER! ** It's the WORLD'S BEST Deal on a Flash Drive! This is a MASSIVE 32 Gigs - And it's Just $29.97! We Have NEVER Had a Deal This Good - EVER! Once Upon a Time We Sold Them for $32.97... AND WE COULDN'T KEEP 'EM ON THE SHELVES! Read it: $29.97 - Limited Stock - HURRY! A 32GB Flash Drive Gives You Nearly ENDLESS Space! Simple Math: Over 70 Bucks at the Box Store... OR JUST $29.97 FROM WORLDSTART! First Thing's First... We all know what flash drives are good for: Everything. So let's not waste your time or mine telling you what they do or how to use them. They're an essential and practical part of every day life for everyone, from students to business professionals and everyone in between. We use them to store files, music, pictures...pretty much EVERYTHING. These days, it's pretty much impossible to get by without at least one. Which brings up some food for thought: How Many Flash Drives do you Have? Do you have four 4gb flash drives? One 16gb? Eight 2gb's? Hey, we understand - flash drives aren't cheap, so we accumulate ones with less storage capabilities so our pockets don't feel it as much. Well...we're about to change your life! Check this out! A Flash Drive with 32 MASSIVE Gigs...For an UNBELIEVABLY LOW Price! Here at Worldstart, we pretty much sell all flash drives from your 2GB up to 16GB. In the history of our existence, we've only sold a 32GB flash drive once - and it was a loooong time ago. It's not that we don't love 'em (we do!) it's just that it's so hard to find them at the prices you've come to expect from us. Well guess what...WE FOUND 'EM! 32GB - Just $29.97! This is HUGE! To give you a little bit of perspective, we did a little covert ops and went into our local Best Buy to snap a quick picture of how much they sell a standard 32GB flash drive for. Observe: So...now that you understand how AMAZING this deal is, let's get to some logistics here...just how MASSIVE is 32GB worth of storage space? 32GB is Like a Black Hole in Outer Space - Pretty Much Endless! Just look at all this can hold! Amazing! Up to 19,200 Photos! Thousands Of Documents And Files! 8000 MP3 Songs (that's over 2 weeks worth!) 96 Hours Of MPEG4 Movies - Better get a MONTHS supply of popcorn! That's AMAZING!! Isn't it? It is definitely your smartest portable storage solution, allowing you to carry a HUGE 32GB of your documents, spreadsheets, files, programs, photos, videos, music, and important back-up material, all in one extremely small device! Simple to Use - Obviously! For XP, Vista, and 7 computers, you just plug it and you're good to go. The drive will show up under My Computer. Just drag the files over you want to put on the drive! That's it! Seriously - This Price is UNBELIEVABLE AND UNBEATABLE! Again, the price is AMAZING, so now's the time to buy! Just $29.97 and US shipping is FREE! Did you expect anything else from US? Get yours now - they won't last! http://store.worldstart.com/product/7714 PS - We're not sure how long our inventory is going to last on these as it is a limited time deal! So, get to the site as soon as you can ~ before our supplier increases the price!! May Wallpaper! Check it out - our May wallpaper is ready to go! Also, we've been choosing only horizontal images for the wallpaper, but I get SO MANY requests for some of the vertical shots to be wallpaper, I just had to go ahead and do it. So, give it a try and let me know what you think by posting on the blog entry for this idea (Click Here) As always, all the desktop wallpaper below is 100% free. Upper Falls This is usually the first falls I photograph when I'm in the Old Man's Cave area of Hocking Hills State Park. First, you walk across the bridge you see in the photo, then follow a little path down to the bottom. Now, the "normal" thing to do here is (more) Snow Goose Taking Flight captured this image one sunny January evening at Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The snow geese were there in force, and this little pond had a lot of activity going on. The birds were coming and going, trying to decide where to stay for the night and I was just ... (more) Hidden Hoodoos We had just finished shooting some sunrise scenes at Bryce Canyon when my 9 year old son asked if we could hike down into the canyon and explore. Well, it didn't take much arm twisting to convince me! As we rounded a corner on the way down, we saw... (more) It can all be found here: http://www.backcountrygallery.com/wallpaper/ Enjoy! ~Steve

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