Rick's Daily Tips

Rick’s Daily Pick: PocBuds Bluetooth Earbuds with Real-Time Language Translation

Posted on September 12, 2026

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

My “Pick” for today is this pair of fantastic PocBuds Bluetooth Earbuds with Real-Time Language Translation.

These aren’t your ordinary, run-of-the-mill wireless earbuds. They also provide seamless two-way translations in 164 different languages, making them a must when visiting most any country where you don’t understand the language. These are an exceptional value for the money.

Click here to check out the PocBuds Bluetooth Earbuds with Real-Time Language Translation at Amazon.

Did you miss (or want to revisit) one of my earlier picks? You might find it right here.

Picture of the Day: “Bike (and a whole bunch of daisies)”

Posted on September 12, 2026

Today’s POTD features a bicycle sitting in the midst of a field of daisies. I hope you like it.

Have lots of treasured photos of your own that you’d love to display in your home but you have limited wall space? A digital picture frame (#ad) is an excellent solution. Check them out!

Enjoy these Pictures of the Day? Sign up for my free Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter and you’ll never miss one (or any of my tech tips either)!

Monthly Tech Giveaway – September 2026

Posted on July 31, 2026

Note: The links on this page are affiliate links.

September’s winner will receive a fantastic CyberPower 1500VA/1000W Sinewave UPS Battery Backup / Surge Protector.

This will keep your computer, modem and router online for a full hour after your power goes out, preventing a dangerous instant shutdown that could damage your computer gear and cause you to lose any unsaved data that’s currently in the machine’s RAM.

All subscribers to the Standard edition of my Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter have an equal chance to win.

Premium subscribers have two chances to win (their email addresses are added to the “pot” twice).

Not a subscriber? Just enter your email address in the sign-up form on this page.

Once subscribed you’ll be eligible to win each month’s drawing – starting with this month. Better yet, opt for a Premium subscription for double the chance to win!

The drawing for this month’s prize will be held on September 30 and the winner will be notified by email. The winner will be selected at random.

Good luck!

Q&A: Can a cell phone damage a credit card or key fob?

Posted on September 11, 2026

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Question from Cam: I’ve been wondering about the something and I’m hoping you can set me straight.

I always carry my credit cards, my debit card and the key ring with my car keys and key fob on it all in my purse right next to my cell phone.

My question is could the battery or any parts of the cellphone or the electric current in the phone (which I leave turned on) somehow damage the key fob or erase the data on my bank cards? [Read more…]

RollerMouse Red Review: Contour Rollermouse Red

Posted on September 11, 2026

Sit at a keyboard eight hours a day and something eventually starts to hurt. Maybe it’s the shoulder that stays cocked out to the side to reach the mouse. Maybe it’s a wrist that bends at an angle no physical therapist would ever recommend.

RollerMouse Red is built around a simple idea: move the pointing device from the side of the keyboard to directly in front of it and a lot of that daily strain just stops happening.

It’s made by Contour Design, a company that builds ergonomic input devices including the RollerMouse, UniMouse, SliderMouse and Balance Keyboard lines. RollerMouse Red is one entry in that lineup and it earned a Red Dot Design Award, a recognition given for product design across industries.

[Read more…]

How Indie game developers can plan music for different game scenes

Posted on September 11, 2026

Music in a game does more than fill silence—it dictates pacing, signals danger, and grounds the player’s emotional experience.

While AAA studios rely on massive audio teams to map these details across a multi-year project, indie developers must achieve the exact same cohesion with significantly fewer resources, often juggling coding, art, and marketing simultaneously.

To solve this, audio planning must happen long before individual tracks are generated. By building a strategic framework first, you can use an AI Music Agent to create a dynamic, interconnected soundtrack rather than a disjointed playlist of unrelated stock songs that break player immersion.

[Read more…]