Rick's Daily Tips

How to close all active apps on your Android phone at once

Posted on February 8, 2013

android-phone Smart phone users love their apps, and many of us have several apps running in the background at any given time. Occasionally a glitch with one of those active apps will cause the phone to freeze up and the only way to unfreeze it is to close the problem app.

But which app is the one that’s causing the problem? It’s often the one that you’re actually using at the time the freeze-up occurs, but not always.

The fastest way to clear up such a problem is to simply close all open apps at once, then reload them. Here’s how to quickly close all active apps: [Read more…]

Is this the handiest keyboard shortcut ever?

Posted on February 7, 2013

ctrl-z How many times have you been typing away on a lengthy report, email or blog post only to realize that you just accidentally committed a faux pas and erased half of your document?

When this happens you have to stop typing (losing your train of thought in the process) and click “Edit”, then “Undo” (assuming they are even available to you at the time). If you do a lot of writing this can really eat into your productivity and patience levels. [Read more…]

Dell to release $99 PC that you can carry in your pocket

Posted on February 6, 2013

dell-ophelia How would you like to pay just $99 for a very capable Dell PC that you can carry around in your pocket? Well, starting sometime around June 2013 you’ll be able to.

Although it hasn’t been given an official name yet, Dell is developing the device under the code name “Project Ophelia”.

It’ll look very similar to an over-sized USB thumb drive, run Google’s Android Jelly Bean operating system and plug directly into a monitor or TV (from which it will draw its power). A keyboard and mouse will connect via either USB or wirelessly via Bluetooth, your choice. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t my HP laptop turn on?

Posted on February 5, 2013

Question from Sean W.: I have an HP laptop running Windows Vista. Now all of a sudden it won’t turn on. When I press the power button some of the LEDs light up then go right back out and the system is dead. Do you think my computer is fried? Or maybe the power adaptor?

Rick’s answer: Sean, I don’t think anything is “fried”. I believe a hard reset to the machine will probably get you back up and running. Try this: [Read more…]

Q&A: Is there any way to retrieve the files from my old floppy disks?

Posted on February 4, 2013

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Anna G.: Hi Rick. I read your post the other day about playing old games on new computers and it reminded me that I have a ton of old 3.5″ floppy disks filled with stuff that I’d like to check out and possibly copy onto my hard disk.

The problem is my laptop doesn’t have a floppy disk drive. Any ideas?

Rick’s answer: You’re in luck Anna. All you need to do is buy an external USB 3.5″ floppy drive and plug it into your laptop’s USB port. You’ll be able to view the files on your floppy disks and copy them onto your PC’s hard drive, onto blank DVDs or even onto a USB thumb drive.

There are a couple of things to be aware of however: [Read more…]