A Bluetooth-Connected App to Solve Your Puzzle Cube?

What with Bluetooth this and Bluetooth that, have you ever thought about a Bluetooth-connected app to help with solving a puzzle cube? Last year, Santa dropped a non-smart, non-Bluetooth puzzle cube into everyone’s stocking. They were all different. Some were super easy, and others, like the triangle-shaped one, were diabolical! We had fun sharing them, but they are all so mixed up now. I don’t think that they will ever get solved again!

UPDATED: originally published on 5/26/2021. We sometimes post links to products where we may earn a small commission. This won’t change the price you pay, in fact, sometimes we know about additional discounts! As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

A little history:

The original puzzle cube was invented by Erno Rubik in 1974. It took him a month to solve it! Mr. Rubik is Hungarian and has degrees in Architecture and Design.

“Puzzles bring out important qualities in each of us: concentration, curiosity, a sense of play, the eagerness to discover a solution.”

You can read more in his book Cubed.

What’s interesting to me is that Rubik spawned a whole new puzzle industry. There’s a snake cube puzzle, a puzzle ring, even puzzle cubes with famous paintings!

Is there a Bluetooth-connected Puzzle Cube?

I’ve just found out that there are several STEM toys that keep your brain active with improved cognitive mapping skills, increase eye-hand agility, AND help you solve the cube. There are several. The most well-known are the Rubik’s Connected Cube, and the GoCube. They are both physical cubes that connect to your smartphone. They track your progress and help you learn how to solve the puzzle faster.

Want to see how the GoCube puzzle works?

The GoCube was introduced back in 2018 with a Kickstarter campaign. It was designed to help people learn how to solve the puzzle cube faster, and, more importantly, to learn where your logic is breaking down. Before long, you’re moving up to higher and higher levels. GoCube also has a community of other “cubers” worldwide. They’ll match you up with someone at your level to compete against. Awesome!

Here’s their original video from the Kickstarter:

You CAN do the Cube:

If you just want to learn how to solve a Rubik’s Cube fast, head over to Ruwix. Have you been wondering: how does a Rubik’s Cube work? Ruwix is dedicated to helping you learn the logic behind the madness. This site will even show you how to form the Rubik’s Cube White Cross and the yellow cross. I think if you keep at it, you’ll learn how to solve a Rubik’s cube in 20 moves or less too. Hashtag: #YouCanDoTheCube 

What I love about the GoCube:

  • I love that the GoCube lights up
  • I like that it can sense the position of each square exactly and help you “see” the position spatially. Then, it helps you solve it without making you feel like an idiot.
  • I love that it helps kids of all ages learn logic and spatial awareness.

What I don’t:

  • My only knock is that the GoCube seems a little expensive. Keep on the lookout for discounts. If GoCube has a Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal, I’ll update this post.

Conclusion: Should you get a connected Puzzle Cube?

These connected puzzle cubes are great STEM toys that help you learn at the same time. This would be a very cool gift for the holidays! You can purchase it directly from GoCube or Amazon. If you’re thinking about getting more than one, scroll down on the GoCube page for their BOGO deal. 
GoCube Puzzle Cube logo

 

 

 

 

 

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

I’ve created a free report to protect you from “phishing” scams. Click here to receive it!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has provided computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past eighteen years. He’s the geek for you! Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly.  You can find more on our website, or give us a call at 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

Here’s a link to our Covid19 Policy.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free and fast shipping.  With Prime, we have access to online streaming too. Prime is usually $119/year, but you can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

More Tech Tips:

  • Are VPNs worth it? More here.
  • Are you interested in learning more about Extreme Privacy?
  • We have seen a lot of Facebook hacking lately. Here’s what you should do ahead of time to keep your account safe.
  • And here are the 10 Password Mistakes you don’t want to make!
Tagged

My WiFi doesn’t work – What Can I Do?

I get frustrated sometimes when the WiFi signal on my computer at home won’t work. Sometimes this happens when I try to start working for the day. Other times it stops as I am using it.  One minute the WiFi works and the next minute the WiFi doesn’t work! Has that ever happened to you?  There are several reasons why this can occur:

  • The power went out
  • Your house experienced a power surge
  • Someone in your home is downloading massive amounts of data
  • Your computer took an update overnight, and you need to re-enable the WiFi connection

What you can do when your WiFi doesn’t work:secure wifi on vacation - wifi doesn't work

  • First, check your computer to verify that you have your internet turned on. I had a laptop that had a switch on the side to turn the internet on and off.  Sometimes I would flip that switch without even realizing it. (I chalk that one up to a design flaw!)
  • Next, who else in your house is using the Internet?  What are they doing? If they are downloading a huge file, ask them if they can stop and restart it later – like after midnight!
  • Turn your router and modem off and back on again.  Sometimes everything just needs a reset.
  • Then, you can check your phone or tablet.  Are they able to connect to the WiFi?  If not, you may need to call your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to report the problem.  They may be able to talk you through a fix on the phone, or they may need to schedule a service call.
  • Chris likes this Netgear router which lists for $220.  It’s currently available from Amazon for around $190.

Don’t be afraid to call your ISP for help.  If you feel like the service rep isn’t being helpful, hang up and call back to get a different person.

Please forward this to your Mom who calls you whenever her WiFi doesn’t work.

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

I’ve created a Free Report on what to look for to protect yourself from “phishing” scams. Click here to receive it!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past eighteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly.  You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free and fast shipping.  With Prime, we have access to online streaming too. Prime is usually $119/year, but you can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Link shorteners

In the last few days, we’ve had several questions about link shorteners.

  • Are short links safe to click?
  • If I use a URL shortener in my email, will people click on them?

We’ve all seen them. URL shorteners are used primarily on social media and email newsletters. These are URLs that start with bit.ly or TinyURL or Ow.ly.  Others which are less common include is.gd, adf.ly, and bit.do.

In general, people are of two minds about link shorteners aka URL shorteners:shortened links

  • People like them because you can create a short link that meets Twitter post length requirements and is easy to type in. For example, https://geekforhireinc.com/av/ becomes https://bit.ly/2yFErwj. People also like them for social media because then they can track the number of opens and clicks.
  • Or, people don’t like them because you can’t see where the link will take you, and what tracking information is included in the link until you’ve clicked on it.

I’m in the second camp, especially after a call from a customer the other day.

What happened:

She clicked on an email that was a scam.  Of course, she didn’t realize that until after she’d clicked on the link and downloaded the attachment!  She’s a Realtor, and the email supposedly came from a Title company.  It seemed perfectly reasonable to her that she would be getting an email with a PDF attachment from a Title company. The email looked real. It was convincing.  But when she had second thoughts and called the Title company, they hadn’t sent her an email that day. That’s when she called us. Chris remotely accessed her computer and took a look at the PDF file. He couldn’t see anything wrong with it except for a URL near the bottom that started with “bit.ly.” Luckily no one clicked on that link!

I go into a little more depth about shortened links and other things to watch for in my Free Report about Phishing scams.

But there are legitimate uses for link shorteners:

For example, another customer had heard bad things about bit.ly but needed a shorter link.  She was having a party and was sending printed invitations. She needed to include a link to a resource, but it was an exceptionally long link. We told her it would be fine to include a bit.ly link so that her friends didn’t have to type in 100+ characters.

I’ve recently heard about a URL shortener that allows you to use your own brand. If you’re a business, using a bit.ly or owl.ly link takes the attention away from your business. Rebrandly lets you use a custom URL so people know that they are going to your trusted site.

Recommendation:shortened link -why they're bad

If someone you know sends you an email or message on social media with a shortened link, contact them to ask them to send you the full link. If you don’t personally know and trust the person who posted it or sent it to you, don’t click on it!

Please forward this to your friends who click on any link!

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past eighteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly.  You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free and fast shipping.  With Prime, we have access to online streaming too. Prime is usually $119/year, but you can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Audio Books for Summer Reading

It’s summer.  Time to lay on the beach and read a book. OR, if your family is like my family, listen to audio books on a road trip!  There are options out there for listening if you know where to look. I wasn’t necessarily looking for free books, but that option kept coming up. It is important to me that any audio book I download be legally available.  I could, of course, go to sites where I can get anything and everything for free.  But if an audio book is for sale somewhere with royalties going to the author and other artists, it is important to me that they are all properly compensated.  (I’m getting off my soapbox now…)

Recommended:

AudioBooks.com:

Audio Books for summer reading
AudioBooks.com has an extensive selection

If you’re an Audible member and looking towards moving away from all-things-Amazon, AudioBooks.com seems like the best option.  After a free trial month, they’ll charge $15 a month which includes two audio books from their collection.  You choose one of those books from their entire selection; the other comes from their VIP list of 30+/- books which change every month.  What I like: Their book collection is extensive and had every book I searched for.  I have their app on my iPhone, and it is easy to use.

Librivox

Librivox provides free eBooks and Audio Books of many books that are already in the Public Domain. (In other words, they published the book so long ago that the copyright is no longer valid.)  These are mostly classic books that you probably were supposed to read in High School, but got the CliffNotes version instead and have regretted it ever since.  Librivox has a team of volunteers that record the books, which is how they can provide the Audio Books for free. When I did a quick search for Through The Looking Glass, I found that there were several versions.  Multiple people recorded some versions; others were read by just one person.  You should know that credit is given to Librivox at the beginning of each chapter.  Sometimes those credits are simple and relatively unintrusive.  Other times the credits were much longer.

Librivox takes a little bit of set up before you leave on your trip.  There’s no app, so it’s harder to set up on your smartphone.

Audible:

I had heard about the Audible app a long time ago but decided to sign up a few summers ago before a road trip.  Since then I’ve listened to audio books just about every time I’m in the car for more than a half-hour.   After a 30 day trial, Audible charges $15 per month. You get one book of your choice each month, plus you can pick two of six Audible Originals each month. (So you get a total of three books.) I’ve found that the “Originals” are hit and miss.  They are always books you’ve never heard of. Some have been amazing, and others are real duds.

I also like that you can get the Audible version of a book you are reading.  That way you can read the book when you’re at home, and listen when you’re in your car without missing a page!

Not Recommended:

Digital Book IO

Claim they have access to over 100,000 free audio and ebooks. (In case you’re wondering, “IO” indicates that they registered the website in the British Indian Ocean Territory.)  Some things I didn’t like include that the site took quite a long time to load, I wasn’t able to intuitively find what I was looking for, and it is closely associated with Amazon.  You’d probably be better off just going there to Amazon.

LoyalBooks

LoyalBooks has an extensive selection of free audiobooks from Librivox.  You can download them as an iTunes Podcast or as an mp3 file, or go directly to Librivox.

 

Please forward this to your friends with long commutes who love books.

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

I’ve created a Free Report on what to look for to protect yourself from “phishing” scams. Click here to receive it!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past eighteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly.  You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free and fast shipping.  With Prime, we have access to online streaming too. Prime is usually $119/year, but you can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

How to Use your iPhone’s Health App

It’s true.  You can now use your iPhone’s Health App (and equipment connected to your iPhone) to track many of your body’s functions.  For example you can track your heart rate, the Oxygen saturation in your bloodstream, or the number of steps you walk.  If you have the iWatch, it can also track how far you swim, how long you stand, and other activities.

How to Use Your iPhone's Health App with Sleep CycleActivity

The iPhone’s Health App will automatically track your steps, flights of stairs climbed, and how many miles you’ve walked, but you do need to always have your phone with you in order for the data to be accurate. If you synch your iWatch with your iPhone, you have access to additional data that is much more accurate.

Mindfulness

There are a number of apps that you can connect to your iPhone’s Health App to help you meditate and practice mindfulness.

  • Calm: Calm has a few options available for free.  Most of the meditations require a monthly, annual, or lifetime subscription.  Calm also has bedtime stories to calm you down and help you to get a more restful nights sleep. Calm is rated 5 stars with 1482 reviews.
  • 10% Happier – Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: 10% Happier also has a few meditations available for free, with an option to purchase a monthly or annual subscription.  It also has a meditation to help you wind down for sleeping.  10% Happier is rate 5 stars with 676 reviews.
  • Headspace: Guided Meditation: Like the other two apps, Headspace requires a paid subscription to gain access to most of the meditations.  It is rated 5 stars with 592 reviews.

Try them out and see which one works best for you.  You may find that you don’t even need to sign up for a paid subscription

Nutrition

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any great apps to track your food intake.  The iPhone’s Health app does allow you to manually enter data which is very easy to do.  If you take vitamin supplements, you can also enter the amount of Vitamin A, B, etc., that you are consuming. Don’t forget to drink lots of water every day!

Sleep

Getting a good nights sleep is very important to your overall health. And collecting sleep data is the first step in understanding how your productivity is impacted by your sleep.  I looked at several different sleep apps, but only Sleep Cycle seems like it will work well:

  • Sleep Cycle doesn’t require that you place the phone under your pillow.  Instead it uses the microphone on your iPhone to track your sleep sounds to determine when you are sleeping and how deeply.  It even records you when you snore!  Sleep Cycle is rated 5 stars with 1340 reviews

Have you learned more about tracking your health with your iPhone? If you found this helpful, please forward it!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fifteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet.  I’ll try that next!   Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission if you sign up.)

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I’m Addicted To My Phone!

Does anyone else wonder if they spend too much time on their phone?  Too much time using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites?  I know for me there have been times when I have picked up my phone to (gasp!) make a phone call.  After I enter my passcode, it opens to the last screen I had active.  If it is Facebook, I’ll check my notifications, completely forgetting about that call.  Does that ever happen to you?

Social Media Apps on your phone
        Social Media Apps on your phone

It turns out it is designed that way.  From this month’s Atlantic Magazine article “Tristan Harris believes Silicon Valley is Addicting Us To Our Phones”:

“Messages, photos, and “likes” appear on no set schedule, so we check for them compulsively, never sure when we’ll receive that dopamine-activating prize. (Delivering rewards at random has been proved to quickly and strongly reinforce behavior.)” 

Even I remember that from my Freshman Year Psych class!

And who even knew there is an “Information Overload Day”, let alone an Information Overload Research Group?  They state that:

“Information Overload causes people to lose their ability to manage thoughts and ideas, contemplate, and even reason and think.  It has resulted in work days that never seem to end, completely destroying work/life balance.”

Tips:

What can you do to help yourself be more present and not focus so much on your phone and social media?

  1. Set up a schedule for using your phone to check email and social media.  Set a timer to limit your time to ten or twenty minutes.  Keep your phone turned off otherwise, except when you are expecting a call.
  2. Change your notifications so that you don’t receive an alert whenever you receive a new email, or Facebook message, or when someone has liked your Tweet.  (With my iPhone I receive an alert whenever I get a new email to my business account.  I’ve set it up so that I do not receive alerts for new personal emails.)
  3. Remove some (or all) Social Media apps from your phone and only access them from your computer.
  4. Ask everyone to put their phones in the center of the table during meals.
  5. Charge your phone at night in a different room, not right next to your bed.

I hope these tips are helpful!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website.  Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet, but I’m tempted!   Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

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Tagged

3 Tips to Creating a Secure & Strong Password

Last week, I wrote about the DDoS attack which occurred on October 21st.  That attack shut down many websites and apps, especially for users on the East Coast.  I recommended that you use a very secure and strong password. Please don’t use one of these most common passwords!

Use a Strong Password! Not these Common Passwords Source: http://i.imgur.com/FImcPiG.png
The Most Common Passwords
Source: http://i.imgur.com/FImcPiG.png

How to create a Strong Password:

It occurred to me that you may need some guidance to create a really secure and strong password. Here are some tips:

  1. First, the more characters in your password, the more secure it will be. According to mSecure, a four-character password can be cracked in under a minute, while an eight-character password can be cracked in five months.  A nine-character password can take up to 10 years to crack.  Notice I said “up to”.  Just using lots of characters doesn’t work if the password is easy to guess.  That’s why you also need:
  2. Next, think Complexity. Using a eight-character password like “password”, “Password”, or even “PasswØrd”, is too easy to guess.  Even a nine-character password like “password1” is relatively easy to crack.  The same goes for “Admin”, “administrator”, and “12345678”. These are common passwords that a lot of people use.  In order to make a password more complex, add symbols, capital letters, and numbers.  Using symbols or numbers in exchange for letters makes the password easier to remember.  For example swap out your “o” for an “Ø”, your “a” for “@”, or your “e” for a “3”.  You can even use a password generator like passwordsgenerator.net to generate a truly unique password.  I like this one because I can set the number of characters and whether or not I can use special characters like @#%& for a particular website.  Above all, when you go to enter your log in credentials:
  3. Finally, you must remember that very strong password!  Some ideas include a favorite book, your best friend’s name from second grade, or your grandparent’s street address. Just remember to add some additional complexity to make it even more secure.  For example, “Newport” can become “517Newport”, “NewpØrt”, or “Newport100”.  If you must write down your passwords, keep it in a secure place.  I use a password protected spreadsheet.

Please make it a point to use a secure and strong password on all of your internet connected devices.  Change it today!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website.  Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet, but I’m tempted!   Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

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Olympics!

Will you be following the Olympics?  More and more people I know don’t have cable or satellite TV service anymore and are wondering how to keep up. Here are some suggestions:

2016 olympic logo

  • If you do still have a TV with an antenna, tune your set to NBC.  If you are near a large city that still broadcasts, you should be able to pick it up.  (Unless you’re in Colorado’s Foothills!)
  • Your second option is to view it via NBC’s live stream:  Note that I had to reload the page a few times before it would start playing.  I’m guessing their servers are busy!
  • You can also try Sling.com.  They have a one week free trial.  Remember to cancel before the free trial ends though, or get ready to pay $25 per month.
  • You can also download the Olympic app on your phone:  Note that it’s not very intuitive and takes a while to figure out how to navigate it.  If you’re just looking for results, though, this is a good place to start.You can also get information about the upcoming Olympics in PyeongChang, Tokyo, and Beijing.

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website.  Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet, but I’m tempted!   Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

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5 Good Things to Know about Pokemon Go

Have you downloaded the new Pokemon Go App yet?  Are you playing it?  It seems to be taking the nation by storm! You can find out all about it at the Pokemon website: http://www.pokemongo.com and you can download it from the iTunes store or, for the Android from Google Play.

If you are playing, make sure you appropriately manage your security settings. (In fact you should always be careful with how much you share from your phone with game developers.)

pokemon_go_logo

Pokemon sure has been getting some bad press though. Consider some of these stories:

  • Veteran Memorial overrun by Pokemon players
  • Pokemon Go players go mad.
  • Falling, tripping, and other mishaps.

The Good News:

But it’s not all bad news.  There have been several good things to come out of this new craze.  For example, people with anxiety, autism and Asperger’s are finding the Pokemon Go helps them get out and be more social.  According to this article in Inverse:

 “… the game is reportedly helping people overcome anxiety and other mental health issues, bringing an array of players together under one common passion. Such has been the case for a few parents of autistic children, who have been sharing stories about the game easing their children into incredible social interactions.”

 Pokemon has helped people find things:

According to one story, two women found a toddler: “Looking for new Pokemon Friday night, as they’d done before, the two stumbled upon a little girl who looked to be no older than 2, crossing a busy street by herself.”

 Another teen found a missing man who had recently died.

Businesses have realized they can use Pokemon to their advantage.  In fact, this Forbes article is full of ideas that businesses can use to lure in more Pokemon players – and potential buyers!

“Instead, take a cue from this local indie clothing store, which got into the spirit of the game by saying, “come get your PokéBalls and previously rocked threads. Gotta catch ‘em all in style!” That’s bound to leave a positive impression, get people talking and, with the overwhelming media attention this game is getting, potentially get your local business some exposure in the press.”

And players are accidentally getting more exercise!  One friend posted this on her Facebook a few days ago:

“I’ve walked 26 miles this week playing Pokemon GO. This is the weight loss plan I’ve been waiting for my entire life.”

In fact there’s even a guide for people who want to do interval training!

“Interval training … is a workout where you push yourself as hard as you can in short bursts, rest, then repeat. … This kind of stop and go activity is perfectly suited for the walk-and-stop play of Pokémon Go, and knowing that you get to play while you exercise can be a huge motivator. You’ll collect items at PokéStops (like eggs that only hatch if you walk or run), hatch said eggs with the massive number of steps you rack up, wear down rival gyms so you can take over, find wild pokémon to catch, and get fit all at the same time.”

Is it all just a mad scheme?  How long do you thing this craze will last?

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website.  Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet, but I’m tempted!   Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial (Yes, we’ll get a small commission when you sign up.)

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12 Smartphone Apps

There are some great applications out there for your smartphone – and a lot of them are free to download and use.  No matter who your carrier is, or which phone you have, you can find apps that appeal to your interests.  Here are some that I use, or that have been recommended to me.  I’ve also included the links so you can add them to your smartphone!

Any.Do – Organizing your life – Apple/ iTunes   or Android

Cocktail Flow – because not everyone still has a copy of Mr. Boston De Luxe Official Bartender’s Guide in their liquor cabinet – Apple/ iTunes   or Android

Dropbox – connect all of your devices (laptop, tablet, phone) and access all of your files in one place!  (Did you remember to backup your data today?  Dropbox does it for you.) – Apple/ iTunes   or Android

FxGuru – add special effects to your boring home video – Apple/ iTunes   or Android

Google Translate – This app translates text, symbols, and speech! – Apple/ iTunes   or Android

IMDb – Best place to find out what your favorite actor/director/producer is working on this year – Apple/ iTunes  or  Android

NASA – lots of archives, links, pictures, and video – Apple/ iTunes   or Android

Peppa’s Paintbox – because you’re still a kid at heart – Apple/ iTunes or Android

Shazam – you’re listening to a tune, but can’t remember the title?  Shazam it!  – Apple/ iTunes  or  Android

SwiftKey Keyboard – “super-accurate autocorrect and intelligent next-word prediction”.  I’d like some of that!  – Apple/ iTunes  or  Android

Twickets – lets you buy and sell extra tickets at (or below) face value.  Scalpers go elsewhere! – Apple/ iTunes   or Android

Weather Underground – one of the best weather apps out there – Apple/ iTunes  or  Android

Which apps are your favorites?  Let us know in the comments below!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more at www.GeekForHireInc.com. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides (Tier 3) onsite service to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.