How to download a PDF to your Kindle

Posted on July 11, 2017August 2, 2017 by Gail Eddy in iPad, iPhone, Tips

Wondering how to download a PDF to your Kindle? I have an ancient, first edition Kindle. My brother gave it to me years ago and I have had endless hours of reading pleasure with it. As technology has changed and Kindles have gotten better, I’ve stuck with my original version, primarily because I’ve downloaded the Kindle app onto my iPhone and iPad. Once you log in to your Amazon account, you’ve got access to everything in your Kindle library!

I love real books; the smell of a book that’s been on the shelf for a year and I’m re-reading for the fourth time, the feel of them in my hands, the weight on my chest when I’ve fallen asleep reading, and the cool bookmarks I find and use. But there’s something very convenient about the Kindle. I can carry a couple of tomes on a trip without the additional storage issues.

Another thing I like about the Kindle is that I frequently see free PDFs available to download. Sure it’s nice to have a free book, but if I didn’t have an easy way to read it, I’d pass. It took a while, but I’ve finally figured out how to download a PDF to my Kindle account and can read them there.

(FYI, Hay House frequently has Books from top authors available for free to download a PDF. You do have to sign up for their newsletter, and the free books are only available for a short time. You can also do a search for free books to download to find more.)

Email to Download a PDF:

To upload one of those PDFs to your Kindle account, you’ll need to know your Kindle email. That’s usually easy to find. Log onto your Amazon account, look under your devices, and you should see your Kindle email there. In my case, my Kindle email is my login id followed by “@kindle.com”
Once you know your Kindle address, you can email those PDF’s to that Kindle address. Then when you open your Kindle or Kindle app the next time, you’ll be able to read the book!
Know that Amazon does have a small charge for this service. The last time I uploaded four good size books, I was charged $0.90 for all four.

Transfer to Download a PDF:

You can also transfer the PDF file to your Kindle. You would do this by connecting your Kindle to your computer with the Kindle USB charging cable.
Once the Kindle is connected, locate the Kindle folder using “Finder” or under “Computer”. It might show up as an external memory or hard drive.
Once you know where the Kindle folder is, head over to where you have saved the PDF. I always save mine in the “My eBooks” folder. Highlight the file and copy. Head back to the Kindle folder and paste the file in the Kindle folder under “Documents”.
Once the file is copied onto the Kindle, you’ll be able to access it on your Kindle or on the Kindle app from your Smartphone or Tablet. Remember to click the button to safely disconnect the Kindle!

Now all you have to do is find a quiet time to sit down with your new book!

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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How to break your Smartphone addiction

Posted on June 13, 2017October 23, 2020 by Gail Eddy in iPhone, Technology Tips

I’ve read several articles recently about how hard it is to break your Smartphone addiction. Not to worry, it’s not your fault. The apps on the phones are programming you to:

Never.

Put.

Your.

Phone.

Down!

Take a look at some of these recent headlines:

When I started looking into this, I got a little freaked out. Technology companies really are trying to get us to interact more with their apps. They really are enabling our smartphone addiction. The more we interact with various applications, the more advertisements we’ll see, and that is the whole point. As Ramsey Brown, founder of Dopamine Labs says:

“You don’t pay for Facebook. Advertisers pay for Facebook. You get to use it for free because your eyeballs are what’s being sold.”

Mr. Brown’s tool, the dopamine api, allows any app to become addictive. Brown explains:

“The premise is really straightforward… people don’t just love that burst of dopamine they get from a notification, it changes the wiring of the brain.”

The whole premise is rather ingenious, and pernicious. It very slowly pulls you in, all the while giving you those dopamine hits. When you don’t get that hit, you start feeling anxious and reach for your phone. It’s hard to break your smartphone addiction.

If you’re looking for more background, Anderson Cooper did an in depth report on smartphone addiction. In the meantime:

What can you do to break your Smartphone Addiction?

Be very conscious each time you pick up your Smartphone. What is the specific thing you want to accomplish? I can’t tell you the number of times I have picked up my phone to make a call or look up a quick fact. Unfortunately, when I unlocked the screen, Facebook was already on. I then spent 15 or 20 minutes scrolling through my Facebook feed before remembering what I needed to do.
Close any apps before you put down your phone. That way, when you turn it on again, you’ll be presented with your home screen and won’t get distracted. (See #1 above.)
Keep your charging cord away from your bedside for overnight charging. And, whatever you do, don’t get a Mophie Charging Base. That one little device has made it so much easier for me to grab my phone in the middle of the night to check email (or Facebook!), then place it back on the pad to keep charging without having to fuss with cords.
Pledge to use only your computer to check social media, and to use your Smartphone for email and phone calls.
Get a “dumb phone” for everyday use, and only use your Smartphone when you’re traveling. (This article talks about a dumb phone that can make this process more seamless.)

If these tips are helpful, please pass them on!

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Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

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. 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.

This article was cross posted on Medium.

How to add an icon to your iPhone home screen

Posted on May 9, 2017June 10, 2017 by Gail Eddy in iPhone, Technology Tips

I’ve had an iPhone for a long time and love the convenience of having a mini-computer at the ready. I remember how thrilled I was when I found a way to access websites I went to all the time with just one touch. Adding an icon to your iPhone is the key.

I know from personal experience that having a Smartphone that is efficient can really make life easier. And it is not as hard to set up as you might think. One thing that can help you a lot is to create an icon so that favorite websites are only one click away. When you add a new app to your Smartphone, it will automatically add the new icon to your iPhone screen. But there are some places you go to on the internet that haven’t created an app yet. If you’d like to get there quickly, it’s easy to add that website as an icon to your iPhone screen.

The first thing you need to do, is to enter the url (the web address) into Safari (or whichever browser you are using).
Once the page loads completely, swipe the page down with your finger until the navigation menu appears on the bottom.
Click the center icon – it looks like a box with an arrow pointing up.
Then, slide the bottom row of icons to the left and click on the icon which says “Add to Home Screen”. Only about 10 characters will show on your screen to indicate the website. I’d advise editing the title so that it is under 10 characters.

Keep your eyes peeled for more hints on optimizing your iPhone!

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Ducking iPhone! How to change your auto-correct settings

Posted on April 25, 2017May 30, 2017 by Gail Eddy in iPhone, Tips

My friends and I joke about the auto-correct feature on our Smartphones. (We call it “auto-cucumber”.) I don’t use the “F” word often, but when I do, I never mean to type “ducking”! Then there are the times when you have to type in your email over and over again, and you wish your iPhone could just remember it. And, there are words that you ALWAYS misspell. How many times have I typed in “Boukder”, and had to go back and change that “k” to an “l”?!

This is easy to fix!

First, click on “Settings”, then click on “General”, scroll down to “Keyboard”, and finally, click on “Text Replacement”.

Once you’re there, check over the existing auto-correct list that the iPhone may have already created for you. Do they all make sense? Delete the ones that you don’t want to keep by swiping the word to the left.

Now it’s time to add your customized auto-correct words and phrases!

Click on the plus sign in the upper right corner to add new words and shortcuts. In the “Phrase” field, type in what you want to appear on your screen. In the “Shortcut” field, type in the shortcut. Some suggestions:

Type in the first few letters of people in your family as a shortcut
Type in a common misspelling and it’s correction
Add your email address
I added the shortcut “ty” for “Thank you!”
I added the shortcut “omw” for “On My Way!”
And “GFH” becomes “Geek For Hire, Inc.”

Think about the words and phrases you commonly use on your iPhone and add them to your Auto-correct.

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iPhone 6 Touch Disease

Posted on August 23, 2016September 8, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Apple, Data Backup, iPhone

Have you heard about the newest malady to affect the iPhone 6 and 6+? It is something dubbed the “Touch Disease”, which affects the touchscreen of your iPhone. You’ll notice a flickering grey bar and then your touchscreen will stop working. This has primarily been impacting iPhones which are almost two years old.

This issue was reported by iFixIt on August 23rd in a blog post. They did provide an image of the flickering grey bar at the top of the phone:

Gizmodo thinks the problem appears to be a part of the “Bendgate” issue:

“The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus flex more than other phones, which causes all of their guts flex too. The soldering beads connecting the chips to the logic board can’t handle the long-term repetitive stress of your back pocket”

Engadget reports that:

“Weirdly enough, replacing the screen isn’t a proper fix. The gray bar will creep onto a new screen even when it’s been swapped out because that’s not where the problem resides. It’s a problem with the Touch IC chips inside the phone, which separate from the logic board in a manner similar to the one that some claimed caused Microsoft’s Xbox 360 red-ring of death. They must be replaced for the problem to completely go away, and Apple’s in-store Geniuses are not equipped to do that kind of soldering work. Hence, the quandary. In a YouTube video cited by iFixit, repair specialist Louis Rossmann predicts that this “touch disease” malady could turn into a class action lawsuit if enough customers make a stink. “

MacRumors assures us that:

“The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are not affected by the same issue as Apple strengthened the body and changed the position of the Touch IC chips in those devices.”

Bottom line? If your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus is still under warranty and you start to experience any of these issues, take it in right away for replacement. If it’s not, try not to store it in your back pocket or any place where it could flex easily. Also, learn how to use Siri to open apps and to use its voice-to-text functionality. This may help tide you over until you can replace your phone or get the innards soldered properly. Here’s a link to my blog on Top 10 Ways to use Siri.

And, I hope it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway! Make sure you keep your iPhone backed up!

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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Wearables

Posted on July 5, 2016September 8, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Apple, Facebook, iPhone, SmartPhones

I ambled down the rabbit hole and stumbled across this old PC Magazine article from 2008. In the article, they look at futuristic devices introduced in movies and show how those ideas have come to fruition in 2008.

There’s the transformer cell phone. Watch the Youtube here.
There’s the hoverboard and another Youtube.
And there’s this poor substitute for the universal translator/ babel fish and its cringe-worthy video.

The only gadget from the movies that has really taken off is the wrist watch communicator. In just the past few years watches that alert you to phone calls and texts, track your steps and heart rate, and allow you to search the Internet, have evolved into wearables worth the investment.

Here’s my Fitbit telling me that Chris is calling:

Aside from the FitBit and the Apple Watch, other wearable gadgets available today include:

Thync: The first wearable for relaxation and energy The Thync works by signaling nerves on the head and neck to act on the brain’s adrenaline system. These nerves then activate your body’s natural state of Energy or Calm.

Then there are Blacksocks Plus. These are truly wearables with a twist! From their website:

Imagine your phone could communicate with your socks. Your phone would know:

which socks belong together,and could help sort them out,
how often you have washed your socks,
when your socks were produced,
when you ordered your socks and
when your socks were dispatched.

Your iPhone can also tell you if your black socks are no longer properly black and help you buy new socks.

If only they could tell you if it was the washer or dryer that stole one of your socks!

Coming out later this year are Jewelbots. This adorable bracelet is aimed at teaching young girls to code. The gender gap among boys and girls in science and engineering classes continues to widen, and the number of technical jobs continue to increase. Getting our girls interested in the sciences at a young age, and keeping their interest through high school and college is so important! Jewelbots is a just one step on this path. For more info on this issue, check out Girls Who Code.

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iCloud – Valued Apple Feature or not?

Posted on June 21, 2016September 4, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Apple, Cloud, Data Backup, iCloud, iMac, iPad, iPhone

iCloud

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about Apple’s iCloud recently. iCloud is something many of us have been using for years. But are you sure how to best take advantage of it?

If you have multiple devices – an iPhone, iPad, and iMac, for example, you can listen to your music whether you’re at home, a coffee shop, in your car, or on a trip.

If you don’t have an Apple computer, you can still access some of the iCloud features from your Windows computer. Head over to www.iCloud.com and sign in with your user ID and password. Some of the features available at the website include Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Photos. Access to your music is not available here.

The “Find My iPhone” feature is available at the iCloud website. Take a minute now to sign in. Navigate around the site briefly, but especially take a look at the “Find my iPhone” feature so that if you do lose your phone, you’ll know how to use it. (Make sure any folks in your family who are challenged in the area of knowing where their possessions are, have this feature turned on!)

When you sign in to the iCloud, your user ID is probably your email. If you’ve forgotten your password, it’s relatively easy to reset it. Remember that the password for your iCloud account is different from the security passcode you may have set up to access your iPhone or your iPad. If you have set them up to be the same, please change one of them now!

Another feature I’ve just learned about on the iCloud is the ability to share photos with other people. When you click on the “Photos” icon, your pictures appear. At the bottom of the screen there are three buttons – Photos, Share, and Albums. Your Photos shows all the pictures you’ve taken from a given point in time organized by date. Albums arrange your photos by different categories like Selfies, Panoramas, Videos, and Screenshots.

To share photos, click on “New Shared Album”. Give it a title, and select who to share it with by entering their emails. Once the structure is set up, you can then add photos to the album.

If you need help setting up your iCloud properly, check out Apple’s Help pages or the Genius Bar at the Apple store.

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Backing Up Your Data and The Cloud

Posted on May 31, 2016March 23, 2018 by Gail Eddy in backup, Cloud, Data Backup, Dropbox, Hard Drive, iPad, iPhone

It’s time again for my reminder about backing up your data! For many people, when you travel, your laptop could get banged up at the airport or in the camper. For others, summer is the season for extreme weather. It could be fires or floods or tornadoes or hurricanes, but there is always the chance that your home could be damaged, and your computer as well.

That’s why it is so important to make sure your data back up is current. The most convenient way to keep your data backed up is to use one of the Cloud backup services. I’ve had many people ask what “the Cloud” is and how it might affect them. The Cloud is a term used to describe using another company’s servers to store your data or to provide off-site computing.

Here’s a better definition from wiki:

Cloud computing, also known as on-the-line computing, is a kind of Internet-based computing that provides shared processing resources and data to computers and other devices on demand. It is a model for enabling ubiquitous, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services), which can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort. Cloud computing and storage solutions provide users and enterprises with various capabilities to store and process their data in third-party data centers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

There are a many companies that provide cloud storage. I’ve been using Dropbox for a number of years and like the simplicity of it. (Disclaimer: if you use that link to sign up for backing up your data, you’ll get 500 mb for free, and I’ll receive 1g as a thank you from Dropbox.) https://db.tt/0ZRkMXZ

I like Dropbox for a number of reasons:

It will automatically upload a file to the cloud every time I make a change to it.
I’ve set it up so that it uploads photos I take on my phone to my account.
I can open files on my iPhone and iPad when I’m away from my computer.
Dropbox stores data for several weeks. If I get a bad virus, I can ask them to restore my data to a particular date.

All of this enthusiasm about cloud storage for backups aside, it’s also important to keep a physical copy of your data. About once a month, I backup my data to an external hard drive. Chris has set me up with the Seagate Backup 2TB Portable External Hard Drive which is convenient and easy to use.

If you need help backing up your data, let us know!

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Q&A with Chris Eddy (iMac’s, PDF’s and Windows 10)

Posted on May 10, 2016May 18, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Apple, iMac, iPhone, Microsoft, PDF, Smartphone Apps, Tips, Win10

Question:

I’m currently running window 7 professional on my work laptop. Windows 10 want to upgrade computer software. I have office 2003 and ms project software 2010 and I’m wondering if windows 10 compatible with these programs? Also since I’ve been rejecting windows 10 computer seems to constantly upgrade software (daily) and is running slow. Any way that not upgrading to 10 can be causing this?

Answer:

I think you should decline the W10 upgrade because W7 works fine for you, I don’t think that W10 has enough new and different and better stuff that you should run right out now (metaphorically) and get it. Also, I’m seeing occasional strangeness with W10 becoming unresponsive or very disk intensive for long periods of time, and have seen occasional filesystem corruption after things like a graceless shutdown which causes the machine to require serious startup repair (not the automated one), but W7 would have recovered from that in stride.

Question:

An associate recommended PDFMerge as a great program to take individual pdf pages and be able to combine them into a document. I went to the website www.pdfmerge.com and downloaded it. …. Well now every pdf on my laptop is a soda pdf. This was not what I intended – will this cause me problems since they are no longer adobe pdf’s? Should I have you change it all back? Worried about this change. Recommendations?

Answer:

This is an easy thing to change. Go to the file using Windows Explorer, right click on the file name, go down to “Open With”, select the Adobe Acrobat Reader program, and make sure you put a check in the box to use this program for this file type in the future.

Question:

Do you have an opinion on the iMac all in one? The 21.5 ” most suitable for my space and I’d like to connect it to a TV and be able to watch TV at same time as using computer – is that possible or a pipe dream?

Answer:

In general, I like the iMac. And, in a nutshell, yes. But you’ll need an “Apple TV” device, which is a white hockey puck sized thing that connects to the house network and to the TV. More here: http://store.apple.com/us/question/answers/appletv/can-i-use-apple-tv-to-mirror-my-imac-on-my-tv/QCFJP9Y472HAJP9YP

Do you have a quick question about your Mac or PC? Send us an email to support@geekforhireinc.com

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 http://www.GeekForHireInc.com Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area.

Windows 10 – Once more

Posted on May 3, 2016April 25, 2016 by Gail Eddy in Apple, iPhone, Microsoft, Smartphone Apps

It’s almost like it’s Groundhog Day. Again. (The movie, not the holiday.) Yes, we are still getting calls from customers who have upgraded to Windows 10 and immediately began to experience issues with their machine.

What are some of the issues? Here’s a sampling of some of the questions we’ve received:

I can’t find any of my files! They all seem to have disappeared!
I can find my files, but my computer won’t let me open any of them
My applications don’t seem to work properly anymore
My computer can’t find my printer, or the network
I’ve got the dreaded black screen (or blue screen)
My computer won’t boot

The problems go on and on. I am guessing that there are plenty of times that someone upgrades to Windows 10 with zero problems. Those are not the people who call us!

We still have the same advice that we did in February: https://geekforhireinc.com/windows-10-update/

If you have a Windows 7 machine, don’t upgrade unless you have a serious business need.
If you have a Windows 8 or 8.1 machine, you should be okay to upgrade, although you may still experience some issues
If you have a Windows XP or earlier machine, don’t (DO NOT!) upgrade. Consider purchasing a new machine with Windows 8 or 10 already installed.

If you’re planning to upgrade do this first:

Back up your data. Use an external Hard Drive if you have one, or upload to the Cloud
Make sure you have a list of all the programs and applications that you use.
Make sure you know what all of your passwords are, especially if you have asked your computer to remember them for you.
Make sure you know what your WiFi Router password is.

Please let us know if you experience any issues with your upgrade. Call with any questions!

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 http://www.GeekForHireInc.com Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area.