Category: Tech Tools

Enable Speech on iPad or iPhone to Hear Text

by Greg Johnson, posted in Audio, Tech Tips, Tech Tools, Uncategorized

When you turn on the Siri text to speech feature, it’s possible to listen to web pages, emails, text messages, and other text. This is a huge time saver and lets you go about your work with hands and eyes free as you listen.

To enable speech on an Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Tap on Accessibility
  3. Tap on Speech
  4. Turn on Speak Selection by moving the slide button to the right until it has a green indicator.
  5. Tap on Voices
  6. Tap on English (or your language of choice)
  7. Select a voice to use. The enhanced voices will sound much more natural and may be easier to understand. These require a download.
  8. Once you’re done with the above steps, you can select text in any app on the device, and once the text is selected you’ll see an option to Speak. However, don’t exit the Voices selection yet.
  9. You will want to try out a few of the enhanced voices to see which you prefer. To do so, press the Home key twice to switch to another app. Or, press it once to go to the home screen and start an app such as email or Safari to browse the web. Now you can press home twice to toggle between the two screens — the app you want to read from and the Voices selection screen.
  10. Change to a voice and then switch back to the app to select text and choose Speak. Each time you’ll hear the voice you’ve just selected in settings.
  11. You will also want to adjust the speed of speech to see what speed is best for you. This is found under General > Accessibility > Speech. The Speaking Rate is illustrated by a turtle or a rabbit. When you adjust the speed, the default voice will read a sample. To hear how your selected voice (from step #9) sounds with the speed setting, you can go to a document as described in step #9 above.

Fitbit Aria Weight Data Export Download

by Greg Johnson, posted in Tech Tools

Summary

The Fitbit Aria scale automatically uploads your daily weight and percent body fat measurements to the cloud. This data is available when logged into the Fitbit website.

You can see charts of your progress, and a list of the 10 most recent weigh-ins. Your comprehensive data can be downloaded as an Excel workbook here https://www.fitbit.com/export/user/data

Download Feature Missing Data

If you use the download feature, the resulting download is limited. For example, the time of your weigh ins will be missing, and if you’ve been tracking your high and low weight for the day, that information will be lost. Only one weight per day is provided in the download. Another example of missing data is with sleep tracking. The download doesn’t include when you went to bed and when you woke up.

On the Fitbit data download page, you’ll find this statement: “Your data belongs to you.” It’s great that they make some provision for getting data out of their site. However, it’s odd that they wouldn’t just allow the download of all the data including the details that are actually there.

How to Get Your Detailed Weigh-in Data

To get your detailed weight data, including the time of weigh-in and multiple measurements per day, follow these steps:

  1. Login to the Fitbit website.
  2. Go to this page https://www.fitbit.com/weight
  3. Scroll down to see Measurement History.
  4. Click the Load 10 more option.
  5. Keep clicking the button to reveal as much data as you’d like. Unfortunately, if you’ve been using Fitbit for years and only just recently decided you’d like your detailed data, you’ll need to click the Load 10 more button a lot of times to see all your data.
  6. Once you’ve revealed as much as you want, highlight all the values and then copy them (using CTRL+C or the right mouse click menu).
  7. Paste this information into Notepad (on Windows) or TextEdit (on Mac).
  8. Select all the text and then copy and paste it into Microsoft Word. Putting the text into Notepad or TextEdit first helps to remove the formatting from the text. This can also be done within Word, but people may find it easier to use these intermediary programs instead.
  9. Use the Replace function in Word (found under Edit > Find in some versions) to make the following replacements:
    1. Replace the days of the week with nothing. Be sure to include the comma and space. This will help cleanup the date information so it can be recognized by Excel. So, as an example, replace “Sunday, ” with nothing. Do this for all days of the week.
    2. Replace the word ” at ” including the spaces around it with the year for the exported data. This will make the data information complete and recognizable by Excel later.
    3. Replace “Delete Measurement” with “^t” which is the symbol for a tab. This will put a tab between the date  and the weight measurement that follows.
    4. Replace ” kg ” with “^t” to insert a tab separator there. Or, if you used pounds then replace ” lb ” with a tab.
    5. Replace “% fat” with nothing. This will remove the % symbol and the word fat.
    6. If you had some weight measurements that didn’t include the percent body fat, then your previous replacement of ” kg ” would not have replaced the kg where there was no space after kg. So, replace ” kg” with nothing to ensure it’s gone. This needs to be done last because for the other entries, a tab needs to be inserted.
  10. At this point, you should be left with a clean listing of entries for your weigh-ins. Copy and paste this into Excel.
  11. Excel should automatically place the data in separate columns.
  12. Now you have your detailed weigh-in data.

 

DIY Data Recovery for Crashed Drives

by Greg Johnson, posted in Tech Tips, Tech Tools, Uncategorized

At Iowa City Data Recovery, one of our service groups, we get a lot of support requests from people who describe their drives as crashed.

Sometimes the failures are mechanical, but often the drive is just not starting up because the operating system or file structure is corrupted.

In these cases, it’s fairly easy for someone to get their files back by following these steps.

Decide Your Approach

If you have a relatively new and fast computer, you may want to be careful during this process so you can reassemble everything later. You’ll need your recovery software to reinstall everything.

This process works best if you just purchase a new drive for the computer. You may want to purchase a new SSD (solid state drive) for your computer. This will help it run faster, and you can save your defective drive just in case there are files on it that you don’t want to accidentally erase.

If the computer is older, you may want to just purchase a new computer, and continue with the steps below.

If you have a second, working computer, then you can continue with the steps below, and once you’re sure you have all the files, and if you think the drive isn’t mechanically damaged, you can consider reusing it after you’ve recovered your files — but reusing it will erase the data on the old drive so be careful, or just get a new drive.

Recovery Process Overview

Once you remove your drive (discussed below) and connect it to a working computer using a dock or adapter (described below), you’ll attempt to read your files from the drive. If the operating system was Windows 7 or later, then you probably have a folder in the Users directory/folder. You’ll want to check all user folders since you may have used other logins.

If the drive isn’t immediately readable, you may be able to use data recovery software to access the files. Or, you might try using a friend’s Apple computer to read the drive — since file corruption that stymies Windows computers might not be a problem for Apple.

Additional supporting information is found below.

 

Remove the Drive

For most people this is the hardest part, and it’s important to do this properly so as to not damage your computer or drive. Be sure to use the right tools.

  • Desktop. In general, with desktop computers, you’ll most likely need a phillips screwdriver, but some systems don’t require tools. Be sure to take pictures of how everything is connected, and label cables. Also, be sure to unplug the computer before beginning. Then, as you’re working, keep a hand or rest your bare arm on the metal case so any static is neutralized.
  • Laptop. Some newer laptops have non-removable solid-state drives (SSD technology). You may want to search YouTube for instructions that are for your model computer. Some Dell computers have only one or two screws that are removed, then the drive slides out. Other computers may require that the bottom of the computer be removed. If you’r not careful, you could take things apart and not be able to assemble later.

 

Get an External USB Drive Adapter

With a USB drive adapter you can connect your drive and hopefully read it on another working computer. If it has a virus  you’ll want to make sure that doesn’t spread to the working computer. You could also use a new drive to reassemble your old computer, and then once it’s working, use the USB adapter to get your files back — therefor not needing a second computer. Below is information on the various options for connecting an internal drive by USB.

External Drive Docks and Adapter Kits

There are two general types of systems for connecting an internal drive externally.

 

Drive Dock

The drive docks these days are usually for SATA drives that just plug into the dock. You’ll probably want one with the faster USB 3 standard. [Details]
20151129su0834-inateck-drive-dock-usb3-clone-function-duplicator

 

Drive Adapter Cable

The drive adapter cables take up a little less room. Some are dedicated to SATA drive connections like the one shown below. [Details]
20151129su0840-startech-sata-adapter-usb3-cable
Other adapter kits can accommodate older style drive connectors such as the kit shown below. [Details] This kit can handle 2.5″ and 3.5″ IDE as well as ESATA drives. [Buy]
20151129su0847-ide-sata-drive-adapter-usb-kit-cable

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Battery Replacement Video and Required Tools List

by Greg Johnson, posted in Tech Tips, Tech Tools, Tools

The Dell XPS 13 battery comes with a 1-year warranty. As a result, many users are finding they need to replace the battery after a year of use. The video below provides a good presentation of how to remove the battery, but details on the specific tools are missing. More details about the tools needed are found below.

Tools Needed

The video states, “You’ll need a philips head screw driver and a size T5 star screwdriver.”

We went through many tips before we found a working phillips tip that would work on screws holding the battery in place. The one that finally worked was marked PB0. It needed to be small, but broad.

The ‘star’ bit is actually a Torx T5.

Other useful tips would be the PH000, PH00, and PH1. These are shown below.

You may also need something to carefully pry the battery and other parts away from the computer.

20150615mo-screwdriver-tips-torx-t5-phillips-ph000-ph00-ph1-IMG_8413

Tool Kits Available on Amazon

Here are some useful tool kits for this and other projects:

__________

Thanks to Makur for contributing to this article.

Domo Business Intelligence Systems Offer Live Analytics and Charting

by Greg Johnson, posted in Enterprise Technology, Software, Tech Tools

The videos below offer an introduction to Domo business intelligence systems which offer live analytics and charting for meaningful and actionable data aggregation and analysis.

How ShareThis uses Domo

How Sage uses Domo

How Coverhound uses Domo

How Bohme uses Domo

How Arizona State University uses Domo

Domo Launch Party (2011)

Web 2.0 Summit 2011 Josh James

Q&A: What’s a Browser?

by Greg Johnson, posted in Computer Support, Software, Tech Tools

Q: What’s a browser?

A: Despite the abundance of people using browsers, this is still a common question.

A browser is a program that lets you go to a web page and otherwise explore the Internet. Browsers let you interact with social network sites like Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. Unless you’re reading this as a printed page, you are most likely viewing this page with a browser.

Searching

You can type in a website address in a browser to view that website, or you can search.

Browsers generally have some form of search capability that is connected to a search engine. This is where things get a little bit confusing.

The browser itself doesn’t search but it connects you, seamlessly, to a service that does. Generally speaking, a browser will have you use the associated search service (engine) offered by the browser provider. So, the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser will use Microsoft Bing. The Google Chrome browser will use the Google search service. However, you can set your browser to use another search engine such as Yahoo.

Saving Bookmarks or Favorites

Browsers let you print web pages and you can also save website addresses (called Favorites or Bookmarks).

Print or Save Web Pages

In addition to printing, you can save web pages as PDF files or as locally stored web content (saving the text and images from the page).

Cloud Features

Browser providers typically offer some kind of cloud synchronization so that your bookmarks, browsing history, and other settings can be synchronized across multiple devices. Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Mozilla offer cloud synchronization. This means you can easily pickup reading on one device where  you left off on another device.

Programs

Google Chrome is unique because there is a Google Chrome Web Store where you can get programs that run in Google Chrome. These are useful apps and programs written to work with Google Chrome, and in this way they can be used on Windows, Apple, Linux, and any other system that has Google Chrome.

Popular Browsers

Common browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera. There are many others.  Below are the icons for some popular browsers.

20150106tu-web-browser-icons-chrome-firefox-internet-explorer-opera-apple-safari-kadvacorp

Q&A with InvestInTech.com Makers of Able2Extract PDF Converter

by Greg Johnson, posted in Software, Tech Tips, Tech Tools

Getting to Know Investintech.com: Helpful PDF Resources, Tutorials and Tools

Q: You’ve developed some great online technology tutorials. What topics are available and which ones seem to be the most popular?

MS Office for iPad Tips is one of our newer projects that we started working on as soon as Microsoft launched the apps for iPad. We knew that there’d be a huge interest in the apps, but as is the case with many great projects and tools out there, people don’t have much time to learn how to use them. We realized it would be extremely helpful to develop easy-to-read, straightforward tutorials with screenshots and images that clearly show what a Microsoft user needs to do in order to start using MS Office on their iPad.

With this goal in mind, we created a handful of quick guides to using Word, Excel and PowerPoint on iPad. We even included some general tips and advice on how to make the most of MS Office apps for iPad with a free Microsoft account. Basically, you can find out everything important about Microsoft for iPad in these tutorials, from learning how to print in Office for iPad and how to access MS documents saved on our PC from the iPad, to discovering how to make charts in Word and PowerPoint and how to freeze columns and rows in MS Excel.

We took the time to find out what it is about MS Office for iPad that creates the most headache to users, and we tried to answer their most common questions in these articles. We’ll constantly be updating the user guide with new tips.

Q: The Adobe PDF format has increasingly become a standard for stand-alone documents as well as content delivered through the Internet (as an alternative to HTML pages) when formatting/layout standardization across multiple platforms is desired. However, Adobe Acrobat Pro is very expensive, and not very user friendly. What does your PDF product offer? What is the cost compared to Adobe Acrobat Pro? Are there features your product has that Adobe Acrobat Pro doesn’t have?

One of the advantages of Investintech’s PDF solutions over Adobe’s is that they are very affordable. Also, at almost the fourth of Adobe Acrobat Pro’s price, users can enjoy high quality conversions that Investintech’s flagship PDF software, Able2Extract, provides.

Adobe Acrobat Pro costs $499 and Able2Extract Professional can be purchased for $139. Both the standard and professional version of Able2Extract can be used on all three major platforms, Windows, Mac and Linux, while Adobe Acrobat Pro is not available to Linux users.

It is not only the matter of price that makes Investintech’s product more appealing. Able2Extract’s conversion features are quite impressive. While Adobe Acrobat Pro can only convert to Excel, Word and PowerPoint, Able2Extract includes the following high-quality conversion options: PDF to Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, HTML, AutoCAD, OpenOffice, Images and it can also convert Text files to Excel, Word and PDF. Able2Extract PDF Converter’s major strength is its custom PDF to Excel option that allows users to manually tweak their output prior to conversion, and everyone who’s dealt with MS Excel recognizes this feature as a serious advantage.

Finally, Able2Extract’s intuitive, user-friendly GUI is high on the list of features that users like about our product. It makes the tool really easy to use, allowing users of any computer skill level to make quick conversions to different file formats.

Clearly, the range of options that Able2Extract offers, in combination with the tool’s price, is a much more attractive package to business professionals looking for powerful PDF conversion solutions.

Q: What makes your company unique?

Investintech.com is the most widely known for top quality PDF conversions for Excel users. Though its flagship product, Able2Extract, is created to cater to the needs of many different types of business professionals, from designers and architects who use AutoCAD to MS Office and OpenOffice users, we focused the most on Excel.

Our PDF solutions are widely used by accountants, auditors, finance analysts, bankers, and other finance and data scientists who use MS Excel spreadsheets for data processing and analysis. Since in the past many people complained about PDF to Excel conversion tools on the market at the time, especially the fact that the formatting and layout of Excel files are often lost after the conversion, Investintech developers put much of their efforts into creating an advanced, custom PDF to Excel creation feature that Able2Extract is now praised for. This feature allows users to tweak their Excel columns and rows structure prior to conversion, so that the formatting is exactly as it should be after the conversion.

Another feature of Able2Extract that brought Investintech a lot of recognition is the tool’s cross-platform operability, which enables users of the three major platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) to use the software. It’s worth noting that Able2Extract was the first PDF converter on the market that introduced the cross-platform feature.

Q: What else does your company offer to its users?

Though Able2Extract is developed for and mostly used by business and individual professionals, we recognize the fact that not everyone around the globe can afford robust PDF software with a wide range of PDF conversion options. That is why we are working on developing some simple, quick and free online PDF conversion tools that people can find helpful.

We’ve already developed mobile apps for iOS and Android devices that help users smoothly convert and create PDFs for free. We also offer a range of other free tools for converting .docx to .doc, PDF to HTML and some inspirational templates for creating PowerPoint presentations and website designs.

We believe that the Internet’s potential for free and easy transfer of knowledge and information should really be used to the fullest. That is why we put a lot of energy into informing and teaching our readers about topics of interest to them, via our website, the company blog and our social media channels. Here they can find many articles, entertaining tips, helpful tutorials, must-have software lists, and some funny tech updates as well. Our wish is to spread the word about the usefulness of our PDF solutions, but also to help people manage their documents and files in the most productive and efficient way.

__________

A Note from Greg Johnson

I had an opportunity recently to connect with the friendly people at InvestInTech.com — the developers of the Able2Extract PDF converter software.

Being a writer of support documentation, I was really impressed with the free online support documentation they developed for the iPad version of Microsoft Office.

After learning a little more about their company, and the PDF product they offer, I thought it would be nice to offer the above Q&A to introduce them to my website visitors and subscribers. I wrote up the questions and they graciously provided the answers.

Motorola Moto G Back Cover Removal

by Greg Johnson, posted in Mobile Devices, Tech Tips, Tech Tools

Back Cover Design

The back cover of the Moto G has some exceptional benefits. Along the top and long edges of the phone, where the back cover snaps on, there’s a very tight seal that you’ll have a hard time inserting a fingernail or anything else in. This smooth tight design makes the phone feel smooth in your hand and it keeps out dust and debris.

Back Cover Case Removal

On the bottom of the phone, where the Micro USB connector jack is, it’s possible to insert a small object to twist and separate the back cover from the phone. An ideal object would be something like a wooden clothespin (the side you press with your fingers). This fits in the Micro USB opening and is soft enough not to damage or mar the phone.  You don’t want to jam anything all the way into the Micro USB port. Just twisting 1/16th of an inch inside that opening is enough to open the back cover. Then, using a fingernail, you can carefully pry the rest of the cover off.

20141114fr-motorola-motog-microsd-sim-back-open-case-cover-IMG_0179

MicroSD and SIM Cards

The SIM card is spring loaded. When inserting it, you’ll feel resistance until it’s all the way in, and then as you let go, it will come back and lock in place. To remove it, simply press in with your fingernail to release the lock mechanism and it will come out.

The MicroSD card is held in by friction only. To remove it, use your fingernail to grab the top ridge and pull it directly out.

So, in summary, pull to remove the MicroSD card, but push in to remove the SIM card.

Moto G – MicroSD and SIM Card Installation and Removal

by Greg Johnson, posted in Tech Tips, Tech Tools

Summary

The Motorola Moto G (Second Generation) smartphone allows for the installation of a SIM card as well as a MicroSD memory storage card in the back of the unit — accessible once the back cover has been removed.

Removing the Back Cover

The back cover of the Moto G has some exceptional benefits. Along the top and long edges of the phone, where the back cover snaps on, there’s a very tight seal that you’ll have a hard time inserting a fingernail or anything else in. This smooth tight design makes the phone feel smooth in your hand and it keeps out dust and debris.

On the bottom of the phone, where the Micro USB connector jack is, it’s possible to insert a small object to twist and separate the back cover from the phone. An ideal object would be something like a wooden clothespin (the side you press with your fingers). This fits in the Micro USB opening and is soft enough not to damage or mar the phone.  You don’t want to jam anything all the way into the Micro USB port. Just twisting 1/16th of an inch inside that opening is enough to open the back cover. Then, using a fingernail, you can carefully pry the rest of the cover off.

20141114fr-motorola-motog-microsd-sim-back-open-case-cover-IMG_0179

MicroSD and SIM Cards

The SIM card is spring loaded. When inserting it, you’ll feel resistance until it’s all the way in, and then as you let go, it will come back and lock in place. To remove it, simply press in with your fingernail to release the lock mechanism and it will come out.

The MicroSD card is held in by friction only. To remove it, use your fingernail to grab the top ridge and pull it directly out.

So, in summary, pull to remove the MicroSD card, but push in to remove the SIM card.

Turbo.264 HD Version 1.2.3

by Greg Johnson, posted in Software, Tech Tips, Tech Tools

If you’re using Turbo.264 HD version 1.2.2 you’ll want to update to the 1.2.3 version.

What’s new in this release?

  • resolved an issue where the Turbo component was not installed
  • resolved an issue with EyeTV integration that resulted in the Turbo hardware not being used for exports
  • improved file support
  • improved YouTube support
  • improved audio sync on export
  • improved performance and stability
  • improved support for OS X 10.10 (Yosemite)

Installation

After updating to the new version of Turbo.264 HD, please quit and reopen all programs that may have been using Turbo.264 HD, such as EyeTV.

System Requirements

  • a Macintosh computer with an Intel Core processor
  • 512 MB of RAM
  • a built-in USB 2.0 port
  • Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later, Mac OS 10.10 recommended (with all software and security updates installed)
  • QuickTime 7.6 (or later)