common sense tech

A Windows user's life with the Mac, two months in

It's been just over two months since I shifted from Windows to the Mac. Overall, the transition has been pretty painless. Amazingly so. But there are some things I really miss, so I thought I'd describe my experience.

Before I go further, I'll repeat my constant refrain in this column. Whatever works for you, works for you. There is no wrong phone, computer, or device. If whatever you use does what you want, more power to you and your choice!

Perhaps more than anything else, I miss Outlook 2010 for Windows. Its counterpart, Outlook 2011 … Read more

In defense of real buttons on gadgets

I like buttons on my devices. Buttons you can press, buttons that click -- not "soft" buttons that only appear on screen.

There's a place for real buttons, and I hope they don't die off.

I don't know if there's an actual trend of physical buttons disappearing. I sure hope that's not the case. But I got to thinking about the benefits of "hard" buttons when I was using my Nexus 7 Android tablet recently. (Hang on, Android fanboys, I'll have some words for Apple about buttons, too.)

In … Read more

The world may be cloud-crazy, but Outlook for Mac is stuck on Earth

Store your data in the cloud and have it accessible to you from any computer, anywhere. That's the pitch we hear more and more from companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft. So how is it that all of these companies allow Outlook for Mac 2011 to remain absurdly earthbound?

I'm a long-time Outlook user on Windows, now working with Outlook full-time on the Mac. Even though Gmail is my email provider (the Google Apps version of it), I find Outlook a better way to interact with Gmail than using Gmail directly through the … Read more

iPad Mini or iPod Touch Maxi -- it may not matter

It's widely expected that Apple will release a 7-to-8-inch tablet next month. Will it be the "iPad Mini" as many have been calling it? Or will it be a larger iPod Touch, as has been debated?

My experience using Google's Nexus 7 Android tablet suggests to me that it might not matter.

The rumored Apple tablet got renewed attention last week, after court documents in the Apple-Samsung patent dispute revealed that even after Steve Jobs famously dismissed 7-inch tablets in October 2010, Apple was still internally discussing the idea.

How have we gone from Jobs seeming … Read more

Syncing Notes from Mountain Lion Macs to iOS and Android

One of the nice things about the new Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion release is that the Notes application makes it easy to have notes sync from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad. But what if you're an Android user or want your notes to flow outside the Apple ecosystem for some reason? Yes, it can be done.

I don't take a lot of notes, but I've found it handy to have some things like frequent flyer numbers jotted down digitally in an easy-to-locate format. As a longtime Outlook user, I've used Outlook'… Read more

Minding your manners when sharing in social media

Since this is a column about "Common Sense Tech," I thought I'd take that name and run with it in terms of social-media sharing. Sometimes I see a lack of common sense, politeness, and manners when it comes to personal sharing. Consider this a "things not to do" list.

Some of the suggestions below are things I personally try to follow. I love to share on social media, but I also try to be mindful of people's privacy. Some of the suggestions come from others whom I asked through... social media!

The suggestions are … Read more

Duplicate music woes? Let iTunes Match clean up the mess!

Years ago, I went digital with my music. I ripped all my CDs, bringing everything into Windows Media Player. I didn't start with the iPod. The Rio Karma was my main MP3 player. Over the years, my music library moved from computer to computer. It migrated into iTunes (and into iPods, iPhones, iPads....). It gained new music from purchases or the occasional rare CD that I'd buy. And my music got really messy.

I shouldn't really care that somehow, I ended up with two or three different copies of the same songs. What does it really matter, … Read more

Does an app store's size matter if content is the killer app?

Apple claims 500,000 apps in its App Store for the iPhone and over 700,000 when iPad apps are added in. Google Play claims 600,000 apps for Android. Windows Phone is estimated to have 100,000 apps in its marketplace.

But do the numbers really matter, especially when the "new apps" may be content like video, music, and books?

I'm not a big fan of numbers just for numbers' sake. I watched search engines play the numbers game for years, each trying to be "bigger" than their competitors by having more Web pages. … Read more

Going 'unplugged' doesn't have to lead to an e-mail meltdown

This is the story of email and two vacations. Three, really. Because I'm on vacation now, totally unplugged.

Disconnecting is a lesson I learned from my breaks last year. I found that I could indeed walk away from e-mail and not come back with an out-of-control inbox. Maybe you can, too.

Last summer, I took two separate vacations, each lasting one week. During the first, I tried to stay on top of my e-mail. I didn't want to have a relaxing time off only to find 1,000 or more emails awaiting me upon my return.

I'd … Read more

How the Mac finally won me away from Windows

Windows 3.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, XP, Vista, Windows 7. Once I left DOS, I went Windows and kept with it, never feeling a need to jump to the Mac. I'd even enjoy some lighthearted mocking of my Mac friends about which OS was better. But a one-two combo last week of getting a new MacBook Pro Retina and trying Windows 8 is finally knocking me off Windows as my primary computing platform and over to the Mac.

Before I write any further, I'm not trying to ignite any Windows vs. Mac fanboy debates. Whatever works for you works for you, … Read more