Category: DMM U - Part 3

Kindle Fire Tip: Use Collections For Apps

* * * the Microsoft Wireless 3500 Series Mouse, available in many different colors and patterns. Advertisers make it possible for Digital Media Mom to bring you great content each day for free, so thanks for your support. * * * When the long-awaited Collections function finally came to the Kindle Fire line of tablets, as part of the operating system of all second-generation (the line that was released toward the end of 2013) Kindle Fire HD and HDX models, ebook lovers were thrilled. But did you know you can also group your apps into collections? I own hundreds of apps, partly because I check out Amazon’s Free App of the Day every day and make it a habit to get any that look interesting or useful and are rated 4/5 stars or higher. The only problem is that weeks or months later I don’t remember each one’s title or even the type of app…

Print From Kindle Fire: Free Printer Apps Now Available From HP, Brother, Canon and Epson

* * * the Epson WorkForce WF-2530 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer, Copier, Scanner, ADF, Fax, the multi-function machine I use, which is currently on sale for just $79.99 on Amazon. Advertisers make it possible for Digital Media Mom to bring you great content each day for free, so thanks for your support. * * * When the Kindle Fire line of tablets first hit the market, it wasn’t possible to easily print anything from them. But soon enough, printer manufacturers started releasing their own free, wireless printer apps, and making them available for the Kindle Fire line. People who owned recent-model HP Printers could install the HP ePrint app. More recently, Brother released its Brother iPrint&Scan app. I’ve previously written about the CyPria printer app (which is not free) for owners of Epson printers, but now Epson has finally released its own, FREE, wireless Epson Print Plugin app for second-generation line of Kindle Fires: the HD…

Email Tips: What Do cc: and bcc: Mean?

Today’s post is brought to you by Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day: Up To 69% Off On Select Sony Memory Cards & USB Flash Drives. Note that this is a one-day sale, so if you’re in the market for memory cards or flash drives be sure to check out the sale today. Advertisers make it possible for Digital Media Mom to keep bringing you great content for free, so thanks for your support! * * * It’s recently come to my attention that people who have never worked in an office environment often don’t know what the “cc:” and “bcc:” designations are for in their email program. If you already know, feel free to skip this one. Otherwise, onward! Whether on a business letter, memo, or in an email, “cc:” and “bcc:” are used to “copy” (or, “send a copy to”) people other than the primary recipient of the…

Can My Overcharged Battery Be Fixed?

I’m sorry to tell you this, but in a word, no. It doesn’t mean your device is totally useless, however. I’ve written here before about the dangers of overcharging your thingie’s rechargeable battery, and more recently I’ve been getting questions from site visitors about what to do once that damage is done. Before we go any further, see this post for a simple rechargeable battery test you can do at home with no risk to yourself or your device. If the results show your rechargeable battery is damaged, read on. 1. If your thingie is still under warranty, return it to the place where you bought it for a replacement. If you’re going to replace it with the exact same thingie, back up your content first so you can re-load everything onto the new device. Click here for my post that explains how to do this for a Kindle Fire. For other types…

When And How To Stop Sharing A Family Account For Your Digital Content

Many of you may have grown kids starting off in college or permanently moving away from the family home, and you might be wondering if it’s the right time to break up your family digital content accounts (e.g., iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, etc.). The answer is: it depends on your specific situation. But after reading this post, you should have all the information you need to make an informed decision. A Single Family Household Can Share Content From an earlier DMM post, Can I Share Content From My Thingie?: Apple Thingies: Apple Content Is Controlled Through iTunes Every individual Apple thingie (iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc.) is tied, or registered, to a specific Apple iTunes customer account and content library (music, movies, podcasts, apps, etc.). A single iTunes account can have multiple Apple thingies registered to it, and everything in that iTunes library is available to all the thingies registered to that…

Do You Need To Worry About the FBI Ransomware / FBI MoneyPak Virus On Your Mobile Thingies?

I recently got a question about The FBI Ransomware Trojan, which is also known as the FBI MoneyPak virus. A commenter raised the question in the comments section of my earlier post, Does Your Kindle Fire Need Virus Protection? What’s “FBI Ransomware”? This specific Trojan / virus is an especially nasty one, as it essentially locks you out of your computer or mobile device until you pay whatever fee it’s asking in order to release the lock. It’s got “FBI” in the name because the extortion pop-up says the FBI has identified some kind of threat on your machine and will remove it in exchange for a fee, usually $100, to be paid by credit card. So these hackers get $100 immediately, plus the duped consumer’s credit card number. Making matters worse, making that payment won’t necessarily unlock your computer or device. Even if it does work, it’s only a matter of…

How To Delete Apps From The Cloud On A Kindle Fire

In a past DMM post, Kindle and Kindle Fire Owners: Where Your Content Lives and Deleting, Moving and Restoring Kindle / Kindle Fire Content, I explained how to delete apps and other content from your Fire vs. from the Cloud, and what the difference is between the two. Today I’d like to update that post with some new information: how to delete an app from Amazon’s Cloud right from your Fire**—all models, from first-generation non-HD to the latest HDX line—, without logging on to the Amazon site. **UPDATE** 5/19/15: while this post reflects information that was provided by Amazon at the time the post was written, more recent tests have shown the method described here doesn’t work for first-gen Fires. For people who only own first-gen Fires, the only way to remove apps from the Cloud in on the Amazon site itself. First, I must remind you: anything you delete from the…

The Differences Between Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Cell Connectivity

Bluetooth speakers, 4G tablets and external hard drives with Wi-Fi, oh my! Here’s how these three types of connectivity technologies differ. Wi-Fi Wi-Fi is the type of connection you need to wirelessly connect various devices to a wireless network. It could be your home network, the network at your workplace, or the biggest global network of them all: the internet. Yes, the internet is a network. It seems obvious when you realize that a network is just a collection of technology devices that are all set up to communicate with one another. So where at home, you use a network to send a document to a printer that’s located far from your computer, on the internet, computers and servers send web pages, files and messages to other computers and servers that are located as far away as the other side of the world. So if you’re considering buying some device, and…

What’s The Difference Between SD And Micro SD Memory Cards?

I won’t bore you with all the technical details of what makes a micro SD card different from a standard SD card, because I’m pretty sure all you care about is whether or not a micro SD card will work with your various devices. The answer is, so long as your device can accept a standard SD card, yes, it can accept a micro SD card — provided you have a standard SD card adapter or USB plug-in adapter (as pictured in this post). You can buy micro-to-standard SD card adapters and USB plug-in adapters on their own, but plenty of micro SD cards come bundled with adapters, too. To use a micro SD card in a device that takes standard SD cards (most digital cameras, for example), you just slide the micro SD card into the adapter’s card slot, then insert the adapter into your device the same as…

How To Turn Off Amber Alerts On Your Cell Phone

Last week many Californians were jolted awake, or were at least startled, by a totally unfamiliar, high-pitched tone coming from their cell phones. Looking at their phones, they found they’d received an AMBER alert, per a new emergency broadcast notification system that went into effect January 1 of this year. Because they have no control over the timing of these messages (nor in some cases, the earsplitting ring tone that announces them), and because the messages themselves are somewhat cryptic and therefore somewhat useless, most recipients reacted with 1) irritation that they’d been subjected to an alert they never opted in to receive and 2) an immediate desire to disable this feature so they’d never receive another cell phone AMBER alert. Click here to learn more about the wireless AMBER alert system and the changes that went into effect 1/1/13. Yeah, But How Do I Turn It Off?! On an…