Category: Mom Said

Digital Media Mom’s Take On The Amazon Fire TV Streaming Stick (I LOVE IT!)

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Amazon Fire TV Stick, and now that I’ve got it and have used it I’m ready to share. As a Prime member, I was able to pre-order up to two of this item for just $19, and now I only regret that I just bought the one. Initial Set Up Set up was initially frustrating, I’ll admit. First of all, the battery compartment on the remote is very tight and it was initially difficult to open in order to install the included AAA batteries. But on the plus side, I guess that means there’s little risk of the cover easily popping off if the remote is dropped—a problem I’ve had with some other device remotes in the past. I plugged the stick into its provided HDMI extender (which the instructions say will improve WiFi reception) and attached the included power cord and adapter….

The Audible DailyDeal: It’s A Thing, But You Might Never Know It

* * * the Anker® 2nd Gen Astro Mini 3200mAh Lipstick-Sized Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank, currently 75% off and priced under $10 on Amazon (as of 7/14/15). Advertisers make it possible for Digital Media Mom to bring you great content each day for free, so thanks for your support. * * * You Probably Know All About The Kindle Daily Deal, But… …did you know there’s an Audible Daily Deal on offer every day, too? Probably not, unless you’re in the habit of checking the front page of the Audible site each day. The Audible Daily Deal is a one-day only discount on an Audible audiobook, with prices on the Deal typically ranging somewhere between $2.95 – $4.95. Audible is owned by Amazon and for a time, the Audible Daily Deal was featured right on the Audible home page on the Amazon site, just the same as Kindle Daily…

Lena Dunham Is A Lying Liar Who Lies

Lena Dunham is a very clever writer, a brave actress and an intelligent woman with some insightful things to say about relationships. Relationships between: parents and their adult children, bosses and employees, husbands and wives, friends, roommates, idol-worshipped heroes and their worshippers, and between romantic or hook-up partners. She is also a savvy businesswoman who’s adroitly navigating the entertainment business. For all of these things, I greatly admire Lena Dunham. However, Lena Dunham is also a lying liar who lies. In her breakout hit HBO series Girls, which Dunham writes as well as sometimes directing and producing, Dunham casts and writes herself in the role of Hannah Horvath: the Regular Girl, the Smart Girl, the Not-Hottie, if you will. Hannah is smart and funny, and prone to bouts of neurosis and narcissism, but no more so than anyone in their 20s who lives in New York (or L.A., or Chicago, or London, etc….

How To Stop Amazon Seller Emails

There’s a new kind of spam email in town, and it’s maddening. I’ve noticed many of my Amazon orders prompt unwanted follow up messages from the vendor, and I’m sick of it. These always come disguised as a “thanks for your order,” “helpful tips,” “let us know if there are any problems,” email or similar, but what they’re all REALLY about is prompting the buyer to leave an Amazon review. Today’s post explains what opened the spam floodgates last year, and how to stop Amazon seller emails. What Changed? You may recall reading about Amazon’s purge of paid reviews a couple years back. A purge of “received this product free or at a discount in exchange for an honest review” reviews followed, just last year. Both of these types of reviews are now banned on Amazon. The changes put Amazon sellers into a panic: how would they get reviews now?

Don’t Fall For This Apple iCloud Phishing Attack

The days when Apple users didn’t have to worry about hacks and phishing attacks are over. Most of us remember the iCloud breach of a little over a year ago, when lots of celebrities’ personal photos were accessed and leaked online, and a more recent incident of the same type has recently affected stars like Emma Watson. Last week, reports of a new threat surfaced: hackers are exploiting iCloud users’ worries about these stories to mount a phishing attack. The hackers call iCloud users claiming to be from Apple tech support, telling the user their iCloud account has been compromised. Then they ask the user to grant them remote access to resolve the problem. But of course there is no problem. This is simply a trick to get users to willingly log the hackers into the users’ iCloud accounts.

Maybe Don’t Buy An Amazon Echo Right Away

I’m about the last person you’d expect to discourage you from buying any Alexa device, but if you haven’t got one already, as this cross post from my Love My Echo site says: maybe don’t buy an Amazon Echo right away. Something’s Coming… I recently shared reports from reputable tech outlets about Amazon’s plans to release one or more new Alexa devices this year. The same reports say Amazon plans to roll out some significant new Alexa voice service functionality, like hands-free voice calling and inter-connectivity between Alexa devices that would allow them to work as an intercom system on a shared network. New Alexa device hardware will bring upgrades and differences as well. One rumored feature is an integrated touchscreen, another is upgraded speakers. It’s possible the new Alexa functions will be released to both new and existing Alexa devices via a software update, but it’s also possible the new features will be dependent on…

Windows Doesn’t Detect My Phone: Help!

Transferring files from your phone to your computer is supposed to be as easy as connecting it via USB. Windows wakes up, adds the phone to your Windows File Manager, and you’re off to the races. But as I myself had to ask twice this very month, “What if Windows doesn’t detect my phone?” Today I’ve got the solutions for this frustrating problem. There are two surefire fixes for this: if one doesn’t work, the other most definitely will—assuming there’s nothing wrong with your computer, USB cable or computer, of course. Let’s start with the simpler of the two.

Malware Found Preloaded On New Android Phones

Ars Technica is reporting on malware found preloaded on new Android phones, which sounds pretty scary at first, but the problem is easily avoided so read on. From Ars Technica: A commercial malware scanner used by businesses has recently detected an outbreak of malware that came preinstalled on more than three dozen Android devices…The malicious apps weren’t part of the official ROM firmware supplied by the phone manufacturers but were added later somewhere along the supply chain. In other words, the malware wasn’t installed by anyone working at the manufacturer’s facility, it was installed at some point between the time the phones left the factor(ies) and the time they were sold.

How To Disable Autoplay Videos In The Browser

I don’t know whose bright idea it was to start this autoplay thing, but it’s BEYOND annoying. Don’t worry, as per usual Digital Media Mom’s got your back and I’m here to tell you how to disable autoplay videos in the browser. Note that these fixes only stop autoplay for video content served by the site itself, they may not stop full motion video ads from auto-playing. For that, you’ll need to find an ad blocker plugin. In Firefox: Type “about:config” (without quotation marks) into the browser URL bar and press Enter. Answer yes / confirm when the warning box comes up. When the Configuration page loads, scroll down to the “media.autoplay.enabled” line. By default, it’s set to true. Double-click on the line to change it to false.