For the next thirty days, Microsoft is throwing in the keyboard cover for free. The announcement was made on the Official Microsoft Blog, and the offer is good for residents in the US and Canada. I have the Surface RT, and definitely recommend the Type Cover if you’re going to be doing a lot of typing. The Type cover normally goes for $119 and the Type Cover is $129. So if you’ve been on the fence about getting a Surface RT, now is the time to get a great deal on it....

When Google introduced Priority inbox 7 months ago, it was a huge success. Since then, emails that Gmail discerns are urgent and important get set to an elevated inbox of their own. They also automatically receive an “Important” label that looks like a little yellow arrow icon. Today Gmail launched its newest lab feature, Smart Labels, which attempts to do the same thing on a more micromanaged scale. So far, it is groovy!...

You may wonder: “Why didn’t Google do this in the first place?” The simple answer is speed and cost. When browser traffic is SSL encrypted, it puts more load on your browser, the Website it’s accessing, and overall latency and speed since SSL traffic cannot be compressed and accelerated as easily as HTTP traffic. Add onto that the high cost of SSL certificates which Websites need to install. So offering HTTPS or SSL for free to the 200+ million Gmail users doesn’t come cheap....

I was already using Google Photos to maintain a backup of all my photos on my PC and iPhone. So I decided to give it a try to see how the new unified app works. One question you might ask: Does this make Backup and Sync a viable replacement for services like Backblaze and CrashPlan? Let’s find out. Using Google’s New Backup and Sync App for Windows and Mac To get started, download the Google Backup and Sync app from the Google Drive or Photos page....

If you’ve been a groovyReader for any length of time, you know were big fans of Google Voice here at groovyPost especially since they integrated it into Google Talk and Gmail. Anyway, I’m happy to report that Google will continue to offer free Google Voice calls to the US and Canada throughout 2011. Originally Google had only committed to free calls via gmail through 2010 so it’s nice to see they will step-up and continue the service free of charge through 2011....

Google TV Out — Android TV In Existing Google TV products will continue to work, but they will no longer be getting updates, and the developer tools and libraries are no longer available. If you purchased an actual Google TV set or other set-top box powered by Google TV – the Vizio Co-star, for example – no worries, those devices and apps will continue to work. And don’t throw away your Google TV device yet....

Photo Credit: ShironekoEuro First, just scan or, as a second resort, take a clear picture of the document that you want to convert. Clarity is everything. Before you scan a doc, make sure it’s in a format Google Docs OCR is able to read. PDF and many other image files are fine. Photo Credit: LiveOakStaff Now visit docs.google.com and sign-in. Click Upload > Files… Select the scanned file. Before the file uploads, make sure that you have the option checked by the selection to Convert Text From PDF and Other Image Files To Google Documents....

The best way to choose is to look at the pros and cons of each spreadsheet application. You can choose the one that best meets the needs of your use case. In this article, we’ll look at how Google Sheets and Excel differ in terms of features, collaboration, user interface, and more. Collaboration in Google Sheets Vs. Excel For this comparison, we’ll focus on the cloud-based (Office 365) version of Excel, since it’s the closest version of Excel to the cloud-based Google Sheets spreadsheet app....

Now, why would Nokia give us all these great deals? Windows Phone 8 won’t be available as an upgrade for current Windows Phone 7.5 devices, and the new OS is coming soon. And once it’s out, people will start losing interest in Mango devices and sales will drop no doubt quickly so Nokia is thinking – sell em while we can! Comment Name * Email * Δ Save my name and email and send me emails as new comments are made to this post....

What Can the Mac Markup Do? Markup is a useful tool in macOS that makes it possible to write or sign, draw on, crop, and rotate supported files. You can find the Mac Markup using Quick Look on your Mac or when using Quick Actions. The tool is also available with objects within certain apps, including Mail, Notes, and Photos. The features shown in Markup will vary, depending on the type of file....

How to Add Extra Clocks/Time Zones to the Windows Taskbar 1 – Click the Clock in the Taskbar and then click Change date and time settings. 2 – Click the Additional Clocks tab and check the box for either 1 or 2 additional clocks. Choose the Additional Time Zones using the drop-down and give them a Name. Click OK when done. 3 – Click the Clock again in the Taskbar, and the new clocks should all appear!...

So, what’s all this data validation jazz do? Simple – it constrains the values of a cell to a pre-set list or specific range. For example, if you had a “Status” column in a spreadsheet keeping track of your various projects for your multiple clients, you could limit the valid entries for that column to “Completed,” “In Progress,” “Cancelled,” etc., etc. In this way, you make your Google Docs spreadsheet more user-friendly (less typing—you can choose an entry from the dropdown menu) and help prevent typos and errors....

Using Multifactor Authentication Every time you go to log into your Venmo account from a new device, you’ll need to authentic your account. Once completed, you can add the new device to your list of approved devices. When you do, you won’t need to authenticate again on that device. Whether you’re attempting to log into Venmo through the website or app doesn’t matter in terms of authentication: Next, You won’t need a code to confirm your identity when signing in from that device in the future....

Add Files to Kindle Fire HD Use the MicroUSB cable to plug your tablet into your computer. Windows Vista and higher will see it as an external drive, and XP users will need to update to WMP 11. If the AutoPlay menu comes up, select to open it to view the files on its local storage. Or, if you have AutoPlay disabled, you’ll see it listed in My Computer. Now open the Music folder and transfer your music files from your computer’s hard drive or network drive to your Kindle....

For this to work you will need to be logged into your YouTube/Google account. Step 1 Click your username box at the top-right of the YouTube web page. A new row of options should appear, in the right-column Click Settings. Step 2 Click the Playback Setup button and then uncheck the box labeled Show annotations. All that is left to do after that is to Save Changes. Done! Now when you watch a YouTube video the annotations will no longer automatically display....

Back Up and Reset Nexus 7 Go into Settings and scroll down to Personal. Then tap Backup & Reset. The cool feature is the ability to back up your app data and settings. Also, when reinstalling apps, it will automatically restore backed up data and settings. Next you get a message letting you know all of the tablet’s internal storage will be erased. It will also show you the accounts you’re currently signed into....

I have seen it happen before, and recommend that you backup your Skype contacts on your local computer. Then, you can easily import/export your contacts. First, Log in to Skype and go to Contacts. Next go to Advanced » Backup Contacts to File. Select the location where you want to save the file and click Save. You can save it to a network, external or local drive. Or on a thumb drive…wherever is convenient....

Burn and Edit Files on a CD-R using Windows 10 Insert a blank DVD-R or CD-R disc into your optical drive. A burn disc wizard will appear on the screen; give the disc a title, then choose the option Like a USB flash drive. This option is the best choice since it will have better compatibility with older versions of Windows. Click Next, then wait while the disc is prepared for use....

Change Windows 10 Default Email App Changing your default email client is generally the same as changing other default Windows 10 apps. To set your favorite email client as the system-wide default, head to Settings > Apps > Default Apps. Then in the right panel under the Email section, you will see it is set to the Mail app. Just click on it and choose the email app you want to use as the default from the list....

And as you’d expect, the default search engine for the new Edge is Microsoft’s own Bing. However, if you would rather set it to Google or another privacy-orientated engine such as Duck Duck Go, you can. Here’s how. Change Default Search Engine for Microsoft Edge Similar to hiding the Favorites bar, there are a couple of ways you can change the default search engine. Launch the browser and click the Options button (three dots) in the upper-right corner and choose Settings....