Get help for those Christmas tech presents

From the PCMike NBC-TV Report… It’s the week after Christmas and all through the land, one phrase can be heard from those with phone clutched firmly in hand: “Help! It doesn’t work!”

These are the days when you don’t want to be working the help desk of an electronics or computer company. Nor do you want to have to call them.

You are not going to get through without having to wait a very long time.

For these first couple of weeks after Christmas are when all those gleaming, nicely wrapped high tech presents that were so eagerly unopened yesterday are in various stages of assembly or sitting idly by, non working and useless unless and until someone at tech support can offer help.

This is when help desk telephone technicians hate to come to work, the busiest weeks of the year, the time many call when their Christmas gifts give them grief.

Are you among them? I have a list of suggestions. Read the story »

Be a weathergeek with a personal weather station

From the PCMike NBC-TV Report… Some people do more than just talk about the weather. A lot more.

For some, it’s not just a conversation topic, but a full-fledged hobby. Or maybe obsession is a better word.

Instead, it’s had me up on my slippery roof in a snowstorm bolting a tripod down to hold a wireless weather station, installing an streaming video camera on my back deck and building a Web site that broadcasts live readings and video of every variation in temperature, wind and precipitation conditions at my location.

In so doing I’ve tapped into a network of thousands of other amateur weather enthusiasts from across Michigan and, indeed, the world who offer tips, share their setups and talk weather minutiae like some do sports. Read the story »

Make a photo calendar or photo book

From the PCMike NBC-TV Report… There are some people – typically parents, grandparents and close family members – that are always hard to buy for. Here’s a great idea: Make them a very personal family calendar or photo book filled with images of the kids and grandkids.

Thanks to a whole bunch of online photo sharing services that work right from your computer or Web browser, it’s never been easier.

And they are all very competitively and reasonable priced. The typical calendar is just under $20 and is so easy to make that you can design it using the photos you have on your computer in less than half an hour.

Let me start with the one I like best, Apple’s iPhoto Print service, that connects directly to the iPhoto application that is part of the iLife suite of programs already on most Mac computers.

Apple’s service is about as simple to use as possible. You select the pictures you want for each month, using one or several, dragging and dropping them onto various template designs. Read the story »

PCMike’s Tech Gadget of the Year: The Flip MinoHD

From the PCMike NBC-TV Report… My Gadget of the Year this year is a miniature camcorder that - ready for this? - shoots in stunning HD. You will want this gadget, whether as a holiday gift or just to have because it is so cool.

It’s the new Flip minoHD, the world’s smallest high definition camcorder that takes video that can only be described as breathtaking, considering it’s coming from a camera so small it fits in a shirt pocket.

I’ve been testing and using Flip cameras since they first hit the market in 2005 and this latest beauty has so impressed me that if I were to recommend just one single tech gift this year, this would be my pick of the year.

It costs $229 and, truly, for many consumers who don’t want to be bogged down with larger and more complicated cameras, the minoHD is the only camcorder they will need. Read the story »

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