PCM23: Coincidence or Not, Computer Glitches Show We’re Too Tech-centric

Were the so-called “computer glitches” this week at the New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines, and Wall Street Journal all purely coincidental or not?

We’ll probably never know, but the bigger question is – does it matter?

Fact is, it shows you how dependent we are on technology and how a coordinated hacking event could cause such tremendous chaos – and there are many working toward causing such disruptions.

This episode of the PC Mike Techcast kicks off with Mike bringing you up to speed on what happened and why he thinks it’s just too unbelievable to be coincidence that three major “glitches” – plus a couple of others not getting much attention from media – happened at almost exactly the same time. Anti-American sentiments abound, for example, as do the never-ending threats from hackers with criminal intent.

Also in this episode of the PC Mike podcast we talk Facebook changes, some possible alternatives to consider for your search engine, and slipping Apple Watch sales.

If you only want to hear specific parts of the podcast, just click on the time stamps next to the specific sections of the show notes for this episode below!

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Tech News of the Week: Facebook Changes, Alt-Search Engines, Apple Watch Sales

Facebook Won’t Share ‘Likes:’ Facebook announced this week that it will stop telling advertisers what Facebook users “like” and “share” with others, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with protecting users’ privacy. You can read their announcement here. [spp-timestamp time=”15:40″]

Search Engines to Replace Google, Yahoo, Bing: Users concerned about privacy should consider using a search engine that is focused on protecting user privacy instead of capitalizing on it. We talk about some possible alternatives to Google, Yahoo, or Bing during this part of the show. Here is the blog post from the PC Mike blog: https://pcmike.com/four-search-engines-to-replace-google-yahoo-or-bing-asap/ [spp-timestamp time=”20:01″]

Apple Watch Sales Nosedive: Initial demand for Apple Watch may have been sky-high but sales have definitely come back to earth. (Read more) [spp-timestamp time=”26:09″]

App of the Week: Polarr Shows How Photo Editing Apps Keep Getting Better

Sure, you can get a fancy photo editing like Adobe Photoshop for your computer, but most people will do just fine with an app that doesn’t act much different right on their smartphone or tablet. That’s why this episode’s PC Mike App of the Week is Polarr.

Polarr has been a popular Web-based program for a while now, but an app made just for iOS-based devices is now available. Claiming to be a “pro photo editor for everyone,” users can tweak and edit photos using all kinds of available settings. A number of almost endless edits can be made to a photo with even more options using a $4.99 in-app purchase. The basic version is free.

Be sure to check out PC Mike’s full report on photo editing apps for NBC-TV here: https://youtu.be/ca3JDpPjq70 [spp-timestamp time=”35:06″]

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Online Learning – Free Trial for PC Mike Listeners

I get asked a lot about finding online courses for learning how to use photography software such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom CC, which are both on my recently updated list of tech gear. I talk about how I benefited from taking online courses as well as a special deal available only to PC Mike Techcast listeners at pcmike.com/lynda, where you can even try it free for 10 days and see if online learning works as well for you as it has for me. By the way, they have more than 3,300 courses to pick from – including more than 100,000 video tutorials – in subjects ranging from photography, video and audio to graphic design and web development. With Lynda, you can get:

– Unlimited access to all 3,314 courses – more than 100,000 video tutorials
– Learn new software and stay up to date

Listeners of the PC Mike podcast can get a free 10-day trial. Try any course. Start your trial now and see what you can learn. Just go to https://pcmike.com/lynda to get the free 10 day trial.

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We Need Your Help!

As we begin a new podcast like this, it’s very important to get a bunch of reviews to be able to show well in the iTunes listings. So if you can, I’d sure appreciate it if you’d subscribe and leave me your rating and review.

Here’s how:

First, open up the iTunes app on your computer or mobile device. Click on Podcasts on top
> From the iTunes Podcasts page, use the “Search Store” field up at the top right corner of the page. Type in PC Mike Techcast under the Podcasts category.
> Click on the logo image of the PC Mike Techcast on the search return page
> From there, you can:

1) Subscribe

2) Choose and Click on a star (1-5) that reflects your rating. Five stars means you really like it, one star not so much.

3) Leave a written review.

Thanks to all for the kind reviews we’ve received so far. I read and appreciate every review! If you haven’t left a review please do so. I will be so grateful!

And remember, you can appear in future episodes. Ask a question or voice your comments by clicking the Leave Voicemail tab on the right side of this page here at pcmike.com. You can then use the microphone on your computer to record your question.

Thank you!

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