Life Not What It Used To Be?

iPhone or iPod battery life got you down? I can replace your old battery with one that is more powerful and lasts longer than the original. In your home or office. In about an hour.

Snap, Crackle, IMAP and POP

Q: Which two are not e-mail account settings? A: The first two.

If you use email on more than one device... computer, iPhone, iTouch, iPad... and you are not using IMAP, your life could be a lot easier.

If you've noticed that somehow, email that you read on your iPhone is not showing up on your computer, or a draft that you wrote on your iPad isn't showing up on your iPhone, it could be that your email preferences aren't quite right and that life could be easier. See if your ISP offers IMAP as an alternative to POP.

Most ISP's provide pretty good instructions on how to set things up or switch things over.

Is it plugged in?

There is a list of questions that any electronic support technician will run through while trying to diagnose malfunctioning equipment. You can pay by the hour for them to ask you these questions, or you can do it yourself:

1. Is it plugged in? Not just into the wall. Have you checked all of your connections? You would be surprised how many times a plug will have wiggled half way out, or a helpful spouse or child will have left something unplugged without telling you. Always start with a complete connection check of all the components of a system.

2. Is it a bad cable? If the printer isn't working, for instance, try using a different cable. Grab a cable from something that is definitely working if you can, and try it between the computer and the printer. Does it work now?

3. Which device is it, really? Can you connect the printer to another computer? Does it work now? Aha! It's not the printer...

4. Does the device have a self-test? Get out your manual. Many electronic devices have a self-test routine and will pretty much tell you what is wrong, and maybe even how to fix it.

If you still can't get it to work - or just don't have the time and inclination to do the basic troubleshooting, you know how to find me!

Image Control: Lesson One

Google provides a free and useful tool for keeping tabs on what is said about you. It's called Google Alerts, and you'll find it here.

Set an Alert with your name as the key words. Set alerts using any and all names and nicknames by which you are known. To stay fully informed, set alerts for your business name, and any projects or groups with which you are intimately involved.

Now, on a daily basis, you will have a better idea of what, if anything, is being said across the web.

If it turns out to be less than flattering, there are ways of dealing with it. A one hour session on Policing Your Web Persona is available.

Otherwise, enjoy your reading and forward the good stuff to friends and family!

Holiday Greetings!

Which holiday? It's hard to know anymore when Christmas decorations go up before Halloween, and Halloween stuff has been on the shelves since before Labor Day. But, today, I'm talking about Christmas, Chanukah and New Years.

Today is a good day to get started on your holiday card list strategy. Strategy? Yes, Strategy.

Things to consider include:

• Will the greetings be sent by mail or email?
• If by mail, an envelope or postcard?
• Is this greeting intended for friends and family, clients or both?
• Will you use two different cards?
• If for business, will you use a stock card or create something that highlights your brand?
• If for friends and family, will you use a stock card, a photograph, or something else?
• What is the budget

While these questions are considered, another, as Derek Smalls might say, practical question arises:

Is your mailing list in order?

Since you are reading this on a computer, there is no good reason for your mailing list to not be computerized.

If your list is in a tattered old address book or on various scraps of papers or post-it notes, now is the time to get it all into a normalized database or contacts manager.

Once you've done this, not only will your holiday mailing list be a snap, but you'll also be able to keep track of birthdays, anniversaries and all kinds of other important information in an organized way.

Get started on this now, and it's not an overwhelming task. If you need help, get in touch. We've managed card lists that ranged from a few dozen to a few thousand. We've also designed eye-popping and news-making cards for our clients.

iPhone or iPad Just Not Quite Right?

Don't forget that simply shutting it down, letting the screen go all the way to black, and then starting it back up again, cures a lot of what ails these things. In fact, it's a good habit to shut these things down and start them back up with some regularity... I'd say at least once per week.

It's also a good idea to plug in to iTunes and do a backup first - and every so often, just for good housekeeping.

As long as your backup is fresh, plugging in to iTunes and using the restore function should solve any lingering problems, but don't do this if your device is jailbroken and/or unlocked. There are ways to get these devices back to 100%, but if you are uncertain how to do that, you are best off being shown the first time.