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Can't Miss Tech Tips

Technology can make life easier. It's true. Can't remember the conversion of cups to gallons? Pull up your computer's browser and Google the answer. Get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere? Cell phone to the rescue! But while new tech gadgets can make life simpler, there are also a few pitfalls. Here are three tech tips to get technology working for you.

Screen and Block Unwanted Calls

More and more people are cutting the cord—the phone cord that is. It's not uncommon to find a household without a so-called landline. Instead, many of us carry our phones with us everywhere every day. One of the biggest problems with using a cell phone as a primary phone is giving away a cell phone number on every document and form that requests a phone number. It doesn't take long for all those robocalls and telemarketers to start coming to your cellphone. Sure, there's the Do Not Call list, but scammers and spammers certainly don't follow the rules. How can you stop the junk calls? There's an app for that.

Mr. Number, a free app for Android available on the Google Play Store, and Whitepages ID, available for iPhone on the iTunes Store and for Android on the Google Play Store, are incredibly powerful and easy to use. And the best part is, they're free. Both apps check incoming calls for reports of spam or scams and stop them from making it through to your phone's ringer or voicemail. The apps also have a blacklist feature that allows you to stop any specific number from reaching you. On a personal note, I run both of these apps on my smartphone. I no longer am bothered by spam or scam calls.

Manage Your Passwords

If you have an email account, pay bills online, or even shop online, you probably have at least a half a dozen passwords. And, most likely, those passwords are different on each site—some websites want a capital letter and a number, other sites want two numbers and no special characters, and some still want a combination of capital letters, numbers, and special characters. News programs warn us against using the same password everywhere or writing passwords down. But it's not always easy to remember half a dozen (or more) unique passwords. The solution is as simple as signing up for a free password manager.

Dashlane is a free service (with paid premium services available) that allows you to generate strong passwords and store them securely, all the while making them available on every website where you need them without having to look anything up. The way it works is simple: Install Dashlane on your device and everytime you enter a password, Dashlane will ask if you'd like to store the password. The next time you visit that site, Dashlane will automatically log you in—no password required. Dashlane is available for all desktop browsers and has apps for both Android and iOS devices.

Put Your Voice in Command

Keypads on smartphones and tablets can be ridiculously small. We've spent our whole lives learning how to type with 10 fingers and suddenly we're back to the hunt and peck method, plucking letters one at a time from a keyboard the size of a credit card. It's time to stop the madness. Every mobile device from smartphone to tablet, from Android to iOs comes with a built-in microphone. And when you enter a text input field (like a search field or a text message reply) a microphone icon typically appears (often times at the bottom right of the screen). If you touch it, your device will start recording your voice and translating it to text. It's not always accurate but I'm consistently pleasantly surprised by how well it does. Voice command works great for performing searches—Google even has a microphone available on desktop browsers for quick searches—and for text messages.