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Apple Care Protection Plan
by Seven17
Given that apple usually bring out about 7 new devices within a 2 year period, I'm surprised they offer it for so long given the fact that they need to keep producing the older models in order to keep up with replacement demand. I highly suspect someone is keeping a supply chain open in China solely for this purpose, even though you ... can't buy brand new ones out the box for your generation. That's where AppleCare comes in.
Their phone support for the AppleCare is excellent, they talk to you like a human, they answer your questions without resorting to jargon nonsense and assist you in a polite and friendly manner. I spoke to Americans on the phone as well as Brits who all seemed to offer support diligently and often resolved my problems within minutes.
In the pack you get a billion booklets and bits of paper that I'm never going to read, and finally, a sticker with a small print code on. This is all you need. You know how Microsoft Points and Xbox Live codes come in elaborate packaging with incredible amounts of nonsense and promotional material, and you just throw it all away because they only thing you bought it for was the small print code on the back of the redeemable card? Well that's the applecare pack, but much, much worse with more clutter. Good news though, it is all paper and therefore, recyclable.
To set up you just need to unwrap the packaging, sift through the millions of leaflets, instruction books, disclaimers, warranty notices, and usual palaver before getting to the activation code on the back, which is a sticker with about 4 billion numbers and letters. Simply activate this online and within seconds, your device is covered. I found it was easy to do this, but hard to find my way around the apple care help pages on the Apple website, since they seem to have a separate page for absolutely everything. Pages aren't that long, so while it reduces clutter, it also means you have to do stuff the long way round.
The replacement or repair service can be done in store and you get an email to inform you that your device is covered immediately from the moment you activate. You can then take your device to an Apple Store if it breaks down in future and the staff will happily repair or replace it. I have had several iPads, all replacements and no repairs made. They just accept your iPad as damaged if it's through wear and tear, and within minutes they give you a new one free of charge. First gen tech is always glitchy, mind you, my third gen iPad is not the best...
This is always expensive on the Apple store but you can find "unwanted gifts" of this stuff floating around somewhere on eBay or Amazon. They're all new and unopened and all a lot cheaper than from the official Apple website.
Overall a great service, I highly recommend this as insurance, because their repair or replacement service out of warranty, is very costly indeed.
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SnagIt
by anonymili
I've been using SnagIt since 2006 and felt it was about time I shared my thoughts on this fabulous utility which I don't think I'd be able to do without on my PC.
WHAT IS IT?
SnagIt is a screen capture application created and distributed by the TechSmith Corporation (a US software company). SnagIt has been ... around since the early 90s although personally I've been using it only since 2006 or so. Some people refer to the main feature of SnagIt as a "screen dump" or "screen shot" or just "screen print" - whichever YOU use, hopefully this will convince you of the advantages of this software program.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
Ever wanted to copy something off your screen and save as an image file without using the Print Screen feature on your keyboard? SnagIt allows you to capture specific areas of your screen without having to crop the bits you don't want. All you do with your SnagIt application is open it, click the "Capture" button and then click and drag your mouse over the specific area you want to "capture". Once you've selected your desired area, you will now see a new screen entitled "SnagIt Capture Preview" where you see your captured screen dump on the screen. You will now be able to do a variety of things such as saving your screen dump with a variety of formats such as:
* PDF
* GIF
* JPG
* SWF
* PNG
* TIF
* BMP
* MHT
Etc
Most of the items I save with SnagIt I tend to save a JPG files so I can open separately within paint.net (or similar app) and make any further changes if necessary.
As well as being able to screen capture static parts of your screen there are other more in-depth features that SnagIt has such as the ability to screen capture a scrolling screen. When you use the "Print Screen" feature you only get what's visible on your current screen, SnagIt is cleverer than that in that you can enable different profiles (or options to capture) such as Region (the most basic SnagIt function as already mentioned above, i.e. capturing a rectangular selected region on the screen), Window (captures the "window" on the desktop), Full Screen (captures the entire desktop), Scrolling Window (captures a scrolling window from top to bottom) and Web Page (this allows you to capture the scrolling window as well as keeping the web links available within the image that you've captured).
There are other more complex profiles such as:
* Scrolling window to PDF
* Menu with time delay
* Object
* Images from Web page
* Text from window
* Record screen video
Within each Profile you are also able to change the Profile's settings including colour depth, colour correction, image resolution, etc. I find leaving the default settings as they are have never caused me any particular issues so I tend not to try to fiddle around with the defaults, after all, as they say: "If it aint broke, don't try to fix it"!
WHY USE IT?
There can be many reasons for wanting to use an application like SnagIt but for me one of the main reasons is that I sometimes write and edit processes and training materials in my work and the easiest way to write training materials so they'll be easily understood is to include examples. When you're creating training materials to describe how to use a particular software package, for example, it's handy to include what icon someone would need to click on for a particular feature or what popup window appears if you select a feature.
The fabulously robust profile system allows you do so much more with your screen capture needs from capturing a single region screen capture (the most commonly used) to organising and editing your actual captures for ease of use and reference.
I could go on here and list various other reasons for using this utility but would not want you to fall asleep, I hope I've covered the main areas of what you can do with this very handy tool.
EASE OF INSTALLATION
As with most software products these days, the installation was very easy and self-explanatory. On screen instructions for set up are user-friendly and shouldn't even confuse the least technical amongst you.
As I installed this software several years ago, I cannot remember exactly how long it took but having upgraded my laptop about 2 or 3 years ago, I recall finding it very easy to re-install on my new machine without any trouble at all.
HOW IS IT RATED?
My rating of SnagIt is simply 5 out of 5. I simply can't fault it. But if you don't believe me; have a look at technical reviews online for best screen capture software (and this doesn't include free applications). SnagIt pretty much comes 1st in all of those lists.
Here are some of the places that rate it number one:
http://screen-capture-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://lifehacker.com/5218155/five-best-screen-capture-tools (check the poll results at bottom of article)
Or just type into Google "best screen capture software" and your number one result will come up with www.techsmith.com/Snagit
COST
The best things in life are sadly not always free, and SnagIt definitely isn't free. You can find 1 month trial versions all over the internet, might I suggest using a reputable site such as download.cnet.com or from the techsmith.com website itself for a 30 day trial to see if it's something you feel you would find useful. At the time of writing SnagIt is retailing at just under £37 with upgrades costing around £18.50. I must admit that I haven't bothered upgrading for quite a few years now as the version I use (8.0.1) suits my needs fine and I don't really want to spend just under £20 to upgrade at this time.
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Skype
by atanalltimelow
Skype is possibly one of the most unknown popular Social Networking programs as it is forever being knocked down by big names such as Twitter and Facebook, this is most likely because most people don't understand the advantage of having Skype.
Skype gives people the chance all over the world to speak to their friends and family in ... separate countries and time zones other than their own, whether it be through text, video or phone call.
Skype is basically a very advanced version of Instant Messenger MSN, with it's incredibly professional layout and easy accessibility, Skype is known to very rarely crash and provides instant updates frequently.
I personally use Skype to talk to my Friends from work and friends I have made online, it's very helpful when you want to give someone a way of contacting you fast and being able to talk more on a personal level.
The use of Video chat also helps when you want to talk to someone overseas without having to worry about call rates and charges.
I highly recommend Skype to everyone, more and more people are getting it everyday and it's possibly one of the best Social Networking programs out there!
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