Geek Tip: Work Together With Screen Sharing

The first time I used iChat's Screen Sharing feature was to help my mom figure out how to attach a photo in an email. Apparently, this whole technology thing still keeps my parents entertained, 'cause they told all of their friends what went down the next day. Since then, I've used screen share to collaborate on stories, photos, and of course, help my parents figure out how to spin up their www, aka, check their emails.

A sweet little feature from OS X Leopard, is screen-sharing capabilities, which are just a click away in your system preferences (under sharing). They'll allow you and the other user to share a screen, while letting you both participate. In the past, if someone "shared" your screen, you wouldn't be able to click around on your own. But Screen Sharing not only lets you iChat, but share ideas at the same time.

It comes in pretty handy on those times when you and a co-worker need to flesh out a design, approve photos, or even troubleshoot, but aren't in the same office. I know I get good use out of it with my family alone! Just call me Geek, IT Specialist!

Geek Tip: Organize Your Library With Delicious Monster

So lets say you have a trillion books that you've been collecting over the years (well, maybe not a trillion). Wouldn't it be great if you could have a virtual library where you can categorize, get recommendations for similar reads, sell your goods on Amazon, and even check out books to your friends — complete with a handy reminder of when to start pestering them to take their books back? It would be awesome, right?



Well, Delicious Monster has arrived to fulfill all of the above criteria. Using your Macs built-in iSight or a Bluetooth scanner, simply scan the bar code on the back of your books, and Delicious Monster will start creating your very own virtual library. To find out more, just

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Get Bouncing Bravia Bunnies on Your Cell Phone

What better way to count down to Spring and Easter then by having the Sony Bravia Bunnies hop across your cell phone?! Extending from the recent Bravia "Play-Doh" ad, Sony has designed a new moving animation screensaver of their Play-Doh bunnies available for download on your phone. To get the screensaver, download the video to your desktop and transfer the video to your phone via a USB cord. I can honestly say my phone is a virgin to screensavers, but I must admit that this one is so cute, I just have to test it out!

To see the bunnies in action,

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Geek Tip: Gridskipper's Gossip Girl Guide to New York

Look for Winter to get a lot colder Upper East Siders — Gossip Girl is not returning with any new episodes until the writers' strike is resolved. Until then, Gridskipper has created an interactive map for you lonely boys and girls, The Gossip Girl Guide to New York.

Whether you live in NYC, have a trip planned soon, or are merely enjoying the high life from your Second Life, you can see the real-life sites of Gossip Girl characters. Most of the hot cellphone-on-cellphone action takes place on the streets of New York and with this guide you'll be able to check out the cafe where Dan has his laptop sojourns, the historic Met where a juicy tip is discovered on a PDA, as well as the burlesque club where Blair performs the striptease that leads to her downfall.

And until the real Gossip Girl logs back on, get your fix with our past Gossip Girl tech quizzes!

Geek Tip: Permanently Deleting Pics From iPhoto

If your iPhoto is full of pics that you don't need and you want to free up some space on your hard drive, here's a quick fix that will instantly increase your storage space. When you are in iPhoto, click on the images you want to delete in the photo library. Most people make the common mistake of deleting images in an album that only deletes them from that album and not the entire library.

Don't ask me why but pictures are copied to albums, not moved, so essentially you will have two copies of a picture if it's in an album. Once you delete certain pics from your iPhoto library, make sure you empty the trash can as well to permanently delete!

10 Simple Tips For Getting Organized

While most of us jot down our New Year's resolutions in low tech notebooks and organizers there are billions of helpful websites and handy tech tips that can help us reach our goals.

If you spend your whole day in front of a computer or carry a PDA in your pocket or purse (meaning you have constant web and calendar access) you really don't have an excuse to be disorganized.

To check out my list of tips (and goals!) for keeping your schedule and life on track this year

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Geek Tip: How to Block Facebook Beacon

If you love Facebook, but hate their new Beacon feature that collects your online purchasing info, wikiHow has just posted step-by-step instructions that show you how to block Beacon and prevent it from collecting your browsing and buying activities. By installing a Firefox extension called Blocksite and following a few simple steps, your data will remain private, so you don't have to worry about Facebook spying on your every online move.Source

Simple Cell Tips That Can't Be Missed

We may have to wait until 2008 to test out Google's newly announced Android — an open platform for cell phones that includes an operating system, user-interface and applications that promise to make cell phone usage easier — but we can make use of our cell phones' many features in the mean time.

The easiest way to get the best out of your cell is to take care of it and play around with all of its functions. It's not just a texting, call making device, it's an attention worthy gadget. Follow these tips to a more connected life:

• Use Your Alarm!


• 
  
• Be a Text Message Champ


• Protect Your Phone From Damage


• Get Help on the Go!


• Get Your Del.icio.us Bookmarks On Your Cell

Geek Tip: The 25 Ultimate Gamer Vacations

I can't say I've ever been on a gamer vacation, even though I'm usually a "geek on vacation" on any trip. Nevertheless, for those of you who are ultimate gamers and need a fun getaway, Travelhacker compiled a list of some of the best cities, expos and conventions that are guaranteed to satisfy any gamer. Here are a few of my faves:

• Akihabara, Tokyo — The city of lights, electronics and gadgets galore, Akihabara is known as the "Gamer's Mecca"—being a hot spot for all things techie.


• World Cyber Games — The World Cyber Games is an international e-sports festival where more than one million visitors come every year. Gamers from all over the world participate in gaming competitions.


• Fan Expo Canada — Held in Toronto each year, the Fan Expo Canada covers everything from sci-fi, comic book, anime, horror, and gaming genres. Previously named "The Canadian National Comic Book Expo," it is now the largest pop culture convention in Canada.

Check out the full list for more geeky vacation ideas.

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Geek Tip: Take Great Halloween Pics

Taking great Halloween pictures may be easier than you think. Sure, you have to worry about lighting, making fake blood look real and hiding the fact that the kids can see through your best friend's "nurse costume," but that doesn't mean you can't get great pictures. Digital Photography School has put together a great list of tips that are sure to turn any silly fool into a terrifying ghoul. My favorite tips include:

• Candid Photos: Halloween parties and gatherings abide by the same photo principles as birthday parties. Make sure to play with light, choose fun angles and catch your subjects in unsuspecting moments.


• Group Photos: Sure it's fun to remember what you or your kids dressed up as for Halloween, but it's even more fun to see what the whole trick or treating bunch dressed up as. Make sure to get kids (and kids at heart) to pose in funny arrangements and really express the character they are dressed up as.


• Defuse Your Flash: According to the Digital Photography School, you should "defuse the flash on your camera with colored cellophane to try to lesson its impact upon your shot and also to give the light it produces a glow that might add to your shots - Red might be a good color to try."

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Geek Tip: Reading Emails Faster on Your BlackBerry

The amount of emails I get on my BlackBerry each day keeps increasing. I feel like I waste so much time scrolling through each message, deleting them, and then retrieving new ones. Here are a few tips from USA Today that will have you (and me) blasting through our inboxes in no time!

• When inside an email, click the N button to go to the 'next' message. This is much faster than exiting the email and then scrolling down to open the next one. You can also use this with photos as well.


• If you want to read a previous email, click the P button when inside of a message and you'll immediately see the "previous" one.


• And if you've scrolled all the way down a long email and want to go back to the top, just press the T button to move your cursor back to the "top" of the screen.
  

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Geek Tip: GOOG-411 Adds Free Telephone Directory Assistance

Google's 411 service is out of its experimental stage and is now a fully functioning service. Discussed on lifehacker, GOOG-411 is a fast and easy to use telephone directory assistance tool that you can use to connect you to local businesses for free. Looking for a restaurant? A specific store? Just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 and let Google take care of the rest. To learn more, check out the video below.

Simple Cell Phone Tips, Part 1: Use Your Alarm

As you've probably noticed, the pay phone booths of yesteryear have been replaced with free WiFi and cell phone charging stations. According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, in 2007, 81 percent of the U.S. population owned a cell phone, a 20 percent increase compared to 2002.

While we all use our beloved mobiles for phone calls, texting and even dating, we often overlook our phone's most simple functions and features. I've detailed some of my favorite cell phone tips in the past, but I decided to share a handful of easy ways to use your celly. For the first part in my new series,

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Geek Tip: Stay Tuned for Trillian for Mac Users

For those of you who are eagerly anticipating the release of Trillian for Macs, Cerulean Studios has just announced that it is in the process of developing a Mac OS X port for its software. Discussed on Mashable, Trillian for Macs will include all the features from the Windows, Flash and iPhone versions— allowing a user to load one program for multiple IM chat clients. So for those of you who want a change from Adium, Trillian may be your answer. Trillian for Macs is set to be released in the upcoming months when the user interface improves. Do you know a great shortcut or tip you think geeksugar readers should know? Share it in our 'How To' Help - Guide To All Things Geeky group,

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Geek Tip: Get Flickr Email Notifications

Having a flickr account is kinda like having an email account—you always have to check it for new messages, which can get very tedious. Thankfully flickr is now offering to send email notifications via email when people comment on your photos or when your contacts upload new photo—so you don't have to keep checking it. According to Lifehacker, this isn't a brand new feature, just something that has gone unnoticed by many! To change your account settings to receive notifications, sign into your flickr account, click on my account, then email and edit notifications. You will then see the screen below. Do you know a great shortcut or tip you think geeksugar readers should know? Share it in our 'How To' Help - Guide To All Things Geeky group,

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Geek Tip: Pimp Your BlackBerry To Look Like An iPhone

Wish you could change the user interface on your BlackBerry to look like the chic

iPhones? Thanks to technabob, we just learned that there's a new download called the bPhone that will do just this. The theme is compatible with the 8700, Pearl, Curve and 8800. Important: Before you go on a downloading frenzy, you MUST have BlackBerry OS 4.2.1 or later installed or else you may render your BlackBerry unusable! To check what OS you have, go to Options -> About on your phone. Get the bPhone download by clicking here!Do you know a great shortcut or tip you think geeksugar readers should know? Share it in our 'How To' Help - Guide To All Things Geeky group,

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