New gadget can connect your iPhone to a Smart TV
I always like to buy new gadgets that I find on Facebook or the Internet, and recently I bought two amazing products that are pretty cool.
The first one is called HDMI SmartCable for only $29 at Storebutterfly.com. This cable connects your iPhone up to the back of a Smart TV. When you turn a Smart TV on and switch the remote input to HDMI 1, everything on your iPhone screen appears on the TV. Turn your iPhone sideways, and it switches on the TV. But the best part is to zoom in on a photo. The resolution and clarity displayed on your TV set is nothing short of amazing.
Well, why buy this? The only other way to connect your iPhone to your TV is by buying an Apple TV Box for $199, a Linksys Router for $125 and Spectrum’s modem and Internet package for $69 a month. So add it up: $447 vs. $29? NO-BRAINER!
With this cable connected, you can play games, start your favorite apps, read e-mail and stream Netflix movies.
WAIT – don’t you put that pocketbook away just yet! The second cool thing I bought is called Xtra-pc. It’s found at Xtra-pc.com and costs only $34. Let’s say that your PC Windows computer crashed or won’t start up, or you forgot your password. You’re screwed. But with Xtra-pc, you can plug it in and be at a desktop with similar programs like Microsoft Word and Firefox in a split second. This is a must for everyone who will eventually encounter a system failure in Windows.
Plugging it in gives you similar programs, except you don’t have your Windows data like photos, music or documents. You’ll still be able to read and send e-mail, print any document you create and browse any website. So, until you can get Windows working again, use Xtra-pc.
What it looks like is a very small Smart Drive that you plug into any USB port. When you start up your Dell computer, keep pressing the F12 key until a menu pops up, then choose SanDisk. HP users need to press the F9 or ESC key.
Okay, let’s play Tag. This is a really cool trick to help you organize your files on the Mac. Let’s start with organizing your documents. Say you have a bunch of documents with different names, but all from your divorce lawyer. Just right-click on any one and choose a color. That tags the file with a colored circle. Go ahead and choose a few more and tag them with the same color. Now all your lawyer files have the same colored circle even though they aren’t in order.
You can do the same to your photos. Let’s say you want to tag all the beach photos the color blue that are spaced throughout your photo folder. Just right-click on any beach photo and choose BLUE.
Now, here is something even cooler to do, but we need to display the colored tags in the Finder Icon first (it’s located on the bottom left). This is easy to do: just click on the Finder Icon on the bottom left, then click on Finder on the top left of the screen. Choose Preferences, Sidebar, and at the bottom click on TAGS. Close the Finder window, click on Finder at the bottom left and presto – the colored tags all show up. Now the fun begins with all the tags you made. Click on the color you set for your lawyer docs, and they all appear (same with the beach photos). No more scrolling around trying to show all the beach pictures that took you an hour to find. They instantly appear!
Send your computer-related questions to mauimist8669@yahoo.com.