As Your Nerdy Best Friend, I get questions all the time about apps I’ve recommended, such as, “Hey, Beth… what was the app you said would remove backgrounds?”… Here are a few of my most frequent questions: How can I remove the background from a picture? I get this question at least once a week. It’s so easy and so …
Worth the Price: Prezi, WeVideo and Canva
Y’all know I specialize in finding free and super cheap tech tools to make our lives easier, but when I find a tool that is extra special helpful, I pony up the money for a full-featured version. In the last two weeks, I’ve upgraded three tools I used to use for free because they’ve evolved into awesome. Canva: Graphic Templates …
The Cutest Security Tool Ever
Most of the security tools I use are pretty serious-looking beasts: red and black logos, all-caps fonts and intimidating names. So when I saw the adorable elephant mascot for the privacy app called Jumbo, it took me a while to take it seriously. Jumbo Is the Privacy App You Need Now You have heard those warnings about all the things …
Upgrade Your Zoom Backgrounds
By now you may have discovered the cool little Zoom feature that lets you add a virtual background. When you click on your video icon in Zoom, the option pops up to choose a video or image for your background. You don’t even have to have a real green screen… Zoom will superimpose the background even over your messy office, …
Apps for Spring Discoveries: PlantSnap and Merlin Bird ID
Nerds like me don’t get out much (really not kidding about this one), but when I do enjoy the great outdoors, I take my tech with me. Here are some super-techy tools for outdoor activities. PlantSnap: AI Plant Identification App plantsnap.com Our home in Tennessee has about 2 acres, and when we first moved in, we had no idea what …
Two Alternatives to PowerPoint
For—I don’t know, 200 years?—the standard for presentations has been Microsoft’s PowerPoint. Ever since we dropped the overhead projector/transparency model, we’ve emphasized key points of our educational sessions with hard-to-read, badly designed bullet-point slides. Although PowerPoint is still the most popular program, it has become the software we love to hate. That’s why we’re always looking for alternatives. Prezi: Storytelling …
NerdWords Live: Tools to Engage Online
Now that we’re a work-from-home society, professionals are struggling to engage colleagues and participants online. Admit it: You’ve hosted and been on really.really.really boring webinars. So have I. My sister is a middle school teacher who is suddenly working to engage her budding teens online, and she’s actively seeking new tech to help. She keeps saying, “Oooo… have you heard …
Education Tools We Can All Use to Engage Online
I interviewed my sister, a middle school teacher, and her principal to discover great tech tools that schools are using to engage their students — ones that translate to the rest of us. First, watch the video here. And then come back here for the details. Pear Deck for Google Slides Activity Tool for Google Slidespeardeck.comFree basic version with individual …
Temporary Email Addresses to Manage Spam
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A page you visit teases you with an offer for a wonderful tip sheet, white paper or other resource, all for free if you just enter your email address. But your email address is one of the most valuable facts about you, and every time you give it out, you risk exposures …
Cybercrime and Scammers Infographic 2020
Protect yourself and your family against cybercrime and scammers with this handy infographic. Download and share! And then check out these top findings from the latest Internet Crime report from the FBI.
My favorite app of 2020: Otter.ai
Well we’ve barely started the new year, but I’ve declared Otter.ai my very favorite app of 2020. Otter is a meeting recording tool that transcribes in real time, even sweeping back through the conversation using artificial intelligence to clean everything up. Then you can review the written notes and click through to hear the audio wherever you want. It will …
Recipe Collection Apps: Your View
A random email from a community member sparked a fascinating conversation on Facebook about where to store recipes. Here’s the quick reference guide to all the ideas: Original Note: “I have long used (years) an app called Pepperplate to store my recipes. Pepperplate has been a free app that was supported by advertising. This month, they have decided to reinvent …
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