Category: Guides

  • Buy a smartphone with a “bad ESN” for cheap entertainment

    When scouring Craigslist or eBay for a good deal on a used smartphone, a lot of people avoid listings that say “bad ESN.” In the simplest of terms, this means that the phone is banned from being activated with a carrier, so it wouldn’t be able to make calls or send and receive text messages.…

  • Gaming on a budget: An exhaustive guide

    Gaming is expensive, plain and simple. With the price of a new game being around $60, it’s hard to justify spending that kind of money on a new title that you really want when your budget can’t compete with it. However, with a few tips and simple methods that you can keep in mind, you’ll…

  • Gmvault: A quick way to fully backup and restore your Gmail account

    I have always been reliant on my Gmail account for all of my personal electronic correspondence — it’s the primary link between me and my networked and integrated world. Over the years, it has accumulated a considerable amount of important (and equally unimportant) emails. If I rely so heavily on my Gmail account, why has…

  • How to thoroughly clean your keyboard

    After realizing that I’ve never cleaned my Logitech K340 keyboard since I got it a couple of years ago, I’ve been wondering what kind of hidden infestation lied underneath those keys. And I’m about to find out as I venture my way towards a clean keyboard. Knowing our readers here at Techerator, we’d assume that…

  • How to setup corporate email on Android using MailDroid

    If your employer uses web-based email and you have an Android device, then no doubt are you wanting to access your work email on your Android smartphone or tablet. MailDroid is a great app that will allow you do so, and I’m going to show you how to set it up. Be aware that there is a Pro version of…

  • Multiple monitor improvements are coming to Windows 8

    The Consumer Preview of Windows 8 was a bit of a nightmare when used on multiple monitors with the taskbar stretched across both displays, and offered no obvious reasoning behind the odd design. Luckily for us (meaning the collective Windows user base), Microsoft has confirmed via their Windows 8 Blog that positive changes will be coming to…

  • Microsoft Office 365: Reasons for Caution

    I came very close to calling this article “Why Office 365 Sucks.” I refrained from doing so because I think the cloud-based office collaboration suite CAN be a good fit for some small businesses. However, as an IT consultant working with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), I will think very carefully before I let it…

  • Manage your to-do list on Android, iOS, and Chrome with Any.DO

    Any.DO started as an Android-only solution to the public’s to-do list blues, and it did a damn good job of cheering us up. As a result, Any.DO became a both popular and critically acclaimed app by tech blogs everywhere. Personally, I’ve been a regular user of Any.DO for the past six months or so and…

  • How to identify planes and planets with your mobile phone

    Last Saturday found our family sitting outside on a warm evening, relaxing after a barbecue. The sky was so clear that we were able to clearly make out two contrails and the shape of an aircraft. This was way above our heads and clearly not a plane using the local airport. While my relatives discussed…

  • Microsoft Says Farewell to Aero Glass in Windows 8

    When I first booted up into Windows 8 with my beloved Samsung Focus mobile phone at my side, I was appalled by the jarring visual differences when switching back and forth from the Metro start screen to the traditional Windows desktop view. On one hand, there was this amazingly simple Start screen with a bold…