CHICAGO—The National Association of Realtors has announced that Rental Beast is its exclusive recommended software provider in the rental space. Under the agreement with the Somerville, MA-based firm, NAR members receive free access to “Apply Now by Rental Beast,” the secure FCRA-compliant online rental application and tenant screening engine. “NAR Realtor Benefits aims to provide…
Read MoreWHITE PLAINS—The Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors and the staff of Real Estate In-Depth regret to inform the membership and newspaper readership of the passing of John Vrooman, who died suddenly on June 5, 2022, at the age of 57 in upstate Lewiston, NY. John authored “Tech Talk” in HGAR’s monthly newspaper Real Estate In-Depth…
Read MoreThese days, many people share information using video. Unfortunately, the content within videos that needs to be shared/highlighted is often just a portion of the whole video. Vibby is a web service that can help in these situations. How? By enabling you to identify video snippets (start and stop points within videos) and be able…
Read MoreMicrosoft Editor is a tool that can help you improve your writing. Fortunately, if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, you already have access to the premium edition of this useful tool. If you are not yet familiar with Microsoft Editor, the following descriptive snippets were taken from the tool's home page… “Get intelligent writing…
Read MoreDo you have an old laptop that is just sitting around, taking up space, and collecting dust? If so, consider converting it into a Chromebook! I've been curious about Chromebooks for years and just recently decided to act on my curiosity. The solution I used can be found here...neverware.com. What is a Chromebook? Many of…
Read MoreText Blaze is a powerful Google Chrome web browser extension that everyone should learn more about and evaluate. Why? Because the extension offers its users features and capabilities that can improve productivity and professionalism. The following text snippets come from the product's website… “Save any "snippet" of text in Text Blaze as a template and…
Read MoreUnlike Windows 10, Windows 11 has higher than usual hardware compatibility requirements that many PC are not able to meet (and therefore do not qualify for the upgrade). Fortunately, Microsoft has left some pathways open for users of many non-compatible PCs to still be able to install the upgrade. Unfortunately, the upgrade process is more…
Read MoreAre your Chrome Browser’s bookmarks a mess? If so, consider installing and using a Chrome Browser extension called “Bookmarks Clean Up.” The following text comes from the product’s description page: “This extension allows you to find and delete duplicate bookmarks, empty folders, merge folders with the same name (within the same path), find no longer…
Read MoreEach year, the utopian goal of getting to a “paper-free” situation in the workplace (and/or at home) keeps getting closer. Unfortunately, we are still not there yet. Meanwhile, I thought I would share a few tips that can help you convert many of your current hard copy documents (that may be piling up somewhere) into…
Read MoreNew York State maintains online information and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding both, the Excelsior Pass and Excelsior Pass Plus (proof of Covid-19 vaccination) apps. While you may not have an immediate need to know more about the different versions of the Excelsior Pass, I would encourage you to take some time to…
Read MoreThis month’s COVID-19 “authoritative information” page is the CDC’s “COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Shot” webpage. Since many (particularly older) Realtors were vaccinated early on, and now there is a lot of talk regarding “Booster shots” and “third doses,” I thought now would be a good time to point everyone to a CDC.gov webpage that discusses these…
Read MoreThis month I am going to start by focusing attention on New York State’s Excelsior Pass, and Excelsior Pass Plus webpage and related/companion Smartphone app. The blocks of descriptive text below come from the following webpage… https://epass.ny.gov/home (I suggest you bookmark this webpage on all your computers and devices.) What is Excelsior Pass? Excelsior Pass…
Read MoreWASHINGTON—Realtors view drones and cyber security as the most impactful emerging technologies to their business, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors released on Aug. 3. NAR's 2021 Technology Survey examined NAR members' current tech usage and attitudes about the future of real estate technology. In addition to drones (37%) and…
Read MoreBack on June 24th, 2021, Microsoft unveiled its next operating system “Windows 11.” Although this new operating system is not scheduled to become available until this fall, Microsoft has announced the minimum computer hardware specifications/requirements for this new version of Windows. As I am writing this, Microsoft has not yet formally released its “PC Health…
Read MoreDid you know that in many cases you can send a Smartphone user a text message by e-mail? If this is news to you and you would like to learn more about it, please review the following article that I found at digitaltrends.com titled “How to send a text message from your e-mail account.” Here…
Read MoreIn my experience, most computer users (myself included) do not fully utilize their computer’s mouse and/or touchpad capabilities. Since mouse and touchpad settings are usually hidden from view, they often remain unknown and unused (out of sight, out of mind). To help you discover all that your mouse and touchpad has to offer the following…
Read MoreWhen it comes to mute buttons on computers, they are often found on a computer’s keyboard and are usually configured to mute audio that is playing from speakers. However, these days, increasing numbers of people are using audio and video conferencing applications that sometimes do not provide a quick and easy way for users to…
Read MoreOften the help you need can be found at HGAR.com! When was the last time you explored (or re-explored) the site? There’s helpful information, news, resources and more to be (re)discovered. If you don’t have the time or interest in doing a deep dive at the site, consider at least visiting (and bookmarking) the following…
Read MoreIt’s time for some friendly reminder nudges... 1) Is it time to back up your computer(s) and other devices? 2) Is it time to check for operating system and software/app updates? 3) Is it time to do some computer and other device maintenance activities? 4) When was the last time you ran a full antivirus/malware…
Read MoreHappy New Year! Before jumping back into things, as usual, I want to first mention some random, but exciting and consequential topics that I've been following, and would encourage you to consider following as well. The topics are: Quantum Computing; Protein Folding; Artificial Intelligence (a.k.a. "AI"); Augmented Reality (a.k.a. "AR"); Solid-State Batteries; and CES 2021…
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