Happy 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…
Read MoreImagine you are a sales manager who spent the last 10 minutes reading an article that discussed some helpful sales tips. If you decide to send the article to 10 others, about 100 minutes of reading time will cumulatively be invested by all who received your message. If you continue to send articles to others,…
Read MoreWASHINGTON—CoStar Group Inc. reported on Sunday that it had reached an agreement to acquire Homesnap, Inc. for $250 million in cash. Homesnap is an industry-leading online and mobile software platform that provides user-friendly applications to optimize residential real estate agent workflow and reinforce the agent-client relationship. More than 300,000 agents nationwide use the application an…
Read MorePhrase Express (Windows, Mac & iOS) is one of my favorite and most used software applications. I use the application to help me quickly insert commonly used text(s) into e-mails, text messages, documents, online posts, and just about anywhere I need to enter text. Sometimes I use Phrase Express to help me insert as little…
Read MoreIf you live in an area where your mobile phone's reception is weak or unreliable, you may be able to improve things by using your phone's "Wi-Fi calling" feature. Fortunately, most mobile phones have a Wi-Fi calling feature built-in, but unfortunately, it's not always enabled by default. If you're unfamiliar with Wi-Fi calling and would…
Read MoreComputer file management can be challenging! For example, what can you do if you want a file to exist in multiple locations (folders), but you don't want to create and manage duplicate files. The following links will lead you to articles that will introduce you to file labeling/tagging and symbolic links, which might be a…
Read MoreARROYO GRANDE, CA—The Board of Managers of the National Broker Portal, a joint venture between Broker Public Portal (BPP) and Homesnap, announced on Sept. 9 that Joseph Rand of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate|Rand Realty of Nanuet has been named executive director of the Broker Public Portal with Homesnap. Rand will remain the Chief…
Read MoreMost popular web browsers now use "tabs." Web browser tabs enable you to have multiple webpages loaded within a single window and easily switch between them. An underutilized tab-related feature that you should familiarize yourself with is the ability to "pin" tabs. When you pin web browser tabs, they become locked so that they stay…
Read MoreEditor’s Note: With this column, John Vrooman has logged 20 years as the Computer Technology columnist for Real Estate In-Depth. Siri is the name of the voice-controlled personal assistant that's available on Apple devices that run iOS, watchOS, macOS, and tvOS. Although Siri has been around for a decade now, it's still underutilized by many.…
Read More"Googling" for answers to questions is common and can often be achieved. However, there are times when a question needs to be further qualified and explained. When that situation arises, I would suggest you consider asking your question(s) at Reddit.com and/or Quora.com. Both sites are wide-ranging in focus, so most questions can likely be answered…
Read MoreWASHINGTON— CoStar Group, Inc., a leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces, announced today that it plans to acquire Ten-X for $190 million in cash. Ten-X was launched in 2009 with the goal of providing a digital transaction platform for effectively liquidating the large volume of distressed commercial real estate assets…
Read MoreGrr!! Managing social media privacy settings isn't easy. Staying current with social media services', privacy-related settings, and options is challenging. While most social media services do supply adequate amounts of information about their service's privacy options, many users don't take the time to read and work their way through everything. The result of this situation…
Read MoreTo get the most out of your laptop computer, consider getting a "docking station." Docking stations enable you to quickly and easily connect your laptop computer to things such as external monitors, wired networks, USB devices (e.g. printers, scanners, webcams, flash drives, keyboards, mice, etc.), SD/MicroSD memory cards and more. Since everyone's computers and needs…
Read MoreThe Close is the name of a real estate-focused website founded in 2017. If you are not familiar with the site, the following two paragraphs come from the site's "About Us" web page that describes the type of content the site has... "The Close is a new kind of real estate site designed to give…
Read MoreMicrosoft recently released a new version of its Microsoft Edge web browser. This latest version of the product is based on the Chromium rendering engine. What this means is you can now install extensions available in Google Play (Google's app/extension store) into Microsoft Edge! To date, the new Microsoft Edge reviews I've come across have…
Read MoreI recently stumbled upon and explored the BinaryMark.com (a software company's) website. I was impressed with both the variety and capabilities of their various software solutions. In particular, my interest was captured by their various image, document, and file processing software solutions that provide "batch processing" capabilities. For example, if you want to resize and/or…
Read MoreWhen switching to a new phone, the issue of migrating old phone information to a new phone is a common concern. Fortunately, in recent years, the process has become much easier. Even the process of switching platforms (migrating from an Android phone to an Apple iOS phone, and vice versa) has become much easier. Some…
Read MoreIf you use social media as part of your overall marketing arsenal, do investigate what social media marketing/management software and services are available to you. Cumulatively, this is a deep and broad topic that includes options that can vary in cost and sophistication. If this topic interests you, an efficient way to get started is to…
Read MorePocket Casts is the name of my favorite podcast management and player app (a.k.a. a "podcast client" or "podcatcher"). I've been using Pocket Casts for years (on both Android and iOS devices) and I'm encouraging everyone to check it out. Historically, the app hasn't been available for free, but now it is. Why the change?…
Read MoreOver time, Google Maps (both desktop and mobile app versions) continues to improve. Unfortunately, as features are added, changed, moved, etc., it can be a challenge to stay up to date. Fortunately, I recently came across an article at makeuseof.com titled "17 Google Maps for Android Tricks That’ll Change How You Navigate." Although the article…
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