Feed: Technology Solutions and Software for Women - AggScore: 28.0

Fifty Shades of Grey: Is It “Mommy Porn” or Enhancing Sex Lives?

If you haven’t downloaded the Fifty Shades of Grey, I highly recommend that you do so. Not only does your beloved e-reader device deliver the goods to you in mere seconds, you don’t have to go out and actually get it yourself. And if you are planning to borrow it from the library – you might be out of luck.

A few libraries across the U.S. are actually BANNING the book from their shelves – in Wisconsin, Georgia, and Florida so far, and more may follow. The reasons stem not only from concerns that the book is too racy, but that it is poorly written as well. Really? Public libraries are now telling us what is too erotic to read, and also judging the quality of said writing too? Are we talking “Mommy Porn” here (not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Or is there? Some people claim the steamy book is enhancing the sex lives of the ladies who read it. Personally, I’ve read even steamier books. Maybe I’m jaded, but think putting the “Mommy Porn” label on it is ridiculous.

If you are not familiar with the book yet (where have you been girl?) Fifty Shades is about a college woman who falls for a very handsome, very wealthy, and very powerful man who just happens to be into bondage and other goodies. The author E.L. James first self-published the book as an e-reader, and after it gained a huge following, it was published traditionally and the second and third books quickly followed. Many women (myself included) downloaded the e-reader version. I only read on my Kindle these days, but many people feel more comfortable reading a novel like this with a little more privacy. I did purchase the paperback for a friend’s birthday, and got a lot of unsolicited comments from the Target cashier! Good thing I’m not shy, and my kids were not with me.

I can’t see that banning these books can do any major harm to the already immensely popular trilogy, although it may be harder for some people without e-readers to get access it if they don’t want to buy the paperbacks. If anything, it’s just drawing attention to them and making them even more popular. For the e-reader-less, it will probably be like Judy Blume’s book “Forever”. One dog-eared copy made its way through to every one of my friends in grade school, and that book was banned plenty.

So if you got that Kindle you wanted for Mother’s Day – download it from Amazon and you are all set to decide for yourself. Just don’t count on it being available at your local library. Even if it is – you’re going to wait a while for it!

Have you read Fifty Shades of Grey yet? Do you think it’s Mommy Porn?

Spring Clean Your Facebook Friend List

Spring cleaning time is here, and I want you to take a moment and look around. No, not at your house – you can pay someone else to come in and spring clean that bad boy. I’m talking about your friend list on Facebook. It’s a mess, and it’s time you cleaned it up. You’ll thank me later.

When Facebook just got going for me and my friends, we were all happily married (or just getting married) and most of us had babies already (or were just starting to have babies) —  and we all got a little carried away with the accepting-all-sorts-of-friend-requests-we-probably-should-not-have.

Here’s a rough list of people you can probably consider deleting, if their mere presence keeps you from wanting to share things or if you just don’t connect with them.

Old school “friends”. At first, it’s fun to see what some people from high school and college are up to. But if you didn’t stay in touch after school, you probably won’t have a lot in common on Facebook either, so be careful who you accept friend requests from. While we are at it, stop looking up your old boyfriends too. If you must — just peek at their profile picture and move on.

Old co-workers. I must have friended 30 or so people I used to work with. Out of that amount, I say only 10 are considered friends and that I interact with in real life or Facebook. Why am I keeping the others around?

Toxic family members. If they drive you crazy on national holidays, they’ll drive you crazy on Facebook too. Delete them if you felt like you had to request them. If you can’t quite go that far, make sure you don’t include them on your status updates…go to your privacy options to set that up. I do that all the time and no one is the wiser.

People from that boot camp place you went to over three years ago. Yeah…and never went back when the month from hell was over. Delete!

Anyone over-zealous about the upcoming election. Or at the very least – hide them from your news feed! No one can take that from now until November.

How does your list look? Delete, delete, delete.

Three Reasons Why You Need Anti-Malware Software

Although most of us think that getting hacked won’t happen to us, it does happen. All the time. Sometimes it’s obvious – if you see your friend on Facebook posting odd things, you can give a shout out to her that her account has been compromised. Other times it’s more subtle – resulting in your personal information being stolen (along with your identity). Here’s three reasons why it’s worth utilizing anti-malware software to keep yourself safe online.

1. You usually find the cyber criminals yourself – not vice versa. Cyber criminals generally don’t attack people who have security measures installed because either they can’t, or it’s too much work to do so. Here’s how they do find you: you come to them. They utilize malicious links hoping you will click on them – and when you do, that one click can release all sorts of malware into your computer.

2. You probably wouldn’t notice if your computer was infected. Often – but not always – it can be difficult to detect spyware or other malicious software that is installed by others. This is exactly what hackers want, so they can go about hacking your accounts in peace! By the time you notice, major damage can be done to your computer and/or your personal information can be stolen.

3. You can spread malicious software to others. If your PC becomes infected with malware, not only can it do a number on your own computer, but it can also spread the damage along to other machines. Cyber criminals can rummage through your e-mail contacts, sending them e-mails with infected links to keep the scam growing. It can be pretty successful too – because it looks like a legitimate e-mail coming from a trusted friend (you). If it is your Facebook account that is hacked into, the hackers can use your Status Update to spread links on your Wall or through Messages, and again — it will come across as you sending it, and that it can be trusted.

Running a good anti-malware program like Chica PC-Shield™ makes it very hard for the cyber criminals to get to you. The free version of Chica PC-Shield™ will tell you if your computer is already infected, quarantines any malware it finds, then destroys it. Even better is the full version – it prevents you from clicking on suspicious links in the first place, and provides you with continuous updates so you are protected, even from the most recent malware release. That’s peace of mind.

How To Make Facebook Timeline Look Like Pinterest

Most of us have made the switch over to the new Facebook Timeline by now, or are due to be on board with it at any time whether we like it or not. While some of us love it (I do, I admit I like it) many, many, or you don’t, and would do anything to go back to the old way. Or at least – try anything new to get something else going instead.

PinView may be just be the thing to improve the Timeline experience for some of you. Part of the fun of Pinterest is how visually appealing it is – and you can easily navigate your way around to different things, exploring. PinView is a new Facebook application that seeks to make your Timeline experience a little more friendly – and a lot more like Pinterest. The PinView developers want you to “browse Facebook like you browse Pinterest”. That sounds good, right?

Download PinView like any other Facebook app. It will take your usual News Feed and arrange it like a Pinterest page, with a “board” for each section so you can sort through updates by viewing all of them, or filtering by pictures or videos or whatever. An orange ribbon on the top right hand side of the post indicates “Likes”. I have to say that while it isn’t my cup of tea, it does make Facebook look – well, pretty.

The application launched last week and is just getting going, and the developers are planning some big changes in the near future. It won’t cause any permanent changes to your Timeline, so you can go back to the old way if you like too, or check back and see what they’ve added.

Do you like Facebook Timeline? Would you try PinView?

Looking for Your Next Opportunity? This Is It!

Everyone could use some extra money to pay off bills, take a vacation, or just to enjoy life a little more. Here’s the best way to increase your own bank account. If you have a website or even a blog, you can start making money right away. Become a Partner with ChicaLogic™.

All you need to do is put up an image and a link, and your visitors do the rest.  It’s easy, and we’re here to help you every step of the way. And best of all, there is no investment on your part — just a bit of your time.

ChicaLogic™ has the programs we all need: award-winning software that helps people with everything they do online every day. Choose from Chica Password Manager™ which organizes and secures your passwords, Chica PC-Fix™ which is a system cleaner and performance optimizer, Chica PC-Shield™ which is the most secure protection for your computer, or choose all three. Our products are intuitively designed with a woman’s needs and workflow in mind. No hassles, no guesswork, no technical jargon — just straightforward and to the point.

Your commission starts at 40%, and once you’re approved we’ll show you how to get even more. We have a library of content available for you to use, and as an international organization we can also provide software and content in other languages.

It’s free to join, easy to sign-up and requires no technical knowledge. Don’t miss this opportunity! Our Partners are making money right now. If you’d like to join them in success, look into our Affiliate Program and start making money too.

Justin Bieber Scam on Pinterest

So you are going about your day, working, drinking coffee, Facebooking, drinking more coffee, Pinning (maybe this is just how I spend my days) — and you suddenly see on Pinterest a link that says “OMG I’ve Officially Seen it All! Exclusive J Bieber XXX Tape!” Oh my.

No of course Justin isn’t naked…but it is yet another attempt to get people to click on the link just to be sure…and then instead of seeing Justin all nude-and-pookie, you get a nice dose of malware in your computer. Ouch. Pinterest is becoming a growing target for cyber criminals, mainly because it is so popular and people haven’t caught on to their cyber shenanigans yet. Here’s what IT-Crime says is going on:

“In this case if you click on the picture, you will be redirected to a Facebook page, which will then try to lead you through a maze of questionnaires. It’s called social engineering. The general objective of social engineering is the same as with “ordinary” hacking, which is to gain unauthorized access to information.”

Thankfully Pinterest is working on a solution to make it harder for cyber criminals to get to you, In the meantime, make sure to protect yourself. If you fell for it or accidently clicked on the link – do damage control immediately. Run a free scan of Chica PC-Shield™ – it will quickly tell you if there is any malware on your PC, then will help you get rid of it. Sometimes you don’t even know your computer is infected until it starts doing odd things – and by then, you could have serious damage. Even better – get the full version and be automatically blocked from entering malicious sites in the first place, and you’ll get continuous updates of even the latest malware releases.

Have you seen this scam on Pinterest yet?

Fake Angry Birds Space for Android Devices May Contain Malware

Dear chicas, please do be careful where you are downloading your apps from for your Android devices. Recently there have been reports of fake versions of Angry Birds Space being downloaded with devastating results.

What happens if you download a fake version? It looks like it’s running the game, but it’s also downloading more and more malware into your device, eventually rendering it into a botnet — taking over your device completely. According to Sophos, the malware is a Trojan horse Andr/KongFu-L, which “appears to be a fully-function version of the popular smartphone game, but uses the GingerBreak exploit to gain root access to the device, and install malicious code. The Trojan communicates with a remote website in an attempt to download and install further malware”.

How can you protect yourself? Make sure you are downloading apps directly from the Play store, and download only the official version of the game. It’s never a good idea to trust third-party apps stores. Even better — download VIRUSfighter for Android devices from SPAMfighter. It’s an application that scans every app you download for malware. A little added peace of mind – and it’s free. Try it now.

How to Increase Your Productivity While Using Your PC

I have an “instant gratification takes too long” type of personality, so I’m definitely not one to tolerate my computer slowing me down. Anything that will make my life easier or make my gadgets work better and faster and I’m all over it.

That being said, sometimes my own laptop seems to be working against me, slowing me down. At any given time, I have a million windows open, or I’m busy Skyping and checking multiple e-mail accounts and adding to blogs. I don’t have the time to wait and I hate being slowed down! Here are a couple of things I do to get my laptop working faster, so I can too.

Clean Up Your Computer. Run a quick scan of ChicaPC-Fix, and in minutes it will scan your PC and tell you just what is slowing it down, whether it’s duplicate files, empty registry keys, program shortcuts or any other weird computer error – then it will fix them for you in seconds. I run a scan weekly and I’m always surprised at how many computer errors pop up – even after just a week!

Use password management software. If you have so many logins and passwords you can’t remember them all (and who doesn’t?) get help. Chica Password Manager will allow you to create un-hackable, long and strong passwords and then store them for you in the encrypted database with just one Master Password to remember. It will automatically securely log you in to any password-protected site you use, and even fills in online forms for you with one-click. Not only are you more secure online, but you don’t have to spend your day typing in — and trying to remember — a million passwords.

Boost your own productivity — for a limited time, get both ChicaPC-Fix and Chica Password Manager together for just $21.95! Get it now.

Tax Apps Make Doing Your Taxes Easier

April showers bring May flowers…and April also brings the dreaded deadline for filing your yucky taxes. If you haven’t done yours yet and you aren’t planning on filing an extension, you have just enough time to get moving and get ‘em done. Here’s a few of the best apps out there to help you get the job done fast so you can get on with your life (and get that refund check on its way to you!)

Get organized. Sometimes it’s not the task at hand that’s boggling, it’s getting all the things you need together to do it, especially true with taxes. This app gives you a checklist to ensure you’ll have everything you need at your fingertips to properly prepare your taxes. Later on, you can use the app to check on the status of your electronically filed return.

TaxACT Central for Free iPhone, iTouch and iPad

TaxACT Central for Free for Android

File simple returns fast and easily. If you plan on filing a 1040 EZ form, it doesn’t get much easier than this app. TurboTax SnapTax allows you to take a smartphone photo of your W2 to import all of your information. Answer a few more questions, review the final return, and it files electronically for you. It’s free to download the app, pay if you use the app to file.

TurboTax SnapTax for iPhone — $24.99

TurboTax SnapTax for Android — $24.99

Get help if you need it. Sometimes, it all gets a little complicated, and you may need a little advice. If you don’t have your own accountant, you can find last minute help with H&R Block’s mobile app. Not only will you be able to search through a glossary of tax terms, but there’s also a large FAQ area for instant answers. Still need help? You’ll be able to easily find someone in your area to help you out in-person, and even schedule the appointment right from the app.

H&R Block  – Free for iPhone and iPad

H&R Block – Free for Android

Have you done your taxes yet?

Don’t Buy a New Computer – Optimize the One You Have

If your computer is driving you crazy and you’re tempted to throw it out the window and go get a new one, wait! A few simple steps can get your beloved PC or laptop back to the machine it once was, and regular maintenance will ensure it will continue running efficiently for years. Here’s help for the most common complaints.

My computer takes forever to boot up, and then runs so slow I’m going crazy. If you can go for a run and get back before your computer boots up, it’s full of clutter that is slowing it down. The brain of your computer – the Registry – becomes overloaded over time with duplicate files, unneeded and large files, and computer errors. Running a free scan of ChicaPC-Fix will tell you in minutes exactly what is slowing your computer down with a detailed report. Then it will fix the first 25 errors for free. Even better? The full version will fix unlimited errors. Running ChicaPC-Fix weekly will ensure your Registry won’t become bogged down again with all those unnecessary files.

My computer is acting weird. If your computer is doing some odd things, it may have picked up a virus or another bit of malware somewhere. Run a free scan of ChicaPC-Shield, and it will quickly find any hidden malware lurking on your computer, then quarantine and destroy it. Go a step further with the full version, and automatically be blocked from malicious sites and get continuous updates.

Remember to take the time to update Windows. Even though it’s a pain to reboot at the end, it’s an important of your computer maintenance. Everything from security patches to new software updates are included in these Updates, and you will want to have the latest version of everything running on your machine. Don’t forget to uninstall any programs you don’t use too – don’t let unnecessary items take up valuable space.

Mere minutes a week will keep your computer – and yourself – happy!