On June 12, 2009 the US FCC officially switched over-the-air television signals from analog to digital. When this change took effect, older TVs that received signals through antennas needed to be connected either to a cable TV service or to a special converter box. Television manufacturers are now required to build digital tuners into the TV set. There are multiple ways to determine if your TV is digital ready before spending money on a converter box or cable service....

Whether you’re looking to keep track of your child or your cellphone has been stolen, there are many reasons you might need to track a GSM cellular phone from the Indian telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL). Many modern smart phones come equipped with built-in global positioning systems that can pinpoint a phone’s location, but if yours doesn’t have one, you will have to find another way to locate it....

A variety of Internet-based radio stations are available that stream your favorite tunes to your laptop as well as broadcast live radio stations. The stations are free to access directly via Windows Media Player and from radio station websites. You can even access local and national radio stations on your laptop. No additional hardware is needed and you don’t need to download additional plugins to receive radio programming. All you need is an Internet connection....

Updated September 15, 2017 Avatara Open a web browser. Go to Avatara.com (see References). Avatara allows the user to create personal avatars in 3D and allows uploads of pictures to create a 3D image of a face. Join the website to get started. Select the “Get Started” button and then hit “Upload Image.” Browse through computer files to find the preferred personal picture for the 3D avatar. The software automatically uses facial features to make a 3D image of the face....

Working with a poorly-formatted spreadsheet can be challenging. For example, a value with many decimal places may not fit into a standard-sized cell, cutting off and preventing you from seeing the entire value. One way of improving the formatting of your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is by increasing the cell size. You can make an individual cell bigger using the “Merge and Center” feature or increase the size of all of the cells in a row or column....

Updated September 15, 2017 Double-click the GIANTS Editor executable to start the program. Go to “File” and select “Open” to open an existing map. Maps have an “i3D” extension. This map will be the basis for your new map. Select a map and click “OK” to load it. Preview the map. It will contain the objects that came with the terrain. Go to “Window” and select “Terrain Editing” to start editing the terrain....

Use podcasts (a series of digital media files typically viewed or listened to on portable media devices such as an iPod) to broadcast your message such as announcements, news or training topics. You can make a simple podcast using PowerPoint by creating your slides, recording narration, saving the files as a shows and uploading the files to share them with your audience. Use Really Simple Syndication feeds to notify your users about recent publications, allowing users to create their own personal on demand broadcasts....

TV reception can be touch and go at best. Reception can, however, be dramatically improved using an amplifier and an antenna. It is completely possible to to build your own amplifier and antenna for television reception with a little hard work. Writer Bio

A free website in Hotmail gives you the chance to let other people know who you are and customize your own personal space. Whether you want to make friends, stay in touch with family, or even promote your business activities, the Hotmail and Windows Live “Spaces” allows you to add photos, music, blogs, and other customizable content to suit your needs.

Incoming Skype video calls may appear blurry if your computer or network is overloaded or not powerful enough to handle the program. Video calls send substantial amount of data over the Internet and require a broadband connection to have a clear image. To maintain functionality with slower connections and hardware, Skype can scale down incoming video quality to keep it running in real time at the cost of a blurry image....

If you are having trouble viewing your iPhone screen or you’d like to make the tiny icons and text a bit larger, you can activate the Zoom feature on the phone to magnify any part of the screen desired. The Zoom feature lets you magnify the home screen as well as any open app or browser window, and you can control how far in or out you zoom as needed....

Gmail Chat is a free service integrated into your Gmail account. Unlike other chat applications, you don’t need to download or install any software to access the service. When you activate a chat session in Gmail, the chat window opens in the Gmail account window. However, this is inconvenient if you have more than one window open, because to continue chatting, you must go back to the Gmail account window....

The central processing unit and graphics card, with its graphics processing unit, are two of the most important pieces of hardware on any computer, as both provide the computational and graphics power required for ordinary usage. Improving the performance of both your CPU and graphics card can help your applications and games run smoother and faster. These improvements can also extend the longevity of the computer itself, since you can hold off on upgrading physical components....

Sharing information with family and friends is made possible by creating a free website, and having Internet access allows almost any teen to create his own website. However, using a free Web host to create your site generally requires that you allow the site to place ads on your Web pages. But considering that you are only out the time it takes to create the site and maintain it, a website is still an inexpensive way to connect with others....

With the ever increasing size of USB drives, it is becoming possible to create archives that encompass large stores of data. However, given that these drives are often of miniature size they are easily lost or damaged. Mirroring a USB drive is the process of backing up your USB drive to another storage system for redundancy. Warnings Writer Bio

Once you purchase music, you can transfer your music to an authorized iTunes library. Regardless of whether you have an iPod Touch, Nano, Shuffle or Classic iPod, the process of moving music to each device is the same. If you want different content on each device, create playlists to sync only the songs in the selected playlists to your iPod. This allows you to customize the music on each device and maximize available storage space on each iPod....

All phones come with a speaker and a microphone. The speaker is how you hear the person talking from the other end and the microphone is what you talk into so the person on the other end can hear you. However, if you are on a call and you do not want to the other person to hear what you have to say you can mute the call. Most phones, home and cell alike, have a simple mute button....

A .MOGG computer file is a special type of computer audio file that contains more than one audio track in a single file. Typically these files are used with the computer program “Rock Band,” and a single file can contain information pertaining to the vocal, guitar, bass and drum tracks of a single song. If you want to open any of the .MOGG files on your computer, you’re going to need to use a special program that can understand them....

Windows 7 is Microsoft’s latest generation of operating system (OS) software. Windows Explorer is a file manager program that allows you to browse the contents of your hard drive. With Windows Explorer, you can browse your pictures, music, documents and videos from one location. You have three ways you can open Windows Explorer in Windows 7. Writer Bio

Using your iPhone on a daily basis can revolutionize the way you look at everything from setting appointments to paying the bills and managing your address book. Gone are the days where keeping your life organized involved calendars, planners and little black books. The iPhone allows you to store applications and information that streamlines your daily life. By understanding which applications can help you stay organized, you can become more efficient, whether you use your iPhone for work or personal purposes....