A podcast might be the perfect tool for broadcasting your sermon or special event, but while they’re fairly easy to put together, getting good quality sound takes some thought. The standard microphone that comes with most computers – or heaven forbid the built-in version in your laptop – creates a tinny far-away sound that instantly […]

Sending text-based e-mails is easy, but making them fancy with colors, background, tables or other HTML tricks is another story altogether. Not all e-mail programs will accept all HTML-generated messages. Some of our clients sidestep some requirements by subscribing to services that do this for them by providing templates. While some of these can help

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”708″,”attributes”:{“class”:”media-image”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”style”:””,”width”:”333″,”height”:”500″,”alt”:”Karaoke”}}]] [Image: Flickr user gregoryperez] Here’s a gadget that anyone who works with the visually impaired will love: karaoke in Braille. It’s from a Japanese company called Nippon Telesoft, actually two companies that have teamed up to build the special machine. A PC plugged into the karaoke machine translates lyrics into Braille and sends them

We just hosted a webinar with some friends of ours at Dinkum Interactive about search engine optimization. It was great and we’ve received a lot of positive feedback so far. One of the biggest lessons we addressed during the presentation was the importance of looking beyond just the technology and just the marketing when it

Some scary news: US border control now has the authority to swipe your laptop, cell phone or other electronic device. Bad news no matter which way you look at it, but you could be utterly lost if you’re traveling and US agents decide to retain your laptop indefinitely. My best advice is to travel with

Skype is so easy to use and costs so little – it’s free, in fact – that I’m always amazed at how few of my clients and associates use it. With one free download, you can be making free calls over the Internet and be sending text chats with other people who also use Skype.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”707″,”attributes”:{“class”:”media-image”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”style”:””,”width”:”500″,”height”:”500″,”alt”:”Grand Street: Texting”}}]] [Image: Flickr user moriza] How do you reach your constituency when they’re teenagers, don’t use e-mail, aren’t on Facebook and the cost of texting is prohibitively expensive? It’s a good question that came in to me today. One option is to set up a Twitter account and start promoting it to your

Major props to Rabbi Eli Garfinkel for using technology in a creative and forward-thinking way. The Ask My Rabbi Show lets the inquisitive anonymously send their Jewish-related questions to the reb, who will answer them in front of a camera and post the answer online. My question: why aren’t more Jewish organizations thinking so creatively

Anyone who has tried to go for a walk with a portable CD player knows how nice MP3 players are. No jumping, no expensive batteries, nothing to break because there are no moving parts. You’ll love the CherryPal cloud computer for all the same reasons. It’s a great little energy-efficient machine that’s super simple for

Now you can look forward to Mondays – this week marks the beginning of Gadget Mondays on the Friendly Web Tools blog. We know that the Web stuff doesn’t work unless you have the technology to make it happen, so we’ll start to cover the hardware that will make your computing life less confusing. On