A Rich Idea: Technology Articles

Google Music On Android: How To Clear Up Space in 3 Easy Steps

Google Music Takes Up Too Much Space

Google Play Music on my Android phone is taking up more storage space than any other application. When I look at my phone, it says that the app is only using 22MB but the data is taking up like 1GB. I only have 8GB total and this is preventing me from installing other apps. Can I click the “clear data” button to retrieve this space but not lose my songs? Thank you for your help. ~ Ana, Dallas, Texas
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Amazon Echo Review: A Must-Have In Your Home?

Amazon Echo: A Must-Have For Your Home?

With little fanfare, Amazon introduced the new Echo just two days ago. In this Amazon Echo review, we are going to take a look at this little device by Amazon and tell you whether it is something spectacular or whether it is something that you can just leave on the shelf this holiday season. Also, be sure to check out the video review of the Amazon Echo below.
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Library Books on the Kindle?

Question:I heard that you can check out Kindle Books from your local library. Is this true? If so, does it work well and how do I do it? Thanks in advance, Gina — Missoula, Mt

Library Books on Your Kindle: One of the Best Things About Your Kindle

Gina, terrific question and we are happy to answer this for you.

Yes, you can rent library books on your Kindle. It works well and it’s absolutely awesome. It’s probably what I do most with my Kindle.

In this article, we’ll first distinguish between the Kindle Lending Library and getting Kindle books from your local library, which will be the main focus of this article. Read More

Is Amazon Prime Worth It?

Question: I am wanting to know if Amazon Prime is worth it. I keep getting these offers to join Amazon Prime and it seems like kind of a good idea. I would like to understand it a little better and would like to here from someone who uses it to know whether they think Amazon Prime is worth it. If you have time to answer my question, that’d be awesome! Many big thanks, Jeannie, Charlotte, NCRead More

Best Web Site Hosting

In this look at the best web site hosting companies, we will review the best place to host your web site. Each of these best web hosts provide the outstanding stability, features, and customer service that you need in a hosting provider.

In creating this list of the best web hosting companies, there are many common considerations. Many of you are in search of ease, reliability, and customer service while some other small to medium size businesses have greater, more disparate needs. Each of the web hosting companies below accommodates the individual looking to set up a web site at a great price or the small to medium size business looking for lots of growth potential.

Best Web Site Hosting Companies

HostGator.com
HostGator.com earns our honors as top web hosting company on the market today. With a variety of hosting plans for both individuals and businesses, HostGator offers unbeatable prices, ready customer service, and features galore.Read More

Where Are My Skype Photos Stored?

Question: Where are my Skype Pictures stored on my computer? I took a bunch of Skype photos of myself and others from within Skype and now I cannot find any of them. So, my question is, where in the heck are the Skype photos stored on my computer?

Skype Photo Location!

Skype Photo Location On Your Computer: Solution

Many people have asked us this question! We are not sure why Skype does not make it more clear where they put their photos on your computer. But, whatever the reason, we know that they should because a lot of people keep asking us “Where are my Skype Photos?”

Fortunately, we have the answer for you and it’s pretty simple.

The easiest way to find your Skype photos on your computer is as follows:

To begin, click Start | Run as you see in the photo below:

Finding Skype Photos!

In the Run box, you want to type the following: %appdata%SkypePictures (as you see in the photo below)

Getting to the Skype Photo Directory!

After clicking ok, you will see the directory that contains all of your Skype photos as you see in the image below.

View Your Skype Photos Here!

Conclusion: Skype Photo Location

On behalf of Skype, we apologize that they do not make this clearer. Wait, no we don’t…it should be clearer, but it’s not!

Now, who cares? We have got you covered.

We have shown you where to find your Skype Photos so that now you can do whatever you would like with them. If you have any further questions or comments, simply use the comment area below!

Spotify Installation Causes Virus Warning: The Issue and How To Fix It!

With all my friends telling me that Spotify is the best thing since sliced bread, I attempted to install it and this triggered a virus alert on my computer.

Spotify: Terrible First Impressions With Virus Alert

As a tried and true Pandora user, I was not too excited to make the switch from Pandora to Spotify. However, once I was told by my music loving friends that you can choose the exact song that you want to listen to, I was sold. I thought I would at least give it a try.

So, I went to the Spotify home page to see what it was all about. Following the instructions, I clicked on the “Get Spotify for Free” button as you see in the photo below.

When you click this button, it prompts you to download a file called SpotifySetup.exe. I figure that this is fine because Spotify is a professional company and would not do anything to cause my computer harm. So, as you see in the photo below, I chose to download the Spotify setup file.

This also disappointed me because Pandora does not require you to install software. It just runs completely online, which I love. In fact, I use Pandora so much that they have just sent me a message that they may have to start charging people like me who use their service extensively. Well, that’s another reason to look at Spotify.

What happened after I downloaded the file? Take a look at the message below.

Well, if first impressions are the most important, Spotify immediately fails to impress. What kind of legitimate software reports a virus when you download the file?

As someone who has been involved in technology all of my life, I have rarely seen something like this–a prominent piece of software that everyone is talking about causing a virus on your computer?

Well, I guessed that this is probably a misreported virus because a company on the uptick like Spotify would not be malicious software. I confirmed these suspicious by searching the Internet but was still left with a highly negative first impression of Spotify.

So, when I try to run this file to install Spotify, I am unable to do so because I get another virus notification that you see below.

Now, even though I am pissed off at Spotify and really don’t like the product and don’t want to install it because of this bad experience, I’ll continue for the sake of this article and tell you how to get around the Spotify virus warning and actually install Spotify.

How To Remove Virus Warning and Install Spotify

Ok, after much Google searching for things like “spotify setup threat detected“, I found that the Spotify installation file is being flagged by my AVG virus program. There were many articles that talk about this and many proposed solutions that failed to fix the Spotify virus warning.

However, I found one that completely solved the problem in a short and sweet fashion. In this AVG forum post, one user provided this quick solution which worked perfectly for me and took just about one minute. The instructions to the remove the Spotify virus warning and install Spotify are as follows:

1. start AVG user interface (right click on AVG in system tray)
2. select components -> resident shield
3. select click manage exceptions
4. select Excluded files, click Add
(I modified steps 5 & 6…see NOTE below).
5. browse over to c:\Program Files\Spotify\spotify.exe and select the file then click open
6 spotify.exe appears in the list with a selected tickbox – click apply

NOTE: I left the original instructions above intact but I did something a little different for steps 5 and 6. Because the file that was causing the virus error on my computer was SpotifySetup.exe, I excluded this as the problem and it was located in my “downloads” directory.

Success! After going through all of this, I am now successfully installing Spotify as you see in the graphic below:

Conclusion: The Spotify Virus Warning

I hope that this article has helped you all out there who are getting the same or similar virus warning when you install Spotify.

There is no question that this annoyance is a terrible introduction to a program that I have heard so many people rave about. Spotify should remedy this immediately. I should never have to go through all of this to install a piece of software…neither should you.

I hope it’s worth it…I’ll let you know in a future Spotify review.