Technibble » Announcements

Shout Out To Our Site Advertisers

Bryce Whitty — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:44:51 +0000

I would like to take the time to send a shout to all of our advertisers. These guys help pay the bills around here (we are on a dedicated server, rather than cheap shared hosting) so I’d like to give them an extra plug.

Instant Housecall
Most Technibble members should know who these guys are by now. Instant Housecall have created remote support software that is designed to be as easy as possible for your client to get running on their end. It also has built in branding and payment options. I did a review on Instant Housecall a few months ago

MHelpdesk
MHelpdesk is “service management software” designed to help you organize the office admin side of your business. This includes invoicing, call management, account management, customer equipment tracking, scheduling, work order management and more. They have a 10 day free trial if you want to give it a try.

IWantMyDataBack.com
IWantMyDataBack.com provide expert data recovery services and want to team up with computer technicians and offer you commissions for every successful data recoveries you refer. They have their own custom made data recovery software and are able to do the most complex of data recoveries in their in-house Class 100 Clean Facility. They can work directly with your client or work entirely through your business. They pay for shipping both ways, provide a free analysis and guarantee all recoveries. They can even provide you or your client a complete file listing before they take any billing information. You can check them out here.

Zinstall
Zinstall is a tool designed to help users migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 with no loss of data or installed applications. It creates a virtual copy of your old XP install and then allows you to install Windows 7. When you are in Windows 7, you can run a virtual machine of the old Windows XP install. This differs from Windows 7’s XP mode because it allows you to use the old XP install which has all of your settings rather than starting from a fresh copy. Additionally, Windows 7’s XP mode is only available in Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate anyway. Zinstall XP7 retails for $89 and you can check it out here.

Advertising
Technibble still has some advertising slots available. If you are interested in advertising with Technibble, check out this page for our stats and rates.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Shout Out To Our Site Advertisers

2009 in Review

Bryce Whitty — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:54:00 +0000

The year 2009 has almost come to an end and it is also Technibble’s 4th year of operation. The site has grown to the point where it had 62% more unique visitors than last year.

I’d like to thank you, the readers, for helping us create a great community for computer technicians. Without your comments, opinions and experience Technibble wouldnt be the place it is now.

Over the last year there have been about 120 non-blog articles and I have compiled a list of some of the most discussed and “must read” articles in case you missed a few:

Most Discussed Articles:

Clients with Pirate Software: Should We Do Anything About It? – 56 comments
Frustrations of the Computer Business – 55 comments
Your Best Piece of Advice For a New Computer Business – 50 comments
A Look at Regulating The Computer Repair Industry – 49 comments
My Onsite Technician CD Wallet – 39 comments
How I Finally “Got” Macs As a PC Technician – 39 comments
Should We Use Google In Front of a Customer? – 37 comments
Microsoft Ad Lands a Hit Against Apple Macs? – 36 comments
Scams That Computer Technicians Should Watch Out For – 35 comments
Repair Tool of the Week: Crossloop – 34 comments
The Issue is Not Always What It Seems: My Humbling Experience – 29 comments
Instant Housecall Review – 29 comments
Repair Tool of the Week: Antivirus Removal Tools – 27 comments
Essential Skills for Basic Residential Computer Repair Work – 26 comments
Want To Learn How to Fix Laptops? Check out these Videos – 25 comments
Computer Repair Warranties – 25 comments
Dealing with Client Questions – 24 comments
Repair Tool of the Week: Technibbles Windows Version Identifier – 23 comments
Resources for Repairing Apple Macs – 22 comments
Help! My Advertising Isnt Working – 22 comments
Computer Repair Business Startup Costs – 22 comments

Must Reads:

Didnt Win the Giveaway? I Got You The Next Best Thing – Discounts!

Bryce Whitty — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:16:49 +0000

Our software competition this week was a success with 721 people entering it, but there can only be 3 winners. So, for the 718 of you who didn’t win, I got you the next best thing – Discounts!

Instant Housecall is offering 10% off any package.
CommitCRM is offering $50 off (works out to 20% off single employee version or 10% off three employee version)
Podnutz is offering 10% off their Laptop Repair Video package.
SUPERAntiSpyware are offering 50% off SUPERAntiSpyware Professional
And I am offering 20% off the Technibble Computer Business Kit

You better be quick though because these offers are only valid for 1 week (Finishing on Friday 11th). Here is how to take advantage of each offer:

Instant Housecall
This 10% off any package offer is for phone orders only.
Choose which package suits you best from this page then call one of the following numbers:

US Number: 1-888-838-4050
International Number: +1-416-871-4725.

To get the discount, mention “Technibble Contest Promotion” on the phone.
If you have never tried Instant Housecall, check out their trial version and you can upgrade to the paid version before the week is out.

Edit: Instant Housecall has extended an extra discount to ONLY the people who filled out the Technibble competition survey. They are offering 20% off any Instant Housecall package. This includes lifetime licenses which have previously never been discounted. This extra discount is valid until December 15th only. To use this, call the number above and mention “Technibble Content Promotion” Tell them that you filled out the survey and let them know the email address you used. They will then verify this with me and you can then get the 20% discount.

COMPETITION CLOSED. NO FURTHER DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME

Winners of the Technibble Software Giveaway

Bryce Whitty — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:59:30 +0000

The Technibble Software Giveaway was one of the biggest giveaways that we have had to date. The combined value of the 3 packs we were giving away was $2979 ($993 each). The competition is now over and I would like to announce the winners.

To make sure the drawing is truly random, I used Random.org to generate 3 different dates and 3 different times. I would match this time and date to when the time entries were submitted and selected the entry that was closest. All in all, there were 721 people in the competition and the winners are:

bear_pimp_01@*******.com
elimin8@*******.com
****@mobile-techie.com

Congratulations guys! You will be contacted shortly.

I also want to thank the following software vendors for their support in this competition and supporting the computer repair industry as a whole:

Instant Housecall – Remote Support Software

CommitCRM – Client Management/Relationship Software

Podnutz Laptop Repair Video Collection – Training Videos to Repair Laptops and Podcaster

SUPERAntiSpyware Professional – Anti-malware Software

Thank you to all those who entered. I got a lot of feedback about what you like and what you don’t about Technibble. I’ll be sure to keep doing what you like and change what you don’t so Technibble can be the best community it can be.

In my next post, I have something special for those of you who didn’t win.

Technibble Competition – Heaps of Technician Software to Give Away!

Bryce Whitty — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:28:14 +0000

Technibble is holding a competition and we have heaps of software for Computer Technicians to give away. I have 3 software packages to give away and each package includes:

Instant Housecall – Commercial Remote Support Software – One Year License of Instant Housecall Express Edition Unlimited Use – Worth $588

CommitCRM – Client Management/Relationship Software – Lifetime License of CommitCRM 5.2 Software Including 1 Active Employee License – Worth $249

Podnutz Laptop Repair Video Collection – Training Videos to Repair Laptops – Worth $67

Technibble’s Computer Business Kit – Forms Used in the Computer Business Worth $49

SUPERAntiSpyware Professional – Anti-malware Software – Lifetime License of SUPERAntiSpyware Professional – Worth $40

This makes the total value of each package $993.00 USD!

So, what do you have to do to enter? Simply fill out a very short 8 question survey that we are conducting to help improve Technibble and you are in it to win one of the 3 packages!

Winners will be chosen randomly and the competition closes on the 30th of November, so better get in quick.

COMPETITION CLOSED – Winners to Be Drawn This week.

Want To Learn How to Fix Laptops? Check out these Videos

Bryce Whitty — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:19:06 +0000

Laptop repair can be tricky. There are hidden screws all over the place, a certain order you have to pull it apart and sometimes the spare parts are hard to find. Laptops are also prone to damage that a desktop wouldnt normally have such as being dropped or having a damaged DC jack.

Steve Cherubino, who was computer technician until he went full time podcasting has worked on thousands of laptop computers in his shop and would now like to share his laptop repair knowledge with you in the form of high definition, narrated, downloadable videos.

He covers everything you would want to know about repairing laptops such as:

How to replace a motherboard
How to replace an LCD Screen
What to do when the laptop keeps shutting down
How to fix DC power jacks
The crucial difference between a bad screen and a bad inverter board
How to replace hinges
Where Steve buys all his parts
The best way to go about taking a laptop apart
How to solder
The art of fixing AC adapters
How to handle a laptop that has had liquid spilled in it
What to do when a laptop overheats
How to replace CD/DVD drives, RAM, processors, hard Drives and wireless cards
and much, much more!

This master course in laptop repair sells for $54.95 and Steve is so confident that you will find value in his product that he has a 60 day money back guarantee if you arent satisfied with the videos.
Seriously, it would only take only one laptop repair job for you to recoup your investment. The videos pay for itself.

As part of his launch, Steve is also giving away a Samsung Q1 to one of the next 100 people to buy the videos.

Go to the site, check out his sample videos and I am sure you’ll find that what he is offering is well worth the investment.

Link: Laptop Repair Videos

SUPERAntiSpyware Professional LIFETIME License Winners & Something Nice for Those Who Didnt Win!

Bryce Whitty — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:11:51 +0000

The SUPERAntiSpyware Professional Lifetime License Competition has come to an end and I would like to announce the winners.

To make sure the drawing is truly random. I used Random.org to generate 4 random numbers between and including 1 and 387 which is the total amount of comment entrants. I then matched the final numbers with the comment number here on Technibble.

I did the similar with the Twitter entrants and the newsletter entrants are here are the winners:

Winning Comment Entrants:
Comment #250 – Kevin
Comment #23 – SH Castro
Comment #4 – Jory
Comment #298 – Graystar

Winning Twitter Entrants:
@PCServant
@Cornboy3
@Joshuamotto

Winning Newsletter Entrants:
michael.andrews@**********.com
dsobr@*****.com
wavylady@******.net

Congratulations to the Winners!

Now Something For Those Of You Who Didn’t Win
The guys at SuperAntiSpyware have offered all Technibble readers a huge 50%-off discount for SuperAntiSpyware Professional taking it from $29.95 USD, down to $14.95. For so little money its totally worth going professional. I am not sure how long they are going to continue this offer so get it while you can.

To take advantage of this offer, just click the SuperAntiSpyware logo below:

Google Apps Grow Up, Exclaims “Look at me, no more Beta!”

Ryan Meray — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:53:29 +0000

Someone should check the thermostat in Hades, because I never thought I’d see this day. Google announced this morning that Google Apps, the corporate and public versions of its popular mail, calendar, chat and document software, no longer wear the beta tag.

Since its launch on April 1st, 2004, Gmail has worn the ‘beta’ tag, even after adoption by millions of home and business users and over 5 years of development.

Speculation has been rampant as to when it would finally leave beta status. A five-year development cycle isn’t the norm for almost any software, unless you’re developing ground-breaking, world-changing games, and many mocked Google for using ‘beta’ as a crutch for so long.

It’s about time. Welcome to Release Candidate land, Google. Now, can we talk about integrating custom signatures and mail templates? Love, Ryan.

10 SUPERAntiSpyware Professional LIFETIME Licenses to Give Away

Bryce Whitty — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:20:50 +0000

The makers of SUPERAntiSpyware (which is a great malware removal product that many technicians use) have provided me with 10 SUPERAntiSpyware Professional LIFETIME licenses to give away.

If you have not heard of SUPERAntiSpyware, SUPERAntiSpyware can detect and remove Spyware, Adware and Remove Malware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms, KeyLoggers, HiJackers, Parasites, Rootkits, Rogue Security Products and many other types of threats. It is light on system resources and has the ability to block threats in real-time. From personal experience I have found it to be one of the few anti-spyware suites (excluding specialised tools) that can remove some of the tougher malware like Antivirus2009. Many other technicians hereon Technibble say the same thing.
SUPERAntiSpyware Professional usually sells for $29.95 and costs $14.95 per year to renew it. These are LIFETIME licenses of the Professional version that I am giving away so you will never need to renew it.

There are three ways to enter this license give away competition:

1. Leave a comment on this post here are Technibble.com. You don’t need to register here in order to leave a comment. Just enter your name, email and comment leave a comment. I will be giving 4 licenses away to 4 randomly chosen commentors.

2. Sign up to receive Technibbles articles via email and confirm your subscription (we’ll never spam you or resell your email, its just the front page articles and the blog articles). If you are already signed up then you have already entered but you can increase your chances by entering one of the other ways. I will be giving 3 licenses to 3 randomly chosen subscribers.

3. Follow me @technibble on Twitter and tweet the following message to your followers:

Just entered the SUPERAntiSpyware Pro License giveaway. http://bit.ly/tnsas You can win by following @Technibble and retweet.

I will be giving away 3 licenses to 3 randomly chosen people who have followed me and tweeted the message. If you are already following me, just tweet the message and you are in.

Best of all, you can enter the competition via all three methods and be three times more likely to win.

Winners will be chosen on Friday the 3rd of July (week and a half from now) and will be contacted via email or Twitter direct message depending how you entered.

Good Luck!

COMPETITION CLOSED. I will be announcing the winners soon.

Technibbles Twitter

Bryce Whitty — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:15:31 +0000

Technibble is on Twitter. Actually, we have been on Twitter for some time except we just havent announced it. If you dont know, Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service and allows you to send short text messages called “tweets” to your friends and followers. Some people use it to announce what they are doing right now to their friends and businesses often use it to send out small updates. I use it to send out things that I believe a technician would find interesting, but isnt worthy of a full blown Technibble post. I also use it to keep in contact with other technicians that read Technibble.

The last few things I posted to Technibbles Twitter was:

Creepiest casemod ever? http://is.gd/nd8x
A technician just posted a clients attempt at replacing a laptop power jack. Wont charge afterwards for some reason: http://sn.vc/89Hu
In response to my Mac post. After some of the Techs got into a PC vs Mac fight, one tech finished it off nicely. “I, for one, am in this business to make a living… not to pick sides.”
Following my Mac post. I’m surprised that some techies refuse to work on them. It’s not a lack of technical knowlege, they just refuse. I think that’s crazy. What better client to have than a cashed up Mac user thats a computer novice? Most of the work is really easy.
Someone taking 24 x 256gb SSD drives and RAIDing them (2gb a second transfers): http://tinyurl.com/9lnrld
Silly Microsoft: http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/7922/funny.jpg
China’s Electronic Waste Village slideshow. Lots of computer parts in there: http://tinyurl.com/7g6uab

Unless you already have a Twitter account you may not care that I am on Twitter, this post is more for the people who are so they can follow and chat with me @technibble. However, in the few months I have been using Twitter I have found it an invaluable resource to talk to big guys in the industry, fellow technicians and get new information about the tech world very quickly, long before it ends up on any websites.

You can use the Twitter on its main website, you can use a Firefox plugin like Twitterfox or you can use your mobile device as most of them have an application for it.

So, if you are a Tweeter already, follow me as 555 other Tweeters have at @technibble

If not, you can check out this site for more information about what it is, why you would want to use it and how to get started.