Digital Family Advisor Radio Reports Special

Epson’s FastFoto Scanner Saves Months of Work

By Richard Sherwin

Ever spent long hours trying to scan a collection of precious old family pictures and thought “Wow! This is going to take a month? Fear no more, Epson has come to the rescue with the Epson FastFoto FF640 scanner, one of our favorite products this year.

We literally scanned, restored and digitized thousands – yup, thousands – of faded photos, crumbling letters and handwritten notes in less than an hour, a procedure that would have taken months on a traditional scanner. The FastFoto FF640 has a feeder that you can load with fifty or so pictures at a time, and it reads both sides! Within minutes these heirlooms were brought back to even better than original condition thanks to the built-in Smart Photo Fix technology.

This almost magical technology doesn’t end with just photos; you can easily capture and save school records, art projects, bills, receipts and other materials. The device scans at up to 600 dpi. At $600, it is a bit pricey, but we found that some people were sharing the cost with neighbors or other family members.

Another hot product – and this one’s free — is a download for your PC, Mac or tablet called Format Factory. If you’ve gotten a video, photos, or music from someone who may have recorded the content with a different type of operating system or computer, no worries. Format Factory converts all popular video, audio and picture formats to the one you’re using. It repairs damaged video and audio files. It reduces file sizes so that you can email the content or save space on your computer, phone or tablet. It supports all popular and even rare content multimedia file formats. It supports 60 languages and you do need to watch for ads or automatic downloads of other products during your initial download of the program. But I just recorded this in a format that’s not compatible with Wax Media Radio Stations. If you’re hearing me now, it worked!!! The free download is available at Google’s Play Store, iTunes, CNET, and www.softonic.com.

Clarity, a leader in hearing loss supportive products, just released the TL100™ TV Listener which enables you to adjust the sound of the TV without disturbing others. The TL100 comes with multipoint headphones that pairs via Bluetooth to your television or your mobile phone. It enables you to amplify TV shows, or phone calls or stream music without annoying others in the room. Everyone can watch the same show at a volume that is comfortable for them. Produced by Plantronics, known for its award-winning noise canceling headphones, we found the TL100 comfortable and easy to set up and its Bluetooth technology worked all over our home. It’s priced under $180.

Bytes and Pieces:

With the spinoff of HP into two companies, one for businesses and one for home PCs and printers, it seems HPs consumer tech support has gone downhill very quickly. If you are taking advantage of HPs steep discounts at Costco and BJs, please be ready to take extra time in setting up your PC, as many of the HP PCs in those stores are missing crucial Windows 10 updates. Some of the PCs we found took almost 40 minutes or more to perform this software upgrade.