With app, readers save money on magazine subscriptions

I’m saving over $200 a year on magazine subscriptions with a free app called Libby. All you need is a library card.

Once you sign in to the Libby app, available on a phone, a tablet or at libbyapp.com, you get access to 4,034 magazines. They also have 23,748 audio books and 57,401 e-books. You can borrow up to 10 books, 10 audio books and 10 magazines at once.

I checked out People Magazine’s special edition on the Beatles, Time Magazine’s issue on the Roosevelts and The Economist. Normally, The Economist alone would cost me at least $99 a year. I also looked at Reader’s Digest, The New Yorker and The Week Magazine, though I already have the paper copies. Somehow, they feel like less of a burden on the screen. Among other popular titles, I found Newsweek and Cooking Light. Obscurer magazines include Food Truck Favorites, Modern Cat and Engineering in Miniature. Click “Kanopy” to rent movies.

After you’ve installed the Libby app, and have entered your library card number, it will ask you if you prefer to read on your Kindle app, available on any tablet, phone, or computer. I said yes.

LIVE SPORTS WITHOUT CABLE

A reader asked me if Apple TV includes ESPN. If we’re talking about the Apple TV device, rather than just the app, the answer is yes. You can install the ESPN app on your Apple box. But the ESPN app is also available for phone, tablet or smart TV. Either way, what sports do you get?

Even the ESPN Plus app, at $7 a month, doesn’t include every live sporting event. It has live games from the MLB, NHL and MLS when their seasons are active, as well as PGA golf and other events,

but there are no live NBA or NFL games, nor does it have every college game. You need a service that brings in cable TV channels, like Fubo TV, ($60 a month for up to 166 channels), or YouTube TV, with over 85 channels for $65 a month. Without an app to bring in cable channels, the reader, who just wanted to watch the Razorbacks, is out of luck.

BIKE COMPUTER

I’d never heard of a “bike computer,” until I read about the new “Velo 2,” $99 from global.beeline.co. It sounds great for GPS.

Using the free Beeline app on your phone, you can get a good idea of how it works before buying. Type in your destination, then choose “a fast route,” “a quiet route” or a balanced blend. If you decide to get the Velo 2, you’ll see the info right there on your handlebars, including the distance before your next turn. A dot shows you whether to go right or left. It also shows your speed, how many miles you’ve gone, the current time and your estimated time of arrival.

If it needs charging, you can get two hours of riding in 20 minutes by plugging a USB-C cable and a charger into it. It will last 11 hours, or 18 months on standby. Gosh if I get one, I won’t have to pull over to check Google Maps on my phone.

INSTAGRAM TIP

Do you ever see something on Instagram you want to go back to later? When this happens, I Google the name of the person or organization along with the word “instagram.” Just now I searched on “Instagram nutritionfacts.org” on my computer to rewatch a recipe demonstration.

DECLINING DISCS

PCWorld warns that you should back up your CDs and DVDs now, before “bit rot” sets in and destroys them.

My techy friend begs to differ. “I have a music CD I burned 21 years ago or so that plays just fine,” he says. “I also have commercial music CDs bought 25 years ago that show no signs of deterioration. If this were a real problem, we’d certainly be hearing more about it.”

WINDOWS GOES BOOP!

Sometimes I’m off doing something else in the living room when I hear my Windows desktop computer go “Boop!” For me, that’s always the annoying sound of a trivial notification. Here’s how to turn those off: Type “Notifications” in the search bar in the lower left of your screen. Now click on “Notifications and action settings.” Toggle off the switch next to “allow notifications to play sounds.”

NEW GOOGLE SHORTCUTS

If you use Google’s versions of familiar Microsoft Office programs, try out these new shortcuts. Type “docs.new,” without the quotes, in the search bar in Chrome, Firefox or something else, to start a new Google document. Type sheets.new to start a new spreadsheet. Type slides.new to start a new presentation. Type cal.new to add an entry to your Google calendar. The rest of the shortcuts include: forms.new, notes.new and meet.new.

INTERNUT

“How to Keep Cut Flowers Fresh Longer.” Search on that phrase to find some great tips. For example, If you’re going to put a penny in the vase, you need one from before 1982. It’s the copper that provides the antibacterial properties. Pre-1982 pennies are 95% copper. Modern pennies are only 2.5%.

CORRECTION

The three-for-$10 styluses I found for the iPad are not from Docuteck. They’re from Ooclcurful. There’s a mouthful. The description is “Stylus Pen for iPad (3 Pcs), Universal Stylus with High Sensitivity Disc & Fiber Tip, Compatible with iPad, iPhone, Android and Other Capacitive Touch Screens.”