Copywriter, technical writer, translator (FR>EN, ES>EN, IT>EN), journalist

TechnoZen

Saving time with text shortcuts

In certain situations, I need to type something I’ve typed dozens or hundreds of times before. Rather than type it out, I prefer to type three to four letters. My Mac recognizes those letters and offers me the option of the full text I’ve typed in the past.

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Quiet competence: the 2016 Acura ILX

Acura entices people to move up to its vehicles using its entry-level ILX, but there’s little about the ILX that’s “entry-level.” One drive in this vehicle is all it takes to figure this out.

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Driving con brio: the 2015 Fiat 500 Turbo Hatchback

Visiting family in Italy both as a child and an adult, I’ve ridden in my share of Fiats. I even drove my aunt’s Punto a couple of times. My cousins may lean towards Lancias and Volkswagens, but our parents favoured Fiats, those economy runabouts made for places

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Keeping documents up to date on several devices

Even though I’ve had Apple iCloud Drive for about a year, I hadn’t bothered to use it until recently. It’s a great alternative to copying files from one device to another, which is a pain even when I can use USB memory sticks. That said, I already have a

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Technology changes don’t need to be expensive

Automobile owners and business computer users face similar decisions and anxieties. They each rely on complex machines, rarely understand the inner workings of these machines and they often don’t know how to cost-effectively acquire and maintain them. This is the first of two-part series to offer basic advice to

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Fun in the sun: the BMW 228i Cabriolet

When carmakers build facilities on large plots of land, they like the roads that lead to their facilities to bear their company names. BMW goes one better. Their offices north of Toronto aren’t located on “BMW Avenue.” They’re on – wait for it – Ultimate Drive. That’s

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Prevent unwanted software activity on your computer

All types of malware, from viruses to trojan horses to bots and so on, aren’t particularly mysterious. They’re merely pieces of software. They worry people since they do things to computers their owners don’t want done. Security-conscious computer users have already adopted good habits. They don’t click

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Comfortable and droll: the Mazda CX-9

Approaching certain intersections back in August, the vehicle I was reviewing lowered the volume of my music (or “So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish,” a droll story in audiobook format by the late lamented Douglas Adams) and in its place emitted a series of beeps. Clearly

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A thinking person's UV: the 2015 Honda CR-V

Compact sport utility vehicles were first driven off auto dealer lots in the late 1990s. The baby siblings of lumbering SUVs that were taking over North American roads, these CUVs, or crossovers, retained much of the utility of larger vehicles while enabling drivers to do things like

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Beacon technology finding footing in Canada

Smartphone-toting film, music and technology fanatics who converged on Austin, Texas, in March for South by Southwest (SXSW) got to connect with the festival and each other a little better than in previous years. The SXSW Go mobile app responded to more than 1,000 beacons deployed at event

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