December 30, 2010
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For many people, the holiday season has two parts: “I’d like to read the manual before I buy this gadget” and “I can’t find the manual and now I need to find it online.” My buddies at Retrevo have come to the rescue by compiling a database of manuals.
Here’s a sample of what Retrevo has done:
1. Laptops
2. Televisions
3. Cell phones
4. Vacuums
5. Digital cameras
6. Multi-function printers
7. GPS units
8. Blenders
9. And if Santa is really good to you this Christmas and brings you an iPad, here’s the iPad manual on Apple’s site.
Retrevo covers more than these major product categories -- it has over 100,000 manuals in its database. You can access Retrevo’s entire collection here. Retrevo’s site is much easier to navigate than most consumer-electronic companies’, so you’ll save lots of time when you need to get a manual and can get right back to running your business.
Want more tech help? Check these out:
Retrevo also enables you to store the manuals you’ve downloaded “in the cloud” for access from a computer anywhere. You can also dump all your manuals into Evernote. Then, using the Evernote desktop, iPhone, and iPad apps, you’ll have local access to your manuals whenever you need them. My experience is that the slower your data connection, the more you need the manual, so it’s good to have your manuals already in Evernote before you check into a lousy hotel.
Disclosure: I advise Evernote.
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