There are so many apps preinstalled in Windows it feels overwhelming to delete them. But it’s easy to bulk delete many silently in the background with BCP (bcuninstaller.com). I love apps that say what they do in the title. When you run it, you can check all of the apps you want to uninstall and then choose to easily uninstall all of them without any more prompts.
Some things from Microsoft are free, and Outlook for Mac is now one of them (w2.outlook.com/getmac). You no longer need a Microsoft 365 subscription if you want use Outlook instead of Apple’s Mail application.
Hints from Microsoft imply iPhone users with Windows computers may soon be able to use iMessage directly on their computers by cabling their phone to their computer. They are beginning an early preview of Phone Link for iOS on Windows 11 with Windows Insiders. For more information, go to blogs.windows.com/windows-insider and find the post from February 28.
Fake voice scams are likely to increase as AI-generated voices become more realistic. Currently, the use of AI to generate these “deepfakes” is not regulated, so being highly suspicious is about your only way to guard against being scammed. It might be good to arrange ahead of time a code word or phrase—for example, “I lost all my tacos”— so that you know it really is your family or friend. Read more at tinyurl.com/4t3sfpps.
AI is the buzz, with all major search engines jumping into AI-assisted search to “find” you the best answer through a chat-like dialog. DuckDuckGo has DuckAssist, available through their browser apps and extensions. Initially, it is designed to answer searches that would benefit from Wikipedia. It will anonymously summarize and combine information it sources from that site. You will know it is working if you see an answer in a search result titled DuckAs- sist. These results still follow DuckDuckGo’s commitment to search anonymity.
Jealous of people with flip phones? Mimic those limitations without tossing your smart phone. Reset your phone to default settings, uninstall all apps but phone, address book, calendar, texting and one web browser (and hide it), switch colors to grey scale, disable all notifications, and remove apps you can’t uninstall from your home screen. You won’t get the longer battery life of a flip phone but at least you gain time back.
I finally found a YouTube video that explains what blockchain is all about. Go to youtube.com/watch?v=tspGVbmMmVA.
It not only explains what blockchain is but teaches you how to understand many of the claims being made on its behalf.