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Protecting While Sharing
When loaning your smartphone to someone else, you can do a few things first to limit what they can do. On iPhones, turn on Guided Access (Settings>Accessibility, and slide on Guided Access), and use Passcode Settings to set a different code from your normal unlock code. Explore Time Limits for other options. Limit use to…
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Tech Updates for July
Windows 10 always wants to market new ideas, and anew one is called News and Interests. As part of May’s Super Tuesday update, Microsoft put in a new widget to “surface news, sports scores, and stocks based upon your interests,” and it may show up on your taskbar. To get rid of it, right-click on…
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No More Passwords?
Apple, Google, and Microsoft are working to end passwords. Before you cheer too loudly, review what they are trying to do. This does not mean that there will not be a need for some type of authentication. Have you ever tried to login to a website and had to get a one-time code sent to…
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Tips for Backups
The only backup you will ever regret is the one you didn’t make. Though World Backup Day was the last day of March, you shouldn’t think about it only once a year. The point of a backup of your electronic data—a DVD, thumb drive, or a syncing service like iCloud, Dropbox or Backblaze—is that you…
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Windows Tips, Text Mistakes
I love how Facebook researchers find the darnedest things. The latest out of their labs (actually an internal study from 2018) is that they found that using Facebook increased loneliness more than other activities its researchers surveyed, including video games and watching TV. As more people “discover” Windows 11, they find things like dark mode…
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Gmail Changes; Saving Space
Did you finally get used to the last round of changes to Gmail’s website? More changes are coming, slowly rolling out, primarily to better incorporate Google Chat (to compete with Slack) and Google Meet (to compete with Zoom.) There will be another sidebar with these options, and Google has said that by summer 2022 this…
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Chrome, Cold, Crypto and More
Chrome 97 can now delete all the data that sites have stored on your device, not just cookies. Make sure you have this version. To get it, click the three dots in your toolbar, hover over Help, then choose About Google Chrome. Once you have this version, go to Settings > Security and Privacy >…
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Starting Your Year Securely
If you’re hearing security tips this time of year, it’s good to realize what you do and don’t have to do. You don’t have to change your passwords frequently, as it often leads to similar passwords. You are allowed to write down your passwords; just don’t put them near or on your computer. Two-factor authentication…
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Google Security, Adobe Alts
If you use Gmail, you might want to get more comfortable with Google’s 2-factor authentication. If you have ever gotten code numbers texted to you as part of logging into a bank or credit card site (along with typing in a password), you have experienced 2-factor authentication. Google is going to roll this out to…
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Has Your Data Been Exposed?
Chrome is rolling out a new desktop browser feature, Live Captions, to auto-transcribe audio to text for nearly any streaming audio, even if the audio is muted. It seems like a wonderful way to “watch” a video while “listening” to one more video meeting. In all seriousness, it is a great accessibility feature for hearing…
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Zoom Solutions
Researchers at Stanford have found some simple fixes for four common Zoom fatigue problems. Close-up eye contact is intense and tiring, so put the view mode to tile and take Zoom out of full-screen mode to make all the faces smaller. Seeing yourself is fatiguing, so learn how to “hide yourself” with a right-click on…
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Old Games, Updates and Slow Videos
In case you really need to play those old Flash games, the ones that Adobe killed at the end of 2020, you should try Ruffle, a Flash player emulator (www.ruffle.rs). Though it might require a little work to get web-based Flash games working with the relevant browser extension, it will let you play those games…