-
Privacy and Cleaning Up
Apple is letting users download a copy of all the data they have on you. Log into privacy.apple.com with your Apple ID and password to get to where you can select which bits of all the data Apple has on you. This is also a way to download documents, photos, and videos in their original…
-
What Facebook targets, clean up Windows upgrades
Wading through the smartphone choices every few years while not wanting to fall to the latest hype or teaser pricing from your carrier might be easier if you compare specs at https://GSMArena.com. You will find their comparison “Phone Finder” in the upper left of their website with many more choices than I usually think of.…
-
Headphones, Updates, and Recycling
Apple wants you to think plug-in headphones are passé, as they no longer will include that headphone dongle with new iPhones. You will need to own or buy Bluetooth headphones or a Lightning-to-headphone-jack converter. Microsoft Updates You may have heard that Microsoft will extend support for Windows 7 beyond January 2020, but that is only…
-
Good News for 365 Users
There’s some good news from Redmond for Office 365 subscribers, Microsoft is changing how they count devices against your plan limit of one or five devices. As of the beginning of October, the limit will be how many devices are actually active and signed in, not the previous hard count of the first one or…
-
Comfy Laptops and Private Videos
Many of us use laptops, and there are ways to make them as comfortable as desktops. Get a stand to angle the keyboard and place the screen at an ergonomically correct position, then pair it with a wireless keyboard and mouse. If you lack extra USB ports, add a USB hub. If you don’t have…
-
Perfect Emojis and a Natural Smile
If you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro with Apple’s newer “butterfly switch”-type keyboard, and letters or characters repeat unexpectedly or do not appear or if keys feel sticky or do not respond in a consistent manner, you should check in with an Apple-authorized repair place to see if Apple will replace that keyboard, even…
-
Passwords and Private File Syncing
Got a great formula to make your passwords seem more random or tricky? Password hackers love formulas and most any formula you have learned somewhere is included in password cracking software that is easily available. Take seriously the advice of using truly random passwords, with letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, or random words strung together…
-
Home Pages and Tab Snoozes
What home or start page to have in your web browser is always a conundrum. Usually you want it to be where you tend to go much of the time. But sometimes it is good to have your home page teach you something. Try setting it to Wikipedia’s home page, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, with its “Did you…
-
Autoplay, Machine, Emails, and More
At long last, the current version of Chrome (which you should have if you are using it on a regular basis, since it automatically updates) will block many automatically playing videos so you don’t embarrass yourself in a public space with suddenly blasting audio. Chrome will still play those from sites designed to play videos…
-
Colors, Updates, Backups and Privacy
Turn Up the Color Noises have colors? They seem to when you are trying to use noise (sounds) to cover up distracting sounds while working. After disabling social media and email alerts, if you find you are still not focusing, try other colors of noise. You know white noise (a combination of all frequencies), but…
-
Ad Blockers, Security Questions, Spam and SEO
The ad blockers are coming! Google will activate its built-in ad blocker for its Chrome web browser on February 15. This is great news if you use Chrome – yet I would pay attention to what might happen with third-party ad blockers like Ad Block Plus or ublock Origin. There may be issues. One small…
-
Cookies, New Systems, Chromebooks, and Vacations
Clearing browser history and data manually or automatically can help reduce tracking cookies. Of course, each browser has its own method and to save space, I suggest that you Google or search the internet for “clear browser history” and the name of your browser (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome – or another browser you…