If you're planning to do a bit of travel, and would like a travel app to assist you,
here is an article describing the features of five travel apps that you can use on your iPhone or iPad. The article is quite informative and helpful.
If I were still working and traveling frequently, I'd use one of these apps. As an infrequent traveler nowadays, I'm not so sure I want to learn how to use any of them. It's just easier to ask my wife, "what time is the flight, and which airline?".
Jim Hamm
If you are interested in a rumor on what the next iPhone might look like, click on the link below. The phone is speculated to have an OLED screen, which consumes much less power, and is flexible. More info on OLED's in this link: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled5.htm .
Jim Hamm
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Final-Apple-iPhone-8-schematics-allegedly-leaked-by-Foxconn-insider_id93157
If you use Siri on an iPhone or iPad, here is the background story of how (and from whom) the voice came to be.
Jim Hamm
For your information, and something to be aware of, Firefox and Chrome browsers are possibly vulnerable to a phishing attack. Here is an article with more info. The article states the vulnerability doesn't affect the Safari or Internet Explorer browsers. It doesn't mention the Edge browser, one way or the other.
Jim Hamm
For your possible interest, here is a website I just came across with tips for your Mac:
https://soundsupport.biz/tech-tips/
And here is an archive of more tips: https://soundsupport.biz/archive/ . There's also tips for an iPad and iPhone as well. Some good reading to keep you busy for a while.
Jim Hamm
Is your router vulnerable to a hacker attack? The following article explains more about this vulnerability, and what you can do about it. I just checked our router, and it's not vulnerable. Just something for you to be aware of.
Jim Hamm
No doubt you've been sitting there wondering how a spinning hard drive (HDD) compares to a solid state drive (SSD). Well, wonder no more, just read this article. Not too worry -- it's not too technical, and really quite interesting to compare the two technologies.
Both are amazing devices in their own right, and computers have come a long way in just a few short years. It's amazing that a platter can sit there, spinning at 7200 rpm, and the head can search for and find just the document or picture you were looking for. How do it do that?
Jim Hamm
For your possible interest, following is a note from the Prescott Computer Society (PCS) about help for your electronic device at the Prescott Public Library. The intent is to provide a free public service for members of our community.
Jim Hamm
Beginning on May 2, PCS will be assisting the Prescott Public Library with their new program entitled "Technology Help Hour" which will be held on Tuesdays from 10:00-11:00 AM in their Computer Lab which is located on the third floor. The official PPL blurb states "Ask a technology question and get help from members of the Prescott Computer Society. Bring your own laptop or mobile device or use a library laptop. This is a weekly, drop-in service and registration is not required."
In essence, you can bring your device to the session and some of our members will be there to help fix your problems. The technicians will be JB Burke, Ray Carlson, Dick Mason and yours truly (Ray DeCosta) for the Android side and Jim Hamm and Bobbie Pastor for the Mac folks. Attendees will be served on a first-come-first-serve basis and if we can't get to you in the allotted time, you will be first on the next week's list.
I like to keep records of my monthly bank and credit card statements as a PDF file on my computer. It’s been really handy to be able to go back to review transactions. The one issue that I have with the monthly statements that I download is that there are always several pages in the PDF file that are quite useless to keep.
To trim the unnecessary pages from a PDF document, open the document with Preview. In the View menu, select Thumbnails (if not already selected). Select the pages (from the Thumbnails) that you want to delete. Then select Edit -> Delete in the menu bar.
You can also rearrange pages of a PDF file by dragging a Thumbnail image into a new position.
Did you scan a document and one of the pages is in the wrong orientation? You can rotate a page by selecting the Thumbnail image, then click on Tools -> Rotate Left (or Tools -> Rotate Right) in the menu bar.
I often need to fill in a form or add notes to a PDF document. Click on the Markup icon
and then click on the Text icon
to add a text box which will show up smack in the middle of the document.
Click on the word ’Text’ to change the content of the text box. It will resize automatically as you enter text. You can also click on one of the blue dots to change the size of the box.
Change the font type, size, color and justification by clicking on the ‘A’ icon (to change the existing text, it must be highlighted):
Click outside the text box to finish the entry.
To drag the text box to an appropriate position, hover over the text box until the mouse pointer turns into a hand. Click and hold to drag the entire text box.
John Carter
In the evening, should you turn your computer off or leave it on? That question has been posed many times in the past, and here is yet another article on the subject. The author is Tom Nelson, and I have a lot of respect for his opinion on questions relating to computers.
When my computers had spinning hard drives, I turned them off in the evening when I was done computing for the day. My reasoning was that I didn't think it was good for a hard drive to sit there spinning 24/7. Give it a rest, was my thought so as not to wear the bearings out. Now that all my computers have an SSD, I don't think it matters much, and it's the same conclusion Tom draws in his article.
Jim Hamm
April 1st was "World Backup Day". The website says something like 'don't be an April Fool, no way, backup today'. Regardless of the day, I'm a big fan of backing up your electronic device, whatever it is. Here is an excellent article, from iMore, with tutorials on how to backup all your Apple devices.
You'd hate to lose, for example, all those pictures you've taken of your travels, family and friends. Backing up is simple, and is relatively inexpensive. For my Mac I use the program 'Super Duper' and an external hard drive. This does a full clone of everything on my hard drive, including the underlying OS. If a disaster should happen to the Mac's hard drive, after it was replaced, I would be able to boot from the external drive and reload everything I had on the drive.
The iMore backup guide is a good one, so I suggest you take a bit of time and read the tips -- and most importantly, do a backup.
Jim Hamm
If you're interested, the subject update is now available for your Mac. Info on what it contains is in this article. Biggest new feature is 'Night Shift', which will be a nice feature. You'll need to go into 'System Settings'> Display, to turn the feature on. I thought this update might contain Apple's new file system, APFS, but not yet. Later this year.
Jim Hamm
When you update to iOS 10.3 on your Apple device, you are going to have Apple's new file system (APFS) installed. Will you notice, or even care? To learn more about what and why Apple is doing this, here is an article worth reading.
I've done the update on my iPhone and iPad, and did notice the install process took longer than usual. I didn't give it much thought at the time, but, after reading the article, I now realize a lot was going on. It's difficult to comprehend all those 0's and 1's being switched around to a new file system, and still working correctly afterwards.
Congrats to Apple's Engineers. Next up for conversion to APFS will be our Macs.
Jim Hamm
Bothered by robocalls on your mobile phone? I haven't been so much, but my wife has been getting lots of them for some reason. Quite aggravating. The following article explains a couple of steps one can take to try to deflect robocalls. I checked, and AT&T (our carrier) does support "nomorobo". However, this service doesn't work on landlines.
If your carrier doesn't support "nomorobo", another option to try is the TrueCaller app for the iPhone. Read here. It looks to be a bit more work to use, but maybe this is better than getting a robocall.
http://www.komando.com/cool-sites/254740/stop-telemarketing-calls-for-good
Jim Hamm
If you store anything in Apple's iCloud, you should read the following article. Just to be on the safe side, after reading the article, I set up a two-factor authentication for my iCloud account.
Will be 'interesting' (if that's the right word) to see how this threat turns out.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3184030/security/hackers-demand-150k-ransom-threaten-to-wipe-millions-of-apple-devices.html?
Jim Hamm
If purchasing a new iPad is something you're considering -- now or sometime in the future -- read this article first. It does a good job of comparing the features of the different models, so you can decide which one fits your needs best.
Jim Hamm
Dave Rothgery found this article in the NY Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/technology/personaltech/usb-drive-fat-windows-mac.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
The Windows and Mac platforms have their own preferred file systems, but many external USB drives can work with both.
If you use Facebook, Twitter or Google apps, here is an article you may want to read about improving your security. There is a section discussing how to do a security checkup, which I found interesting. Out of curiosity, I clicked the Google checkup and, voila!, I was surprised at the info on me that came up.
Remember, Google knows everything and never forgets. Time for you to do your security checkup.
Jim Hamm
If you have, say, a smart home and several smart devices lying around, perhaps you have read of the possible hacking of your home or devices. If you are concerned and would like additional security protection, here's an article reviewing three security devices: CUJO, Dojo and Keezel.
If you're really, really geeky, here is another article with a review of one of the devices: CUJO.
After reading both articles I've concluded I want none of the devices. I don't have a smart home, and I'll protect my computers and smart devices another way.
Jim Hamm
Take a look here at Google's soon-to-be new headquarters. And Google is really "Going Green". Just read about all the energy-saving features to be incorporated in the building and campus. Be sure to click through the picture slide show of the building and campus.
If I were young again, and much smarter than I am, I'd sure like working for Google -- as probably every college graduate today wants to. I bet Google has the pick of the litter, so to speak.
So, surf the net frequently, click often, and help Google pay for this new headquarters.
Jim Hamm