REFURBISHED APPLE PRODUCTS FOR LESS

A reader’s seven year-old iMac refused to power on. Apple couldn’t fix it. “They first tried the power fix, which didn’t work, then tried replacing the logic board,” she said, “which also didn’t work.” To repair it would have cost $900. “I am extremely disgusted,” she said. “I paid more than a thousand dollars for it. I think it should last longer than that. But it is what it is. Now I need a new computer.” Unfortunately, a computer that lasts seven years is par for the course. On average, they last three to eight years. But desktops last longer than laptops because they get better airflow, which reduces heat, the enemy of electronic components. It’s also easier to swap […]

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ART TV DISPLAYS THOUSANDS OF PAINTINGS

Two decades ago, Bill Gates began filling his enormous mansion with digital picture frames to display the world’s best art. Now you can too. “The Frame” is a Samsung TV made to look like a painting, complete with a matte finish. With a $5 a month subscription, it displays 2,300 pieces of digital art, including a new Salvador Dali collection in partnership with an institution founded by the painter himself. The 2023 model is considered a vast improvement over the version that came out in 2017. For one thing, it’s a lot thinner, nearly melting into the wall.There’s no gap. It’s a smart TV too. But when the TV’s off, the Frame goes back to displaying art. It even has […]

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FACEBOOK CLONES

Recently, I thought I got a Facebook friend request from a cousin, but it turned out to be her clone. Duped again. After accepting that phony friend request, I noticed two red flags: First, I was her only friend. Second, the clone had only three posts. When I typed her name into the Facebook search bar, I saw her real account listed after the fake one, so I immediately unfriended the faker. You might want to search for your own name to see if there are two of you. “What should I do about it?” my cousin asked. Here are the steps to follow. Go to the fake account’s home page and click the three horizontal dots near the word […]

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FREE 55-INCH TV

I can hardly wait to get my free 55-inch 4K “Telly” TV. You can get one too. In the first 36 seconds, 100,000 people signed up, mostly Millennials and Gen Zs in the higher income and education brackets. The first half a million TVs will be shipped next month, and millions more will be shipped in 2024 and 2025. Unfortunately, the Telly is getting a bum rap because of the data it collects. That’s ironic. Today’s TVs already spy on you, then sell your data to third parties. The main difference between the Telly and other TVs is that the Telly is up front about it and gives you a TV for free. Sign up at FreeTelly.com to get a […]

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CASTING ANY WEBSITE TO YOUR TV

My women’s group wanted to see a live memorial service in New Hampshire on a big screen TV in Chicago. Here’s how I cast it from the church website to my TV. First, I went to the website in the Google Chrome browser on my Windows computer. Then I clicked the three vertical dots in the upper right and chose “cast.” Up popped my TV as one of the choices. The ladies were delighted. If you’re casting from an iPhone or iPad, you may need a TV with Apple TV built in, or at least one that’s compatible with AirPlay. Once you’ve got it, follow these steps. First, start up a video on your phone or tablet. Next, look for […]

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THE FUTURE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY

After the FTX bankruptcy debacle, people lost faith in cryptocurrency. Even I did, though I bought a sweater with bitcoin in 2017. It might be different if I lived in another country. Take Lebanon, for example. According to a report last month, people who try to get their cash out of a bank have to give up 85 percent of it.  CNBC quoted an architect who said he now gets 90 percent of his payments in bitcoin there, which he swaps for a “stablecoin” called tether, which he exchanges for US dollars. “One of the big attractions of cryptocurrency is its independence from governments and traditional financial institutions,” said Joel Ewing, the president of the Bella Vista computer club in […]

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USING AN APP TO SAVE ON MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS

I’m saving over $200 a year on magazine subscriptions with a free app called “Libby.” All you need is a library card. Once you sign in to the Libby app, available on a phone, a tablet or at libbyapp.com, you get access to 4,034 magazines. They also have 23,748 audio books and 57,401 e-books. You can borrow up to ten books, ten audio books and ten magazines at once. I checked out People Magazine’s special edition on the Beatles, Time Magazine’s issue on the Roosevelts and The Economist. Normally, The Economist alone would cost me at least $99 a year. I also looked at Reader’s Digest, The New Yorker and The Week Magazine, though I already have the paper copies. […]

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EXPLORING EXTRAS ON YOUR SMART TV

Your smart TV has a lot more than Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Check out these channels for movies, documentaries and other, mostly free, stuff. If you don’t mind commercials, “Freevee” is a new, free channel from Amazon which can also be watched on the web. I tried it both ways, first watching on the web, then installing it from the Google Play Store on my TV, which I found under “apps.” It has a lot of kid favorites, like the animated dance movie “Leap,” as well as great selections for adults, like “Emma,” based on the book by Jane Austen, and “Knives Out,” starring the late great Christopher Plummer. When the Campbell’s soup commercial came on, I didn’t mind. I […]

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TVS ARE BETTER THAN PROJECTORS

Which is better for watching movies, a TV or a projector? Years ago, a Moroccan invited me to his apartment to meet his wife and baby. After dinner, we watched a Jacques Tati movie. Rather than use a TV, he projected it from his computer onto a big white wall. It made perfect sense. Why bother with a TV when you can get a movie-size projection? A $100 projector can give you a 10-foot wide viewing area. I saw one from Epson, a quality brand, for  $70 on Amazon. But according to CNET, TVs are the better buy, thanks to a rapid drop in prices and improvements in technology. The big ones used to cost upwards of $10,000. Now you […]

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BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH PROVES DEADLY

Windows is famous for its startling “blue screen of death.” I got a lighter shade recently. Then my hard drive died. I could have opened my PC, removed the hard drive and installed a new one. Instead, I asked the local repair shop to back up my files on an external drive and install an SSD. The SSD, or “solid state drive,” will be much faster and more reliable.  The shop charged $150 for the backup, much more than the $99 fee BestBuy charges. But that’s because the dying drive made it a slow recovery process. BestBuy’s price also varies with the ease of recovery.  The shop said that installation of the new drive would cost me $275. So before […]

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