GETTING A NEW COMPUTER
I love my new, lightweight HP laptop 14, $289 from Amazon. But at first, I wasn’t so sure.
I bought it quickly, seduced by the number of five- and four-star reviews and because I like HP. But I hadn’t thought to check the speed of its “Celeron N” processor. Later I read: “Celerons are extremely weak. They operate better in Chrome or other resource-light operating systems than in Windows.”
Fortunately, my HP 14 came with “Windows 11 S mode.” It speeds up performance, mimicking a Chromebook. It also prevents non-verified programs from being installed, or sensitive documents from being examined.
Before I realized all that, however, I considered returning it. My techy friend suggested the “HP 15-fc0047nr,” which is just $11 more than mine, at HP.com. It’s faster, has more storage, and sports a larger 15.4-inch screen. It even comes with free shipping. But my new HP 14-dq0054dx is great for my purposes. Even my web experience is fast. It makes me wonder if the guy who called it painfully slow in his one-star review was suffering from a poor internet connection, not a poor machine.
Set-up was fantastic. As soon as I signed into my Microsoft account, it imported all my files from my desktop computer, and my bookmarks in Edge. It even came with a free one-year subscription to Office 365. But to install a non-verified product, I had to switch off that aspect of “S” mode. Fortunately, the HP 14’s Amazon product page showed me how.
Good thing I don’t want to return it. I used $100 worth of Amazon points to buy it– points I wouldn’t get back if it went back.
Your New CoPilot
I bought a new Windows 11 machine mainly because I wanted to try out Microsoft’s new artificially intelligent Copilot. So far, I find, it’s not ready for prime time.
Some features aren’t there yet, while others duplicate what you get from ChatGPT, Bing AI, Character.AI, Google Bard and others. It’s supposed to work with your Office 365 products, but that depends on the version of Office you have. (It didn’t work on mine.) It’s also supposed to watch your activity to become your personal shopper, math tutor, travel agent, exercise guru and more. You may find that creepy.
Windows 11, however, is a kick. The start button shows widgets, such as the weather widget, and many more are available. Everything handy is in the taskbar, including a Windows icon that reveals all your apps when you click it. You can push the power button to put your machine to sleep. I like holding down the “Alt” key and pressing “F4” to turn it off quickly. Hooray.
To Renew or Not to Renew
Every year, Microsoft sends me a renewal subscription for Office 365. Every year, I wonder if the $70 is worth it.
The renewal reminder comes with a scary warning about losing all my files. But that’s nonsense. I’d only lose my online backup in OneDrive, not the stuff on my local machine. What is scary, however, is the idea of losing Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Fortunately, there’s a free, streamlined version of those products at Office.com. Just click “Products,” then choose “Word,” “Excel,” “PowerPoint,” or whichever one you want. Click “sign in” to start, and a blank document opens up. To work offline, click “File,” then “Save as,” then ““Download a copy.”
If you prefer Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and aren’t always able to work online, just click the “File” menu, then “Download.” Choose “docx” or the appropriate file format. Now it’s available offline.
Using Your Camera to Find Stuff on Amazon
Readers, I goofed. I didn’t make it clear that “Amazon Lens” is not a separate app for finding hard-to-find products on Amazon. It’s part of the “Amazon Shopping” app.
The Amazon Shopping app allows you to take a picture of something you already own in order to find something similar on Amazon. For example, a reader said that in attempting to buy a new ruggedized cell phone case, he was working on his fourth attempt to get the right size for his Samsung Galaxy 10. The Amazon Shopping app came to the rescue.
To start, download the app from your iPhone app store or Google Play store for Android. When you open the app, tap the search bar. When it pops up, tap “Search with camera.” Take a picture of the thing you have that’s similar. Amazon will show you a page full of stuff just like it. If they’re off base, add some text to your search. I just added “Snoopy checkbook cover.”
Scammed Again
Americans lost $2.7 billion in online scams over the past two years. Fake Facebook ads played a big role, according to the Federal Trade Commission,
Since 2021, about 60 percent of retail victims were duped by Facebook ads for products that never got delivered. The average per son lost about $100. Another 24 percent of retail scams took place on Instagram. But investment scams were even worse. In the first six months of this year, about $349 million was lost. The average person lost $3000.
Young people are the most vulnerable. An astonishing 47 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds have lost money in some kind of social media scam since 2021, according to the FTC.