DEALS ON MICROSOFT OFFICE AND BEYOND
If you’re like me, you hate to pay Microsoft $70 a year for Office 365. But you can get a nearly equivalent version for much less, and it’s a one-time-only payment.
Go to StackSocial.com and search for “Microsoft Office 2019.” It’s identical to Office 365, except you don’t get Microsoft Teams or updates. Besides Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, it includes Notes, OneNote, Publisher and Access. Its $25 price was expiring in 40 hours when I looked, but new deals arrive almost daily.
When I checked, Windows 11 was $20, down from $199. Lifetime subscriptions to Babbel and Rosetta Stone, the language-learning programs, were more than 50 percent off. There were also discounts on gift cards, gadgets and toys. But some deals are better than others. A refurbished Dell computer going for $174 was listed as down from $530, but I saw the same Dell on Amazon for $186, not a big difference.
StackSocial also offers a lifetime subscription to Curiosity, which has thousands of streaming documentaries on science, nature, cooking, kids topics and more. It’s $160, down from $400. I’d like to see the new version of “James Burkes’ Connections,” the most-watched documentary series in BBC history, though the old Connections series streams free on YouTube
Where’s My Wallet?
I don’t use Air Tags in my wallet because they’re bulky. They’re also pricey, when you consider the cost of the tag plus the kind of wallet that accepts it. But the new Geo Wallet has an Air Tag built in. It rings when you try to find it, using the “Find my” app on an iPhone or iPad.
The Geo holds credit cards and offers protection against RFID chip readers, the kind that collect info about you and send it off via radio transmission. Some versions folds out into a stand for your phone. Get it at ESRgear.com.
Facebook Clones
Recently, a high-powered man in Washington, D.C. asked to be my friend. I suspected he was a clone and sure enough, he was. When I searched for his name on Facebook, I found two of him.
My cousin was also cloned. Fortunately, I remembered that she was already on my friend list so I wasn’t tempted to say yes to her clone’s friend request. When I searched on her name and found two of her, I reported the clone as a phony. To do that, just go to the clone’s fake page and click the “…” located to the right of their profile picture and below the message button. Then click the report option.
If you want to make your account extra secure, set up two-factor authentication. Under “Settings” on the Facebook page, choose “Password and security,” then enable it. For more tips, look up “What is Facebook Account Cloning & What Can You Do about It?” at Techlicious.com.
Ruggedized Phone
To take vacation photos underwater, you need a ruggedized phone. It’s also handy if you work in harsh environments, enjoy extreme sports, face extreme weather or need to take a dip in oil.
The new Oukitel WP35 is completely sealed in a tough casing to protect it against damage from water, grease, soap, shock, dust, and vibration. You could bring it on your next military expedition.
At $329 on Amazon, it costs much less than ruggedized smartphones usually do, and performs better, according to ZDNET. It offers 50 days of standby time and 15 hours of video playback. It has face unlock, the latest Android 14 operating system, and a dual SIM card, so you could have two phone lines on it. With its sixth-generation Gorilla glass, you can skip the screen protector. Besides supporting 5G, it has a memory expansion feature that gives it 16 gigabytes of virtual memory, in addition to its eight gigabytes of RAM, and has a free two-year warranty. On the downside, it weighs more than two iPhones combined– about a pound.
Swiping Left and Right
My favorite way to delete texts on a phone is to swipe them into oblivion. But when I got a new phone, I had to change the default setting to make that happen. Otherwise, swiping in either direction only archived the message.
To change your swipe actions on an Android phone, go to “Settings” and search on the word “swipe.” When a new screen comes up, scroll down to “Swipe Actions.” I changed the left swipe to “delete.” On an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, open Settings. Then tap Swipe Options. Select the swipe option you want to change, then choose the action you would like to assign. But unlike my Android phone settings, the iPhone’s default settings seem fine.
For Gmail, tap your profile picture. Then tap the hamburger icon (three stacked lines) and scroll down until you get to “Settings.” From there tap “General Settings,” and finally, “Swipe actions.” Now you can delete an email in Gmail with a left swipe, and archive it with a right swipe, or vice versa.
Southwest Uses Old Windows Programs
The Crowdstrike software upgrade that took down airlines, banks and hospitals recently didn’t affect Southwest Airlines. That’s because they’re still using Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, which didn’t get the fatal update.
This news went viral on the web, but before you congratulate Southwest too much, keep in mind that using a 32-year-old program like Windows 3.1 makes the airline more vulnerable to hackers, according to PCWorld.