On Computers

Sometimes switching from one phone and internet service provider to another is a colossal waste of time. I learned this the hard way. Unhappy with a big price increase from Xfinity when I switched to an iPhone, I turned to T-Mobile. Not only did they promise to save me $30 a month on phone and internet, they said their Starlink service could connect me even in remote areas. Goody. But the T-Mobile app instructed me to place my new router near a window, and it looked awful there. So when I ran into another setup problem, I decided to go back to Xfinity. At the T-Mobile store, a salesman went through three verification steps before telling me I had to […]

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Filed under: AI, gadgets, Internet, numbers, storage, troubleshooting | Comments Off on SWITCHING CARRIERS WASN’T WORTH IT

I loved canoeing to an Alaskan glacier, kayaking around islands and river rafting past eagles after a hike in a rainforest. But I hated the dropped calls and spotty internet on board the Discovery Princess. I blamed it on my Samsung Galaxy A16, which I bought after my Pixel 8 phone died in a pool of salad dressing. After Googling “problems with the Galaxy A16,” my suspicions were confirmed. For the entire week on the “Holistic Holiday at Sea,” my phone had problems making calls and connecting to the internet. Meanwhile, my iPhone-owning friends connected everywhere but the elevators.  For one wild minute, I considered getting the new iPhone 17 when I got back home. But I don’t need its […]

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Filed under: AI, Internet, iPhone, phones, storage | Comments Off on JUMPING SHIP

“I pay Apple 99 cents a month for iCloud storage. What are the bad outcomes if I exceed the 50-gigabyte limit?” a reader asked. Nothing bad. There’s a 30-day grace period. Then you can decide whether you want to pay $3 a month for 200 GB of storage space or transfer your excess iCloud files to your computer or elsewhere. To transfer them to your computer, go to iCloud.com, click one of your photos or videos, and hold down the “Ctrl” key in Windows (or the “Cmd” key on the Mac). Now tap the “A” key to select all. Then click the download icon. Alternatively, you could upload your iCloud files to a different cloud service. For example, Amazon Prime […]

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Filed under: AI, Apple, cloud computing, Internuts, robots, storage, trends, Uncategorized | Comments Off on RUNNING OUT OF ROOM

Look out for old computers selling as new. Sometimes, they’re more expensive than ever. The HP desktop I bought in 2017 for $650, for example, is now selling on Amazon for $982. It’s not the exact model, but it’s a similar one from 2017 that comes up when I click “Buy again.” The same year, a friend bought a “new” computer with the old Video Graphics Array. The result was a slightly fuzzy screen. VGA was replaced by HDMI in 2008. To avoid duds, check the tech specs. You can find them on the product page at Amazon, BestBuy, HP, OfficeDepot and other sites. But what if you don’t understand what you’re looking at? The answer is UserBenchmark.com. It gives […]

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Filed under: AI, apps, books, computers, electronics, how-to, Internuts, storage | Comments Off on OLD COMPUTERS SELLING AS NEW

A young friend told me that the same $12 necklace from Target is only $1 from China. How is that possible? Chinese sites like Temu rely on a loophole in US customs laws. If a product is less than $800, they can ship it directly to a shopper without being inspected or taxed. There’s a bill in Congress to stop that, but for now you can get amazing deals. Temu is the number one free shopping app in the Apple app store and the Google play store, beating out Amazon and Walmart. Here’s the catch: According to ZDNet, it takes 10 days to deliver your package and it may look different than it did on Temu. But you’re guaranteed a […]

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Filed under: AI, business, computers, shopping, storage | Comments Off on GETTING CHEAP STUFF FROM CHINA

Publishing a book through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing turned out to be both easier and harder than I thought.  After tearing my hair out at first, I discovered Amazon’s template for a five-by-eight inch paperback. I also noticed a lengthy guide and a long video tutorial, but I can never sit through those. So whenever I had a question, I hit the chat button and got a live person. They didn’t always know the answer but kept me moving right along, encouraging me to skip design elements I didn’t need. Besides texting, I could have talked on the phone or emailed them. Each time, they were available within seconds. I’m working on a historical novella for a retired professor of […]

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Filed under: batteries, books, business, gadgets, Internet, Internuts, kids, storage, web | Comments Off on PUBLISHING YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON

Floppy disks, a creation of the 1960s, will never die. Or will they?In a video that went viral this month, a Chuck E. Cheese employee is seen loading a 3.5-inch floppy into a computer. The floppy is used to send data to animate Chuck E. Cheese and his robotic friends. There are many other entities that use floppies as well. Even our military does. The US Air Force operates six Boeing 747-200 airplanes, each 36 years old, that get updates from floppies. Two of these are Air Force One planes. Airbus, the European rival to Boeing, aswell as some business jets, also use floppies. Why don’t they upgrade to USB sticks, SD cards, or wireless transfer? It would cost thousands […]

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Filed under: AI, Google, photos, storage, trends, wireless | Comments Off on LONG LIVE THE FLOPPY DISK

I went to my first Amazon Fresh store. I walked in, selected stuff and left. No check-out necessary. As I walked in the door, I had a choice of “just walk out shopping” or the traditional kind. To use “just walk out,” I was shown how to use either the Amazon app or an Amazon credit card. When I stuck my credit card in the turnstile, its screen flashed green and said “Go.”  Everyone else must have been using “just walk out” too, because there were four checkers just standing around, looking bored.   The store looks like a combination of Whole foods and a regular supermarket, though I also saw Amazon’s inexpensive “Happy Belly” brand, especially in the spice department. […]

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Filed under: AI, Amazon, computers, Internuts, security, storage | Comments Off on SOMETHING FRESH

An exchange of emails with a reader on the subject of falling prices for large storage drives, led to an inevitable question: What are they good for? In short, once you get past a few gigabytes – which you can buy as thumb drives for less than $10 – just what are you going to store? We know that the general notion is that bigger is always better, and at these prices why not go nuts and pull up the truck? Terabyte drives are now common. That’s a thousand gigabytes, a million megabytes, a big number. Let’s talk reality here. According to Britannica, all 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica would take up 4.7 gigabytes. That’s all the words and […]

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Filed under: Amazon, apps, radio, storage | Comments Off on REALLY BIG NUMBERS

“Save the juice. Save the juice.” That comment is from a sign in Thomas Edison’s laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. The rest of the of the sign rhymes, with the added line: “Turn off the lights when not in use.” Frugal guy, Edison. So taking that advice up to modern times, we took out our wallet, blew off the dust, and cracked it open to the tune of $10 to buy a timer for our phone charger. According to AccuBatteryApp.com, you can’t overcharge your phone’s battery, but leaving it plugged in too long is bad for its health; the battery degrades. Well, we do that a lot, and decided to take measures to overcome our lack of self- control. […]

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Filed under: apps, batteries, storage, video | Comments Off on SAVE THE JUICE