A member asks… Hi Chris, I may need your help – at the end of March/early April, it appeared that somehow my personal email account was sending out Viagra-type ads to a bunch of folks not in my Contacts. I only knew because I received the bounce-backs. A couple of years ago I got a virus, and acquired Norman Anti-virus and Anti-spyware (which is apparently from Sweden). This time, Norman started popping up that it was moving three files into […]
A reader asks… Hey there would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with? I’m going to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a hard time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique. I don’t mind at all! The Practical Help website was created using WordPress, the most popular content management system (CMS) used on the internet. […]
A reader asks… I have a new Windows PC with Windows 8.1 on it. Is there any way I can use the old Windows 7 button instead of the Start Screen? This question comes up a lot, especially since it’s gotten pretty hard to buy a new Microsoft Windows PC with Windows 7. The good news is that Microsoft has heard us all complaining about the “Metro” interface – that silly start screen with tiles. In the forthcoming Windows 10 […]
A member asks… Do you have any preferences for a web dictionary for someone fairly new to technology? Thank you for your help! Most of the physical dictionaries have migrated to the web, so if you have a preferred brand, you’ll easily find it online, along with some newcomers. For example: Miriam-Webster (my favorite) Cambridge Dictionaries Online Oxford Dictionaries Online Oxford English Dictionary Dictionary.com Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English That said, if you’re simply looking for the definition of a word, the […]
Every year about this time, I make a comparison of selected internet security suites, and review the results of other trusted testers. See my testing mode below the fold. I don’t test everything that’s out there, but do test top-contenders, both free stuff and what’s sold by for-profit companies. Please note that this comparison is for Microsoft Windows computers — see below the fold for my recommendations for other computing devices. And this product recommendation is targeted to consumers and […]
If you already updated to OS X Yosemite on your 2011 or newer Mac, and you use Dropbox, you should be aware of a potential problem. Dropbox could crash and you could lose any changes to your files. Dropbox is aware of this and worked with Apple to fix the problem. Fixing this issue is simple, just update to the latest version of OS X, your Mac’s operating system. Right now, that’s OS X 10.10.1. You can quickly find out […]
A reader asks… Hi Chris, I’ve been reading a warning about a new “Masque Attack” on iPhones and iPads, is there anything I need to do to protect myself? This is another great example of an otherwise-insignificant issue that the media (and government!) blows all out of proportion. Why? To sell eyeballs – to advertisers. Since the Apple iPhone/iPad duo is such a security hot button, anything that potentially knocks these products is given a lot of attention. Too much […]
A reader asks… I just got an email from the Home Depot telling me that they’ve been hacked (took them long enough), and their note says only my email was compromised. But I’ve read that the hackers stole payment information including credit card numbers and other identity information. So who do I believe? I find it sadly kind of funny that you just received this when the breach was broadcast all over the place months ago! Thanks for sending me […]
A reader asks… Hi Chris, I have vision problems, and want to get my Macbook Pro’s screen to show up on my big-screen TV. I have an Apple TV hooked up, but can’t get the Mac to display up there – there’s no Airplay icon showing on my Mac’s screen. Can you help? Here’s a picture of my menu bar: I’m sorry to hear that you’re having problems seeing the Mac screen, are you already using Accessibility options? I’d suggest […]
Frequent travelers, road warriors and people who spend a lot of time staying in hotels have a continuing beef with the way hotels serve up internet access. The problem is that some hotels do things one way, some do things another way. Some make it easy to use the internet, some make it hard. Some charge extra for internet access, and some include that in their room rates. Some give you a lousy login screen you have to go through each time you want […]
We are starting to see a more efficient (for the bad guys) method of phishing appear: huyao which means Monstrous Fox in Chinese. In typical phishing attacks, the bad guys create a near-exact duplicate of an existing website (usually an online shopping, credit card or banking site) and entice people to accidentally log into that site instead of the real one. This gives the bad guys your login username and password, which they can then use on the real website […]
A reader asks… Hi Chris, I’m in hell! I upgraded my iPhone 5 to iOS 8.1, and all was fine till today. I started getting this popup on my screen saying that I had to accept the new terms and conditions for iCloud. I did it the first time, and a few minutes later got a new popup – almost the same except that I only get two choices – Not Now and View Terms. Tapping the Not Now option […]
In Part 1 we covered the basics of securing your iCloud account against hackers. But if you’ve got sensitive and private photos or information on your computer or iOS devices, the next thing to consider is protecting against government snooping. Apple is just as subject to court orders as you are, so you have to expect that your information might be snooped by someone. You’ll be considering whether keeping anything ‘in the cloud’ is for you. Not just iCloud, but any other cloud-based storage […]
There’s been a lot of angst about Apple’s iCloud service lately, with a lot of incomplete or misleading information. So I thought I’d try to clear the air after researching the salient facts from authoritative sources. The tips below should certainly be considered ‘my opinion’, but I hope my readers will trust my intent to be objective. In the interests of keeping this missive short enough to keep your attention, I’m not going to cite sources or give a lot […]
A couple is sitting at a restaurant having dinner. The waiter offers to take their picture so one gives her iPhone to take the picture. The other wants a copy of the picture for his iPhone too. What do they do? have the waiter take another picture with his iPhone use iMessage to send the picture from her iPhone to his (which uses the data plan allowance for both) use AirDrop to send the picture between iPhones A lot of […]
A member asks… Hey Chris, I’ve got a new iPhone 6 and am just loving Apple Pay! But I’ve been hearing rumors that there’s something else coming out soon that’s better. Can you tell me what’s going on and what I need to do? Thanks! A sea change is coming to our purchasing world. Here in the USA, by the end of next year we all get new credit cards to replace what we have now. That’s because Visa, MasterCard, American […]
If you use Outlook, you may have accidentally encountered a situation where all the text in messages changes to larger or smaller size. This happens when you accidentally activate a “keyboard shortcut” but didn’t mean to (or even know you were doing so). Outlook in particular, and almost every program in Windows or Mac systems come programmed with a whole slew of these keyboard shortcuts, which often consist of pressing two keys simultaneously, or pressing one key and doing something with your […]
A member asks… Hey Chris, I updated to iOS 8.1 on my iPhone and iPad, and also upgraded to OS X Yosemite on my Mac. Everything’s great except for one problem – now my iPad and my Mac ring everytime my iPhone rings! That’s annoying, can you tell me how to shut that off? I agree, not all new features are desired with a new version of iOS, but fortunately this particular feature is easy to turn off. The multi-device ring […]
A member asks… Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My weblog looks weird when browsing from my iphone 4. I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might be able too correct this issue. If you have any suggestions, please share. With thanks! Website design has come a long way, and so has web browsing. In 2013, over 17% of all worldwide web traffic came through mobile with Asia and Africa leading the way for […]
A member asks… Hi Chris, I updated my iPhone to iOS8, and love the new ‘predictive’ keyboard feature. This is where I see words as I’m typing appear above the keyboard and I can tap them to select (instead of typing the whole word). That’s a great improvement over the old auto-correct. Trouble is, the darn thing disappeared yesterday! Can you help me get it back? That is a nice new feature of iOS8 that both predicts what word you […]
A member asks… I took your advice and purchased Bitdefender Internet Security 2013 a few years ago. I’ve renewed the subscription twice now so it’s still actively protecting me, right? But it still shows as version 2013, and I think there must be a newer version out there. Can I upgrade without having to pay again, and if so, how? I’m glad you took my advice back then, Bitdefender Internet Security has been a great no-frills tool for protecting your Microsoft […]
A member asks… I’m just getting ready to start doing some video for my business and saw that you’ve got a ton of videos already online. Do you have any recommendation for an entry-level video camera for a small business to get? Thanks! Congratulations! I think that integrating video to your small business marketing plan is a great idea! Here are a few thoughts on this subject, if you want, please use the comments to give me a better idea […]
Yah, I know it’s a chore that you want to put off indefinitely, but please don’t! You need to do a set of routine maintenance tasks every month or so to keep your computer working for you, not the other way around. This is true for both Apple Macs and Microsoft Windows computers. This is a lot like maintaining your car (oil changes, etc.) to keep it running trouble-free. The maintenance list isn’t really onerous for either type of computer […]
Here’s your situation: You just upgraded from a cellphone to a smartphone-specifically the Apple iPhone. You are resisting going “all Apple” and you have a Gmail account. You want to use your shiny new iPhone with Gmail, but the geniuses at the Apple Store aren’t all that helpful – they were pushing you to setup an iCloud email account and start using that. They were helpful enough to copy all those contacts from your old cellphone to your iPhone. The […]
Let’s face it, if you’re like most people, in your digital life you: use your email address as your username use a password that’s less than 13 characters long use a simple password (like 123456, abcdef, or some combination of letters and numbers that relate to you somehow) use the same password at more than one online place don’t use a password manager or really do much to manage your online identity Here are some simple facts: Nowadays, professional hackers […]
One of my almost-famous sayings goes like this: “97% of people don’t bother to backup. But of the people who suffer a hard drive crash, 100% of them regret not doing so.” Everybody giving advice in technology says the same thing – backup your files. Yet almost nobody bothers to do this. Why? It’s too much work, too complicated, too hard, or takes too much time. So let me propose a simpler way to take care of this chore. Google users can install Google Drive on […]
Update your Apple TV to version 6.0 (update, as of Dec. 2014 the latest version is 6.2.1). Apple has released (2nd time’s a charm!) this version of the operating system. This update adds some nice new features like iTunes Radio and AirPlaying your iCloud content on other Apple TVs. I should note that this update was initially released last week, but Apple quickly pulled it when they realized that it was not working well for some users. If you were […]
Apple has released the latest version of their operating system for iPads and iPhones, iOS8. While anyone buying a new iPad or iPhone will get that automatically, if you already have one, you may want to get the free upgrade. Whether you should do this or not is the first question. Here’s the answer: It depends. On which model of iPad or iPhone you have. The chart at right (click it to show full size) shows which devices are compatible […]
Here is how road warriors can make using the internet in hotels easier. Frequent travelers, road warriors and people who spend a lot of time staying in hotels have a continuing beef with the way hotels serve up internet access. The problem is that some hotels do things one way, some do things another way. Some make it easy to use the internet, some make it hard. Some charge extra for internet access, and some include that in their room […]
A member asks… This is a rather minor issue, but I was trying to make the border (and all the various colors) on windows darker, but in Windows 8.1 I don’t see any color schemes that do that, and I can’t find any menu that gives the level of color control that came with earlier versions of Windows. I’m talking about the desktop, of course, and not the metro interface. I just find that light colors are distracting around videos, […]
"I'm all about helping you deal with our 21st century high-tech digital world so you can enjoy a healthy and secure digital life!"
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