Practical Help Library

BBM Woes – Blackberry Messenger for iOS still plagued by problems

October 24, 2013

A member asks… Hey, I saw BBM available on the Apple App Store, so installed it yesterday. I am a former Blackberry user who had to switch to an iPhone to keep up with the times. But lots of my colleagues are still on Blackberry, so I wanted to re-establish messaging with them using BBM. Here’s my problem. After downloading the app, I followed the instructions to get my BBM account activated, and the next day I received an email […]
Online Booking with a Guest Account – A Recipe for Difficulty!

October 22, 2013

A member asks… I purchased a ticket from Expedia, but I did it as a guest. I didn’t create or sign into an account on their website. Just a few minutes after I finished purchasing a ticket to Boston, I happened to see another flight that I liked better – plus it was cheaper! So I looked on the web page and saw that Expedia has a policy for a 1-day cancellation with no penalty, but I can’t figure out […]
iGoogle shut down November 1st 2013 – Looking for Alternatives?

October 17, 2013

If you used Google Chrome or any other web browser and their popular service iGoogle, you should already know that Google shut down iGoogle on Nov. 1st, 2013. This was a customize-able ‘portal’ web page that people could set as their web browser home page. There are lots of guesses as to why Google closed it down, but they first announced that about a year before, and haven’t said much since. Now, anytime you call up iGoogle, it pushes you […]
New “Airprint-capable” Printer for my iPad?

October 16, 2013

A member asks… Would you please recommend a new printer for my iPad? I am a senior on a budget. Look for this icon and/or the word “AirPrint” on the box or item description to make sure that the printer is truly capable of printing from your iPad (also iPhones). Of course, manufacturers are constantly putting out new printer models almost daily, but as of right now, we think your best option is either an HP, Canon or Epson printer. You […]
Problems you may encounter when using AOL email in Microsoft Outlook

October 11, 2013

If you have Outlook already setup to tap your AOL email account and are getting ‘IMAP‘ error messages, it’s because one or more of your emails in AOL are corrupted. They may work ok in AOL’s webpage, but won’t in other programs like Outlook. To solve this problem should take you just a few minutes: In Outlook, create a new folder in your regular set of Outlook folders (not the ones under the AOL account). Now move all your messages from the AOL account into this […]
Tip of the Day #003: Small to Big Screen

October 5, 2013

Here’s some Practical Help that gives you tips on how you can get music, video and other stuff from your smartphone or tablet to a larger screen, like your TV. Chris Gardner describes the most common ways that work well for the most popular platform: iOS, and the most popular tablet: the iPad. These tips will also work with Google Android and Microsoft Windows tablets and smartphones. Your Tech Coach at Practical Help for Your Digital Life gives you practical […]
New Updates to Mac OS X

September 14, 2013

Mountain Lion update 10.8.5 is part of the preparation for the forthcoming Mavericks (next version of Mac OS X coming in the fall of 2013). This update is primarily bug fixes and security updates. The most important update fixes a problem with the Mail app that keeps it from showing you all your messages. For Lion, the update is 10.7.5 and for Snow Leopard the update is 10.6.8. These were all released on September 12th 2013. You should update immediately. Hopefully your […]
Tip of the Day #002: Don’t fall for Scams

August 22, 2013

Practical Help for Your Digital Life gives you tips on what to watch out for to avoid being scammed at work or at home. Chris Gardner describes the most common ways that scammers try to trick you into bypassing your home, personal or office security, so you can recognize a scammer by their behavior. Printable tip sheets are available for our members below. Your Tech Coach at Practical Help for Your Digital Life gives you practical and helpful tips, hints […]
PHYDL #003: The Post-PC Era Tips

August 2, 2013

Practical Help for Your Digital Life gives you tips on navigating the so-called Post-PC era. Chris Gardner and Pam Willenz show you how you can simplify your digital life by ditching your regular computer and just using your tablet or smartphone to do everything you want. We focus on the popular iPad and equally popular Google account services to get everything done that you used to use a computer for. A handy printable tip sheet is linked below for our […]
Tip of the Day #001: Computer Hacked? What to Do!

July 30, 2013

Here’s a tip on what to do if you think your computer has been hacked. It might be worthwhile to check just to be sure! And don’t bother to take notes, we have a printable tip sheet below for our members! This is a video tip of the day, which supplements our regular scheduled show “Practical Help for Your Digital Life”. In this series, Your Tech Coach gives you practical and helpful tips, hints and advice on how to get […]
Digital Egg Timer #165: Lighten up facebook, I’m overloaded!

July 10, 2013

This Digital Egg Timer is a quick shot of Practical Help for Your Digital life. Steve Gardner shows you how to filter your facebook news feed and reduce information overload. And don’t worry about taking notes, we have a handy, printable tip sheet link below for our members. This is the Digital Minute that’s embedded in our show, ‘Hidden’ Facebook Tips – PHYDL #2. In this series, Your Tech Coach gives you practical and helpful tips, hints and advice on […]
Saying Goodbye to Google Reader and Choosing a Replacement

July 1, 2013

Google is retiring the excellent RSS reading tool, Google Reader today. There’s been a lot of news about this impending… event? disaster? non-event? For those who love using really simple syndicated (that’s RSS btw) news feeds from all over in one place, there are a number of replacements. More on that later. But first, if you use Google Reader and you haven’t yet exported your news list, you’ve been ignoring that popup to backup your data for quite awhile now. So don’t ignore […]
Digital Egg Timer #311: Keep my facebook friends separate!

July 1, 2013

This Digital Egg Timer is a quick shot of Practical Help for Your Digital life. Pam Willenz shows you how to keep your facebook friends separate. Printable tip sheets are linked below for our members. This is the Digital Minute that’s embedded in our show, ‘Hidden’ Facebook Tips – PHYDL #2. In this series, Your Tech Coach gives you practical and helpful tips, hints and advice on how to get the most out of the consumer technology you already own. […]
Fixing a problem with iCloud and your Apple ID/account

June 27, 2013

Signing into and out of iTunes on your iPad or iPhone is pretty straightforward. Just tap Settings, then iTunes & App Store, and either sign in to your account, or tap on the signed in account to see the Sign Out button. But with iCloud it works differently. Read on for more exact instructions. Once you link an iOS device to your Apple ID in iCloud, you’ve established a relationship between the two. In order to change to a different Apple ID, you actually […]
How to solve a problem when your iPhone or iPad won’t connect to a Wi-Fi network

June 25, 2013

Sooner or later, you’ll run into this problem, and shutting down, restarting, or resetting your iOS device won’t fix it. Here’s the most likely problem, and a practical solution to the times when your iPad or iPhone won’t connect to a Wi-Fi network. Situation: Your iOS device remembers the Wi-Fi networks that you have connected to in the past, and anytime you are in that neighborhood, uses the saved settings to re-connect you automatically. Problem: The Wi-fi network is determined by the ‘name’ also known […]
Digital Egg Timer #229: Facebook, don’t hide my messages!

June 25, 2013

This Digital Egg Timer is a quick shot of Practical Help for Your Digital life. Steve Gardner shows you how to see hidden messages in facebook that you may have missed. Don’t waste time taking notes, printable tip sheets are linked below for your convenience! This is the Digital Minute that’s embedded in our show, ‘Hidden’ Facebook Tips – PHYDL #2. In this series, Your Tech Coach gives you practical and helpful tips, hints and advice on how to get […]
The best protection program for your Microsoft Windows computer

June 14, 2013

After extensive testing and reviewing the results of other respected testers in the industry, we have a winner of the best value for internet/computer security suites. Once a year we test a batch of suites and compare various factors, such as effectiveness, trouble-free use and cost. To do our own testing, we have a really nasty PC we keep around. We install each tested suite on this computer and then proceed to do everything we can to infect that computer – visiting […]
PHYDL #002: ‘Hidden’ Facebooking Tips

May 26, 2013

Practical Help for Your Digital Life exposes hidden tips in Facebook to let you use social networking smarter and easier. Pam Willenz shows you simple ways to get Facebook working smarter/harder for you, and possibly save you some embarrassment! A handy printable tip sheet is linked below for our members. In this series, Your Tech Coach gives you practical and helpful tips, hints and advice on how to get the most out of the consumer technology you already own. Geek-free […]
Windows 8 Redux: I’m deferring using it in production mode

May 24, 2013

Ok, I gave it my best shot. I don’t think Microsoft Windows 8 is ready for me to use either as a primary computer or in a ‘production mode’. In many ways it is better than Windows 7, but it still carries many of the same problems of stability and reliability that I have with Windows 7, plus I see new, Windows 8-only bugs. Most recently, a disk usage problem cropped up where Windows would use 100% of disk usage […]
Using Google Services on Other Devices besides Android smartphones and tablets

May 24, 2013

Rounding out this week’s focus on Google, if you are a Google fan but also use an Apple iPad or iPhone, you have a number of great apps direct from Google that you can use to extend your reach within the Google ecosphere. Google isn’t doing much for the Blackberry crowd or Windows tablet and smartphone users, although they will let you set up gmail’s email and contacts along with your Google calendar. And for Blackberry Enterprise Services users, you can’t even do that […]
Digital Minute #388: iPhone Dialing with Siri

May 14, 2013

This Digital Minute is a quick shot of Practical Help for Your Digital life. Chris Gardner shows you how to use Siri to make phone calls on your iPhone faster and with less work on your part. This is the Digital Minute that’s embedded in our show, iPhone Tips – Using Siri – PHYDL #1. In this series, Your Tech Coach gives you practical and helpful tips, hints and advice on how to get the most out of the consumer […]
Is my Computer Infected? DNSChanger Woes

May 8, 2013

A member asks… Hi Chris, I read about this computer virus called DNSChanger that can take over your PC’s web browser. Apparently, the FBI is really worried about it, and I read in some news stories that it is really bad. So my question is, I’ve got protection for my computer (AVG), should I be worried? Thanks! James and Tillie Quick answer to your question – you need not worry, even though AVG likely didn’t protect you from this. EDIT: Please […]
How Much we Hate Passwords, but are Stuck till Something Better Comes Along

April 6, 2013

It’s not news that everybody hates having to deal with passwords, and all the different and sometimes conflicting rules on how to use them. We here at Practical Help are no different – they’re darn inconvenient! Most of the people who ask us for help don’t even remember their own email passord – they’ve gotten their computer to remember it for them which is great until they have to get to their email another way. And as much as we hate them, we recognize […]
Are we raising a generation of cyber crooks?

March 31, 2013

In March 2013, two groups of U.S. high school age kids with prodigious cyber skills visited the Washington, D.C. area. On March 2nd, George Mason University hosted the annual Virginia Governor’s Cup CyberChallenge with 40 of the state’s brightest and smartest ‘geeks’. On March 15th, 156 high school cyber experts from across the country were treated like rock stars at the Gaylord hotel in National Harbor competing at CyberPatriot V – the National High School Cyber Defense Competition. In both of these events, the […]
Keeping Adobe Flash Updated on your Mac

March 27, 2013

Mac users need to be aware that auto-updating for your OS X system is not a perfect science. Often, updates are issued by 3rd party app providers, and even if they have a setting to apply updates automatically, they often don’t do that. So you need to be vigilant in keeping your Mac up-to-date. Especially with ‘helper’ programs like Adobe Flash. Adobe’s Flash player has been a long-time easy target for hackers, and having an out-of-date Flash player installed on your Mac can […]
PHYDL #001: iPhone Tips – Using Siri

March 20, 2013

In this show, we bring you tips on getting Siri to make using your smartphone less work. From a faster way to make a phone call to sending text messages easier to making quick and easy appointments and reminders, Chris Gardner shows you simple ways to get the most out of your iPhone and get it working smarter/harder for you. And don’t bother to take notes, members can view, download and print our exclusive tip sheet – see the link below. […]
iPad, the Missing Manual – a Primer for new iPad Owners

March 16, 2013

So you got a shiny new iPad, either as a present or you bought it yourself. You open the box and lo, there’s not much of an instruction manual! You might be able to discover how to use it by trial and error, or have visited an Apple store and talked to the Genius bar folks, but have some lingering questions about some pretty basic how-to-do-stuff. Here’s where we come in. Members can click the link after the jump to […]
Watch out for “Ransomware” apps – Updated

March 11, 2013

This danger appears to be spreading quickly since September 2013. Latest info in: they’ve extorted over $5M US from people since the ransomware craze started last fall. A member asks… I saw a pop-up that appeared on my computer warning me that I needed to buy their app to make sure my computer is safe. What should I do? You may have fallen victim to one or more apps we call ‘ransomware’. Ransomware is a type of malware who’s primary […]
Telemarketers are going to call my Cell Phone!

February 21, 2013

A member asks… Hi Chris, I received this email and am not sure if it’s for real. Can you tell me whether I should do something about it or not? Thanks! Subject: cell phone numbers go public this month… REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month. REMINDER….. all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. …. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS To prevent this, call the following number […]
How can I do virtual tours when my computer says I need plug ins. Is this safe?

February 14, 2013

A member asks… I tried to do a virtual tour on a site and the computer said i needed plug-ins. Is that safe? Thanks for your answer. Ms. Penny If you’re in the market to buy a house, you may opt to do a ‘virtual tour’ before actually going to the house. Real estate agents and brokers do this all the time. But how do you know when plug-ins are safe to do virtual tours? Click on this virtual tour to see […]