Birthdays!

I’ve just had mine but it reminded me to tell you that you can actually put a birthday flag into your electronic calendar.

It doesn’t matter which you use, iOS or Android or Google, there is a way of putting a “Birthday” field against the name of the particular person in your Contacts app and it will automatically put a little flag in your Calendar app to remind you of their birthday! In iOS it’s a little parcel with a red bow with their name and how old they are against it. Google will make a suggestion for you to contact them by email, text or phone.

The other interesting one, if you use your smart phone calendar, you can automatically put in the dates for your bin collection! I can never remember which bin goes out on which day, very unlike where we have been in northern Italy. There the rubbish in towns is collected every day, no matter what.

To get your calendar insert go to https://www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/refuse-calendar/ where you put your postcode and address in to get your location and then you can choose from the left side of the next page whether you want to print it out, to stick it on the cupboard door or whether you want to download it for use in Google, Outlook or iCal(iOS).

Hope those tips make life a little easier but if you need any help call me on

07714 016830

Nearly There!

County Broadband

The Warboys Fibre To The Home (FTTH) is progressing nicely now. My information is that County Broadband has had planning teams in our village so those at the top of the list who committed to the scheme early, should see their broadband speeds go up later in the year.

Our current contact with County Broadband is Matthew Briggs on 07538 399740. Matthew also happens to be the manager for Pidley and Fenton, Oldhurst and Woodhurst and indeed, Kings Ripton as well, where the build teams have been active for the last three weeks now so Matthew does understand the area and the local requirements for bringing together a successful roll-out.

Because of the thin spread of early adopters, it doesn’t look as though County Broadband will be doing a Warboys area-wide build so everyone could get fibre to their premises easily no matter when they choose to join. Rather, certain areas of the village will be given priority so that the work can focus on those that have signed up. The early adopters will be able to take advantage of reduce costs and those that haven’t signed up before the cut-off date will have to wait in the queue depending on where they are in the village. Make sure you’re an early adopter by signing up as soon as possible!

Wi-Fi Issues - help available

Last month’s blog raised the issue of Wi-Fi not covering the whole house and I put forward some suggestions to improve that. It appears that there is more than one person in the village who has suffered poor wifi in the conservatory because the incoming router is at the opposite end of the house!

You don’t have to suffer - there are many options to get the speed you paid for across the whole house and as a special offer, I am happy to do a 30 minute Wi-Fi analysis for £10 in the week beginning the 21st February to the 26th February to give you some indication where improvements can be made.

Call me on 07714 016830 to book your appointment!

Broadband for Warboys - Part II

A couple of subjects for discussion this month - the current status of the County Broadband “fibre to the premises” project for Warboys and the improvements you can make in your standard wifi in your home.

After a somewhat quiet period, County Broadband is very much more active! A new Project Manager for Warboys, Luke Smith, has been appointed who is very keen to get this back on its feet and running. I for one will be very pleased knowing that symmetrical 300mb speed (that’s about six times faster than I am currently getting both down and up) is back in my sights! My understanding is there are events planned for later this year and early next to drum up support as Warboys hasn’t reached the goal required to take the project forward just yet,

More good news is that rather than a massive falling off of interest, a very high number of those originally interested have not backed down but are even more excited about getting a utility we all need into Warboys.

With the affects of the pandemic set to continue for some time and BT with no immediate plans to upgrade their network, probably not before 2027, doesn’t it make sense to enable the fastest home broadband possible? So look up “County Broadband” and get your name down now!

Luke Smith, the Warboys Project Manager can be found on 07943 317416.

***********

So on to our second subject of improving your own wifi setup that is provided for free by your broadband internet supplier such as BT, Talktalk or Sky.

In the main, when you have broadband installed, you no longer get to see anyone from the provider as all the work is done in the local exchange or at the green box at the end of the street, The result is that the modem itself, the black box that comes through the door for you to plug in when told by the provider, is not usually touched by the user other than to power it up. In many cases this is absolutely fine and works well all its life but there are cases where the standard issue modem is in totally the wrong place. If you have a long thin house and the telephone line inlet is by the front door, you might find that you don’t get any wifi in the kitchen and only see acceptable speeds in the front two rooms upstairs and downstairs. This will affect your TV viewing experience with glitches and buffering and your normal emails and texting pictures will become slow and frustrating.

Ideally, the modem needs to be in the centre of the home as all modems project their wireless signals in a sphere with the modem in the centre - you need to get the house to sit in the very middle of this sphere if you can so you get as much of the house covered by wifi as possible.

Fixes:-

1. If you are comfortable doing so can check the settings and/or reset the modem to its defaults as I have seen several cases where it has been “fiddled with” over the years and critical settings have been changed inadvertently. For example, a whole band has been turned off so the fastest channels are not being used!

2. An extension cable to allow you to move the modem more centrally in the house provided you can hide the extra cable safely away under the carpet or around the skirting boards. No trip hazards!

3. A slightly more costly upgrade is the installation of a mesh network where you turn off the wifi from the provider’s modem and rely on a considerably more powerful wifi generator such as Netgear Orbi, Lynksys or Amazon Eero. These are one, two, three or four little boxes placed in the critical rooms that only need a mains plug, except for the one next to the modem of course, which will give you a massive wifi performance boost throughout the house.

Call me if you want more advice on any of this or if you need help with your modem or a mesh network installation, on 07714 016830

Broadband for Warboys!

For those who don’t know (and there will be many!) my home village of Warboys is a small town/large village right on the edge of the flatlands of Eastern England known as the Fens. Although the village has developed into a dormitory town for London and other major conurbations, it still retains its farming roots.

Unfortunately, the powers-that-be in BT and Openreach still consider it a backwater and we do not figure in any future plans for high-speed internet above an effective 50Mb, if you are lucky.

I should explain here that originally there was the GPO (General Post Office) that provided everything for analogue telephone lines. Come the digital age, the GPO transformed itself into British Telecom (BT) and eventually when the general public realised that they had a monopoly on everything over and under ground for telecoms and it took a year for them to authorise a new telephone (think the Civil Service on morphine), BT was split into Openreach, who deal with the infrastructure and cabling, and BT itself who has become another provider of data access through Openreach.

Needless to say, the historic links between BT and Openreach are still very strong so nothing gets done for an individual who needs high speed internet without both BT and Openreach being involved and the individual has to go through many layers of red tape. This means that although the majority of the cabling (from Openreach) goes to an area fibre “Green Box” there is still a strong reliance on the old copper cables that have been there for many decades and there is no interest in providing the last leg fibre to the home (FTTH) as we are not in a city and therefore our performance needs are not relevant.

The fact of the matter is that of the approaching 5000 people here, many work in London and expect 1Gbs performance and above on a daily basis. They then expect the same when they come home to find that in some rare cases, they can only get 1.5Mbs/10Mbs when they are sitting in their living rooms! This has been made worse in the latest epidemic where a large number of people now work from home. So now my broadband, which used to be knocking on 60+Mbs, is now down to 50+Mbs. Sitting at my desk on a Saturday afternoon, it is 49.6Mbs down and 9.09Mbs up. A year ago it was 58.7Mbs down and 10.5Mbs up.

So we are doing something about at least maintaining the speed of the broadband we have and also improving it! For those of you who are in the Warboys area, there will be a webinar from County Broadband on:-

https://www.bigmarker.com/county-broadband/Bringing-REAL-FIBRE-broadband-to-Warboys?bmid=37d3bfbc6f9a

This event is totally free and is easy to access through your normal internet connection. The County Broadband Webinar will give you all the information you need to make decisions about how you will be able to improve your internet accessibility if you live in the Warboys area.

For those who are wondering, I have no financial or business interest in County Broadband other than wishing for an improvement to my village services!

I'll see you there Monday week!

If you have any queries about this, please ring me on

07714 016830.

It's World Backup Day Today!

So it’s not just me beetling on about making sure you do your backups! Apparently there is a whole World Backup Day dedicated to it! If you go to places like My Memory or Amazon on the web, you’ll find that you can get portable hard drives that are big enough to take all your important documents , your music and pictures for less than £30.

It is quite surprising that from what I’ve seen, the average home user actually only needs about 50GB of storage space and in may cases, as little as 10GB is needed for all their important files!

Quite recently I visited a busy office where all the files were documents with hardly any music or photographs of course but they were still only using about 95GB of the 1TB drive they had installed and that included the Windows 10 operating system! In English this meant that they would’ve had to carry on for another quarter of a century before they ran out of space on their hard drive. However a nasty power spike can render their hard drive dead instantaneously and their business would come to a grinding halt if they have no means of recovering the lost data.

You can get flash drives, you know the thumb shaped sticks that you plug into the hole in the side of the computer, for around £10 and will probably be sufficient for backing up all your critical files.

So there is absolutely no excuse for not making sure you are safe rather than sorry!

Get on line, spend the price of three sandwiches, get your backup stick delivered tomorrow and breathe easy - and remember, a file doesn’t exist unless it is in three separate places, computer, cloud and external backup drive.

Call me if you need more info or for more complex backup regimes

07714 016830

Backups - again!

Yes, I know it sounds boring and yes, you’ll get around to it some day but in the meantime you’ve got other things to do apart from worrying about something that may never happen.

Except that it does!

I have recently come across a client who wanted me to see if I could make the noise stop when their external USB drive started clicking. This drive held photos and videos archived away for safety and copies of which are not immediately available. Of course no drives are perfect but nevertheless you should still backup to an external drive in the first place.

Fine, I said, I’ll have a look.

It immediately became apparent that the internal workings of the drive had failed and now the drive was continually looking for the start of the disk so it could do its job. Unfortunately it was now doing it so fast that the clicking noise was the internal machinery banging against its end stops - all the time! Unable to find the start of the disk the drive was now useless.

The remedy was simple, open the drive and repair it - except that you need a clean room to delve into the super sterile space inside the hard drive. When I say “clean room”, I mean more than a surgically clean room, a room where PPE is nothing like good enough as a stray hair or smoke particle can crash the delicate workings of the drive in an instance.

To build this kind of facility is quite expensive so there are not many companies around capable of providing this kind of service. Armed with that I looked around for a suitable company to suggest to my client. I found that the average quote to do the delicate work of taking the drive apart and extracting the data safely was around £600! Normally the rule is that the company don’t charge if they find they can’t extract anything but you have to be prepared for a large bill in the first instance.

With potential expenditure like this it is now obvious why people use the Cloud to store their precious photos, videos and documents. The cost of drive repair far outweighs the ongoing cost of cloud storage.

You can get small amounts of free storage but it is always worth going to the next step in the ladder. For example, Apple provides 50GB iCloud storage for 79p a month and Microsoft provides 100GB with OneDrive at £1.99 a month. In many cases these amounts will be more than enough to store all your data like photos and videos.

These big professional storage giants keep your data safe and secure in very well-protected systems and they have built-in redundancy to make sure they never lose anything.

I was always told that any file, whether it’s a document, a picture or a video, does not exist unless it’s in three separate places at the same time! Usually one copy on the computer itself, one on an external backup drive and one in the cloud. Worth doing when the alternative is that you might lose all your precious data for ever!

Any backup or storage advice please ring

07714 016830

Apple's new game changing hardware has arrived!

As I write this, there are three new Apple computers available which will change the face of computing for the next decade at least. This is likely to be the first of a short series of notes so let’s just start with what has just happened and get on to the likely outcomes the next time.

Apple has launched and delivered a new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini, all using the Apple Silicon main processor chip.

For the last 15 years Intel has been the sole provider for Apple computer processor chips but for these new ones, Apple has taken upon itself the design and fabrication of their own chip built and manufactured under their control. In fact, they have taken it several stages further than this. They have not only produced the main processor chip but added within the chip itself the graphics controller to drive the screen, the memory for the processor and the actual “hard drive” storage space itself, (although this is like the iPad and iPhone just another chip rather than a rotating drive).

It’s called an SOC, a System On a Chip and contains everything that you need to make up what you and I call a computer and in so doing, Apple are pushing the boundaries of quantum physics where the distance between atoms is critical to the performance. Everything is so close together that the electrons take no time at all to carry messages between the discrete components.

Whereas in the old days you had a radio with a 1, 2 or 3 valves, (you remember, the ones that glowed orange!), then superseded by transistors which were first invented in the 50s and which replaced the valves using 10s, then 100s and then 1000s of transistors to make your portable device that much more efficient and user friendly. Today the new Apple M1 chip has 16 billion transistors and it’s the size of your thumbnail!

The result of these advances means that these new machines are very, very fast. So fast that these devices produce results many times faster than pretty well all current laptops and considerably faster than the majority of desktop machines, saving time, money and energy from the off.

This is just a glimpse of what these advances entail so just Google “Apple M1” to get a lot more about the specs and we’ll discuss the meaning of how it affects your computing next time.

If you need more info, please ring me on

07714 016830

or use the Contact Form here.

They're Getting Closer! New ARM MacBook, Christmas and Big Sur!

The increasing probability that Apple is about the launch a new MacBook using the its own “Apple Silicon” processor rather than the one that has been supplied by Intel since 2006, is becoming more and more a reality. We’ve very recently had the introduction of a range of iPhone 12s, a range of iPads, a new HomePod Mini Speaker and yet Apple still isn’t sure we have enough to buy. With the launch of the new Apple Silicon MacBook to add to the current Intel range, there are likely to be further additions to the panoply of kit with new Apple Silicon-based iMacs and Mac minis, not to mention the Apple AirTags, more of which another day!

The new Apple Silicon processor use the ARM Holdings Ltd designs who are based in Cambridge UK.

Look forward to these new devices in the middle of November, just in time for the Christmas present buying season.

Apple are also getting ready to make buying considerably easier in these Covid-19 stressed times by changing their store layouts for safety and speed. Many USA stores have already been closed for some time but are about to re-open with a simple “counter” arrangement at the front of the store so the customers don’t actually go right into the shop. A few accessory items like cases or mice will be available at the front but the arrangement looks to be a “book your visit first and collect later” shopping experience so expect to see the new arrangement this side of the pond anytime soon.

For the macOS users amongst us, we are looking ahead to the release of the latest which will be called “Big Sur” which refers to another large rock formation next to the Pacific coast in California. The operating system will be the start of a very interesting transition itself, not from water to land but designed to blend the desktop software of the iMacs and MacBooks with the iOS software of iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs. The aim is to bring the best of both worlds together and to take the user to the next comfort and performance level and to make moving from one platform to the other, almost seamless.

I’ll be trying hard to get another Blog ready for you before Christmas but, in the meantime, keep safe by backing up your data and if you have any questions about Apple or Windows computer issues, call me on

07714 016830

Apple & Microsoft Move to ARM

With a whole new raft of updates to everything from Apple’s iWork range of productivity apps to all the iOS flavours and macOS, the Apple world is reeling from the many new software changes popping up all over the place. However, moves are afoot on the hardware side too.

With Apple announcing its ARM-based Apple Silicon, Microsoft has also been producing new processors (the brains behind the computer) based on the latest ARM technology for their laptops.

Bear in mind that Apple’s machines are not available yet - hopefully some time around Christmas. If you are in the market for a new machine, whether it be one of Apple’s macOS laptops or possibly Microsoft’s Windows-based machines such as Surface Pro or Lenovo, you shouldn’t worry about which processor it has as long as it does what you need.

Note that at the moment, because the new ARM processors run faster and cooler than the current Intel versions, Apple are able to release these new engines so they provide enough power to “translate” your current apps to the new format on the fly. You don’t have to worry about getting a whole raft of new software, just bask in the knowledge that you’ve got all the functions you need!

For Windows users there is a specific range of ARM-based apps so you shouldn’t worry about not being able to run the software you’re used to.

A couple of things to note that have just come up, be cautious about the little devices that blank off your screen camera. Apple particularly have said that it has seen an increasing number of laptops in their workshops with screens damaged because these camera covers are too thick, so when you close the screen, there is undue pressure which can crack the screen itself. If you must have a camera cover, make sure it’s only paper thin and can be removed without any sticky residue, Note that the design of the camera prevents the camera being on without the little light showing. So if the camera is being used by you or anyone else, the green light will always come on.

The last little tip is to make sure that in these Covid-19 aware times, you don’t flood your keyboard with ant-bacterial fluid or very wet wet-wipes. You can do quite a bit of damage through over-zealous cleaning. Make sure your cloth is slightly damp and not dripping!

Advice on anything Apple or Microsoft, please call 07714 016830

The End of Lockdown Approaches!

With the end of lockdown upon us, I thought it might be helpful to start up a list of people who would like to avail themselves of MACUK Computers’ services whilst still maintaining the “social distancing” currently required.

I can offer you the following services which will be handled in order of booking-date priority.

1. If you have an ongoing hardware problem, I am happy to inspect the item at the office, providing you have taken a recent backup of your data and you are prepared to leave it for inspection. The system will be wiped down with anti-bacterial cloths and will be handled in a suitably Covid-19 aware manner. Costs will be based on individual circumstances and will be agreed before any work ensues.

2. If it is a software problem, with your permission, your system can be accessed remotely and the costs will be timed per hour. Obviously it is wise to backup your system no matter how your computer is accessed!

3. Telephone support is still available, however the normal charges will be re-applied from Monday 6th July.

If you wish to use any of these services,

please don’t hesitate to ring me on

07714 016830

The Green Shoots of Spring!

Even in this time of pain and suffering we are all going through, we are constantly reminded that Mother Nature still has her own agenda. You can see from the picture I’ve put up this month that the ash tree in our garden is starting to produce new branches and bright green leaves.

We’ve all been given a pause for thought and time to appreciate what’s around us more than normal.

If there is anything I can do from the computing side, Apple or Microsoft, to make your life a bit easier, don’t hesitate to ring or email. For the foreseeable future charges are not applicable as maintaining communication between your loved ones is more important.

Call me on 07714 016830

How to Keep in Contact with Your Loved Ones (Part 2)

With the spread of Covid-19 the Corona Virus, there is increasing pressure on everyone to either work from home or limit physical contact with friends or co-workers. Following my earlier blog, I’m putting up a trio of web sites which will assist in the choice of suitable software.

In the case of Microsoft Windows, your choices rely on third-party applications which are available on line from a variety of sources such as is found here:-

https://uk.pcmag.com/cloud-services/9067/the-best-video-conferencing-software-for-2020

For Apple users, the built-in FaceTime does a fair job for personal use but you really need the specialised third party products to get all the benefits. There are lots of these and Apple’s recommendations are here:-

https://apps.apple.com/story/id1403648007

Android users can find suitable apps through the Google Play application store at:-

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=video conferencing app&c=apps&hl=en

Do bear in mind that the majority of office applications you install on your computers generally provide communication through the internet and your local web browser no matter which computer you are using. So if you have a Windows machine and want to communicate with Android or Mac machines you can.

Do also follow normal security procedures making sure that you get any application you choose checked for viruses and malware.

Any questions call me on 07714 016830

or use the Contact Form here.

How to Keep in Contact with Loved Ones!

You know I was talking about the shambles of 2019, well guess what, here we go again with 2020!

People complain about the prevalence of communications devices such as smart phones and tablets but the present problem with the latest contagious disease, in this case Corona Virus or Covid-19, is when these pieces of technology come into their own.

You’re no longer out on a limb, stuck in a cruise ship or at a holiday destination, unable to contact either medical support or your relations for current updates. If you need to speak to someone without going out of your room or home you can. Immediate communication is essential for a prompt response for safety but also the fact that you can talk to your nearest and dearest in times of danger or concern is a great comfort.

Telephones have been around a long time but using an app such as FaceTime or Skype Video gives the user the immediacy of communication we never had before, we can see how concerned our caller is without guessing their facial expression! Words mean much more when you can see their effect and, if you can’t actually be physically in front of someone, at least you can video-call them to get close to the real thing.

We have lots of apps on our smart phones but the fact that we can see to communicate is one of the most precious, especially at the moment.

Apple users already have all this functionality built into their iPhone, iPad or Mac but Android users can look at this URL https://www.androidauthority.com/best-alternatives-to-facetime-on-android-653682/ to get a good list of suggested apps that suit their phones.

Don’t forget that if you need advice on any of these products, Apple or Android, call me on

07714 016830

Happy New Year 2020!

Welcome to the New Year!

With the shambles of 2019 behind us, it may be helpful to take stock and look at the current world rather than the one we would “like”.

For example, if you are running an older PC or really any device, the best thing you can do is to understand what you want to do with it. There is a huge pressure from everyone, manufacturers, retailers and even friends to upgrade or improve your hardware without any consideration as to what the user is really using it for.

My wife has her iPad and for many years this was just the second generation version bought in 2011 and only recently has she been gifted a 6th gen version.

The difference? To her not a great deal as all she does is write emails, look at photos and scan the web so having a machine which “does it faster” is not really relevant as she is not in a pressured desk job where every second counts.

In essence, as long as you have reliable hardware and useable software for the jobs you want to do, the pressure to buy the next greatest version should not be an issue. Keeping up with the Jones’s is not something that you need to worry about and will certainly save you money.

Keeping your machine in the best possible health is important so if you have any queries about any of this regarding backup, virus checking or generally clearing old stuff you no longer need, call me on

07714 016830

New Operating System for the Mac - Catalina

Apple usually updates their operating systems annually for iPhones and iPads, at the same time or near to the same time as they update their MacBooks and iMacs. With the advent of a range of new products like the Watch, Apple TV and HomePod, for the avid Apple user it sometimes it feels like every week there is a new update to contend with. In reality, the main kernel of the all the varied systems are only changed every twelve months and this year the move from macOS 10.14 (Mojave) to macOS 10.15 (Catalina) is a game changer for macOS driven systems.

The name of the new OS comes from Santa Catalina which is a beautiful island off the hectic coastal city of Los Angeles in California and true to the area, it is a very special tourist location. The OS is a bit special too!

As far as the software version of Catalina is concerned, everything that ran on Mojave should run on Catalina provided it is built on the latest 64bit code. This means that whereas Mojave was tolerant of applications written using 32bit code, Catalina will have none of them so this means that you might find some of your old beloved apps won’t run on the new OS and you’ll have to find a replacement app. Apple has played very fair with its customers on this one as there have been many warnings of the impending change for some years so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise. Invisibly to most users, the majority of developers moved all their applications they want to support to 64bit code years ago so you shouldn’t meet too many problems but you have been warned to look before you upgrade!

The really good news is that any Mac-based hardware, such as MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini or even the MacPro powerhouse, will run Catalina provided the hardware was built in 2012 or later and is capable of running the Metal graphics protocols that came in that year. This is a really outstanding policy of longevity that other computer manufacturers should try to emulate especially in this throw-away society.

If you want to dig deeper, may I recommend the Apple Insider review below which tells you about the applications that have changed and the extra functionality Catalina brings - just copy this into your web browser address line -

https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/10/07/review-macos-catalina-1015-is-what-apple-promised-the-mac-could-be-and-is-a-crucial-upgrade

This covers much more than I could but be aware, it is long and detailed and will require at least three cups of coffee and maybe even a cream bun to get through it!

Let me know how you get on - call me on 07714 017830

We're in Autumn now - must be time for sowing

I don’t know how far I can go with the agricultural metaphor but I can say that you should clear the fields and get ready to sow anew. In other words, get rid of all the strange programs and apps that you thought were a good idea at the time but which you’ve never used since you downloaded them!

Look at the apps on your PCs, Macs and phones and just check when the last time it was that you used them and I bet you’ll find at least three that are hovering around on page 2 or 3 that you can’t remember.

They won’t do any damage but unless you are one of the rich people that can afford lots of memory, you’ll eventually run out of space, usually just at a critical point when you are in the middle of taking some family shots!

Modern kit, phones, tablets, desktops and laptops are designed to control things themselves but do keep their work areas clear so you can give them the breathing space to move more quickly.

For our Apple friends, today marks the launch of another collection of iPhones, iPads and Operating Systems that will take us to the next level. I know that a lot of people will ask why we need more enhancements to our gadgets and my response is that unless we go forward we will stop growing. We can all live with voice assistants and moan when they get the wrong answer but think of all those people who actually need Siri or Alexa to go about their daily lives. Those who are blind or partially sighted, those who are immobile or severely incapacitated. Every little enhancement that has been validated by millions of people makes the lives of thousands more tolerable. This has been notable in the recent reports of Apple Watch warning users of changes in their heart’s behaviour. The latest version of the watch has a simple heart beat analyser which so far, has saved several users from incipient strokes or heart attacks. How much is that “gadget” worth?

I’ll run over the latest news from Apple next time. So, in the meantime, if you need me call

07714 016830

Looking forward to long Summer days

This is when you start thinking about holidays and lazing on beaches, climbing mountains for those unending vistas, investigating what’s under that large rock at low tide and all those wonderful things that you come across when the pressures of home and work are put on the back burner, if only temporarily.

This is also when you realise that you still haven’t “emptied” the camera from the last time you left the house! Please make sure you back everything up - you may’ve heard this from me before!

On another totally unrelated matter, I had a really interesting conversation with a friend of mine who said she was thinking about getting an new portable speaker with Alexa on-board. Now, being a Mac-based person, I use Siri quite often for things like searches, weather, phone calls and navigation while I am in the car but I haven’t really looked at what can be done when you’re at home, especially when it’s Alexa and not Siri you’re talking about.

A couple of interesting nuggets is that my friend wants to listen to her music in the garden while she’s weeding and pruning. Alexa also needs to be ready for cookery recipes when in the kitchen so whatever she gets has to be portable and also connected to Alexa through voice only as my friend doesn’t have a smart phone. ……….. I’ll let you know how it goes!

If you have any comments or need advice, please contact me on 07714 016830 or leave me a message via the Contact page here.

Spring Has Gone Already!

Well that was quick, wasn’t it? One day waiting for the daffodils to arrive and the next I am considering whether to cut down the remains of this year’s crop.

However, back to business and I gather from one of my esteemed colleagues that I wasn’t too clear about cloud storage and the multiple ramifications of which one to choose.

Sorry about that - sometimes my geekiness gets away with me!

So, a way to ensure you are not caught out is to review your storage & organise more disk space and/or more cloud storage as needed. There are so many cloud storage providers for all operating systems these days and you can choose any of them to make sure you have enough secure space for your documents, music, films and photos.

The question then comes up “Why should I pay for storage when I can back all my stuff on a hard drive?”. 

Well unless you have the hard drive, you would need to buy it. Then there’s the hassle of either fitting it or finding connectors for your particular computer. It is much easier to have storage which melds with your computer, iPad or iPhone. Storage plans start from as little as 0.25p a month for 20gb so it won’t break the bank. 

The Apple system automatically updates your photos to iCloud as soon as you enter a usable wifi area. Other flavours will have programs that perform a similar function. Remember, as I mentioned before, houses do burn down and water tanks spring leaks so you may not have the option of just popping back in to collect your photos!

IF YOU WANT HELP FOR YOUR PARTICULAR STORAGE NEEDS,

CALL ME ON 07714-016830 FOR PERSONAL ADVICE.

Spring Is Fast Approaching!

Yes, it’s another one of those blogs saying you should Spring Clean your computer!

Well, you should! It’s no good waiting until summer to find that you’re running out of space for all the new photos you’ve taken over Christmas, let alone the ones you’re taking now the flowers are coming out all over the place. Make sure you’ve not only backed up the ones you’ve taken but make sure you have enough space for the new ones. Its no use waiting until you get to the airport to find your camera or phone saying “Not Enough Space!” as you take the obligatory shot of the terminal.

If you’re sensible, you will have bought some more disk space and/or some more cloud storage. There are so many cloud storage providers for all operating systems these days and you can choose any of them to make sure you have enough secure space for your documents, music, films and photos.

You have a choice of Apple iCloud, Amazon Drive, DropBox, Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive to name but a few.

“Why should I pay for storage when I can back all my stuff on a hard drive?” you may ask. Well you still have to buy the hard drive and for the same price (or a little bit more depending on how much you have to store) for a whole year and more importantly, if you lose or damage the hard drive, you’ve lost all your data. Usually the actual storing is done automatically so you don’t have to remember each time. Remember, houses do burn down and water tanks spring leaks so you may not have the option of just popping back in to collect your photos!

For your money, all the major cloud providers store your data securely on well-protected and duplicated servers so the chances of data loss are truly minimal. Another important advantage is that access to the storage servers is generally worldwide so as long as you have wifi access on your holiday, you can save all your pics to the cloud wherever you are.

You know it makes sense!

If you want help for your particular storage needs,

call me on 07714-016830 for personal advice.

A New Year Starts

A very belated Happy New Year to all my readers! If your Christmas was as busy as mine then I do feel sorry for you.

There used to be a saying in the IT world that went long the lines of “Read The Flipping Manual” - commonly known as RTFM - when something went wrong. These days the word “intuitive” has managed to get in the way. Because the operation of the washing machine, bottle opener or car radio, is supposed to be “intuitive” and therefore almost automatic in operation, as soon as there’s a problem, (and I’m not just talking computers here, it’s just about everything that has a working part in it), the average consumer looks it up the internet for an easy solution.

Unfortunately, unless you know exactly and I do mean EXACTLY what it is you are looking for, this generally gets them even more confused and the problem then gets worse because, as you have found out, these things are not “intuitive”, they don’t work by themselves and anything more than just an on/off switch means if it can go wrong, it will go wrong!

Here the actual paper manual generally raises its head. The definition of the word “manual” varies from language to language, country to country and product to product so if you want to be able to discover anything at all, you are at the mercy of the manufacturer of the device who will probably not want you to go within five miles of the inside of whatever has gone pop. Especially if it has actually gone “pop” and you have scorch marks on the outer casing!

To give you an idea of the range of “manuals”, you can take it from me that the manual for a television is as nothing compared to the schematic and repair manual of a fuel pump for inside the wing of an Airbus A330, yes, there are such animals and pretty complex they are too so there are wide variations in how easy it is to read a manual..

So the reason for this long story is to let you know that there ARE people who can read manuals and sometimes it is relevant to your problem.

Call me on 07714 016830 if you would like me to read a manual for you to solve one of your technology problems.

‘Til the next time, don’t forget I’m always available on the phone.