Tech tips

TIP NUMBER ONE

If you read my article on CrashPlan, you might remember my mention of PC crashes. With the first PC crash, I spent about a day and a half on the phone with a non English speaking tech support person from Microsoft. The long and short of that experience was a more severely corrupted computer than when I began. So, being cheap, I figured buying a new computer would be more cost-effective and less time consuming than cleaning the old one and reinstalling all my programs and software. I went to Costco and got a great price on a new desktop computer. This replaced the corrupted computer in Florida. I took the corrupted computer back up North. The problem would surface upon returning to Florida after being up North and having to install all the updates that had come in over several months. This exercise killed the old computer and, you guessed it, it killed my new computer. This is where my wife enters the picture. She informed me that because we bought the computer at Costco, it came with concierge service. She got on the phone with an English speaking person in the United States who cleared up the new corrupted computer in about 30 minutes. I was flabbergasted. She took notes, so when I get back up North, I will try to clear up the other corrupted computer. I cannot say enough about how pleased I am with this free service that comes not only with computers, but with anything electronic.

TIP NUMBER TWO

Have you ever sent an email and immediately wanted to take it back? With auto fill, the addressee is automatically filled in, which can cause you a problem if you are not paying attention. After you push send, you notice that the email is going to the wrong person. Most times this is harmless, although embarrassing. However, it could be disastrous. If you use Google’s g-mail, there is an easy solution. Click on the “wheel” icon in the upper right hand side of your screen when you are in g-mail. Then click on “settings” in the drop down menu. From there scroll down to “Undo Send” and check enable. Then choose your cancellation period from 5-30 seconds. When you send an email, you will get a message at the top of your screen that says “Your message has been sent Undo View message.” Your message will not be actually sent until the time that you set has expired. If you realize that it is going to the wrong person, or for whatever reason, you can click on “Undo” and your message is not sent.

TIP NUMBER THREE

This tip is for us older folks who have trouble with the bright light of our phone in the evening before we go to bed. If you have an iPhone and have updated to the latest update, there is a setting called “Night Shift.” Go into Settings and click on “Display and Brightness.” Go to “Night Shift” and put in a start time and an end time. I have set mine to begin at 9:00pm and to end at 7:00am. The screen softens to a yellowish hue which is a lot easier on the eyes than the normal blue light. It may even help you sleep better if you tend to check email, Facebook, Twitter or any other app on your phone before retiring. It definitely helps my eyes.

TIP NUMBER FOUR

This is just for fun. You can forward voice mails that are on your phone. My daughter in Colorado received a very complimentary voice mail from work and forwarded it to me so I could listen to it. To do this on an Apple phone, click on the voice mail you wish to forward and then click on the share icon (the square with the arrow) in the upper right. Then choose how you wish to share, either text message, e-mail etc. This is probably available on other phones following a similar procedure. Try it; you’ll like it. 