This week alone, I have spend two evenings assisting two of my children with their technology, one with an Adware problem on her Mac, and the other whose Hotmail account seemed to have been hijacked, resulting in her being unable to log into it to change her password (and saw her account being used to spam other people)!
This has made me wonder ... ... how does the average family manage to survive in this technology era and deal with tech-problems and questions like those I see in my family! In our household, I am (not surprisingly) the in-house, unpaid, 'tech support' person that everyone relies on (and is completely dependent on) for any technology-related issues. I have lost track of how many devices we have in this home, and a not insignificant part of my week is spend looking after it all. Regularly I hear someone screeching "Something's wrong with the WiFi, with a definite tone that really says "Mum - fix the WiFi" (as if I have done something to make it not work). But what would happen in this household if I was not around? Where would my family members go for the variety of technology questions and issues needing resolution nearly daily? My son with his melt-downs at homework time due technology glitches, my daughters with urgent problems like those mentioned above. What do other families do? These days, our households are like small businesses, with the amount of technology they house and need to support - modem, router, a home WiFi network (and perhaps LAN for wired internet) desktop/s, laptops, iPhone and other smartphones, iPads and tablets, Windows, Macs, SmartTVs, Apple TVs, TIVOs, Chromecast, Playstation, etc etc etc. Just like in a business, these devices need regular maintenance and support, and backups of important data stored on devices must be done to avoid loss of valuable digital data (for example, precious family photos and kids assignments, projects and study notes). A business would usually have some sort of IT support - either in-house IT staff, or outsourced to a service provider - to look after its myriad of technology devices. Who manages all of this technology in your household? In many families I know that it left to the younger members of the household to become the 'IT Support' person for the family. Often this is a primary school aged child. I worry that, in many households, this means that the child is virtually the 'keeper of the keys' for the home's technology and the online world to which it connects. This can be especially prevalent in households where technology has 'appeared' in the house due to school requirements - where parents don't necessarily even use the technology that the kids use, so are not familiar with it (or perhaps are not really familiar with any form of technology). If you find yourself needing help with your home technology - if you need someone to be your 'in-home IT support' person - don't forget that iTandCoffee in Camberwell is here to help. Just call 1300 885 420.
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Oh my goodness! Did you see this article yesterday in The Age? Not only can your TV 'hear' and transmit your conversations to Samsung, but Samsung has warned that this information "could be transmitted to a third party"! This might include some very sensitive, private information that you have inadvertently discussed while near your TV! We have one of these Smart TV's, so I am most definitely going to be checking the settings on it today to make sure this feature is turned off. I'm fairly sure we did already turn it off pretty soon after we got the TV, as it kept 'listening' and changing channels unexpectedly - very annoying! But the worry is what it might have 'heard' and transmitted to Samsung while it was turned on - and I'm not sure how long we had the feature enabled! Once this information is 'out there', there is no getting it back. Is your TV listening in on your conversations? Update Friday 13th Feb, 2015 The Age has published a follow-up article where Samsung clarifies how the voice-recognition software works, and reports that Samsung has changed the wording of its Privacy Policy to clarify this. Well, yesterday really was a day that was all about dealing with adware on both Windows and Mac computers, with 3 different people needing iTandCoffee help with this problem. Yesterday morning, I published on this blog some information about how to deal with such a problem on a Windows computer. (See What do you do when your Windows computer's web browser is hijacked by Ads.) If you have a Mac computer, here is how to deal with this same problem, as it has quite a different set of steps to Windows. And it doesn't involve spending any money to download any 'cleanup' software, In fact, these 'cleanup' apps can often introduction their own problems, so should be avoided like the plague! It is relatively quick and easy to get rid of the adware manually, once you know where to look and what to look for. Find out how here >> (Please note that this Handy Hint is now only available to iTandCoffee Club members. For access to this tip and a huge list of other great tips, special offers and members-only services, join The iTandCoffee Club today!) I just had a visit from a friend who had a problem with her Windows computer. In the last week or so, whenever she accessed her Chrome web browser on her computer, whatever she was trying to access would be 'hijacked' by all sorts of popups and ads, making it impossible to look at anything online. This will have been caused at some time during that week by someone inadvertently installing some 'Adware' software on the computer - maybe by clicking on a dodgy message that popped up. Sometimes, these 'dodge' messages are well disguised, so it is not that hard to 'catch' a dose of adware on your computer. But, what do you do when this happens to your Windows computer? It is not that hard to remedy. Just go to your Control Panel and choose the Programs and Features option. By clicking on the Installed On column heading, you will sort the list by installation date. (Click it a second time if you get an ascending order of dates - you will want to see the most recent dates at the top.)
Hopefully, when you sort by this 'Installed On' date, you will be able to identify the culprit that is causing your Adware - look for items that appeared at some point since you noticed the problem. If you see an program you are not sure about, you can always use Google to find out whether it is likely to be the cause of your problem. If it seems to be your culprit, click on it and choose Uninstall, which will be at top left above the list. In my friend's case, this was all we needed to do to remove the cause of her adware woes! Here is an article that provides some further advice and suggestions for dealing with 'adware' and 'spyware' on your computer. If you have a Mac computer with this same problem, check out this iTandCoffee article for instructions on how remove the Adware. If you need help with any of this, iTandCoffee can help - call 1300 885 420. Oh my goodness!
So many devices, and an iCloud mess - kids getting parents texts, contacts, etc and parents getting kids' stuff (including all sorts of ridiculous photos). Is your family also in an iCloud mess like Erica's? Call iTandCoffee (1300 885 420) to unravel this mess and get your devices working the way they should! Erica can attest to the sense of relief that comes from getting others 'off of your iCloud'! That Rolling Stones song was truly ahead of its time! Now, I am no artist - not by any stretch of the imagination! But this particular iPad app allows even me to create art works that I can actually be proud of (well, almost)! I love using it to doodle when, on the rare occasion, I need to kill some time! My kids all love it too, and they range in age from 11-21. the app is called Paper by Fifty-Three. It used to be free to download the basic version of the app, but then you had to purchase additional 'pens' and illustration tools. Given how wonderful the app is, I happily paid around $10 in total to add each of these features over time. Well, Paper by FiftyThree is now completely free. Visit the the App Store for more information or to download. Would you like to join the club?I know that so many people that I see for appointments or classes find the whole area of 'internet data' very confusing. What is meant by the terms 3G, 4G, cellular, mobile data, Wi Fi? Understanding these concepts is so important when you venture into the world of technology, by getting an iPad, iPhone, other tablet or smartphone, Mac or other computer. For those of you who are iTandCoffee Club Members, we have a special offer this week, one that will help you gain a better understanding of these concepts. For a limited time, iTandCoffee Club members can download the iTandCoffee's Getting Connected guide for no cost. Visit the iTandCoffee ClubHouse to find out how to download your Getting Connected guide. If you are not yet a member of the iTandCoffee Club and would like to take advantage for this and future special offers (as well as gain access to a vast range of useful tips, hints, videos and articles about your technology), you can join today! Cost of membership is less that the cost of one cup of coffee per month! If you follow this blog, you will know that I downloaded the app DataMan a few months ago, to monitor my WiFi and Cellular data usage on my iPhone and iPad. It is a really worthwhile app to have on your devices, as it can warn you when you are likely to exceed your monthly limit of Cellular data. Not only this, it can also highlight to you that, even when think you are on a Wi-Fi network, you can also be unexpectedly using your cellular data from time to time. DataMan has a new feature A great new 'widget' has been added to DataMan app. This Notification Center widget allows you to really easily start a 'stopwatch' on your data usage to track how much data you use between the time that you start the 'stopwatch' and then stop it again. DataMan is $2.49 in the App Store. Need more information on this app, or on managing your i-Device's data?Here are some previously published tips and articles from iTandCoffee, on the topic of Data Management:
Have you discovered Widgets?
Contact iTandCoffee at enquiry@itandcoffee.com.au for further information or assistance with this area. This week, I have downloaded the new Outlook app on my iPhone - and here's the thing that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE about it! So often, I receive an email that I need to do something about, but that I can't act on at the time that I read it. Once I read an email, there is the danger that it will 'disappear' in my very long Inbox. Now, I know that I can mark it as 'Unread' or 'Flag' it, but this does not always draw my attention to it later - especially on a busy email day! I really need it to arrive again at a later time, when I am able to deal with it. So, here's what you can do in the new Outlook app ... Re-schedule an email so it pops up again later When you receive an email, you can 'schedule' it to come back again in a few hours, this evening, tomorrow morning, or at a nominated dat/time! At the time you have nominated, you will get new notification of its arrival and see it appear back in Inbox! It will still have its original date/time, but will show up as 'unread'.
If you need to look at the email before it returns to your Inbox, it is in a special 'Scheduled' folder in your Outlook app. I so wish the standard Mail app provided this feature. Here's hoping it will be included in a future iOS version. The downsides (for me) Unfortunately for me, the app doesn't allow me to install my iTandCoffee mail account so I won't be able to use it for my combined personal and business mail. It only caters for Exchange, Outlook (Live, Hotmail), iCloud, Google (Gmail) and Yahoo mail accounts. So, if you have a mail account not supported by these platforms, this great new Outlook app is no good for you. Additionally, even though I have added my iCloud account and its Calendar, it doesn't show any 'subscribed' iCloud calendars - so my classes and appointments are not showing in the Outlook calendar. This renders the Calendar aspect fairly useless for me as well However, for those of you who have one of the listed types of email accounts, I highly recommend trying out this app! Answer
Sandi P asks: How do I change the 'Reply to' email address associated with my emails, as replies are going to the wrong address.
It's easy to change the 'Reply To' email address for any emails that you send. The steps are described below, and a link is also provided here to an article on this topic.
How to Change the Reply-To Header of an Email in Mac OS X Mail To change the Reply-To address of an email you are composing in Mac OS X Mail:
If you need to change the 'Reply To' email address for ALL your email, that requires you to go into your Terminal and type in some code.
If you are interested in doing this, refer to this article on the subject. |
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