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September/ October
2016 Newsletter I hope you are well and have
had a good summer. Latest Email/Telephone Scams.
I hardly have a day go by when
I don’t receive a call from one of my customers saying they have had a dubious
phone call purporting to be from Microsoft, or Windows, or their Internet
Service providers, saying they have detected a serious security flaw in their
computer, and needs to be put right. They may run a fake scan and say that if
this problem is not put right, they will lose their Internet services and
emails. Basically trying to scare you. Unfortunately many people fall for this
nonsense. The person on the phone sounded so convincing. The “technician”
says you will need to pay a fee (which can be anything) to fix this. Sadly many
people believe them and hand over their credit card details. Once you have paid,
they then take over control of your computer remotely. They then have access
into your computer whenever they fancy, and can plant viruses, spyware, or read
any of your files and emails etc. They now have your money (usually around £150
or more) as well as your credit card details. I know it sounds obvious, but
NEVER EVER allow someone you don’t know to take control of your computer,
however convincing they sound. NEVER EVER pay by credit card a fee to anyone
offering to fix the problem. This is just one of many scams
doing the rounds currently. Click on this link to see some of the other scams: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/news/latest-scams-to-watch-out-for-apr16 If you do receive such a phone
call purporting to be from Microsoft etc, just simply put the phone down. Any
abuse you wish to give them is optional! Iphone 7
Apple has just released the
Iphone 7 & Plus models. After all the hype and rumours, it will be available
to buy in the next week. So, is it worth changing your current phone for the
Iphone 7??? Well, there’s no doubt that
this is the best Iphone ever. It’s faster, has the best camera of any
smartphone on the market, is waterproof and now has a memory of up to 256Gb. Controversially, Apply has done
away with the headphone jack. But the phone comes with its own earphones which
fit into the Lightning port at the bottom, as well as an adapter so you can plug
your old headphones in. But you can now buy their wireless earphones (Airpods)
for an extra £159!! So, is it worth buying or
upgrading your old phone? Well look at the pros and cons and then you decide.
The best review I’ve seen is from the Daily Telegraph. Click on the link to
see it. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/09/16/iphone-7-and-7-plus-review-an-upgrade-but-not-a-revolution/ Amazon Drive
I know you're probably bored of
me nagging you to back up your valuable documents, photos, videos. Thankfully,
many of my customers have taken my advice and bought an external hard drive
device. This will automatically back up every document, email, picture etc you
add to your computer, and it works very well. However, what happens if God
forbid, you get burgled or have a fire and your external hard drive is stolen or
destroyed. The answer is Cloud backup, where everything is backed up externally,
and can be retrieved from any computer, tablet or smartphone, from anywhere in
the world. Amazon has recently launched
Amazon Drive. This is a great way of backing up your pictures; documents etc and
they can then be accessed from anywhere using a computer, Ipad or smartphone.
It’s easy to install and not expensive. They give you a 3 month free trial
which allows you to store up to 5Gb of data, after which you can then buy a
yearly subscription for just £55, which is about £1 per week, and that gives
you UNLIMITED storage space. Yes, Unlimited. The beauty with that is that
if your computer, mobile phone or tablet, is running low on space, you simply
upload all your music, pictures, videos etc onto Amazon Drive, and then delete
them from your computer or phone, freeing up all that space. Amazon also give
you free apps for your PC, tablet or smartphone, to allow you to access your
files instantly, so there’s really no need to use up all the limited space on
your phone, your stuff is easily accessible using the Amazon apps. How clever!!
The only drawback is that in order to access your files, you do need to be
connected to the internet, so if you're planning a trip to the jungle or
somewhere where there is no internet, you're stuffed. Go to https://www.amazon.co.uk/clouddrive/home
for more info. App
of the Month SwiftKey
I don’t know if you ever have
a problem trying to type an email or text on your mobile phone. Do you find that
you often mistype a word or the onscreen keyboard is just too small for your
fingers? Forget all that nonsense, I have the answer. For the last year or so I
have been using SwiftKey on my phone. It’s just fantastic, and FREE! Here’s
the clever bit. Instead of having to tap out each individual letter, with
SwiftKey, you simply swipe your finger on the keyboard spelling out the word
without lifting your finger until you finish each word. For example if you
wanted to type out Hello Henry, you start at the first H and swipe to elo, (it
recognises double letters automatically), lift your finger for a split second,
then swipe henry. It also learns your writing style and offers you the next word
before you have even typed it. I find it so much faster than normal on screen
typing. It may take you a day or so to get used to it, but trust me; it’s so
simple once you get the hang of it. It’s available to download for any Apple
Iphone or Android phone. You can get more info at www.swiftkey.com
or get it from the Apple App Store or Android Play Store. And
finally…. My website has remained
virtually unchanged for over 10 years, apart from updating my newsletters. How
boring! I would like to completely change it and I’ve got a great Web designer
who will completely redesign it for me. But I need your help please. I
want to redo my Client Testimonial page, so I would be so grateful if you
wouldn’t mind sending me a short paragraph with some nice words saying how
happy you are with my service (you
can lie!!) and also send me a picture of yourself (head & shoulder shot
please). Just email them to me ASAP please. Thank you in advance. That’s it for now. Remember
you're always welcome to call or email for any help or advice. |
