Most websites and apps let you sign in with just a username and password. If anyone guesses either of these, they can take over your account, steal all your money and/or steal your identity. An additional layer of security is called "Two Factor Authentication" or 2FA. With 2FA, there is an extra step the user must complete before access to the account is granted. It's usually request for a piece of information that only the legitmate owner of the account would know. This additional piece of information could be the name of the owner's first pet dog which is requested after the password is entered. It could also be a rotating/changing computer generated code that is sent to the cellphone of the owner via text. This cellphone number is previously established by the legitimate account owner as part of the account setup. This prevents a hacker from getting sent the code (unless they stole your cellphone as well). If available, you should always use 2FA, especially for bank accounts, credit card accounts, brokerage accounts and/or any account that holds personal identification information (PII) such as your social security number. Yes, it's an extra step, but it's worth the time to protect your PII and your finances.
For questions or help on setting up 2FA for your accounts, contact TheGoToTechGuru.
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If you haven't heard, Facebook now offers live streaming, which allows your "Friends" to see live video of whatever you're recording, like a party. All you need is an Apple (iOS) or Android mobile device! Follow this link on how it works!
Your smartphone's GPS uses both your cellular and Wi-Fi connection for accuracy. Most of the time, when you're in the car or walking outdoors, the Wi-Fi is turned off to save battery power. Yes, your GPS will work with just cellular, but it's not as accurate as when you also have the Wi-Fi turned on as well, since the GPS has an error rate of +/- 100 feet.
To increase your GPS accuracy, just turn on your Wi-Fi. You don't have to be connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot for the GPS to benefit from it, it just has to be turned on! Other factors that affect GPS accuracy are whether there are physical obstructions between your phone and the satellites, such as walls, building and trees, so make sure you have a clear line-of-sight between your phone and the sky. Your GPS is most accurate when it can "see" all 4 satellites. It will still work with fewer, but again, the accuracy will be affected. Your GPS may work despite these obstructions, however, its accuracy may be affected significantly. Although when driving, 100 feet may not make much of a difference, it does when you are walking or hailing an Uber, otherwise the driver may think you are 1-2 blocks from your actual location! If you want to make sure you're located at an exact address for an Uber pickup vs. depending on the GPS to "pin" you accurately, type in the actual street address of your location! Broadband is offered in 4 major flavors today: Cable, DSL, Fios and Satellite. There is a lot of confusion between these, so here's what you need to know.
Cable can offer not just TV, but internet and landline VOIP (Voice Over IP; ie. internet telephone) telephone services as well, depending on your cable company and what package options they offer. There are a few main differences between cable and the alternative DSL and Fios options. Cable uses a copper line from the cable company to a junction box in your neighborhood or apartment building/condo complex and is split amoung your neighbors and you. As such, the bandwidth is shared with all your neighbors. Thus, if a few select people are gaming or doing heaving downloading, everyone else's bandwidth degrades. DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line and is for internet connectivity only, not for TV. It uses the regular telephone copper wire between the phone company and your home. You must have regular telephone service from your phone company in order to get DSL, but your telephone itself does not use it since it is just for internet access. Unlike cable, this line is dedicated to your dwelling so is not shared with your neighbors. It is typically slower than cable and Fios but is faster than satellite. It is the least expensive of these options. Fios stands for Fiber Optic Service and is offered by Verizon. It is called by other names by other companies like AT&T and Qwest. Fios can be used for TV, internet and your landline phone. A fiber optic cable is run from the phone company to your house, so it is dedicated and thus bandwidth is not shared with your neighbors. If you install Fios, you MUST use the fiber optic telephone service since it replaces your regular copper-based landline phone. You still get a landline phone but it will be fiber based vs. copper based. It is the fastest of the three options because signals run through fiber optic cables and thus travel literally at the speed of light! Fios does come with a backup battery for when the power goes out, enabling you to make phone calls, watch TV and access the internet for a limited time. ***Of the four broadband options, Fios is the fastest and best option*** The downside of Fios is that when the power goes out and backup battery runs out, your landline phone won't work (with your old copper-based telephone you could still make calls). But you always have your cellphone! Satellite currently only offers TV and Internet. Internet-wise, it is the slowest and most expensive of these options. Placement of the satellite dish MUST have a direct line-of-sight view of the satellite. This means the dish must be able to communicate with the satellite via a 100% unobstructed view. This means no trees, buildings and the like can be between your dish and the satellite. If you live in an extremely rural part of the world, like way out in the country, satellite may be your only option. There are other considerations, especially when installing these in your home (placement, etc), so call TheGotoTechGuru for help! The two worst enemies of not just your computer but any electonics, are heat and dust! This includes both external heat such as leaving your electronic devices in a hot car as well as heat generated by the device itself. When it comes to dust, there's a correct way to clean it and it may not be what you think! Water & Moisture are also terrible for electronics, including condensation that can be created by bringing your stone cold laptop from your car into your house! Learn more here on how to prevent heat and clean dust!
Backing up your PC/Mac is the key to your sanity after a virus attack or hack. There's an old saying in Cyberspace: "The integrity of your data is only as good as your last backup!" There's nothing worse than to lose a year, 6 months or even a week's worth of work that you may not even be able to reconstruct! How about all those photos of your kids, anniversary or once-in-a-lifetime vacation? Fortunately, there are several options to back up your PC/Mac content online. It doesn't backup your operating system (eg. Windows or Mac OS), which you can more easily get, but these options will backup everything else if you so choose. Most of these services will automatically backup a file as soon as it's changed, such as a document, so you won't have to remember to do it manually. Of course, there's a nominal fee depending on the amount of backup storage you need, but it will be nothing compared to your sanity when you lose the precious photos and legal documents! Here is a review of several online backup services. For more information and to install these services, contact TheGoToTechGuru. If you prefer offline backups for more privacy, TheGoToTechGuru can provide a consultation on this option as well.
The latest USB connector, the USB Type-C, is emerging as the industry standard USB connector. It was developed by the USB Implementers Forum, the group of companies that has developed, certified, and shepherded the USB standard. It counts more than 700 companies in its membership, including Apple, Dell, HP, Intel, Microsoft, and Samsung. Although it's currently most commonly found on the Apple Macbook, you'll soon start seeing this new connector on other computers and devices. The USB-C connector is much smaller than the standard USB connector you see on most devices today. This reduced size was necessitated by the shrinking size of laptops and other devices as well as the need to carry more power, data and faster transfer rates. For more information on the USB-C Connector, read here.
The internet speed your provider advertises you're getting actually depends on several factors such as: how many other people are sharing that connection, the number of "hops" between your router and the provider's server. So how do you tell the internet speed you're really getting? Read this article to find out how to determine your real speed .. it's easier than you think!
Cheap phones are cheap for a reason. With phones, you pretty much get what you pay for. The cost differences usually boil down to low vs. high end hardware such as the processor (CPU), camera quality and amount (capacity) + speed of memory. These will make the difference in life of the phone and quality of your experience (ie. frustration). In the end, you may wind up needing to buy a new phone sooner with a cheap model and possibly spending more by having to buy 2 phones in the same time period you could have just purchased a single good quality phone. Although this article talks a lot about Android phones, the message is the same for any cellphone brand. Read this article for the risks on buying a cheap cellphone.
Netflix recently opened an ability for you to download movies, allowing you to watch movies offline like on an airplane. This capability is only available on iOS and Android apps, so not on Windows or Mac OS as yet. It is also currently only offered on certain movies. For how to download movies on your iOS or Android device, click here!
You've probably heard of paying for groceries and merchandise using your smartphone. The three biggest players that enable you to do this are: Android Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay ... one for each of the largest smartphone manufacturers. The most widely accepted by stores and banks is Apple Pay, but all have their advantages and disadvantages. At its most fundamental level, you register your credit card on your smartphone, then when you are at the cashier/register, just simply wave your smartphone over most regular credit card readers, authenticate using your thumbprint or a password, and voila, the transaction is complete, much faster than using your credit card chip or even swiping! So you're probably wondering how secure it is? It is more secure than using your credit card or its chip because the store never gets your credit card number, but instead receives a one-time unique token code provided by your credit card bank. This code can never be used again and has no resemblence to your credit card number! To learn more about using your smartphone to pay for merchandise, read here or for a side-by-side comparison of these services, read here.
If you have a weak cell signal inside your home or office but not outdoors, you don’t have to live with it. With today’s technology, there IS a fix! You can get a booster from your cellphone provider (sometimes for free with a minimal deposit) or buy one yourself. Behind the scenes, this booster uses your internet connection so make sure you have good broadband before going with this option. Call TheGoToTechGuru for more information on how to improve your home and office cell signal!
So what’s the difference between an electrical power strip and a surge protector? The typical power strip provides nothing more than multiple outlets along a single “strip”. This “strip” plugs into a single electrical wall outlet, thus allowing multiple electrical devices to be plugged into a single electrical wall outlet. A surge protector also provides these, but guards against power surges often generated by lightning, thunder storms and when your power is first restored after an outage. Power surges can easily short-out electrically sensitive devices such as your TV, DVR, Roku, PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone, router and the like, because the surge contains far more power than these sensitive devices can handle. This will literally burnout your device(s).
Surge protectors are not usually recommended for high power appliances such as blenders, lamps, microwave ovens, washers/dryers and the like. Do NOT combine high power appliances and your surge protection strip on the same electrical wall outlet and power circuit as changes in high power appliance draws can cause internal surges. Energy absorption / dissipation is what handles surges in electricity. This rating, given in Joules, tells you how much energy the surge protector can absorb before it fails. The higher the Joule number, the better the protection. Look for a Joule rating greater than 1,000, even more if you can afford it. Response time is also important. Since surge protectors don’t kick in immediately, the longer the response time, the longer your electrical device is exposed to the power surge and the greater risk of damage. Look for a surge protector with a response time of less than one (1) nanosecond. Finally, look for an indicator light that tells you if the protection is functioning. If you have an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), these only provide limited surge protection, usually in the low-to-mid 100-300 joule range. If your device(s) have a need for both a UPS and surge protection, you can consider plugging a surge protection strip into the UPS, however, depending on the devices' power demand, you likely won't be able to connect more than 1-3 devices into a single surge protector since the power strip plugs into a single UPS plug and this one plug handles a lower total power than a wall outlet. For questions or to have the proper UPS / Surge Protector installed in your home/office, contact the TheGoToTechGuru. You’ve likely heard the term “Podcast” quite a few times over the years, but what is it? The term came from when the original Apple iPod was popular, combined with the word “broadcast”, hence “Podcast”. Basically, a Podcast is an electronic audio or video recording of a news article, story, music collection or the like. Gone are the days of needing to time your radio listening or TV viewing to a specific time or miss it! Now you can just download it on-demand from the Internet to your PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet and listen / watch it at your convenience like on an airplane or during a long commute. There are thousands of Podcast shows and topics to choose from and they are usually free to listeners. So how do you find a Podcast? Many organizations provide Podcasts of their programs, like National Public Radio (NPR.org), listing them on their websites. You can also find Podcast listings using more centralized sites and utilities like Apple iTunes (for Apple products), Stitcher Radio or Podcatcher (for Android).
To download Apple iTunes, click here. To download Stitcher Radio, click here. To download Podcatcher, click here. If you're looking for the latest gadgets, the latest line of mini-portable inkless printers are out. Yes, that's right ... NO INK! The printer to be almost the size of your mobile phone itself! Check out this link with reviews on Amazon!
Did you know you could send and receive faxes through your computer, smartphone and tablet via the Internet without using that old fax machine?? No need to have that dedicated fax phone line anymore! No more hardcopy paper filing! No more long distance phone charges! Check out the several ways you can fax online now!
!It's no secret that Google tracks what you do, where you've been, and more. They even have a profile on you! Yes, really! But did you know you can see this information?? Here are 6 links that will show you what Google knows about you!
If you aren’t a user of Dropbox, you may want to reconsider. It’s one of the most widely accepted and used cloud-based storage options out there. Basically, cloud storage allows you to store just about any type of file, such as photos, documents, spreadsheets, etc. in a single location while allowing you access on multiple devices such as your mobile phone, tablet, PC, Mac and its apps. If you update and save a file, say a document on your PC, it is almost immediately updated on the cloud and accessible on your mobile phone. Another great way to use Dropbox is when you want to email a large file such as a home video, which can take a long time and lots of space in your mailbox. Instead, just put the video in Dropbox, then send a Dropbox link and have your friends & family download it themselves.
Dropbox is free with 500gb of storage; to get more space, just refer people. Click here to get Dropbox for Free. There is Dropbox for Business as well which provides not only more storage but more versatility. Look here for great ideas on how to integrate Dropbox into your life. Like most technology, batteries need to be cared for. There is a lot of misinformation out there, so here are some tips to help clarify things!
Debunking Battery Life Myths for Mobile Phones, Tablets, and Laptops Does the battery on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop not last very long? If your device is older than a year, short battery life could be the sign of an ageing battery. You'll find basic information about how modern batteries work and how to prolong their life here.
In case you haven't heard, the new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone has been permanently discontinued due to ongoing battery fire issues that it has not been able to resolve. It was rushed to market in order to compete against Apple's newest iphone 7 and 7 Plus. Samsung announced Monday this week that it is suspending sales of the smartphone after reports that some replacement devices were also spontaneously igniting. On Tuesday, Samsung announced that it is halting production, and a spokesman told NPR's Elise Hu that production will not resume.
"This is the end" of the phone model, Elise says. The Wallstreet Journal expects the financial hit to Samsung to be estimated between $4-$5 Billion, although the actual damage won't be known til everything settles. The news comes after Samsung announced last month that it would recall 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones amid reports that batteries were overheating and were a safety risk. Read more here and here on the financial hit. There is a lot of misinformation out there about how to charge devices using Lithium-Ion batteries found in most all our portable devices, including phones, tablets and laptops. Read here for the real scoop!
The days of Lithion-Ion batteries that charge our phones, tablets, laptops and other devices are limited. After all, Lithion-ion batteries have been around since the 1990's, so almost 30 years now, which is an eternity in terms of tech years! Fuel cells are much more durable than lithium-ion batteries. Most lithium-ion batteries are rated to last 500 cycles (charging a dead battery to full power) before suffering from capacity loss, which translates to about 9,000 hours of use, assuming 18 hours of operation per charge. Fuel cells, by contrast, can reliably achieve 40,000 hours of use, greatly increasing the lifespan of smartphones and other gadgets. This translates into an extra week of battery life one a single charge! Read this article on more ...
Do you travel to places where there is a poor Wi-Fi signal or low bandwidth, such as crowded coffeehouses, restaurants or airplanes. It can take forever to download a webpage, right? This is because there is a ton of behind-the-scenes overhead trying to download, a lot of it you don't need to just see the basic page! Opera is a low-overhead browser that lets you bypass downloading a lot of this while still letting you see the webpage! It also comes with a battery saving mode and a free VPN* to secure your web activity! Best of all, it's FREE! Follow this link for more information and to download Opera!
* What is VPN (Virtual Private Network)? Click here. Samsung's rivalry with Apple is no secret. Here's how Samsung's recent exploding battery of its latest Note 7 phone was only outdone by their own need to beat Apple's new iPhone 7 to market and how they failed ... miserably! It not only hurt their brand, but left thousands of customers without a working phone! Read the Article here.
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Blog AuthorI love technology and how it enhances our lives! Just think, without the Apollo moon missions, we might not have calculators! Imagine!! Archives
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