2024 October eBytes
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What Is Apple Intelligence? Everything We Know About iPhone 16 AI Features
How to Use Google Gemini AI: 14 Ways It Can Make Your Life Easier
How to Send Files Between Android Devices and PCs With Quick Share
The best laptops under $1,000 you can buy: Expert tested
Dismissing All Your Notifications? 5 Ways to Make Them Effective
Is Cable or Fiber Internet Better? Here's How the Two Techs Compare
The Best Phones for 2024
Don’t Get Caught! How to Spot Email and SMS Phishing Scams
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What Is Apple Intelligence? Everything We Know About iPhone 16 AI Features
You can try out the public beta if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or any iPad or Mac with an M1 chip and later.
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How to Use Google Gemini AI: 14 Ways It Can Make Your Life Easier
Gemini can answer questions, provide information, generate content, and integrate with other Google apps and services. Here’s how to take advantage of Google’s AI.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-use-google-gemini-ai
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How to Send Files Between Android Devices and PCs With Quick Share
With Quick Share, Google's version of AirDrop, Android users can quickly swap photos, videos, and other files with nearby Android devices and Windows computers.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-share-files-between-android-devices-with-nearby-share
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The best laptops under $1,000 you can buy: Expert tested
We tested the best laptops from Apple, Dell, HP, and more that deliver top-tier power, speed, and performance without breaking the bank.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-laptop-under-1000/
Best Laptop Deal of the Day: $250 Off a Budget Touch Option From Acer - There are two things we love at PCMag: reviewing laptops and then finding them on sale. The best new tech + saving our readers money is what we're all about! So let's check out today's deal!
https://www.pcmag.com/deals/best-laptop-deal-of-the-day-budget-acer-touch-option-september-12
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Dismissing All Your Notifications? 5 Ways to Make Them Effective
If your badge counts and pop-up reminders go unnoticed, you probably have a signal-to-noise problem—but it's easy to fix.
https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/make-notifications-more-effective
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Is Cable or Fiber Internet Better? Here's How the Two Techs Compare
Fiber internet is faster and more reliable, but cable is more widely available. Here's what to expect when comparing cable versus fiber internet.
https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/cable-vs-fiber-internet/
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The Best Phones for 2024
Whether you're looking for an Android smartphone, an iPhone, or a simple feature phone, these are our top picks for a variety of budgets across the major US wireless carriers.
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-phones
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Don’t Get Caught! How to Spot Email and SMS Phishing Scams
Phone and email scammers are running rampant. We analyze some real-life phishing lures and tell you how to stop scammers in their tracks.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/dont-get-caught-how-to-spot-email-and-sms-phishing-attempts
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Links - News, Tips, & Downloads
Is OneDrive messing with your files? How to get your Windows storage under control - If you're not paying close attention, your local files can get moved to Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage. Here's what's happening, and how you can clean up the mess.
Has Your Facebook or Instagram Account Been Hacked? How to Find Out and What to Do - Meta offers easy ways to tell if someone's gotten into your account without you knowing.
Ready to Upgrade? How to Automatically Set Up a New iPhone - Just got a new iPhone? Speed up the setup process by using Quick Start, which will transfer core settings from your old to your new Apple smartphone in a few taps.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/automatically-set-up-a-new-iphone
Gemini Live is finally hitting Android phones - how to access it for free - Want a voice assistant you can have natural conversations with? You may not need to wait for ChatGPT's Voice Mode.
How to Save Tax Documents — Digitizing Is the Answer
https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/cable-vs-fiber-internet/
Is Your Printer Offline? 6 Tricks to Get it Connected to Wi-Fi - Is your printer refusing to connect to the internet? Before you toss it, give these fixes a try.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/printer-wont-connect-to-wi-fi-try-these-fixes
How to Edit a PDF - PDFs are tricky to edit without the right tools. While some of them are pricey, a few free ones can get the job done, too. Here's what you need to get—and know.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-edit-a-pdf
Stop paying for antivirus software. Here's why you don't need it - Americans over 65 are twice as likely to pay for third-party antivirus software. It's just what they're used to. It's also a colossal waste of money.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/stop-paying-for-antivirus-software-heres-why-you-dont-need-it/
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Ask a Question - Send any Tips & Downloads, Ask a Question, For Sale, or articles to: TheMiningPCC@gmail.com
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Q. From a PCC Member During the Monthly Q&A - What do you know about the Shift Browser, any problems?
A. From Tom Kreuzer, a PCC Board member. I have not heard of the Shift Browser. There are 100s of browsers each with their own features and functions.
The member said they had downloaded some other software and the Shift Browser was installed. It is set up by using Bookmarks from his other Browser. It changed itself to be the default browser.
I explained that there are many Browsers each with special features. Some Computer Programming classes have the students each create their own Browser. I talked about how Microsoft created the IE browser, but then Google became the #1 browser with Chrome based on the free public domain core code Chromium. Microsoft retired the old bloated IE and created the Edge browser for Windows 10. It is also based on Chromium, but has many features Microsoft added. Today the Edge browser runs faster and uses less memory than Google Chrome which is now the old timer with bloated features.
After the Q&A I did a quick check of the Shift Browser and found that it uses the Chromium base the same as Chrome and Edge. The basic version of Shift is free but only supports 2 eMail and 1 App with most features turned off. The full version is $149 a year.
A quick review and demo of Shift:
https://thinpigmedia.com/blog/you-gotta-keep-em-separated-a-review-of-the-shift-app
It does not look like anything that I need, but may work for other people. I would recommend you uninstall it and get your default browser back to Chrome or Edge.
Member responds - Thanks for looking into this for me; I suppose having access to more than one email system might be handy, but I think I'll take your advice and uninstall it.
Tom responds - There are multiple ways to access multiple accounts for free in Chrome and Edge browsers. I use Chrome and whenever it starts it asks me what Profile/eMail account I want to use (My own, PCC Club, My Dad, My Mom, etc.). The eMail is the account name like XXX@gmail.com, XXX@hotmail.com, XXX@outlook.com, XXX@yahoo.com, and many others. By default if I login to www.gmail.com I can only connect to one account like ABC@gmail.com. If I want to use DEF@gmail.com I need to logout of ABC@gmail.com and login and enter my password for DEF@gmail.com. Every time I use a different account it will change my Contacts, Calendar, Google Drive, Bookmarks, and other settings. Managing multiple accounts and all the settings gets complicated in a hurry.
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Q. From a PCC Member - I had a friend have his Facebook hacked. How can that happen?
A. From Tom Kreuzer, a PCC Board member. The only way to take over a Facebook account to have the Password. Most people are not hacked, their information is cloned. Facebook cloning is a social engineering technique where someone creates a fake Facebook account that looks like yours. This is done by using your name, profile picture, and other publicly available information to impersonate you.
The purpose of a cloned account is to:
* Deceive friends - Send friend requests to your contacts, who may accept them thinking it's you.
* Perpetrate scams - Send phishing messages or malicious links to your friends, pretending to be you.
* Gather personal information - Ask for money, additional personal information, or password and login information.
* Redirect people to spam and scam websites - Send people to spoofed websites that ask them to log into their Facebook account.
Some signs that your account has been cloned include:
* Duplicate friend requests
* You find another account with your name and photos
* Friends inform you about suspicious activity from “your” account
Not as complicated as having your Facebook account hacked, below are steps to take if your account has been cloned to minimize consequences.
1. Notify friends and family immediately that your account has been cloned and to not accept new friend requests from this account
2. Get as many friends and family to report the cloned account as possible.
Below are steps to take to report these cloned accounts:
On the cloned account’s profile, click the three dots under the profile banner
Select ‘Report Profile’ in the drop-down menu
Select ‘Fake account’ as the problem in the next drop-down menu
You can also get more info by doing a Google search “How to report a Facebook clone” or go to: https://www.facebook.com/help/174210519303259. Facebook will compare your account and when it was created to the new account and take the new account down in a day or two.
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Q. From a PCC Board Member Mike Griffen- An Interesting article about VPN speed tradeoffs…
Your VPN is Crushing Your Internet Speeds. Here's How to Speed Things Up.
A. From Tom Kreuzer, a PCC Board member. I am not a fan of VPNs. Link to past meeting I did on VPN in Mar 2021.
2021 Mar - Do I need a VPN "Virtual Private Network" by Tom Kreuzer, What is a VPN, Pros, Cons. Video Handout
FYI... I get 940 Mbps up and down without a VPN. I have CenturyLink Fiber $65 total cost (no fees or rental) per month for life.They no longer offer this program, I think it is no $80 per month. Quantum Fiber has a $75 for life 940 Mbps option or $50 500 Mbps option. Lumen Technologies owns both CenturyLink and Quantum.
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