Good Battery Habits

How Many Good Battery Habits Do You Really Have?

Batteries are rarely talked about – until they’re drained – then we’ll tell everyone as we beg desperately for a charger, hoping to get enough juice to last the day. The truth is, they’re a miracle of engineering that gets taken for granted when full and cursed when flat. If it feels like your battery is running out faster, you might be right.

But it’s not because of ‘battery memory’ and needing to be cycled (that’s an older battery type called NiMh), it’s because the modern LITHIUM-ION batteries in phones and laptops just simply wear out over time. Fortunately, extending your battery life is easier than you think! Which of the following GOOD battery habits do you have?

 

  1. Charge whenever you can: Lithium-ion batteries don’t like being charged all the way up and then drained all the way down. No wonder, it even sounds exhausting. Give them a little charge here and there, and they’ll be happy.
  2. Leave your laptop plugged in all the time: You can’t over-charge the battery, it will just sit there waiting to be used. The laptop also helps out by cutting the flow of power when the battery registers as fully charged.
  3. Watch for overheating: If you can, remove your laptop battery while charging, because while it won’t overcharge, it may overheat. You might also consider removing the battery if you’re using your laptop plugged in all the time. Sure, you might lose data if there’s a power outage, but overheating is a far more common occurrence and it’s been proven to degrade battery life considerably. Check your vents are clear with good airflow, and if necessary, help it out with a cooling laptop stand.
  4. Leave your phone plugged in all night: Just like your laptop, your charger knows to stop when the battery is full. Those chargers do generate heat though, so make sure you have enough airflow around both charger and phone, and never sleep with it under your pillow.
  5. Charge batteries before storing: If you’re blessed with backup batteries, make sure to give them a half charge before storing. They’ll naturally discharge and age over time, so this gives them a fighting chance to still be viable when you need them.
  6. Keep your cool: We know to avoid water with our phones, but we’re less careful about exposing it to heat. This includes leaving it in your car all day, placing it on top of your PC, or even in a sunny spot by the window. Wireless and rapid chargers can also be an issue, as the amount of heat they generate will affect your battery.

How did you go? Is keeping your lithium-ion battery happy easier than you thought? Your battery will wear out over time, but you can push that day a few years into the future if you remember to keep it charged and keep it cool.

Having battery issues? We can help! Call us at 508.947.1966

Become A Google Fu Master…

googlefuQuickly Become a Google Fu Master… Here’s How

There’s one thing all teens can do better than adults – and it’s not Snapchat. They’ve become experts at quickly locating information on the internet.

That’s Google Fu, the ability to use search engines to whip up answers and research faster than a contestant on a radio quiz.

Level 1 Mastery: Tell it what you need.

Google is smart and can understand “conversational searches”. Let’s say you came across a great recipe online, but the measurements were imperial. Google has you covered.

Simply tell it what you want to convert, and what into.

[number] [unit] into [unit]

Enter “6 ounces into cups”…and hit enter. Google presents the answer, already calculated – AND it includes a handy drop down to change those measurements for your next ingredient.

The ‘tell it what you need’ formula works for a multitude of questions – here are a few more formats to give you the idea.

  • Release dates: [movie/game] release date
  • Fast facts: [name of person] death
  • Stats: [city] population

Level 2 Mastery: Limiting result type.

With one additional click, you can tell Google that you only want images. Or videos. Or News, maps, shopping, books or apps. Your initial results are presented as a combination of all types – you can see the ALL tab highlighted up the top. Just click the tab to indicate which result type you’re looking for.

Level 3 Mastery:  Using drop downs.

One of the most popular Google Fu moves is to limit results to sites from a particular country. This is great for locating bargains or local businesses. Click SEARCH TOOLS to drop down a second menu. You’ll see the option to limit Country and even Time.  2 extra clicks and my search is now limited to my home country and items from the past 7 days only.

Level 4 Mastery: Using operators.

Your final level of mastery, often used as a last resort when you’re just beginning to doubt whether the internet has the answer you’re seeking.

Adding a – directly in front of a word (no space) means display everything that contains my other search terms, but doesn’t contain this term.

Finally, enclosing your search terms in “quotation marks” binds the term together so Google can’t break it up. E.G. “Project Management.”

Your Google Fu will soon be very strong.

How to Spot a Tech Scam Before You Get Stung…

How to Spot a Tech Scam Before You Get Stung

If your computer had a virus, you’d want to know about it ASAP, right?

Before your important files become corrupted, you lose your photos and your digital life is essentially destroyed. Even thinking about it is terrifying.

Tech scammers know we’d be lost without our computers, and that we don’t always know what’s going on behind the screen – which is why they’ve been able to swindle millions from everyday people across the world.

The scam goes like this:

You receive a random phone call from someone with a heavy accent (usually Indian) saying they’re from Microsoft, or an alarming pop-up appears on the screen, saying it looks like your system has been infected with a virus.

To fix the problem, they need to you to download some support software, which they’ll give you a special link for.

A technician then uses that software to gain access to your system and make it appear your system is riddled with viruses. Flashing screens, mysterious diagnostics whizzing by, fabricated errors…they’ll do or say anything to make you panic. They’ll even go as far as claiming your system has been infected with illegal content and if not corrected, you’ll face criminal charges.

Demands for credit card information follow immediately after. Once paid, they simply stop fiddling with your system to make it seem the problem is fixed. To continue the scam, they’ll soon access your system to recreate the problem, this time offering a subscription for ongoing protection.

What to do if you’re targeted by a tech scam

  1. Don’t taunt them. Just hang up. Right now you’re only a phone number in their system and they’ll move onto the next – if you give them cause to target you personally, you may find yourself in a dangerous situation.

The real Microsoft will never randomly call people like this. Ever.

  1. If a pop-up appears, immediately run an anti-virus scan. Don’t click the pop-up or call the number.

What to do if you’ve already been scammed

It’s okay. It feels horrible, but you’re not alone and the situation can be corrected.

Call your financial institution and have the charges reversed and your card reissued. It’s easier than you might think and helps the authorities locate the scammers.

Then give us a call and we’ll make sure they no longer have access to your computer.

This Is Not Up For Debate: Back Up Your Data Now

backupPardon us as we lose our minds for just one moment and go on a bit of a rant…

Are the pictures of your gorgeous granchildren not important? Is that Quickbooks file that contains all of your business’ financial information not critical to running your company? Is that book you’ve been writing for the better part of a decade not a labor of love worth saving? If none of this (and so much more) isn’t important to you in any way, you can stop reading now. However if this data is even remotely important to you then we must ask:

For the love of all that is good and holy, why are you not backing up your precious data? Why are you just assuming that your desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone will always work perfectly and will store your information until the end of days? Unless your devices are some type of super-secret, known-only-to-you gadgets that never fail, never get dropped or run over and never have an unrecoverable hard drive failure, you need to continue reading and start formulating a strategy for backing up your data.

Online (a.k.a. In The Cloud) Personal Backup Options. There are many options out there and this list is not meant to be all-inclusive. It is just a starting point for you to start evaluating the various services and find one that works for you. For personal use, we tend to recommend Google Drive. It’s simple, automatic and has save our Marketing Chick’s butt more than once.

Google Drive: Drive starts you with 15 GB of free Google storage, so you can keep pictures, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos – anything. Your files in Drive can be reached from any smartphone, tablet, or computer. So wherever you go, your files follow. If you run out of free storage or have more than 15 GB of data to upload, you can buy a storage plan. Once you’ve purchased a storage plan, you can change it to add even more storage or cancel it to return back to the 15 GB of free storage. The big beauty of Google Drive: You probably already have a GMail account which means that your Google Drive is already setup and ready to go. Check out Google’s help page for more information and pricing for Drive.  As long as you’re connected to the internet, your files and pictures are backed up automatically and accessible from any device.

Microsoft OneDrive: OneDrive is free online storage that comes with your Microsoft account. It’s like an extra hard drive that’s available from any of the devices you use. You no longer need to email files to yourself or carry around (and possibly lose) a USB flash drive. Instead, whether you’re on your laptop and working on a presentation, viewing photos from your last family vacation on your new tablet, or on your phone reviewing your shopping list, you can get to your files in OneDrive. Getting started with OneDrive is easy. You can add files already on your PC to OneDrive by either copying them over or moving them from your PC. When you save new files, you can choose to save them to OneDrive so you can get to them from any device and share them with other people. And, if your PC has a built-in camera, you can automatically save copies of the photos in your camera roll to OneDrive, so you’ll always have a backup. Click here to get more information about OneDrive.

Box.com: Use Box to store, manage and share your files securely in the cloud. Access your content anywhere you might need it: web, tablet or phone. Plus, you can share large files with a simple link and work on projects with your friends, family or colleagues from anywhere. Click here to get more information and pricing for Box.com. As long as you’re connected to the internet, your files and pictures are backed up automatically and accessible from any device.

Carbonite: Carbonite Personal offers unlimited cloud storage as part of your subscription. You can back up all your files without worrying about running out of space. Encrypted copies of your files are transmitted to one of our state-of-the-art data centers, safe from computer glitches, hurricanes and everything in between. Your files are backed up automatically and continually, as long as you’re connected to the Internet. Click here to get more information and pricing.

MozyHome: Mozy’s “set it and forget it” system manages your backups so you don’t have to. Upon setup, Mozy begins automatically backing up your files, and continues to do so on a regular basis. You can even customize your automatic backup schedule to meet your needs. Twice a week, every day, multiple times a day—the choice is yours. Under the protection of military-grade security, your files are safe and sound in the Mozy cloud. Click here to get more information and pricing for Mozy’s personal cloud backup solution.

Offline Backup Options: External hard drives are the way to go. 

According to PC Magazine: “External hard drives promise almost unlimited storage: For under $100, you can add a terabyte of data to your PC or Mac, laptop or desktop. That’s enough for over 750,000 MP3s or photos, or over 230 DVD-sized movies. Every computer out there, from mega-huge towers to budget-priced Windows tablets, can connect to at least one hard drive. If you’re lucky enough to have multiple input/output ports, you can hook up many more. Auxiliary storage allows you to back up your system files, in case your primary system goes kaput. Read about the various options out there for desktops, laptops and Macs in their February 2014 article.

Backup Options For Business 

While most of the personal options (cloud and external hard drives) also have business applications, we’re actually going to recommend that you talk to your IT person about backup solutions for your business. If you don’t have an IT person – or you’re one of our incredibly bright business clients – give us a call at 508-947-1966. We are more than happy to talk to you about the various options you have – from cloud to hard drive to outsourcing your backups to us or someone else.

Go do your homework. Give us a call. Make a decision and implement your decision. Do it today before your critical data and adorable pictures are gone forever.

Related Reading: 

20 Minutes Of Hilarity At South Shore Computer Repair…

We love what we do here at South Shore Computer Repair but it’s not often that we get to spend 20 minutes of our day rolling on the floor laughing and messing with a criminal.

It all started when “Microsoft Support” called our Marketing Chick to let her know that there was a problem with her computer and they were calling to walk her through fixing all of the problems she was having. She immediately panicked (not!) and rushed the phone to the Computer Guy so that he could work with “Microsoft Support” to get her issues resolved.

 

That’s right, folks; it’s a S-C-A-M! Microsoft (or Google or Bing or a hundred other companies) are not monitoring your computer and calling you when they see you’re having a problem. Never. Not. No way.

While we encourage everyone to have some fun with these folks if and when they call you, under no circumstances should you do what they are telling you to do. Never. Not. No way.

If you’re having real computer issues, call your favorite IT person or computer repair shop (hopefully that’s us!) and work with them to resolve your issues.