Today is a special day for Apple. It's the company's annual Fall announcement day. This is the gathering where Apple normally announces new products including its new line of iPhones. While there will be new products/models on the agenda, don't look for any new mobile phones. At least that's what Apple has stated previously. Due …
Author: John Grubb
I've been working on computers since 1983! I love helping people resolve their computing issues and sharing preventative measures, as well.
I Hate To Ingeminate…
It's been over four years since I first published a video about phone call and pop-up computer scams. (Haven't seen it? I've added it to the bottom of this post.) Yet, customers/readers/viewers keep falling for it. However, that's not what I'm ingeminating about today. Another computer topic I've preached and preached about is online backup. …
Under Attack
Many activities take place on the Internet about which "regular" computer users have no clue. Oh, you've heard of the Dark Web - I've written about it here - but there is more going on behind the scenes than that. As an example, have a look at the screenshot above. It is a daily report …
Labor Day Answers
Did you watch our Labor Day 2020: Worst One In Our History? video? If not, please take a few minutes to watch it before you continue reading. https://youtu.be/75Zi0bYlKl8 After you watched the video, did you do the searching I asked you to do? If you did, let's see if you found the correct answers. Question …
IMHO?
In my post, Third-Party, I used the acronym "IMHO." In the computer world, we use a ton of acronyms. Some of them are pretty easy to figure out, most are not. IMHO is a chat-related acronym and the fact that some readers didn't know what it means, led me to the idea of sharing some …
Third-Party?
Lately, we've been getting a lot of inquiries about email providers making customers use special passwords for third-party apps. To many people, this is verbiage they simply don't understand. I'm going to try to clear that up for you. Let's say you have a Comcast email address. If you open a browser and navigate to …
What’s In A Post Title?
When I write a post, I try to make the title enticing enough that a casual viewer will want to read my commentary. Still, I try to make sure the title reflects what's actually in the post. It's true, I can sometimes be a bit abstruse when it comes to the title. Usually, though, most …
A Cross Review
One of the great things about shopping online is that you can read reviews of products you're considering before you actually purchase something. Of course, you need to be careful when you read a review because you can't see or hear the person writing it. Some people have been known to post false reviews. Luckily, …
It’s A Blessing And A Curse
My Dad and Mother and me! Missing from the photo is my older brother, Ed - may he RIP - and my older (but wiser) sister, Mary Catherine. Often during this Covid-19 pandemic, I've thought about my mother who was born in 1914 and my dad who was born in 1916. They were two young …
Another Program You Could Be Using For Free!
If you have a Microsoft account, you have access to a really cool program - Microsoft Forms! You can use it to create surveys and/or quizzes. It's free with a Microsoft account, which is also free if you don't have one yet. Why would you want to create a survey or quiz? Maybe you're involved …
Continue reading Another Program You Could Be Using For Free!
Buying A Laptop?
As I get a little older, I realize it's important to work smarter rather than longer. There are some things in the computer business that I am repeatedly asked. How cool would it be if I could just send people with the same question to one answer! Thus, one of the reasons I'm creating more …
Fact-Checking Is Important!
Recently, a Facebook friend of mine posted a message she had copied from someone else. Here is the message: "I understand that some of us differ in our beliefs regarding COVID19. I also understand that many people will be downloading the COVID19 app. However, if I am one of your "contacts" and you intend on …
I Hate Auto-correct
If you look at the keyboard image above, you'll see something annoying that my iPhone's auto-correct has recently started doing. When I type the word "the" it automatically replaces it with "The" even when the word is not the first word in a sentence. No matter how many times I try to correct it, auto-correct …
Mobile Phone Privacy
Our phones are great tools with which we can do so much. We can order food, have a share-ride service pick us up, pay for gas at the pump, buy products and much, much more. Unfortunately, there is a price to pay when using some of these opportunities – privacy. For instance, you can’t use …
New Kids On The Block
Okay, this post has nothing to do with the boy band (now adults) New Kids On The Block. But, we do have some new pages on our website that I thought you should know about. Someone asked me about a product I had recommended on YouTube but they couldn't remember which video they saw it …
Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo
In a January 24, 2019 post entitled, Extensions: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, (Click on Clint Eastwood to read the post!) we talked about browser extensions. We described what they are and that there are good, i.e., safe, useful extensions and there are ones that are bad and maybe even ugly. In this post, …
You Can Bank On This!
In my video, "How To Prepare Your Computing Devices For A Hurricane," I talk about USB Power Banks. (The video is at the end of this post if you haven't seen it yet.) The picture above shows three of mine (I have more.) which are all fully charged. Since I'm sitting here writing this post …
The Tracks Of My Fears
Here's a familiar scenario on the Internet: You go searching for some product. After you've finished, you go to email or go on Social Media and you are bombarded with ads for that product. This happens to me all the time. It even happens when I actually bought the product the first time I went …
“I Got Taken For $275”
The title of this post is what I heard a few days ago when I answered a phone call from one of our customers. It's difficult to believe that I've been on a soapbox for 4 years preaching the same message: Microsoft, Apple and others don't call you on the phone to tell you there's …
Deceased Friend Friended Me
You might be familiar with the recently canceled TV show "God Friended Me." If not, it was a show where the leading man (Miles Finer), an atheist podcaster, is friended on Facebook by someone called "God." He would receive other friend suggestions from the account and he and his friends would investigate the suggestions and …
Pinterest Interest
In my July 14, 2020 post, Does Pinterest Interest You?, I asked post readers to answer some survey questions about the Social Media platform. As you can see from the two pie charts above, the majority of our readers are NOT using Pinterest and most people would definitely want to watch a 4KCC video while …
Need A VPN?
I'm getting more inquiries about VPNs. We're all seeing more ads about them and a larger variety of companies are offering them. But, what exactly is a VPN, and do you really need one? VPN Definition As the picture above spells out, the acronym VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. A VPN is like a …
The Stream Just Got More Crowded
In the computing world, the sector of streaming video services just got more crowded. We already have Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, HBOMax, CBS All Access, FuboTV, AppleTV+ - and this list isn't all of them! Just last week, another service entered the sphere: Peacock. As you might deduce from the …
On The Fence?
A number of people who have watched our videos on our YouTube Channel (Haven't visited the channel yet? Click HERE.) have asked me about the strange looking grey, horizontal lines on my desktop. They've wondered why they only see one icon. (It's the "god" icon, btw. You can learn all about it from the video …
What A Motley Crew!
Do you recognize the five people in the photo above? Besides being in the public eye on a consistent basis (celebrities?), do you know what else they have in common? All five of them (Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian West, Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden and Bill Gates) had their Twitter accounts hacked last week. They were …
Dealing Daily
Are you an Amazon shopper? I am. Joyce and I get tons of items from Amazon. Even though I go to the site regularly, I often forget about the deals that change every day. This post is a reminder for all of you who purchase from Amazon (and all of you who will in the …
Hidden Clipboard Abilities
Since the beginning of Windows, the Clipboard feature has been pretty boring. You copy or cut something and it goes to the Clipboard. Then, you can paste what's on the Clipboard somewhere else. But, if you go and copy or cut something new, the former item on the Clipboard is gone. Sometimes, that's okay. Other …
Stop Lion Around!
Let's face it - we're all pretty sick of this pandemic. Are lives have been turned upside down. For those of us not in the medical field or in other essential jobs where we have to go to work, we're pretty bored having to mostly stay at home. We're sick of the news, we're tired …
Does Pinterest Interest You?
A few people have asked me about Pinterest. (The picture above was taken from one of my boards in Pinterest.) This post is to find out if there's any interest by my readers for me to create a video or hold an online webinar. Would you be kind enough to take 3 minutes and answer …
I Really Disliked History
In high school, History class was one of the two subjects that I just got so bored studying. Our study books were old editions and not up-to-date. Other teaching materials weren't too great, either. Nothing about History came alive for me. If only I had a computer and the Internet in those days. My historical …