Tech Questions & Answers Archives

Q&A: How do I pick the best TV from a wall full of display models?

Posted on January 28, 2026

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Question from Sondra: I decided that I want to buy my husband a really nice TV for his birthday so I went to Walmart to pick one out.

What an exercise in confusion that turned out to be!

When I got to Walmart the TV section had dozens to choose from and the picture quality ranged from fair to really good, even on similar models.

How on earth is one to choose from all those different TV’s under those conditions? [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I quickly rename all the files in a folder on Windows?

Posted on January 27, 2026

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Question from Marge: I’ve recently begun dabbling in photography with an eye towards going pro at some point. I have a question for you if you don’t mind.

Is there a way to rename all the files in a certain folder to a common base name?

My camera always names the pictures with the same base filename but just changes the numbers on the end. That makes it hard to know what the pictures in a folder are of without looking at the pictures.

[Read more…]

Q&A: Can I use an old external hard drive with my new MacBook?

Posted on January 24, 2026

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Question from Lawrence: Hi, Rick. I’m hoping you can answer a question for me about hard drives.

I have an older Seagate STHN2000400 2TB external hard drive that I used for several years to store photos and other files from my old MacBook. Well that MacBook finally died and I replaced it with this MacBook Pro.

The problem I’m having is the MacBook Pro won’t work with the Seagate drive because there’s no connector on the laptop that will accept the old-style USB plug on the drive cable.

If at all possible I’d like to keep using this drive with the new MacBook Pro because it contains thousands of photos that don’t exist anywhere else.

Is there any way I can use this drive with the new laptop? Maybe some kind of adapter? [Read more…]

How to know when it’s time to replace your old router

Posted on January 23, 2026

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If you have a broadband Internet connection you probably use a router to share that connection among multiple computers and mobile devices.

I frequently receive emails from folks asking if I think they need to replace their aging routers, and I usually answer them by asking a few questions of my own: [Read more…]