Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Judy: A while back I decided that I needed a new laptop and since it was to be used for work I wanted one that was pretty fast.
Based upon the recommendation of a friend I ended up buying an almost new refurbished Dell with an Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1GB hard drive and Windows 10.
For a while the new laptop was lightning fast, but then it slowed down to a crawl. And it happened virtually overnight. [Read more…]
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Question from Ronnie: I have a MacBook Air that has only two USB-C ports on it, but I have four USB-C devices that I need to connect to it.
I’m looking for a USB-C hub with at least three USB-C ports on it but I can’t find one.
They all have either one or two USB-C ports and about a dozen or so other ports that I don’t need.
My question is why don’t they make USB-C hubs that have more than two USB-C ports on them? [Read more…]
Question from Marge: I just bought a refurbished laptop with Windows 10 on it and I want to make sure it’ll be safe from viruses.
It seems like I remember reading somewhere that you don’t need to buy an antivirus program for Windows 10 because it comes with one built-in.
The problem is other things I’ve read said you do need to install and antivirus program.
Which one is true? [Read more…]
Question from Larry: Hi, Rick. I love your blog and subscribe to your newsletter. I respect your opinions very much.
I’d like to ask a question if you don’t mind.
I’ve been buying yard sale items in bulk locally and selling them on Ebay for a couple of years now, and I’m looking to branch out.
I’ve been thinking lately about creating Linux installation media (DVDs and USB flash drives) on my home computer and selling them on EBay.
My question is can I legally do that without getting into any kind of legal trouble? [Read more…]
Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Question from Marcella: I used to watch Netflix on my computer but it got fried by lightning.
I’ve decided that I don’t really need a computer now so I won’t be replacing it.
I now watch Netflix on my iPhone but I’d really like to watch it on my 32 inch Samsung TV.
My boyfriend said I should be able to connect my phone to the TV through its HDMI port somehow, but he isn’t sure how to do it because my phone has a lightning connector instead of HDMI.
My first question is do you think I can connect the phone and TV together?
If I can, what exactly dol I need to buy? And will it be very expensive?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]