Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Della: I just bought my son a new laptop at Walmart.
As we were walking up to the register to pay, I asked the salesman if he could recommend a good surge protector for it.
He said laptops don’t need surge protectors because their power bricks protect the machine from power surges.
That just didn’t sound right to me, but I’m not one to argue.
Was he right or do I need to go ahead and buy a surge protector for my son’s new laptop? [Read more…]
Question from Keegan: I recently updated my PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11.
With Windows 10 I had the power mode set to “Best Performance”, but I can’t figure out how to change it in Windows 11.
I could be imagining things, but it seems like Microsoft made a lot of changes to the Windows interface.
How do I set my computer’s power setting to “Best Performance” now that Windows 11 is on it? [Read more…]
Question from Erin: I have a Straight Talk phone and I have a question about the amount of data it’s using.
I always buy the $35 card and I often use up my 10GB of data several days before the month is over. I absolutely hate it when they switch my phone to slower speed.
My friend told me there’s an app that will let me bypass the data cap on my Straight Talk plan but he can’t remember the name of it. I searched the Google Play store high and low but couldn’t find it.
I think he might be just trying to pull one over on me. Am I right or is there really an app that will do this? [Read more…]
Question from Ken: I know that Bluetooth is the wireless signal that connects smartphones to speakers and other portable devices.
What I’m curious about is why did they choose the name Bluetooth?
That seems like a really odd name for something to do with technology. [Read more…]
Question from Leigh: Hi, Rick. I’m hoping you can help me figure out why I can’t get Facebook or Pinterest to load while I’m at work.
I use the same laptop at home and everything works fine there.
But when I’m at work I can’t get either Facebook or Pinterest to work in any web browser. [Read more…]