Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Don: I have a 2TB external hard drive that I’ve used to back up my MacBook for a while. I just bought a 6TB drive to replace it.
I want to give the old drive to my nephew because he needs one and he can’t really afford to buy one.
How can I securely wipe that drive to make sure it’s completely empty before I give it to him? [Read more…]
Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Question from Keith: Hi, Rick. I hope you can help me figure out what I just bought.
One of my neighbors sold me a used MacBook that she inherited after a family member passed away. She let me have it for $50 just to get rid of it!
She doesn’t really know anything about the model or specs of the machine, and I don’t either because I’m a Windows guy. All we know is it’s a MacBook.
What I’d like to know is do Macs have a ‘System Information’ screen like the one in Windows that’ll tell me what’s inside this thing? I plan to sell it (hopefully at a profit) so I need to know exactly what’s in it.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Marla: My 7 year old HP laptop quit on me the other day so I’ve been shopping around for a new laptop.
I noticed almost immediately that Apple’s MacBooks are more expensive than comparable Windows laptops.
And they aren’t just a little more expensive either. The MacBooks are about three times more expensive than similarly equipped Windows machines.
My question is why are people willing to pay a huge premium to buy a MacBook when they can get a comparable Windows laptop for so much less? [Read more…]
Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Question from Leslie: Hi, Rick. I hope you won’t mind answering a question for me.
I recently bought a new MacBook Pro and I absolutely love it except for one small problem.
I love the beautiful look of the screen but I sometimes have trouble finding the mouse cursor on it when there’s a lot of stuff being displayed all at once.
Can you tell me how to increase the size of the mouse pointer on my MacBook Pro so it’ll be easier to find? [Read more…]
Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Question from Deaton: My daughter is getting ready to turn 13 in a few weeks and I want to get her something really special for this very special birthday.
She’s been wanting a MacBook, but the ones I saw in the store are really expensive so I’m thinking about getting her a refurbished one.
I’ve bought several refurbished Windows PCs in the past and mostly had great luck with them.
Does Apple sell refurbished MacBooks? And if they do, are they a good deal in your opinion? [Read more…]