Travelling soon? For most people, this also means making sure your tech is packed and ready for the adventure. Smartphones, ebook readers, tablets, laptops and smart watches are now so light and portable that you’d never think of leaving them behind, plus they can add a ton of value your experience.
Here are a few tips to consider before you hit the road.
1. Backup to the cloud
While you’re jet setting around, relaxing on a beach or hiking your way to freedom, your tech is always going to be exposed to a level of risk. This might range from accidentally leaving your laptop at a cafe to having it stolen from your bag, but either way the problem is the same – your data is now gone. If you’ve backed up your devices to the cloud (eg Evernote, Microsoft OneNote or Google Drive) you’ll be able to access your files easily and securely from anywhere.
Hot tip: Scan or save important documents like itineraries and passports to the cloud.
2. Pack the right cables
Begging random strangers for a loan of their cable isn’t much fun, so remember to bring the exact cables and chargers you’ll need. Most smartphones and tablets use universal plugs like Micro USB, USB C or Apple Lightning, so you can get away with only packing one cable. Many locations now offer powered USB ports but be sure to also pack the right charger as well, it’s a convenience you’ll appreciate. If you’re travelling overseas and the socket is different, remember to pack a plug converter, and depending on your destination, you might even find the voltage is different. It’s a good idea to check whether you also need a voltage converter before you try and charge.
3. Download offline data
It’s no secret that global roaming can give nasty bill shocks. The easy access data you normally use over Wi-Fi or get included in your cell plan has us all accustomed to being connected. While travelling, you might find yourself in a location where data costs a fortune or it’s not available at all. Download any files you might need, including important documents like itineraries and bookings, so that you can access them even without a connection.
4. Update and scan
Just like you’d make sure you’ve got the right vaccinations and travel gear, make sure your tech is ready to travel too. Set aside a few minutes to run updates for your operating systems and apps, as well as your anti-virus. Go one step further and run a manual anti-virus scan too. The last thing you want to deal with one your trip is a cyber attack! While you’re doing your pro-active thing, turn on password protection for all devices so that only you can unlock them.
Hot tip: Use a complex password that is hard for thieves to guess.
5. Mark your territory
Almost exactly the way it sounds, let everyone know this tech belongs to you. Write your cell number on portable devices in case you get separated so whoever finds it can give you a quick call and save the day. Don’t want to use permanent marker on your shiny tech? Grab some sticky labels you can peel off when you get home.
You can also get little Bluetooth tracking tags to stick to your gear, so that if you ever lose something you can chase it down. Similarly, you might like to consider enabling the ‘find my feature on Apple devices. Having this feature switched on also means you can disable your device remotely, an excellent security option if it’s been stolen.
Need help preparing your tech for travel? Give us a call at 862-7019
Care for an External Hard Drive At Affordable Computer Repairs and Service we obtain more jobs than we would like from customers desperately requiring data recovery from their non-functioning external hard drive. So many people believe that simply connecting and backing up on a portable hard drive is the complete solution to the safe storage Continue reading “How to Care for an External Hard Drive”→
Viruses are known to plague millions of computers each year. They can cause a lot of frustration and annoyance because your computer is not acting the way it should be; it is the difference that you notice that can prevent any further damage done to your computer. It is important to keep a look out for any indication that your computer is infected, so here are 10 simple signs to help you notice a computer virus:
Your computer is really slow. Like really, really, REALLY slow.
Nothing responds when you click on an icon and/or your software applications do not work correctly anymore.
The system reboots, freezes up, or crashes for no reason.
Your antivirus security program and/or firewall is suddenly disabled.
You can’t access your disk drives or hard drive.
You are suddenly unable to print
You start seeing strange pop-up windows stating that you have a virus or that your computer is infected. (Usually the name of the virus program/scanner is something you have never heard of and you can’t seem to close the annoying window).
You start seeing pop-up advertisement windows at unexpected (random) times.
You have major problems trying to install or download software, especially an antivirus software.
You seem to have suddenly lost the icons on the desktop and/or all other program files in our folders.
If you are experiencing any combination of these symptoms on your computer, the best solution is to bring it in to Computer Doctor. We have seen the nastiest of viruses out there, and we are confident that we can nurse your computer back to health. If you have any concerns about your computer at all, please give us a call at 862-7019, we would love to take care of any computer issues you may have! You can take 15% off a Virus Removal and Tune Up service by mentioning this article before November 18, 2016!
No matter what type of shopper you are– the early bird who has everything wrapped up before Thanksgiving, or the mad-dasher that goes to grab everything the night before, it is easy to lose track of everybody on your gift list. There is the challenge of making sure that nobody gets the same present twice, especially if the same lists are circulated throughout your family. Here are a few tech tools that you can use to organize your holiday gift giving.
Keeping track of what you want to get for somebody, or what you have already purchased for others is challenging, particularly in large families. What good is planning ahead if you forget what you bought and where you hid it last month? How can you really keep your budget in mind when you are just wandering the store shelves aimlessly buying random gifts? If you have an iOS device, you can get the Santa’s Bag app. This gift giving app helps keep track of what everyone wants, how many gifts you have bought for each person, how much money remains in your budget, and even whether or not you have wrapped the gifts yet. You can add recipients as you go, as well as input what they want or what you think they want into a “gifts and ideas” list. You can set a certain budget for each gift recipient, sort out what store you will be buying the gift from, and set the status of wrapped or unwrapped, and add a gift location so that you don’t forget where you hide it!
A great gift giving app for those who do not have iPhones is the Christmas Gift List for Android. This app tracks ideas for what you want to get each person. The Christmas Gift List app also has quick click icons that let you update the status to bought, or from unwrapped to wrapped. Much like Santa’s bag, you can set personal budgets for each recipient- and see how many gifts you still need to buy at a glance. There is additional room for notes about each gift such as how you wrapped it, how large it is, and what color it is. This app is great for keeping you on top of your holiday gift giving.
The apps mentioned above are great for staying on track of your own gifts, but for those who need to coordinate with friends and family to avoid gift overlap, consider using Google Sheets. Google Sheets will help you form a complete gift giving spreadsheet, with each recipient having their own tab. The only downfall of this system is that users will
be able to see when a gift from their list has been crossed off. The best thing about Google Sheets is that it is free and can be accessed from any device that has an internet connection. All you need is a Gmail account, and family members can see who has added what. As soon as an item is purchased, it can be removed from the wish list so that no item is gifted twice. Although Google Sheets was designed to be more of a tool for school or business, it is surprisingly effective for use as a gift giving organizer.
Of course, there are some families that are spreadsheet challenged. For those families, there are several online wish lists that are good for beginners. MyRegistry allows you to add gifts from any online store, as well as sync any existing registries you may have at places like Amazon, Target, Walmart, Macy’s, and more. You can also use the smartphone app to scan bar codes of items that you find in physical stores. After you have compiled your list, you can share it on social media, a custom link, or allow people to search for it using your name. People with whom you have shared your list can update an item to show you when it is purchased. If every member of your family signs up for a MyRegistry account, everybody gets what they want and nobody ends up with three of the same gifts. MyRegistry is probably the most comprehensive tool for organizing your gift giving, but it does not work unless everybody is on board.
No matter how many people are on your holiday shopping list, staying organized can be a challenge. When it comes to gift giving, it is best to stay on top of things and not wait until the last minute, but no matter what your holiday shopping approach is, these tech tools will surely help organize your gift giving.
At the Computer Doctor, we can help you give the best gifts to your loved ones. We have an iMac in the shop, as well as two laptops ready to go– one of which is touchscreen! A newly refurbished computer by a certified and trustworthy technician is the perfect present to give this season.
Call us at 862-7019 or stop by and visit us at 50 Main Rd N in Suite B in Hampden, ME to check out our selection! If you mention this article, you will even receive 15% off!
With a couple days still to go until one of the biggest shopping days of the year, a mixture of leaks and early announcements have revealed the best product deals at some of the biggest retail chains!
DealNews performed a study from Black Friday Season 2014 to help you score the best deals for anything you are looking to buy!
Because of the Blue law in Maine, almost all businesses must be closed on Thanksgiving Day, particularly the big department stores.
This means that the DealNews Editors’ Choices that vote in favor of deals on Thanksgiving Day won’t apply to us Mainers.
As of now, not very many sales have been advertised for Cyber Monday. But as a general rule, Cyber Monday is a tech-holiday for tech-minded people.
Fortunately, Amazon has announced some of its deals for Cyber Monday. The announced deals are primarily Amazon-exclusive products, such as various Kindle models and a year of the Amazon Cloud Drive storage.
The official Amazon Cyber Monday Deals hub has some limited-time offers that are going on right now which is definitely something to check out if you’re hunting for the best deal on a specific product!
A lot of deals on Cyber Monday will already have a certain percentage taken off of the full retail price, but I have found that most websites will also accept additional coupon codes for you to get an even better deal.
Here are some Apple coupon codes to redeem on the Apple store website, while RetailMeNot is my personal favorite website for finding more coupon codes to redeem on nearly any retail website.
To get the best deal for Apple products, try not to purchase them directly from the Apple Store, even if you use a coupon code. Purchasing from a department store will actually save you an average of $36 on any given iPad on any given day– not even including Black Friday or Cyber Monday! The same can be said for other Apple products as well, but this site has presented the savings data for iPads as of April 2015.
There are a few ways you can get the best deal for the Apple product you are looking to buy, and that usually means taking the time to research when and where you need to be to get it! Here is a basic breakdown of Apple deals this coming Friday.
Best Deals for iPads this Black Friday 2015:
iPad Air 2: The 16 GB is $399 at Best Buy and Walmart or $374 at Staples.
The 64 GB is $499 at Best Buy or $449 at Staples.
If either size is bought at Target, you will receive a $150 gift card with the full purchase price.
iPad Air: At Staples, the 16 GB is $319 and the 32 GB is $359.
If either size is bought at Target, you will receive a $100 gift card with the full purchase price.
iPad Mini 4: The 16 GB is $299 at Staples. At Best Buy, the 64 GB is $399 and the 128 GB is $499.
If any size is bought at Target, you will receive a $100 gift card with the full purchase price.
iPad Mini 2: The 16 GB is $239 at Staples or $199 at Walmart. If bought at Target, you will receive an $80 gift card with the full purchase price.
Best Deals for Apple Watches this Black Friday 2015:
Best Buy claims you can save up to $100 on Apple Watches, with the regular price $349-$699.
Target will give you a $100 gift card with any Apple Watch purchase.
Best Deals for iPhones this Black Friday 2015:
At Target, you will receive a $250 gift card with $0 down for an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus installment plan.
Or, for those that are eligible for 2 year contracts with Verizon or Sprint, you get $50 off the 16 GB iPhone 6s or 6s Plus (now $150 and $250 respectively).
At Walmart, you get $100 off any iPhone as well as a $100 Black Friday Gift Card.
Apple Macbook and iMac deals are a bit harder to come by. Best Buy’s Black Friday ad claims you can save $200 on a brand-new Macbook Pro or an iMac, making them $900 each. However, to get an even better deal on an iMac, stop by the Computer Doctor at 50 Main Rd N in Hampden to check out our $650 21-inch iMac.
Our technician refurbished iMac in the store has similar specifications to the advertised Best Buy one– with 1 huge exception: our iMac has a blazing fast Solid State Hard Drive. In addition to the obvious computer speed difference, our iMac will also have a full 6-month warranty following the purchase and you can expect nothing but the best technical support from the Computer Doctor for the entire computer’s lifetime.
Call us at 862-7019 or stop by our store to get the best deal on computers this holiday season. Even receive 25% off any purchase if you mention this article before December 25!
You’re scrolling your Facebook feed and checking your email when you remember you left those cookies in the oven! You set your laptop down on the couch and run to the kitchen. Your trusty golden retriever follows you everywhere, so when you run off the couch, he follows! But his excitement moves your laptop just enough to slide off of the couch and land sideways on your hardwood floor.
Ouch!
It isn’t until you go back into the living room to gingerly inspect your laptop for damage. You open it up and see the devastation that has occurred– the display has lines everywhere in all different colors and keeps flickering, not to mention the crack that is spreading across the screen.
Does this sound similar to a situation you’ve been in? We understand how hard it is to look at your beloved laptop and see a shattered screen or a rainbow of colors that shouldn’t be there.
The Computer Doctor can help you! There are two highly skilled technicians in the shop that will remove the broken screenn right now and install a brand new one for you. The parts we use are the highest quality; this means your new screen won’t be flimsy and easy to break. It will be the same quality as the screen you received with your laptop originally or higher!
We often find ourselves fixing the mistakes of others. Many repair shops don’t have technicians that have the experience and training we have, so they are fixing devices without the skills required to do a competent repair. What ends up happening is that those devices develop problems after the repair, and often the screens they install can be of inferior quality and can easily crack. I don’t think there is anyone that would want that to happen after just getting their laptop repaired.
At the Computer Doctor, we specialize in all types of computer repairs. Computer Doctor is a full service repair center; we repair hardware and software ailments on all brands of PC’s as well as the full range of Apple products, from iMac’s to iPod’s. We have you covered!
We are located at 50 Main Road North in Hampden, Maine; across the street from the Circle K in the same building as Rivertown Family Eye Care. You can also call us anytime at (207) 862-7019.
Mention this article and receive an additional 5% off your screen replacement for any device until December 9, 2015!
The end is approaching for Windows XP… in 2014. The already decade-old operating system is still the main base for much of the world’s PCs, despite Micros...
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internet connection. All you need is a Gmail account, and family members can see who has added what. As soon as an item is purchased, it can be removed from the wish list so that no item is gifted twice. Although Google Sheets was designed to be more of a tool for school or business, it is surprisingly effective for use as a gift giving organizer.
your list can update an item to show you when it is purchased. If every member of your family signs up for a MyRegistry account, everybody gets what they want and nobody ends up with three of the same gifts. MyRegistry is probably the most comprehensive tool for organizing your gift giving, but it does not work unless everybody is on board.
