Newsletter Archives

• How to tell whether a fintech app such as Chime is a scam

  Posted on July 19th, 2021 at 02:44 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  We’ve recently seen an explosion of activity in the field of fintech — financial technology — which is causing ripples in the old-school world of banking and Wall Street.

  The most-downloaded fintech app in the first six months of 2021, according to data firm Apptopia, belonged to Chime Financial, Inc., a seven-year-old, San Francisco–based unicorn that’s a darling of Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.27.0 (2021-07-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Banking, Fintech, security

• Windows 11 says good-bye to these familiar features

  Posted on July 19th, 2021 at 02:43 Lance Whitney Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Lance Whitney

  Windows 11 jettisons a bunch of items from Windows 10. But which losses will cause the most pain among loyal Windows users?

  To paraphrase a famous biblical quote, “Microsoft giveth, and Microsoft taketh away.” And that’s certainly true with Windows 11. With this new version of Windows, the folks in Redmond have added a range of features including a new visual design, a new Start menu, a widgets pane, and a revamped Microsoft Store, as well as upcoming integration with Microsoft Teams and support for Android apps.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.27.0 (2021-07-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Windows 11 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Windows 10, Windows 11

• Window 10 Home vs. Pro: A real-life test drive

  Posted on July 19th, 2021 at 02:42 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  An upgrade from Home to Pro edition costs around US$100, but is it really worth it?

  What does Pro edition offer that Home lacks? What does a Pro edition user give up in switching to Home? And, besides price and somewhat differing features, do the dissimilarities really matter in normal day-to-day Windows operation?

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.27.0 (2021-07-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Windows 10 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Windows 10, Windows Editions

• Sliding over to LibreOffice — or not

  Posted on July 19th, 2021 at 02:41 Sandra Henry-Stocker Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PRODUCTIVITY

  

  By Sandra Henry-Stocker

  LibreOffice is a great replacement for Microsoft Office.

  It provides a very similar set of applications. All are top-quality, easy to use, versatile, and well supported. This includes tools to create documents, spreadsheets, slide shows, databases, drawings, etc. LibreOffice and MS Office are similar enough that you’re likely to get off to a fast start when you first use any of the apps. LibreOffice is also completely free — no initial price tag and no monthly fees.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.27.0 (2021-07-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Office, Productivity AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LibreOffice, Office, OpenOffice, Productivity

• Microsoft Edge imports other browsers’ passwords

  Posted on July 12th, 2021 at 02:45 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.26 • 2021-07-12

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  When some readers installed the new Microsoft Edge browser — which replaces the old “legacy Edge” — they got a big surprise. They discovered that Edge had somehow magically absorbed all the usernames and passwords they’d carefully saved in their previously installed browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and legacy Edge.

  What’s even more surprising is that Edge — which until recently couldn’t import or export passwords at all — may be doing this new behavior by design.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.26.0 (2021-07-12).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.26.F (2021-07-12).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Edge, privacy, security

• Yikes! Still more subscriber OneDrive problems, solutions!

  Posted on July 12th, 2021 at 02:44 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  As our extensive OneDrive coverage winds down, many excellent reader-submitted reports continue to pour in, filled with interesting tips, questions, and observations!

  Today’s column deals with several OneDrive topics: unexpected behavior from the OneDrive status-indicator icons; issues between and among OneDrive, Dropbox, and OEM updater apps; and more on redirecting or moving OneDrive’s default local folders.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.26.0 (2021-07-12).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, OneDrive

• Freeware Spotlight — Three free tools to check Windows 11 compatibility

  Posted on July 12th, 2021 at 02:42 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  It’s a confusing time as Windows 11 approaches.

  With Microsoft releasing new (sometimes conflicting) information about Windows 11 daily (sometimes hourly), the exhausted developers of the three free tools I am featuring have been playing catch-up for a few weeks now. I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve updated them on OlderGeeks.com just within the past week.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.26.0 (2021-07-12).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, security, Windows 11

• MS-DEFCON 2 – To patch or not to patch

  Posted on July 12th, 2021 at 02:41 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Out of band for Print Nightmare

  Microsoft dropped an “out of band” patch for a zero-day vulnerability. Named “Print Nightmare” by the media, the vulnerability presents the most risk for Domain controllers in Active Directory domains. If you are an IT consultant or managed-service provider — and aren’t already dealing with ransomware due to the MSP tool Kaseya having been turned into a ransomware dropper for some clients — action is called for.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.26.0 (2021-07-12).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Windows 11

• SPECIAL EDITION: OneDrive

  Posted on July 5th, 2021 at 02:45 Will Fastie Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.25 • 2021-07-05

  ONEDRIVE

  

  By Will Fastie

  Our writers have the week off.

  No rest for the editor, though. We decided to publish an issue for you anyway.

  It turns out that our series on OneDrive got longer than we expected, with more to come. Almost immediately after Lance Whitney’s kickoff article, Fred Langa was deluged with questions about Microsoft’s complicated service. He delved into the dark corners of OneDrive and turned on the lights.

  For this special issue, we decided to republish Lance’s intro and six of Fred’s LangaList columns. They are all here, in this special edition of the AskWoody Plus newsletter.

  Read all the articles in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.25.0 (2021-07-05).
  Read all the articles in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.25.F (2021-07-05).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter AskWoody Plus Newsletter, OneDrive

• Windows 11 announced

  Posted on June 28th, 2021 at 02:45 Will Fastie Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.24 • 2021-06-28

  Watch for our special issue on July 5!

  MICROSOFT NEWS

  

  By Will Fastie

  Why this? Why now? And what the heck is going on?

  On June 24, 2021, Microsoft announced Windows 11. I have no idea why. It is surely not for the cobbled-together reasons the company gave during its rather brief briefing on Thursday.

  Visit our new Windows 11 section in the forums and these topics: Questions about Windows 11 Hardware questions relating to Windows 11

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.24.0 (2021-06-28).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.24.F (2021-06-28).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft News, Windows 11, Windows News AskWoody Plus Newsletter, security, Windows, Windows 11

• You can be like Muhammad Ali – or Alibaba

  Posted on June 28th, 2021 at 02:44 Max Stul Oppenheimer Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  What do you think of when you hear “Ali?”

  Muhammad Ali Enterprises wants to be sure that you think of them and the great boxer — and the fine line of ring tones, computer games, sunglasses, and other products they plan to sell under that name.

  Alibaba Group is concerned that this will confuse their billion or so customers and has taken issue — several hundred pages’ worth — with the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s decision to allow Muhammad Ali Enterprises to register the trademark “Ali.” Whoever wins, it’s going to be expensive.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.24.0 (2021-06-28).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Legal AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Legal Brief, Trademark

• Have a smart home? A company may change your thermostat.

  Posted on June 28th, 2021 at 02:43 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ---

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  You may be surprised to learn that installing “smart home” devices could mean that a private company can turn your thermostat up and down — no matter what setting you thought you had entered.

  As parts of the US swelter in a heat wave — Houston hit a blistering 95°F (35°C) on June 19 — area residents reported to local station KHOU-TV that energy companies had remotely raised their thermostats from 74°F to 78°F without their knowledge.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.24.0 (2021-06-28).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Electricity, Public Defender, Public Utilities, Smart home
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