Blog Archives

• Tech insights from relocating home and office

  Posted on July 5th, 2020 at 02:45 Jamie Comment on the AskWoody Lounge
  

  LANGALIST — SPECIAL EDITION

  Tech insights from relocating home and office

  

  By Fred Langa

  We Langas are midway through a major relocation. Here are a few things I’ve learned from tearing down, moving, and rebuilding my office and home computer setups.

  Among them: another reason to love solid-state drives, and 5G is for real.

  Moving home and office is never fun …

  … but it can let you see some things in a new light.

  We just relocated home and office 48 hours ago and are still awash in boxes. I’m sitting here in a straight-backed dining-room chair, waiting for the Verizon tech to arrive to get us back online with a dedicated private connection, and typing this column in Gmail on my underpowered, emergency-use-only Chromebook because I haven’t yet found the box my Win10/Office laptop is in, and my standing desk and office chair are buried in unpacked stuff. Yikes!

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.26.0 (2020-07-06).

  5G, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Fred Langa

• Buying a refurbished computer can save you money

  Posted on July 5th, 2020 at 02:00 Jamie Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  HARDWARE

  What to look for in a new-but-old computer

  You have to look closely at the offerings, and they aren’t ideal for every use case, but refurbished machines can be the way to go.

  By Susan Bradley

  Unless we have a specific need for an overpowered gaming computer, most of us can get along just fine with a machine that is a few years old. But one thing we should always look for is ample hard-drive space.

  A recent article from Ars Technica showcases what I’ve said for years: never purchase a laptop that has a super-small hard drive; you will immediately and forever regret the decision and fight with that small hard drive for the rest of the time you have it. For example, when I want to upgrade my 32GB ASUS laptop, I have to attach an external USB hard drive. It will still not do a proper feature-release install without it.

  But you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for a decent computer. Machines that the vendors call “refurbished” can be perfectly fine for what you and I do on a regular basis. Furthermore, if you don’t mind a bulky machine, you can get what I consider to be a bargain with an old-fashioned desktop computer.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.26.0 (2020-07-06).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware, Small Business Computing, Windows 10 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Refurbished Equipment

• Helpful items for working during the pandemic

  Posted on June 8th, 2020 at 01:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST HARDWARE

  By Michael Lasky

  In one way or another, we’ve all been touched by the COVID-19 event. This crisis has truly transformed how we work, play, travel, and shop.

  All things considered, it’s not surprising that hardware and software vendors see the pandemic as a huge opportunity for selling us work-at-home merchandise that will purportedly enhance our safety and productivity. Some of those items are actually useful!

  Here are three such products that I put to the test. Not only did they accomplish their professed raison d’être, each will remain part of my post-COVID-19 life.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.22.0 (2020-06-08).

  Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Eye fatique, No-touch key, Power strip

• Terabyte update: The hard-drive price advantage

  Posted on June 1st, 2020 at 01:15 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge
  

  HARDWARE

  By Will Fastie

  Solid-state drives (SSDs) have rapidly become the drive of choice for all types of devices, with smartphones and tablets leading the way.

  Today’s laptops commonly include an SSD, and an increasing number of desktop PCs are configured with a smallish boot SSD and a larger spinning-platter, hard-disk drive (HDD) for long-term data storage. Given the ongoing changes in storage technology and cost, there’s little doubt that solid-state memory will someday replace mechanical rotating disks. The only question is when?

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.21.0 (2020-06-01).

  Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hard-drive pricing, Hybrid drives, Solid-state drives, SSDs

• LangaList: “What will happen if I don’t replace immediately a swollen lithium ion battery?”

  Posted on May 21st, 2020 at 07:40 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Fred has a video to show you what’s at stake.

  New on Langa.com.

  Hardware Fred Langa, LangaList

• The new Surfaces arrive

  Posted on May 6th, 2020 at 15:36 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Would you buy a used operating system from this man?

  Today, we introduce the newest members of the @Surface family. Each one of these products made to adapt to you so you can stay in your flow, work, learn, and have fun, from anywhere. Check out the blog to learn more: https://t.co/IEuOOnWiRp pic.twitter.com/fziyTusNJl

  — Panos Panay (@panos_panay) May 6, 2020

  Have to admit that his daughter’s “impromptu” appearance was well orchestrated.

  Seriously, Panay is a remarkable salesman and gifted presenter. He’s also in charge of Windows. And he’s peddling some really cheap hardware:

  Surface Go 2 starting at $399 (Pentium 4425Y, 4 GB RAM – see Patch Lady’s admonishment below – 64 GB, just barely run Windows 10 Home in S Mode, doesn’t include a keyboard)

  Surface Book 3 starting at $1599 (13.5-inch, Core i5, 8 GB, 256 GB, Win10 Home)

  Surface Headphones 2 $249

  Surface Earbuds $199

  Surface Dock 2 costs $140 less than the Go 2. For a dock.

  Of course, I wouldn’t buy a Surface product if MS paid me, but that’s just because I’ve seen the way they treat customers. Your results certainly will vary.

  We’ll have more on the products he’s pushing as the reviews come in.

  Hardware, Surface Surface Book 3, Surface Go 2

• Fresh reports of HP PC shortages

  Posted on March 9th, 2020 at 15:28 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Just got a message from a reader:

  I wanted to report to you something that may pique your interest. I was tasked with ordering computers (HP) and I am finding out due to the Coronavirus coupled with Intel chip shortages that [it’s difficult to find HP] computers… to replace old Windows 7/Vista, yes Vista, machines.

  I did a search on many sites and stock is low and even Amazon and Google are struggling to find pcs that would fit the needs (I’m aiming at 16gb of ram, I5 processors at minimum).

  Are you encountering any problems getting new computers? There have been reports and rumors of chip shortages cascading into PC shortages, but I haven’t seen anything specifically about i5-level processors with 16 GB of RAM.

  Hardware HP shortages

• How to manage your router – Part II

  Posted on January 13th, 2020 at 01:15 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  

  NETWORKING

  By Lance Whitney

  Your router holds the keys to your local network. Here’s how to use some of its advanced settings.

  In Part I of this two-part series, I covered the basics of router management: changing router and Wi-Fi credentials, guest networks, parental controls, and blocking devices. If you missed it, head over to the 2020-01-06 AskWoody Plus issue.

  The basic settings add some security and protection, but if you want to kick that up to a higher gear, you’ll need to dive into the more advanced options. In Part II, we’ll cover topics such as changing DNS servers, running a speed test, blocking specific sites, setting up MAC-address control, viewing logs, and updating your firmware.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.2.0 (2020-01-13).

  Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, DNS servers, MAC filtering, Networking, Router settings, Site blocking
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