Page 12 - 2011

Refreshing Old Computers, Unwanted WiFi Alerts, iPhone Sceurity
By Bob DeLaurentis
Q. I have several old computers in my garage
that are just tak-ing up space. Before I send
to the recycler, I wonder if there is anything useful I
could do with them.
A. Working from home and remote learning has
increased the demand for computers everywhere.
As I have noted before, the fate of old hardware is
that it often stops being useful long before it stops
operating. Fortunately, there is a whole cottage in-
dustry of developers who try to breathe new life into
old hardware.
Try converting that old computer into a Chrome-
Book (laptop) or ChromeBox (desktop). Chrome is
best known as Google's Web browser. Chrome OS
a completely different product however, one that
supports Google's vision of cloud computing.
Besides flexibility and low cost, computers that rely
on Chrome OS need only simple hardware because
nearly everything important happens on the net-
work. you store your files on Google Drive, and
the hardware suddenly stops working, your files re-
main safe in the cloud.
Neverware (neverware.com) offers a free version of
CloudReady, based on Chrome OS. CloudReady is
certified to run on a number of popular hard-ware
models, and it is possible to use it successfully on a
wide variety of uncertified computers by testing
them yourself.
Once successfully installed, a Chrome OS com-
puter is useful device these days. Consider donat-
ing it to a charity that will help find it a new home.
Q. My phone began showing me a list of Wi-Fi net-
works a week after I shared my phone number with
a neigh-bor. I did not change anything on the
phone, but why would this happen only after giving
out my number?
I believe that the Wi-Fi list appearing is a coin- most if it were suddenly gone?
cidence. Considering how the phone works internal-
ly, there is no subsystem that connects those two
behaviors.
The most common reason that a phone displays a
list of Wi-Fi base sta-tions is because it has lost its
connec-tion to the Internet. That can happen for at
least a dozen different reasons beyond your control.
Like so many aspects of trou-bleshooting, it is prob- altimeter to get a sense of the landscape. If the
ably easiest to fix the unwanted behavior directly,
rather than try to track down the initial cause.
November 2020 12
All smartphones have some sort of Wi-Fi settings
screen. There are differ-ences between models and
software versions, but essentially you want to tell
the phone which network it should join.
There should also be a setting for
what to do if the regular network is unavailable, such
as to ask for a differ-ent network, join the nearest
open net-work automatically, or remain silent. Get-
ting these settings correct should stop the list from
appearing.
Q. Why should I update my iPhone's operating sys-
tem every time it asks?
A. Keeping your software up to date is the first line
of defense for maintain-ing your privacy and keeping
your per-sonal information secure.
This fall's iOS 14 update, which should already be
available when you read this (or shortly thereafter),
has a large number of improvements related to pri-
vacy. I have been using a test ver-sion for several
months, and here are several of my favorite new
capabili-ties.
It is now possible to share only your approximate
location, so your weather app no longer needs to
know your home address, just the city you live in.
When you give an app permission to access your
photos, it does not get unrestricted access to every
photo in your library. The update also adds a few
useful alerts, such as the trackers on a web page,
the camera status, and if an app quietly peeks at
your clip-board.
That is not all, there are more safe-guards that in-
hibit user tracking which are less visible but just as
important. Taken together, iOS 14 is one of the most
privacy-focused updates in years.
Q. What is the one tech gadget you would miss the
A. Of all the gadgets I own, the one I use most of-
ten in my daily life is the Apple Watch. Here are the
highlights: I use the watch to play music and pod-
casts. At most stores I pay- without touching any-
thing by waving my wrist above the card reader. The
watch maps my daily walks and measures the dis-
tance I travel. When walking, I use the compass and
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