Confirming Your Data is Safe (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cloud) | |
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As any Apple user can attest to, our friends in Cupertino certainly aren’t shy when it comes into hectoring us into using its cloud service, iCloud. A lot of users try to avoid it, but that’s about effective as emptying a swimming pool with a teacup. Even if you don’t use its features, most people, even the most tech-suspicious ones, eventually pull out the white flag and surrender to Tim Cook & Co.
It's important to remember that iCloud is a SERVICE – a service that has a free option and a paid tier. In short, it allows you to sync data between your Apple (and even non-Apple) devices. That data includes photos, contacts, calendars, notes, email (if you use an @icloud account), and your data and files, along with a few other items.
But why is this service vital? Find out here!
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Start Making Sense: Hiding Those Annoying AI Suggestions | |
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Are you sick to death of all the intrusive "AI Suggestions" that pollute the top of your search? Sure, there's a way to eliminate them, provided you do a couple of things.
Let's stick with Google Chrome for this one. It's important to differentiate between the product (the Google Chrome browser) and the service (Google Search service). By default, web searches using Chrome also use Google Search.
First of all, it seems (in my testing, anyway) that using Chrome "signed out" produces less AI suggestions than the same search when signed in. But - that's annoying to sign in and sign out when you want to avoid the AI Suggestions at the top of your search page.
Solution: A Chrome extension called "Hide Google AI Overviews."
Installation is easy: Open Chrome, navigate to this link and click the ADD TO CHROME button.
Yes, there is a version for Firefox. Safari seems a little more problematic! (See below)
Alternate fix: Follow your search with "-ai" - doing that will tell your browser you don't want to see any AI stuff!
* Sorry Safari users! Google and Apple don't always place nicely together.
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February's Quick Tip:
Dust Never Sleeps
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Nobody likes dust – whether it’s the Dust Bowl, a dust storm, or the bunnies that accumulate under immovable furniture. We all strive to keep our homes and workspaces clean, but dust, like death and taxes, is unavoidable. While there are many products (with varying degrees of success) that attempt to keep dust at a minimum, it always comes back to haunt us. Electronics, particularly computers, are prone to dust, as many have internal fans that tend to accumulate it, not to mention the dust that builds up on the surface of your keyboard, mouse, and other components.
A mild cleaner and a soft cloth is the best way to clean electronics. Generally, it’s not a good idea to spray any type of cleaner directly on the device; instead, spray it on the cloth (not too much!) and gently clean it. For cleaning those pesky surfaces like keyboards and vents/speakers/ports on the computer, a can of compressed air is what you should use. It works well for those crumbs that lodge next to your keyboard keys but not eating at your work desk also helps. I don’t.
🔥 Hot tip: If you DO have dust buildup in your computer, take it outside before using the compressed air.
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Warning - Grift of the Month:
Beware, eBay Sellers!
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All online platforms are rife with grifters and bad actors, and eBay is no exception. Starting back in the wild west days of eBay (think 1997), it’s been a place where there has been some crooked people who take advantage of others.
As the platform progressed, more and more guardrails were instituted, making a safer and more seamless program as it matured. However, the bad guys are always coming up with new and innovative ways to hack the system.
The latest one – which I was hit with twice (but didn’t fall for) was for an expensive item I was selling. These crooks “watch” the auction (a process that eBay allows users to do), and right when the sale end, they send a “message” to you, pretending that they won the item, and to ship it to an alternate address, not the address that the buyer has registered with eBay. In both instances, it was an address in Delaware, a warehouse that leases space to exporters (among others), so they can ship their ill-gotten booty overseas.
📖 Moral of the story: Only ship to the winning bidder’s registered address. And require a signature confirmation if it’s an expensive (>$100) item.
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Happenings in the Apple and tech world that will no doubt impact you!
🚘 Paradox by the dashboard lights: Even though Apple's Next Generation CarPlay was announced at WWDC 2022, it's still not available with any auto maker's cars as of publication date. One of the problems is that each automaker has to have its own contract to be integreated with this Apple service. Read here.
📱 Into the abyss! iOS 18.3 has launched earlier this week - one which gives users more Apple Intelligence features and some behind-the-scenes security updates. The one big change is that iPhone owners are no longer required to "opt in" to use Apple Intelligence, as was previously required. But you can still opt out. Read about it here.
👋🏻 Make sure you read the EULA (end-user license agreement) closely if you're using the FaceApp app, available in the App Store. Sure, it's teeming with tons of legal boilerplate nonsense, but check out this story about privacy of user data on company servers.
⃠ Beware the company that goes out of business and sells its URL to another. A music retailer that I've used in the past, CD Universe, has sold its domain to another company. If you're looking to buy CDs or DVDs, don't go there, because during my New Year's update of my online accounts/passwords, I discovered it's a different type of company now. Totally NSFW!
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Those were the days: $3398 for a 10 MB hard disk - what a deal! | |
Nine (hopefully) interesting, fun and/or useful links for February 2025! | |
Where are They Now? Links to My Past Six Newsletters! | |
🏃🏻♂️ This month's background picture: 5K race, East Haven, CT January 5, 2025 | | |
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Like what you're seeing here? (Or not?) Learning something new, or simply being entertained? Want to see more (or less) things here? Then send me your thoughts - the good, bad, and the ugly.
Also - I'm looking to expand my newsletter to new users - so, if you have any friends, family members, business associates, or anybody who might benefit from this gem delivered in your inbox on the first of every month, let me know.
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Chris Capelle
Macintosh Computer &
Apple Products Expert
P.O. Box 7512
Wilton, CT 06897
203.451.1377 (cell/text)
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Don't forget to follow me on the socials! | | | | |
