Oh, to be young and using technology!

We had a great two weeks with our granddaughters!  Lots of outdoor time as well as fun indoor activities.  Their parents limit the girls' time with TV and also their iPads so anytime they get to be on is a real treat for them (watching downloaded Netflix shows makes a non-stop 2-hour plane ride to Baltimore a breeze!)  

It was fascinating for me to watch the girls use technology.  The girls and I did some online browsing and shopping since our local venues are limited. Our 5-year-old and I were looking at "school shoes" on my computer on Amazon and I had to step away for just a minute.  I returned to the room to find she had ordered one pair of shoes and was ready to order a second pair (a pop-up on Amazon alerted that it was going to be a duplicate purchase and did I really want to do that).  :-/  No, our 5-year-old does not read but  had put the item in the shopping cart, tapped on all the right buttons, and proceeded to complete the order! Fortunately, Amazon allows orders to be canceled so I, of course, did that, as my granddaughter proudly beamed at me because of her success!

I wish we adults found things to be as intuitive in technology as our granddaughters do!

One last thing - the real tech tip today is for those of you who own an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.  The updates for each of those devices released on Monday do need to be installed as soon as possible.  They mainly contain security patches.  Although I have my devices all set to install updates automatically that had not happened as of this morning so I manually installed the updates.

Have a terrific Tech Tip Tuesday .....on Wednesday! Try to stay in, keep cool, and do those updates on your devices.

Tired Grandma

After spending a week in Pennsylvania, we brought our two granddaughters, ages 5 and 9, home with us a week ago for Camp Harc 2021.  Lots of fun kid activities for two weeks = one grandma with no time to spend writing on Tech Tip Tuesday. I'll make a round trip to Baltimore on Monday to take the girls home, so, maybe next week's Tuesday Tech Tip will be written on my flight home.  :-)

Have a great week!

Facebook and Two Factor Authentication

Have you ever received a Facebook friend request from someone who is already your friend?  Or have you received an inappropriate link from someone who is a friend? Solving the problem can be frustrating and time-consuming if it is your account that is the one sending out these messages. 

Here are several things to know and do to help protect your Facebook account:

1)  When friends begin telling you they received another friend request from you, look for a duplicate Facebook account that someone has created using your information.  Your account has not been hacked but has been cloned using information gleaned from your "real" account.  If you or your friends can locate that account, report it to Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/help/306643639690823/

2)  If you believe your account has been hacked (someone has figured out your username and password) rather than cloned, change your password the minute you become aware of the problem.

3)  Consider turning on two-factor authentication for your Facebook account.  This adds an extra layer of of security; it is not foolproof but does make it more difficult for someone (a hacker) to access your Facebook account,  The process is clearly explained in this video, and although the example is demonstrated on a computer, two-factor authentication can also be set up using your mobile device.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWcOzk6-VTg

Using online technology requires responsibility on our part to keep our personal information as secure as we can. Learning all we can about ways to stay safe can be time-consuming but are well worth the effort and time.

8 Settings to Never Change on Your iPhone

Today's tip is solely for iPhone users.  Oftentimes, we learn of Settings we should change on our phones to enhance our using experience.  But today's tip is about 8 Settings to NEVER change on your phone. 

If you are having problems with your iPhone, before heading to the Apple Store take a quick look at today's video to make sure these settings haven't been changed on your phone.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkMroklZYpg  

If you are an iPhone user, you may want to subscribe to today's YouTube channel; they have some great videos!  Thank you, Marilyn Buchele, for sharing this with me.  :-)

Have a great Tech Tip Tuesday wherever you live or may be traveling today!