I sometimes get asked to recommend a computer, which I don’t generally do. I tend toward specs more than brand names. Carol has always liked Dell computers, my boss at Ghost Ranch liked Lenovo. As I’ve said before, I bought the motherboard for my current computer at Goodwill for $10, so I clearly am not that picky.

Any big name computer manufacturer will have both high and low end computers, except for Apple, which only has high end computers. I’m not an Apple lover, mind you, but to do a fair comparison requires a high end PC with just about any Apple computer. That said, you won’t be buying a new Apple desktop for $300.

I do like Apple products, so that should definitely be on the board when considering a new computer. I just don’t prefer any particular manufacturer. So, what I generally suggest in this day and age is to buy the most computer you can afford, particularly the most processor. Desktops are generally upgradable where laptops may or may not be. Buy a solid state drive; I much prefer having a 256Gb SSD over a 1000Gb mechanical. I won’t use a terabyte of data, so bigger isn’t better, but an SSD is noticeably faster.

Apple has the new M1 processor, which sounds like it’s a better choice than Intel, though there may be some sales now on Intel Apples. AMD seems to have taken the lead over Intel too, so do a bit of homework and compare the processors you are considering. I suggest AMD Ryzen 5000 series, but Intel is fine too, preferable a Core i7 or i9. Don’t go less than 8Gb of ram.  

That’s about it for me, but I did find a good review from RollingStone Magazine that’s worth perusing HERE that talks about their faves.
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Last week I was writing about computers I liked and I mentioned the Mac Mini M1. I found a Linus review today that was really interesting, about that very computer. If you like Macs, or are thinking about a new Mac, or are considering switching from a PC or expanding that world, the M1 may be just the ticket. A link for the review is HERE.

 
PC Memory
 
Memory on a PC is the work space. Storage, or the hard drive, is exactly that, storage. They are really completely different (sort of), and you generally don’t interchange the terms, as they are two very different things. A great way to speed up a slow computer is to add memory. That will only get you so far, but in terms of price/performance, it’s the easiest and cheapest place to start if your computer will take more memory.
 
A video about memory is HERE.
It’s by Linus again, a guy I do like, and appreciate his humor. It is usually pretty easy to upgrade memory, but there are some things to be careful about, like if you can upgrade, how many slots do you have to put memory in, and if you can add to, or have to replace the existing memory. Of course, you have to buy the right memory for your computer, and that’s not always obvious.
 
Storage
 
The “hard drive” isn’t always a hard drive. I always refer to it as such, but it may be an SSD in the shape of a hard drive and interchangeable, or, it may be one of several kinds of storage cards that fits into its own slot. Sometimes they are quite small and look like some of the other components on the motherboard. I recently worked on a laptop and it had an empty slot for a hard drive. I kept looking and finally found a small one inch square “chip” that was the storage, or “hard drive”. I was quite impressed. At any rate, if your computer is still using an older mechanical hard drive, consider buying an SSD drive and cloning your old drive onto it. It’s relatively painless and it really makes a noticeable difference in responsiveness. A 500Gb drive costs about $60 these days.
 

Keyboard shortcuts are often neglected but are a real help getting things done. Usualy my perspective is on PCs, and Macs are mostly the same, but use the Mac Command key instead of the PC Control key.

I’m including a list for Mac computers HERE. Six pages of them, so study up.

A list of PC shortcuts is HERE.

Just a reminder, a shortcut, like copy and paste on a PC is Ctl + C, Ctl + V. Cut would be Ctl + X. Do the same on a Mac but use Cmd instead of Ctl.

If you are relatively new to a Mac, then a list for things to know is HERE.  There’s a bit of silly fandom included, honestly, if you prefer a Mac to PC that’s fine, but suggesting one system is better because of iCloud is just silly. The Microsoft world has OneDrive, which brings every bit of that world together, same as iCloud. Macs are prettier though, there is no escaping that. It is inexcusable these days that the vast majority of PC manufacturers fail to hire designers, although, that may be because they all work for Apple.

For a PC, there is a list that’s pretty vast HERE.   You can no doubt find something in it that is useful.

Hopefully you got a new computer for Christmas, and you’ll be wanting to give me your old one. I have to say, the Mac Mini M1 really has my attention with price and performance. And if you are daring, there’s a brand called Chuwi that’s caught my eye. A link to a mini PC is HERE.
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Whatever you do, remember to take a break from your devices, they will make you crazy. And as Lou Reed says, Don’t believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see.

I wrote about Windows 10 and the need to upgrade. Supposedly, it’s still possible to download the upgrade tool and do it for free, though I haven’t tried that yet. There was an article recently that suggested Microsoft was changing some items in Windows 10 so that some applications would not be available to non-activated versions. I don’t know if that will matter, or if it will happen, but if it became a problem, obtaining a license could become necessary.

As I swapped out the motherboard on my computer, it deactivated my Win 10, and the phone process didn’t allow reactivation. I didn’t feel like pursuing it any further, so I am running a non-activated version, even though it used to be activated.

If you wanted to activate your non-activated copy, you could buy the correct license for the version you are running. There are 3rd part sellers of license keys that are quite a bit cheaper. I did have someone tell me they bought a $30 key and used it, but I don’t remember who that was. An article on the MS change is HERE.

An article on whether to activate or not is HERE.

And some 3rd party places selling keys are HERE and HERE.

I have never used these, so I am not endorsing it or suggesting you do this, just being informative. I am NOT doing anything at this moment.

Most people I know are using smartphones. I do know several people though that are using flip phones. While I would hate to be without my smartphone, I get that some folks just don’t want that.

3G was a phone technology introduced nearly 20 years ago. 4G followed suit, and just recently 5G has been introduced. I know 5G has had quite a bit of controversy, and its share of conspiracy theories, however, it’s here and being used, though it’s not fully implemented everywhere.

Whether 5G will take over the internet remains to be seen, it will undoubtedly be an adjunct to it, especially in the beginning. It promises superfast speeds, and superior coverage. But then, I live in Abiquiu, so it may take a bit more time.

If you are interested, an article on the end of 3G can be found HERE.

It’s likely that even your flip phone can do 4G. And hopefully, 4G is to be found where you live. I have a Samsung/Verizon range extender in my house that gives us a Verizon bubble here, but it’s a 3G bubble. Since it then feeds it into the internet, I am assuming it will still work next year, as it really isn’t feeding 3G to Verizon, but we’ll see. In any case, I can use WiFi calling which will functionally perform the same thing as the range extender.

To turn on WiFi calling, it usually is just a system setup toggle. A Verizon How-to is HERE.

Current smartphones can do WiFi calling which means they use an internet connection to call, instead of a cellular connection. Those are 2 different things but they do have some overlap sometimes. If that’s confusing, don’t worry about it, just try it out. Calling on WiFi doesn’t use minutes, just like doing searches on your phone while on WiFi doesn’t use data. Making a phone call on cellular DOES use minutes, and doing searches on cellular uses your data plan.
If you aren’t connected to WiFi, then whatever you do on your phone is using cellular.