No WiFi? Personal hotspot to rescue
Most automobiles these days come with a mobile hotspot, allowing for everyone’s equipment to continue to be related to the world wide web at a expense ranging between $20 and $40 a month. But what if you have an more mature automobile?
A reader preferred to examine the newspaper on his iPad in the auto simply because he likes its even larger display. Due to the fact there’s no Wi-Fi in his older auto, he needed some way to join his iPad to the world wide web.
I instructed him to go to “Settings” on his Apple iphone, then “Cellular” and tap “Personal Hotspot” to change it on. Right after he did that, his iPad was equipped to share the iPhone’s cellular community. “Works excellent,” he explained.
To check out it on my Android phone, I went to “Settings,” then “Network & World wide web,” then “Hotspot and Tethering,” and tapped “Wi-Fi hotspot.” Then I toggled the swap to “on.” I produced a be aware of the hotspot title, “Pixel_1644,” tapped “password,” and wrote it down. Then, from my other products, all I experienced to do was select the Pixel_1644 as my network, sort in the password and voilà, I was sharing the mobile relationship with my cellular phone. With it, I browsed the website from two pcs, two tablets and an Apple iphone. I could have been alone in a forest alternatively of at residence with the router turned off.
However, the hotspot characteristic is not out there on each and every cellphone company program. For example, when a close friend tried using it, he bought a information that Tracfone doesn’t protect details sharing on his approach. My Tracfone system is the same rate as his, $130 a 12 months, but it labored good. Alternatively, you could obtain a devoted cellular hotspot and get a support plan for it, starting up at close to $10 a month.
Surviving a power outage
A reader mentioned an vehicle accident ruined or wrecked a major transformer, triggering the energy to go out. “Do you have any plan how huge a backup unit would be essential to electricity our Dish receiver and tv?” he requested.
Most TVs are 117 watts and the highest-rated satellite dish is 28 watts. Include them together and you get 145 watts. The Allwei Portable Electric power Station, $186 on Amazon, has 280 watt hours and gets excellent opinions. With that, the reader’s Television and Dish receiver could be driven for virtually two several hours, extended more than enough for him to observe his beloved display. For a lot more data on watt usage, look up “Power Use of House Appliances,” from Generatorist.com. It lists all the things from air fryers to Xboxes.
Gasoline-powered turbines run for six to 12 several hours, but you just can’t operate them inside of except you want to be asphyxiated. They are for camping.
Who’s monitoring you
The most recent variation of the Vivaldi internet browser is pure genius when it comes to blocking trackers and ads. Blocking them cuts through the clutter of a web site to make it load immediately.
When a buddy examined it for a month, it routinely blocked more than 8,000 trackers and over 5,000 adverts, primarily information web pages. In my check, “Auto and Driver” is briefly at the leading of the tracking checklist. Google does not demonstrate up simply because its tracking depends on concealed options that Vivaldi quickly blocks. No increase-ins needed.
Vivaldi also has amazing customization. For example, when I conserve recipes to my reading listing, I can sort them by title and other requirements. The side panel is comprehensive of gems like that, in addition to hyperlinks to your downloads, your lookup historical past, your calendar, and additional. But the additional the merrier. In addition to Vivaldi, I’m making use of 6 other browsers, which includes Chrome.
Iphone shortcuts
I’m generally emailing: “Thank you for your type observe.” Now I can form “tykn” and my Apple iphone will publish it out for me.
That is an example of the iPhone’s “text replacement” attribute. Even if you never insert any shortcuts of your very own, the Iphone starts off you out with a single. Sort “omw” in a text or somewhere and it will modify to “on my way.”
To insert your very own shortcuts, go to “Settings.” Under “General,” find “Keyboard,” then “text replacement.” Faucet the moreover indication, and sort the phrase you want. Then variety your shortcut and “save.” I additional “See you afterwards,” so when I style “syl,” the Iphone fills in the whole sentence.
Outsmarting the repair service shop
A reader instructed me how he thwarted the community fix shop. They needed to promote him a new pc. He insisted his previous Gateway could be repaired.
It begun with an mistake information indicating that the admirer no longer worked. “The restore man informed me he couldn’t repair it thanks to its age and parts scarcity,” the reader wrote. “But he could promote me yet another laptop or computer. So I went house and obtained the make, model and serial range, and appeared for it on eBay.” He located it for $18. “I’m not proficient to do the repair myself,” he claimed, “and do not have the suitable instruments for the task.
So, if an outdated dude requires an aged laptop set by this shop — the only a single I can get to in the area — he is a ‘blowed-up sucker’ who can quickly be sold a computer system when the store does not want to do the mend. Even when the aspect wanted is identified and accessible at a sensible cost,” he extra.
What happened following? “When they’ve acquired you in a bind, they know it. Me? I place a 6-inch supporter future to the cooling vents on the tower and turned it on. Cools the tower and they can go to blazes!”
