Category Archives: George Talks

Antivirus for Windows

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One of the questions I get asked quite often deals with which Antivirus to use for Windows 10. The fact that the market for paid antivirus software in Windows is so vast should lead you to one very important conclusion.  Antivirus software makes a lot of money for the developers.

So often you see articles describing how one antivirus software is so much better than anything else on the market. In fact, most of these articles are all just spam. Antivirus software has gotten to the point where I don’t believe it makes any sense to pay for it any longer. Microsoft includes antivirus software built into windows 10 that is actually quite good. Other antivirus software such as McAfee, and Norton can slow your machine down so much, particularly if it’s older, that you may not be able to effectively use the computer.

More than once, I have run into a situation where a user will subscribe to LifeLock and get the free included Norton antivirus installed on their machine only to find, their machine no longer functions well, runs very slowly, and continually pauses due to the high resource requirements from the Norton antivirus software. On the other hand, McAfee runs better, but McAfee’s incessant use of trickery to get it self installed on your computer, basically popping up messages telling you that your machine needs to be updated, just doesn’t sit very well with me.

So my recommendation is, uninstall all of this superfluous software, and let windows take over the task of managing your antivirus checking. Your machine will feel faster, it will be updated when windows updates, and many of the compatibility issues that you see with other antivirus programs will go away.

So resist the old idea that you need to pay for antivirus software. If any antivirus software comes preinstalled on your new computer, uninstall it immediately and use the Microsoft software that’s built-in.

So what about Malware Protection

Malware testing is one of those things that is also included in Microsoft software. But in this case I find that there is a better solution. I fully recommend Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes is a free software program that will test your machine for malware that’s been installed. This software does about the best job of any thing I’ve ever seen. While there is a paid version of it, the paid version difference is that it just runs automatically in the background. As long as you have the wherewithal to run it every couple of weeks to test your machine, I don’t recommend the need to pay for it.

If you’re looking for an Android phone here’s the one to buy

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As most of you know, I carry an iPhone. I like the simplicity and the consistency that Apple has put in to the iOS interface but I would be the first to tell you, being in the Apple universe is not for everyone. Many people don’t want to spend the money to purchase an Apple phone but still want a full feature device that gives them the ability to run apps and perform their normal work functions.

In today’s world, if you’re not Apple, your Google.  There are really just two choices when it comes to phone operating systems these days. Now that would be hard to tell if you went out to Best Buy and looked at phones. While Apple is the only maker of an iOS phone, google has a licensed the android operating system to many developers. If each of these developers had used the base Google operating system, the android phone universe would be the same as Apple‘s. All the android phones would look very similar, have the same apps, and operate the same way. But vendors of android phones tend to all believe that they can do it better. They think the operating system from Google is boring and they can put their touch and flair to applications, cloud functionality, and just the general look and feel.  When you walk into the Best Buy store and you look at android phones from Samsung, LG, Google, and others, you believe you’re looking at completely different devices. They work differently, they act differently, and more importantly, they look differently.

Some of these interface improvements that phone vendors make on the android side are in my opinion not improvements. Somethings are intended to push you into using their services, many of them at an extra cost.  One vendor in particular, Samsung, does a lot of advertising to make it look like their phones are much better than any other android phone. But the reality is all android phones run the same apps that you can download from the Google store just like you would download apps from Apple’s App Store.  

One other big reason that people look to android phones is cost. You can get an android phone at your carrier for just a few dollars a month or buy it outright for $150. Now obviously this isn’t the best phone in the world and in many ways it may be four-year-old technology but it will still make calls, get texts, and let you run many apps. So I tend to look at the choice of an android phone differently.  If you want the top-of-the-line feature phone for an android you can get that, from all of the manufactures. For most people the middle of the road, maybe even an upper middle device is really the one to choose.

I’ve taken a look at the phones that are available out there and in my opinion it’s an easy choice. If you’re going to run android, I truly believe you should run android and the only native android phones in the marketplace are made by the company that creates the android operating system, Google. Google has a series of feature pones  called the Pixel that are quite expensiveIn the, but they also have one phone model  it fits nicely in the upper middle with great features and reasonable price. That phone is the pixel 3a. 

The features of the Google Pixel 3a include:

  • 8MP Front Facing Camera
  • 12.2MP Dual-Pixel Rear Facing Camera
  • 32 Hours talk time
  • 13 Days standby time
  • 5.6″ FHD+ OLED
  • 2220 x 1080 pixels
  • Google Assistant
  • 3 Years of Security and OS Updates
  • Bluetooth 5.0

It has an extraordinary camera with features like Night Sight, Portrait Mode, and unlimited storage at high quality with Google Photos. Pixel 3a has a fast-charging Adaptive Battery that learns your favorite apps and reduces power to the ones you rarely use. When you need a little extra help, just ask your Google Assistant to help you find directions, answer questions, send texts, and more. Plus, ease your mind about keeping your data safe with the custom-built Titan M security chip and automatic security updates. It’s everything you love about Google–in a phone.

Best part about the Google pixel 3a is that it starts at $399. If you want large screen phone they also have a larger screen available at a higher price.

Now don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. There are many reasons that an iPhone in my opinion is just better than any of the android phones available. But if you’re looking for an android phone these days, take a close look at the Pixel 3a.  

Look folks, it’s just a scam!

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I have heard from a number of people this week that they have gotten calls, mostly on landline phone numbers, from someone reporting to be Apple  telling them that their computer was infected and their accounts with Apple were being discontinued. We’ve seen this happen before and like times before this is just a scam.

The interesting thing this time is those people with caller ID say, this time the Number calling is a local area code. Scammers these days are making it harder and harder to screen your calls.

Let me make a pretty bold statement. Apple, Microsoft, and Google will not call you on your phone to tell you you have a computer problem. They just don’t do that! Anytime you get a call to tell you there’s something wrong with your computer it is someone trying to scam money from you. You can count on this. Ignore those phone calls, Hang up the phone, or cuss the collar out if that makes you feel better but do not allow anyone to connect to your computer remotely unless you know who you’re talking to.

Likewise, if a screen pops up on your computer while your web browsing and tells you your machine is infected and you need to call a phone number, it is a scam. Again, someone is trying to get you to call them and allow them to infect your computer. Sometimes these pop-up screens are hard to get rid of, and often times require you to force quit your browser, but they are not real.

Even secure devices like iPads, iPhones, or chromebooks, are susceptible to this same type scam. These people are using a webpage pop up, many times coming from an ad on that webpage, to make you believe there’s a problem when there really isn’t.

All of these efforts, are called social engineering. Computers have become so secure that it’s very difficult for a nefarious person to get access to your computer on their own. It is much easier to do something that convinces you to infect your self. That’s what they’re trying to do. Don’t let them be successful.

If you are troubleshooting a problem, and you call Apple  or Dell for assistance, sometimes they will ask to connect your computer to look at what’s going on. The big difference here is you initiated the call to Them. It was at your choice and not as a result of some pop up message on your screen or a phone call coming into your home. In this case, it’s likely all right to allow them to connect but if you’re not sure you are much better off consulting with someone who can assist you locally rather than taking the risk.

And so it goes…