LXPERT NEWS AND TIPS

A newspaper feature editorial titled "Change your life for the better by gaining the digital skills you need" published by the East Anglian Daily Times on 12^th June 2017.

Ransomware is a type of computer viruses that hijacks your files and threatens to delete your files unless you pay a ransom. In May 2017, it striked again. The latest variant is WannaCry. It has affected computers in 150 countries and in the UK, it has greatly affected the National Health Service (NHS) as mentioned on the BBC news. So how can you protect yourself from such attacks?

Are you one of those lucky ones whom family and especially your mother always ask for help when it comes to doing anything tech-related? She gets a new smartphone, an iPad, TV set-top-box, even the microwave timer - are you the go-to-person? So how do you find teaching her all those things which you find trivial? Do you ever wonder why she doesn't quite get it despite you telling her again and again?

While many of us are enjoying the festive season with our loved ones, family and friends, there are many elderly people in the UK who are going through the festive season alone. (Picture from AgeUK)

Do you wonder why your computer, tablet or smartphone is running a bit slower today than when it was brand new? We have two simple, free and non-technical tips for you to help you speed up your electronic devices.

It's Get Online Week in the week commencing 17^th October 2016. There are thousands of events take place in communities all across the country, showing people how the internet can make life easier, cheaper, healthier and more fun! Certainly this is a celebration not to be missed. Our experts in the community are busy setting up events to help people to get online and use technology. Here is a list of events available around the Ipswich area.

When you use Google Search, do you notice the privacy reminder? Do you ever wonder what it is about? Many of our customers have asked us what they should do when they see the reminder and many have clicked on “I AGREE” without knowing the consequences. We decided to publish this guide to demystify the subject and to show you what to do when you see the reminder again.

Time flies when you are having a great time. It has been a year since we started the free computer help and support service in partnership with AgeUK Suffolk. The service is offered at the well-equipped and friendly AgeUK Ipswich help centre in Ipswich Town Centre. The service has gone from strengthen to strengthen since the launch in July 2015. To-date, we have held 51 sessions, helped more than 160 customers and raised more than £300 for AgeUK. Our customers found the service friendly and helpful and we consistently received top marks feedback.

Since the end of August 2016, many people received a notification from WhatsApp asking its users to read and agree the new Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. The new policy has a hidden clause which allows WhatsApp to share the user account information with Facebook for advertising purpose. Unfortunately many people agreed to the new policy without checking. Here is a user guide to show you how to respond to the notification and how to undo the mistake.

Yesterday, We ran another fun and interactive class about the Internet for another group from the Suffolk Hearing Advisory Service at The Salvation Army in Felixstowe. It was great to see many people so eager to learn and actively participating in the class.

We have reached our second milestone “100 customers helped” for the free computer advice service in partnership with AgeUK Suffolk. To-date we have helped 104 customers, raised over £153 donations for AgeUK and delivered 33 free sessions. Moreover, we are very pleased to let you know that the service consistently receives top ratings; our customers found the service extremely useful; they would use the service again; and they would recommend it to others.

Want to be cyber safe? Here is a selection of security news, recommendations and how to guides from the Lxpert Community.

Windows 10 comes with a lot of new and exciting enhancement. However this latest Microsoft operating system also likes to collect a lot of data on its users and that might not be a good thing for people who value their personal information and privacy. Here are a few things that you can do to minimise Windows 10 from knowing too much about you. (Updated 14 Nov 2016)

If you are using Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, you probably notice that in the past few months you have a new Windows icon on your system trays. Sometimes it will pop up with a notification bubble and prompt you to upgrade to Windows 10. So how to remove the "Get Windows 10" reminder and tray item?

If you have Java installed on your machine, every now and then you get a notification at the bottom right hand corner of your task bar, telling you that a Java update is available and asking you to update. However, oftentimes, our customers complain that their web browser looks a little bit different after the update. So how to install the Java update properly?

Here is a summary of what I learnt about Blackhat and Whitehat SEOs from Daniel Somers of SEOmers (seomers.co.uk) at the Suffolk Internet Marketing Specialists event organised by Sam Parnell and Max Shelley (Measure Brilliance) on 15 December 2015.

How to create a secure password and keep it safe? Here are the top 10 tips from our expert Merlin.

In this article, I will show you how to build your first Play Framework web application. We will be building a CRUD app (Create, Read, Update and Delete) together with Play framework (2.x). This guide was first used at the BT Developer Conference (BT DevCon 2015) on 27 November 2015.

On the 25^th November, we presented our ideas and our work at the Tinder Foundation Digital Evolution 2015 conference. People really like it and we have been voted as the best poster presentation of the day! Thank you!

When you plug your iPhone or iPad to your Apple Mac. It will automatically open Image Capture and show you all the wondeful pictures you have taken. Sometimes it is convenient, but sometimes it is very annoying. So how can I stop Image Capture from popping up (or autorun)?