Peek into my mailbag
More of your tech questions, answered
Plus: Beeper gets bought, advanced undo options, and refurbished tech for less
Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, a veteran tech journalist, and this is Advisorator, my weekly tech advice newsletter. If someone shared this newsletter with you, consider signing up to get it every Tuesday.
Quick programming note: Next week’s newsletter will arrive on Wednesday instead of Tuesday due to the timing of Passover this year. Thanks for your patience!
The last time I did a Q&A column in Advisorator, the general consensus I picked up was, “This is great, but don’t do it too often.” That was a little under six months ago, so the timing for another mailbag column seems about right.
Last time around, I answered some of your most pressing security and privacy questions. Unsurprisingly, more of those have since arrived. But I’m also going to expand the scope this time with some smart questions about apps, deals, and gadgets.
The questions below have been paraphrased for length and clarity, but otherwise come straight from your fellow Advisorator subscribers. Take it away, folks!
More security questions
Merry A. asks:
I’m getting notifications on my iPhone that say, “This password has appeared in a data leak, which puts this account at high risk of compromise. You should change your password immediately.” Are these legit?
If you’ve been using Safari’s auto-fill feature or letting your iPhone save the passwords you enter, then yes. These alerts indicate that you’ve used the same password on a site that previously suffered a security breach, which in turn means the password may be shared among hackers to try and use on other sites. By heading to Settings > Passwords > Security Recommendations on an iPhone, you can view a list of sites where you’re using compromised passwords and tap on the links to change them.
(For what it’s worth, many other password managers offer similar features, including Bitwarden, 1Password, Dashlane, and Chrome.)
James M. asks:
“I recently purchased NordVPN and I’m unsure how it will effect access smart home devices and printers, and whether I should run the VPN directly on my router.”
The VPN shouldn’t interfere with devices on your local network, but it can prevent some apps from from communicating with those devices while the VPN is running. To work around this, Nord offers a feature called split-tunneling that exempts some apps from the VPN, and it even suggests apps that may benefit from this setup.
If your router allows it, running a VPN on the network level means you don’t have to set up the connection on every individual device, but there’s a trade-off: If the VPN causes any connection problems, you’ll need to fiddle with the router settings instead of just temporarily disabling the VPN on one device. (More fundamentally, it’s worth asking whether you need a VPN in the first place.)
Tammy P. asks:
I’ve been storing two old laptops (which no longer power on) and three old cell phones. I want to dispose of them, but can people get info off them?
Ideally, you would find compatible power cords, power the devices up again, and factory reset them to erase the data, but I understand that’s not always feasible.
Best Buy claims that its recycling partners must process devices in a way that makes data irrecoverable, and Asurion makes similar claims about the free recycling at its uBreakiFix stores. While I can’t guarantee that they’ll stick to their promises, they may be worth considering if you have no way to delete the data yourself (and if that data doesn’t include, say, sensitive government secrets.
Apps and online tools
Robert W. asks:
Do you have a matrix of cloud storage services and their pricing?
Yep! Here’s a chart that I just updated with fresh info, and here’s the newsletter from which it originated.
Don B. asks:
I’m a satisfied PayPal user but somehow I’ve gotten myself signed up for something they offer called Honey, and now some cartoon-looking thing jumps up and down on any shopping websites I happen to look at. What is Honey and is it worth this distraction?
Honey is a browser extension that tries to save you money on shopping sites. It looks up coupon codes, tells you if there’s a better deal at another retailer, and occasionally offers cash back or discounted coupons that that can defray the cost of a purchase.
I used to love Honey and have recommended it in the newsletter, but the deals and cash back seem to have become less generous lately, and I didn’t bother reinstalling it after switching web browsers a couple months ago. While I sometimes open it in a secondary browser before making an online purchase, it no longer feels essential to me, and I’m curious if anyone else feels the same way.
Mike H. writes:
I enjoy your newsletter, especially your section about tech on sale. How do you find these deals?
I have a few go-to sources when preparing my weekly deal roundups:
- The tech section on Slickdeals.
- Wirecutter’s Deals page (with the “Tech” category filter selected).
- The deals on 9to5Toys.
I’ve also created a Twitter list that serves as a firehose for the above sources and a few others, and I have some specific email alerts set up through Slickdeals and CamelCamelCamel.
Then it’s just a matter of filtering through the noise for better-than-usual prices on products that are actually well-regarded. With some practice, you can probably become a better deal-hunter than me!
Gadget questions
Jack S. asks:
Why do I have to reset the Touch ID on my iPad every week or so?
I can’t say for sure if this is related, but one downside with fingerprint detection is that it becomes less reliable with age. Unfortunately Face ID remains exclusive to Apple’s iPads Pro, even though it’s been standard on iPhones for years.
As a workaround, head to Touch ID settings and assign multiple fingerprints to the same finger. This can make the detection a bit more reliable. (The same trick also works wonders on Android devices with finicky fingerprint readers.)
Brian B. asks:
Any thoughts on Bluetooth-enabled keyboards that can be connected to multiple devices, including tablets and phones?
There are plenty of keyboards with from Logitech and others that let you switch between a few paired devices with the push of a button, though I think it’s worth considering keyboards that include both Bluetooth connectivity and a wireless USB dongle, as the latter tends to be less laggy and more reliable than Bluetooth. You can use the dongle connection for a computer and Bluetooth for your phone and tablet. Here’s a relevant search on Amazon.
Thanks to everyone who’s been sending questions along! Add yours by replying to this email or reaching out to advisorator@jarednewman.com.
News, tips, and deals
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Until next week,
Jared