© Neal Walker Computer Services

I recommend Windows

© Neal Walker Computer Services

I recommend Windows

© Neal Walker Computer Services

I recommend Windows

Newsletter - September 2017

Hello and welcome to this month’s newsletter.

Happy (illegal) Cataluña referendum day, or not, as the case may be. At the time of writing it is unclear whether or not the referendum voting will go ahead today. The Spanish Government has declared the referendum illegal so any 'result' from it, should it actually go ahead, will probably be treated with utter contempt.

If you are flying with Ryanair over the next six months, good luck to you. They have cancelled over 40,000 flights so you will need all the luck you can get. Thank goodness my flights are booked with EasyJet and Vueling this Christmas.

So Apple announced their new products last month to a generally luke-warm meh attitude from most. If I were a cruel person I would say that Apple have basically pinched all the current cool things from Android handsets and brought them to the iPhone, but they haven't actually done anything 'new'. Obviously Apple have a slightly different view, but I am not sure these new iPhone 8 devices are much to get excited about (700-950 €) . Certainly people have not rushed out to get them, unlike what normally happens when Apple releases a new iPhone. Maybe everyone is waiting for the iPhone X, although I sort of doubt it (1000-1500 €). Mr Mobile has made a very fair and in-depth 2 part video review of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus which you can watch here. The cameras are probably the most noticeably update, as the iPhone 7 cameras were basically panned as a downgrade to the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.

In contrast, last month Nokia released the Nokia 8 (500 €) which is a very good looking (especially the copper colour) and powerful android flagship smartphone. If I was buying a new phone today, I seriously would not be looking at the new iPhones.

Microsoft will be releasing Windows 10 - 1709 (the Fall creators update) on 17th October. As usual it will be a phased rollout so you may not get it immediately, but you will get it eventually. When they released 1703 (creators update) they changed the way these major updates are handled. In essence the download will now be significantly smaller (up to 25% smaller) as it now only downloads the new bits, rather than a complete new version of Windows 10. Windows Central have a handy guide to all the new things coming with this update which you can read here. I think that for most people the only things you may notice initially are an improvement in booting up time and better battery life if you use the Edge browser. 

Just a quick reminder that the clocks go back an hour on 29th October, and we also have the joys of Halloween / day of the dead to look forward to.

Well, that will just about do it for this newsletter. I hope you have a great month.

Newsletter - September 2017

Hello and welcome to this month’s newsletter.

I hope you have had a good summer and managed to take a little break somewhere warm and relaxing. It has been hot and humid here, and thank goodness we are creeping towards Autumn, my favourite time of year. The kids are going back to school (hurrah), the tourists are going back home, and things are starting to return to relative tranquillity again.

It's been an expensive summer too. First the fridge freezer packed in, then the washing machine finally managed to kill itself, and then the car went on the blink. Well, they say that these mini-disasters happen in threes, so that should be it for now!

Right now IFA is running in Berlin and everyone and his dog (almost) is announcing new computers, smartphones and goodness knows what else. LG have announced the LG V30 smartphone, which is one of the stars of the show. To save a bit of time, here is a link to all of the major announcements from IFA 2017 in one place. It is noticeable that most of the new tablets, 2 in 1's, computers and laptops are a little on the pricy side. I think the days of cheap computers are coming to an end, by the looks of it. This is probably not a bad thing really, because when you buy a 300€ laptop, you know that it will be slow from the moment you take it out of the box and it just gets worse and worse over time. A lot of the new high end devices are now starting to have SSD's rather than hard disks, so they will be very fast and responsive. Remember, I can convert your computer from hard disk to SSD, so you too can benefit from this massive increase in performance at a fraction of the price of buying a new computer.

The "in thing" at IFA appears to be mixed reality headsets. Acer, Dell, Lenovo, HP and all the other big manufacturers seems to be making them and they will all be ready to buy for, well, let's just say the 'C' word. I am not sure what the fascination of sticking this thing on your head to play games or whatever is, and I can't say I will be rushing to buy one (ever). Well, whatever floats your boat.

September 12th is the date that Apple will be finally revealing their new stuff. The word / rumours are that there will be a new Apple 4K TV box, Apple Watch 2, and of course the iPhones. It seems there may be an iPhone 7s and iPhone 7S plus, which are basically tarted up versions of the current design iPhones, and a very expensive, radically new and different iPhone 8. It is rumoured to cost over 1000€ and I am sure it will be a huge success. Well, it is Apple after all, and the world seems to be full of insane people!

Next month, all the news of the Windows 10 Fall Creators update.

Well, that will just about do it for this newsletter. I hope you have a great month.

Newsletter - August 2017

Hello and welcome to this month’s newsletter.

I hope you are all having a great summer. It's hot and sticky here (for all of you who are somewhere else where it's raining). In fact, it's so humid I have been considering buying one of those Michael Jackson oxygen tent things to get a good nights sleep, but haven't managed to find one on eBay yet. Being peak holiday season time, as usual the roads seem to be full of basically mentally ill people causing traffic and parking chaos, so take care if you are venturing out in the car.

Do you want to turbo boost your laptop or computer? Would you like your computer to boot up in seconds rather than minutes? Well, you need to swap out your traditional mechanical hard disk drive with an all electronic SSD drive. I have upgraded dozens of computers to SSD already this year and the speed increase is always incredible. So, is it time to speed up yours? As a little incentive, just for August, I will include a free USB3 disk enclosure to allow you to reuse your old mechanical disk as a backup device, which is usually an additional 20€ charge. It's simple really, upgrade to SSD now to get the maximum possible speed from your computer and extend it’s life. It’s considerably cheaper than buying a new computer.

Ok, a few things are coming up in the next couple of months. Firstly, Apple will be announcing their new iPhones. Being the 10th anniversary of the iPhone we are expecting them to radically change the look and design of the new top of the range iPhone model. It will almost certainly be horrendously expensive (even by Apple standards) but may include a virtually bezel less display, on screen buttons rather than a physical home button, wireless charging, finger print reader built into the screen, iris recognition, and any one of the hundreds of other rumours circulating on the internet. All of these features have already been done before by other manufacturers, but Apple invented them of course (not). 

Samsung will be announcing the Galaxy Note 8 handsets shortly, and it is understood that it will not come with a battery that will catch on fire and burn down your house this time, unlike the Note 7. 

Nokia are set to announce their new flagship android device(s) too. The Nokia 8/9 is rumoured to be of premium quality fit and finish, with a Snapdragon 835 processor, Dual-Lens Zeiss camera, and may be priced around 550€. 

Finally, for Windows 10 users, Microsoft have announce that they have just finished the phased part of the Creators Update for Windows 10 rollout, and it is now available to all remaining devices. So, if your computer hasn't upgraded to the Creators Update yet, it soon will via Windows Update. Microsoft also announce that it has feature-locked the upcoming Fall Creators Update and is just bug fixing this update ready for a September / October phased rollout. I will give you further information nearer the time. I think that this two major updates a year strategy it excessive and a pain in the a** and I hope that they go back to one update a year soon!

Well, that will just about do it for this newsletter. If you are taking your summer holiday this month, I hope you have a refreshing and relaxing one. Have a great month.

Newsletter - July 2017

Hello and welcome to this month’s newsletter.

So, was June hot enough for you? It seems that a wonky Jetstream has brought most of Europe an unusual amount of heat and humidity for this time of the year. Fortunately the beach (and beer) offers welcome relief for this predicament.

Important news for those who are celiac, or who have family or friends that need to avoid gluten. Both Burger King and 100 Montaditos now offer gluten free menu options (here in Spain). It appears that Montaditos is still in the process of rolling this out across the country, so some branches don't currently offer this (I'm talking about you Playa San Juan), but loads of others already do. Montaditos offer some little bread roll things with fillings (individually packaged to avoid any contamination risk) and more importantly Cruzcampo sin gluten. Burger King offer quarter pounders and quarter pounders with cheese. Acceptable for emergencies.

Here is a quick roundup of what's happening in technology at the moment.

Microsoft launched new devices last month, the new Surface Pro and  Surface laptop. If you are in the market for a high end premium device then check them out. Hint - very expensive!

Microsoft has also announced they are now rolling out all new Skype apps. To quote Microsoft "Buckle up for a major upgrade. The Skype you know and love has a fresh design and a ton of new features to stay connected with the people you care about the most". It looks significantly different to the current Skype apps, but does everything the old apps did, plus a load of new stuff too. They have started rolling this out to android users already, and it is coming to iOS, Windows and Mac over the coming months. 

You may have heard that the EU has abolished roaming charges across Europe. Here is a very comprehensive article published in the Independent that will explain everything much better that I could! In a nutshell - it a good thing.

OnePlus are renound for making premium flagship android smartphones, but priced significantly less than the likes of Samsung etc. They have just announced their latest offering the OnePlus 5. If your budget for a new phone is around 500 GBP / EUR take a look.

Well, that will just about do it for this newsletter. I hope you have a great month.

Newsletter - June 2017

Hello and welcome to this month’s newsletter.

Things are warming up nicely for summer. The temperatures are in the high 20's now, the chiringuitos and sunbeds are starting to appear on the beaches, and fiesta season is about to start! This month we have the night of San Juan (23rd) with all the bonfires on the beaches. We also have the hogueras in Alicante, with the burning of the statues taking place on 24th. It's always worth wandering round the statues for an hour or two and seeing how rude and derogatory they are, which is normally very. Somehow I think Trump may feature heavily this year!

Yahoo have just suddenly discontinued their Windows 10 mail app.The advice from Yahoo is to access your email through any web browser instead. If you are one of the tens of people who still use a Yahoo email account on Windows 10, you can add your Yahoo email account to the built in Windows 10 mail app. The nice folks at Windows Central have written this handy guide on how to do just that.

If you use Filmon to watch live UK TV over the internet, you will have noticed that it will now only let you watch 2 minutes free before stopping. Obviously you can subscribe to their service for €15 a month. Alternatively, if you use Kodi, you can install an addon to give you an alternative source for streaming live UK TV. Follow these instructions to install the Kodi Live-TV addon. You can download the latest version of Kodi from the Windows 10 store, just search the store for Kodi, and it is free. All Windows 10 store apps (including Kodi) update to the latest version automatically, whenever an update is released. Android users, you should make sure you are using the latest version of Kodi (17.03) because all the earlier versions have a security flaw which is now being exploited. If you are running an earlier version, you should upgrade.

Just a reminder that the latest version of Windows 10 (the creator's update) is continuing to roll out, Some of you will have already received the update, especially if you have a newish computer, and those with older computers can expect to get it over the next 6 to eight weeks.

Nokia announced three new android smartphones at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, but they were only initially available in China and the far east. Well, this month these aggressively priced phones are coming to Europe. They are all mid-range smartphones in terms of specifications, but they essentially come with a very clean and un-customised version of the latest android 7, and Nokia are promising monthly security updates and timely android software updates. That is something that you normally only get with flagship android phones, if you are lucky. Further details on the Nokia 3 (€139), Nokia 5 (€189), and Nokia 6 (€229 & €299) can be found here. There are also rumours that Nokia may soon announce the Nokia 8 and 9, which are decidedly high end flagship android devices, and will be priced accordingly. I wouldn't imagine you will be able to buy one of these until Christmas time, unless you live in China of course!

Well, that will just about do it for this newsletter. Have a great month.

Newsletter - May 2017

Hello and welcome to this month’s newsletter.

Happy May Day bank holiday to you. I hope you are enjoying your day off somewhere in the sunshine. It's a pleasantly sunny-ish 21 degrees here on the Costa Blanca so I am! I was in playa San Juan over the weekend and it was absolutely packed with people sunbathing on the beach (whilst being sand blasted in a mini hurricane). I was also up in Benidorm over the weekend and that was also heaving, although mainly with stag and hen do's. 

For coeliacs (or those who know someone who is gluten intolerant) you may remember that McDonalds in Spain do gluten free hamburgers. Well, pin your ears back for this very important newsflash. You can now enjoy your gluten free happy meal with a gluten free beer, because, yes, McDonalds now sell gluten free beer for €1. Enjoy.

Ok, enough of this, and on to technology. The main news this month is that tomorrow Microsoft will be holding an education based event, and they are expected to announce Windows 10 cloud. To complement this new version of Windows, we expect Microsoft and/or their hardware partners to announce the release of new "cloudbook" devices. These will be low cost laptop type devices, a bit like Chromebooks, aimed at schools and students, although I am sure it won't be that long before you can buy them in Carrefour and on Amazon. Now, the important thing to understand about Windows 10 cloud is that you can only run apps that you get from the Windows Store. You cannot install Microsoft Office 2007 that you have got on CD, or any other old programs you have got lying around, only stuff that is available to download from the Windows Store. So bear in mind that you will not be able to install Google Chrome, for example, until Google make Chrome available as an app in the Microsoft store. However, it is possible to 'upgrade' Windows 10 cloud to full Windows 10 Pro (for an as yet undisclosed cost) and this will then run absolutely every program that Windows 10 can run. So, just bear this in mind when you see these really cheap Windows 10 laptops in the shops.

Well, that will just about do it for this newsletter. Don't forget that it is Spanish Mother's Day Sunday 7th May. I hope you have a great month.