I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot of online accounts these days – for everything from my bank account to BBC iPlayer. And I long since gave up on being able to remember the passwords for them!
Instead, I use a nifty service called LastPass – if you’ve been on this newsletter for a while, you’ll probably already know about it. The way it works is that you save all your passwords to LastPass, and then you can forget them! The only password you need to remember is the “Master Password” to open your LastPass account.
The best thing about this system is that you can use passwords that are just random strings of letters and numbers (since you don’t have to remember them), and that makes your accounts very secure. We’ve been recommending that people sign up to a service like this for years.
But a few days ago, I got an email from LastPass that I wanted to make sure you were all aware of. It’s a change to the free version of their service.
At the moment, you can use LastPass on as many devices as you like absolutely free. You don’t get all the bells and whistles that come with the paid version, but that’s the only limitation. As of the 16th March, that’s changing.
You’ll have to choose whether you want to use LastPass on computers or mobile devices (phones and tablets). You won’t be able to use it on both unless you pay for the premium version.
Now, for some people, that won’t be an issue. You might only use it on one device anyway. But if you use it on both computers and mobile devices at the moment, here’s how you make your choice of which to keep. The first time you sign in to LastPass on or after the 16th, it’ll record which device you do it on. That will become your free device type – so if you sign in first on your computer, you won’t be able to use the app any more (and vice versa).
To keep access to both, you need to sign up for the premium version – it’s not too expensive, so that’s what I plan to do. If you’re going to do that, I suggest you upgrade before the 16th March, because you save a bit of money that way. A full year costs £22 if you sign up before 16th March, or £30 after.
It feels like a fair price, to be honest.
I also have a few quick things to say about the courses while I’m here:
Paying by instalments
In case you’re wondering, yes there is an “instalment plan” for all three courses, if you’d rather not pay in one go. The details are in the full information for each course (links below) – if you want the instalments, just make sure you click the red button marked “Join paying by 3 instalments”.
A rather unusual guarantee
The courses all have a rather unusual guarantee: “If at any time in the 12 months after you join the course you decide you’re not happy with it, contact us (phone or email is best but anything short of a carrier pigeon will do) and we’ll refund you in full.”
That way you get to join without worrying “But what if it’s no good for me” because if it turns out that it doesn’t suit you, just let us know.
Please tell us what you think
It’s always good to hear from people who are actually using our books and courses – to see how they’re getting on with them. So if you’ve already joined one of the courses, feel free to let us know what you think (the simplest way is to reply to this email). If you haven’t joined, maybe it’s worth a look?
Remember that the courses close for new enrolments at the end of this week – so why not have a look now if you think you might find them helpful. Read the full information for each of the courses here: Smartphones Made Simple or, Tablets Made Simple or, Windows 10 Made Simple.