Three little snippets…

Well, they say that good things come in threes, and this week I’ve got three little snippets for you! A couple of quick tips, and some news about what we’ve been up to lately…

A quick tip for using Windows
Here’s a tip if you use Windows (usually on a laptop or a PC).

You know the start menu – the one that pops up when you click the little symbol on the taskbar that’s meant to look like a window? It has lots of the apps that are on your PC in it and it’s also where you go to turn the PC off.

Well, instead of clicking on that icon to bring it up, you can also just tap the Windows key on your keyboard – it’s usually the one between Ctrl and Alt, just to the left of the space bar.

Tap that once and the start menu comes up without you having to fiddle with the mouse. I use it a lot if I’ve got an app in full-screen mode – usually a game or a film. It won’t change your life, but you might find it makes things a little quicker and easier. It’s one of those little tips that just isn’t obvious until someone tells you about it!

How to make sure you’ve got the best phone signal
Here’s another really quick trick that can be handy when you’re travelling with your phone.

The way a smartphone (or any other mobile phone works) is that it connects to a network of signal towers all over the country. In theory, it should automatically connect to the nearest tower wherever you are, but in practice, it can be a bit slow to update.

So, say you’ve just driven somewhere and need to make an important call, you can make sure you’re connected to the best signal tower by forcing your phone to check. The easiest way to do that is to put your phone in aeroplane mode for 10 seconds. When you turn aeroplane mode off again, your phone will scan for the nearest tower.

Simple, but effective.

What’s been keeping us busy…
I’m not going to go into too much detail today (because I need to get busy finishing them off!) but we’ve been working on a new pair of books.

Well, they’re “sort of” new – those of you who’ve been reading this newsletter for a long time will have heard of them before.  But they’ve been out of print for a while – and as the way we use technology has changed, so have these books! You might find them interesting if you use a PC (or laptop), tablet or smartphone – to do, well, anything really.

We’ve still got the last few finishing touches to make, but later this week we should have them just about done and be ready to tell you a bit more about them. Maybe on Wednesday or Thursday if all goes according to plan – watch out for my email!