Chocolate biscuits and a carpet of coppers

By | March 9, 2015
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A mixture of things this time.  Good news, bad news (sort of) and good news (sort of)!

If you replace a tablet, do you lose the stuff you’ve bought on it?

This is good news: If you have a tablet of some kind (or a smartphone) and you have, say, some ebooks you’ve bought, maybe some music or films or even some apps (programs) you’ve bought and you replace the tablet, you (probably) won’t lose them.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve lost the old one, it’s broken or you’ve just bought a newer, better one.

You see, when you buy an ebook from Amazon, they keep track of what you’ve got.  And if you’ve bought a new device, you just set up your Amazon Kindle account on it, and can download all the books you bought before.

Similarly for the other companies that do this kind of thing: Apple and Google are the main ones. And similarly for music, films, TV shows or even apps that you’ve bought from them.

The only catch is this: you need the same kind of account to be able to download them.  So if you bought them through Amazon, you need to download them again through Amazon.

This isn’t a problem exactly, but if you have, say, an Apple device and you replace it with a Google Android device, you won’t be able to open books you’ve bought through Apple’s iBook system on the Google Android device.

That’s why I tend to get ebooks through Amazon – you can use that on any system.

The other alternative is to stick to one type of tablet: Apple (like the ipad) or Android.

That way you can still get at things you’ve bought even years later, with a totally different device.

Lenovo and superfish – a word of warning

A few people have asked me about this lately, asking if I can give any more information than the slightly vague assurances Lenovo have given.

I’m afraid I can’t – sometimes I can tell more than the manufacturer say, but not this time.

In a nutshell, recent laptops from Lenovo have included a program called Superfish, which (amongst other things) watches what you’re doing on the internet and pops up adverts based on what it thinks you might buy from.

Lenovo didn’t even realise it would do this – and they’ve stopped putting it on new PCs straight away.

If you have a recent Lenovo, it’s best to follow their instructions to get rid of this annoying program.

But what no-one seems to be 100% sure on is whether the data Superfish collected is stored somewhere else.  Looking at it, I don’t think it is, from the way the program seems to work.  But I wouldn’t swear to it.  And I think the data it collects is not really crucial stuff anyway – not like bank details or your credit card number. Again, I wouldn’t absolutely swear to it, but that doesn’t look to be how the program works to me.  And I suspect Lenovo have thoroughly checked this out and would be moving heaven and earth to track the data down if it did work that way.  Otherwise the bad publicity could kill the company!

But the most important thing for now is to make sure that if you have a recent Lenovo laptop, you follow their instructions and get rid of Superfish.

The Internet and a packet of chocolate biscuits

You know how some people just seem to be born lucky?  I’ve noticed lately that Edward has a habit of finding coins on the floor.  Given how often he seems to find them, we must be walking around on a carpet of coins!

Usually it’s coppers, but the other day he found a pound coin so we went to the shops and bought a packet of chocolate biscuits (and yes, Daddy got one.. or two…)

It’s always nice to get some money you didn’t expect! (Or biscuits)

Why am I talking about this in an email about computers and technology?  Well, it reminded me of something I nearly forgot about.  When the car insurance came around last time, I nearly just stuck with the company I was with.  The quote didn’t look too bad and I was really busy at the time, with work and some decorating at home.  But at the last minute, I hopped onto the internet and did a quick check on a comparison website… and saved nearly £100.  I was staggered – I didn’t think I was paying enough for anyone to take that much off it.

It’s worth it – I’ve lost track of how much I’ve saved over the years from switching car and house insurances round… and with comparison websites it’s much easier to compare different companies, including ones I would have never thought of.

So when your car or house insurance comes up, do look around – use GoCompare or Compare the Market or something like that – they all do much the same.

After all, £100 buys a lot of chocolate biscuits…

11 thoughts on “Chocolate biscuits and a carpet of coppers

  1. Tony

    I’ve been comparing company prices/quotes for years, the simple fact is, there is no reward for loyalty with
    most of them. When they can offer cheaper prices to new customers, but don’t even consider, contacting you to reduce your, year after year cost, even increasing it,
    often by a massive amount, it says it all! Tony

    Reply
  2. Alan

    Good tips about tablets. I replaced an Apple iPad recently which I had set up to backup to the iCloud. I set up the new one from backup and got all the apps and data without any trouble. The tip about Amazon books is useful.

    Reply
  3. Maureen O'Neill

    Thanks for the warning about Superfish. I found it installed on my Lenovo laptop – bought Dec 2014. Lenovo removed everything vaguely connected to Superfish. I shall spread the word.

    Reply
  4. Warren Gilchrist

    Paying for books I’ve ordered on a free trial. I should like to pay online for them.

    Reply
  5. Mick

    I would find paying for books over the internet after my free trial with a credit card easier because cheques are being used less and less

    Reply
  6. Belinda

    Re. paying you online for books, etc. ordered from you.

    I would definitely like to be able to do this please, especially as at present I have to find someone to post letters for me.

    Reply
  7. Ken Howe

    If you enabled it I would probably pay on line. Is there any financial advantage or disadvantage to you?

    Reply
  8. Pamela maher

    re the matter of paying online–I usually pay bills etc simply by the BACS system, which just needs an account number/name and sort code to which one adds an appropriate reference. This is instantaneous-or more or less so, and welcomed by my suppliers as they don’t incur bank chages for cheques etc. It is dead easy to do as well/ PM

    Reply

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