Author: David Harrison

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Browsers and Search Engines – 2022

It’s always worth reviewing which search engine you should use, as it is the browser of choice to “surf the web”. The reasons you might wish to consider which search engine you might wish to use are greater privacy, enhanced security, minimise adverts being displayed, or to get more meaningful pages being displayed, but first we’ll look at the web browser you might want to use.

First things first. If you’re using Internet Explorer you must seriously consider moving to Edge as Microsoft are removing support for Internet Explorer and one day you’ll find it just doesn’t work. If you’re using the initial release of Edge you should also upgrade to the latest version. It’s faster, more stable and uses the same code base (which is the open source Chromium) as some of the other browsers I’ll talk about later.

The next thing to remember is that Google is not a Browser. If you have a Google app on your smart device, it’s just Google’s “convenient” way of getting you to use their search engine and capture lots of useful marketing data from you! Google’s browser is called Chrome, and it uses the same code base as Edge (as mentioned above) – others include Brave, Opera and Vivaldi.

Chrome is by far the most popular browser accounting for more than 80% of the internet browser traffic, it has a wide range of useful extensions, and if you can be bothered to create a Google account and navigate through the preference screens, you can make it reasonably private – but you may wish to install the AdBlock Plus extension – an advert blocker, to stop intrusive adverts appearing on your web pages. [Another way of doing this is to look for Reader View, created for users with visual disability originally, which simplifies the view of a page on your browser screen.

But why use Chrome when you can use another browser which has built-in privacy. I’m talking about Brave. You can deploy many of Chrome’s extensions in Brave and virtually everything you see looks like Chrome, but without tying you to Google. I seriously recommend you look at Brave.

If not Brave, why not Microsoft Edge. The complete re-write of Edge using Chromium and with the support of Microsoft behind it makes this an excellent choice for those who use a lot of Microsoft applications (eg Office 365 which you can run in the browser, just as you can run the Google apps in Chrome) and is growing fast in popularity even if it’s Preferences menus are a bit tricky to work your way through.

If you’re an Apple user, I suggest you look no further than Safari, although all of the others can run on MacOS. It’s optimised for the Apple platform and integrates well with the other apps in the Mac/iPhone/iPad ecosystem.

That leaves two “outliers”. Firefox was one of the first browsers growing out the original work done on Netscape, it’s open source and has a huge and committed user-base. I have nothing to say against it, and nothing much to say for it either. It’s a good solid internet browser.

A couple of references to follow this up then …

The best web browsers for 2022 – ranks them under various categories.

The top ten internet browsers for 2022 – reviews the pluses and minuses of various browsers.

So we turn to Search Engines. You want to find something out on the internet – you just google it, don’t you? Well you can, but there are other choices as well, and this is where privacy concerns might suggest you might want to look at an alternative.

I’ll be upfront. I’ve been using DuckDuckGo (often in combination with Brave) for a couple of years now. I value the fact that my activity on the internet isn’t tracked and the results that are returned are not slanted towards my prior search history, and most importantly my activities are not farmed off to marketing agencies.

There’s nothing wrong with Google Search – it’s the most popular on the internet, but that’s by default rather than choice. The results are presented well, but there is a slant towards promoted results and results based on previous searches. You can change your search preferences a bit, deploy an ad blocker (see above), but why should you haver to!

DuckDuckGo is now presented as an alternative search engine in most, if not all, browsers and exists as an app on smart devices as well. Give a try! It’s my default search engine on my Apple devices.

The only real alternative to Google Search and DuckDuckGo is Microsoft’s Bing. The service has its origins in Microsoft’s previous search engines: MSN Search, Windows Live Search and later Live Search. Bing is now the code base for Yahoo’s search facility as it is for Ecosia – an ethical green alternative. Ecosia importantly doesn’t use any third-party tracking tools, meaning that any search made on the service won’t be seen by any party other than Ecosia. Furthermore, any search made on Ecosia becomes anonymized after one week. In contrast, Google and Bing will hold onto bits of search data (such as the device or date), even after deleting browser history and cookies.

That’s about it, some references then …

The ten best internet search engines of 2022 – a review, like the one above that highlights strengths and weaknesses of the various search engines.

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Where’s my media?

A short (I hope) note on where media (and text messages) are stored on WhatsApp and Signal, how to backup and restore messages, and how to “get rid” of them – mainly to save space on your phone. I’m going to rely on the links referred to in the post, rather than repeat their contents, so click on the relevant ones.

First, some important points to remember.

  • The primary device for both apps is the device that your phone number was registered with. Any other device that you access messages from the service are synchronised with the primary device (usually a phone). It follows from this that you should always think of both WhatsApp and Signal as mobile apps, not tablet or desktop applications.
  • If you lose your phone, or change your phone without backing it up in the app first, you will lose your message store, and all the media attached to messages. They will not be accessible from your tablet, or desktop, applications because the link for synchronisation will be broken.
  • This is because … NO MESSAGES OR MEDIA ARE STORED ON A SERVER – really, you must believe me!
  • All media that’s downloaded in WhatsApp will be (by default) saved to your Gallery (Android) or Camera Roll [Photos app] (iOS). This is not the case for Signal (see below).

For Android devices, if you want to switch this off, you should read this article. Media files are automatically saved in your WhatsApp/Media/folder. If you have Internal Storage, the WhatsApp folder is located in your Internal Storage. If you do not have internal storage, the folder will be on your SD Card or External SD Card.

For iOS devices, in the same vein, this article may be helpful if you don’t want WhatsApp to store media to your Camera Roll [Photos app].

  • It follows from the above that if you delete media inside WhatsApp and you haven’t changed the default settings, the media should still be in the Gallery, or Camera Roll of your device. [NB I haven’t checked this out because I no longer use WhatsApp.]

If you want to backup your WhatsApp message store, you can refer to this article to find out how to do it for Android and iOS devices, and for PCs (for downloaded media only).

The situation with iOS for Signal is different from that with Android when it comes to Downloading images. Signal does not save media to your Gallery or Camera Roll [Photos app]. If you want to manage the auto download of media to the app, you should read this article first which covers the situation well for Android users, but will need to have a look at this article to see how to switch-off automatic downloads into the app for iOS users. I’m not going to recommend this as a way forward for iOS. Stick to the default and only store the downloaded media in the app.

If you want to Backup or Restore your Signal message store, you are advised to carefully read this article which applies to Android and iOS devices.

Now some notes on deletion of media.

  • It follows from the note above on media saved outside the app that if you delete in the app, the media will still be in the Gallery or Camera Roll. If you delete in the Gallery, the media should still be in the app.
  • Deletion of a message from a Chat will delete the media attached to it, but will not delete the chat, or the media, from any recipients of any message you’ve sent – unless you’ve put an “automatic delete after”setting on the message (Signal only, I believe).
  • Thus, following from above, if a chat recipient replies to a message you’ve deleted, you may see a thumbnail of the media attached to the original message, in the reply.

For iOS users, to delete media from within WhatsApp chats you should read this article. For Android users, this article should help you.

For iOS and Android users, to delete media from within Signal chats you should read this article, save any media you want, select the items for deletion and press the trash icon.

Finally, and I hope you’ve got this far, I think this link summarises the situation really well for our preferred solution – Signal. Media is stored in the app, you have the option manually to save selected images to Gallery or Camera Roll [Photos app], thus saving on storage space and gaining additional security along the way too.

Phew! That’s taken a good deal longer than I expected it would.

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Notes of Zoom meeting – 23rd June 2022

First off can I thank Sianed for taking over the meeting for the “round the screen” session which enabled me to take notes and have the fun of “lifting my hand” to speak.

There was not much to report back on from the previous meeting. I mentioned that I’d come to a determination that all media and messages in WhatsApp (and Signal) was held on the phone that was registered to WhatsApp (or Signal); the images on the desktop (and the iPad for Signal) were synced to the phone. This it was agreed could cause some phones to easily run out of memory.

As far as News was concerned there were just a couple of items that I’d already added to the Flipboard magazine – one on moving chat histories from an Android phone to an iPhone, and another about new features that were to be added to Apple’s Homekit (for developers), which we might find some use of in our use of Smart devices in the future. [NB We need to give this area much more attention and look at the Smart home more.]

I then thanked everyone who’d replied to the survey about a future venue for our face-to-face meetings. Not unexpectedly, nothing came out as a definite area of agreement for everyone, but some things did come through – no preference for room layout; a desire for a bit of social distancing (and good ventilation) from a couple of members; and no real need for catering. Taking these into consideration, it appeared to me that if we could return to URC that would be a good solution – probably using the Upper Room (rather than Meeting Room 1). I suggested that the meeting after next we should meet at URC and try the venue out – so that’s where we’ll meet on 21st July, our last meeting of the year. [Subsequently, I’ve re-visited URC, have been impressed that they have a new projector system for the Upper Room and I’m now working with them (Bob) to perhaps enhance the WiFi system which they badly want to improve themselves. Watch this space!

We then had a very short break and Sianed took over!

Paul returned to the issue he’d been having with Resources and Chrome; in discussion with Ted it became apparent that there was a need for a comprehensive article on where videos were stored in WhatsApp and I undertook to write such a post. [Following the meeting I did post a few links on Signal, which might be useful in the meantime.]

David reported that his screen sharing from his iPad to the TV was now working well for his Bridge-playing Tutorials [a link to this is on Signal – thanks David].

Ralph thanked Paul for the advice he’d given on driving licence renewal.

Steve recommended investigating the use of iCloud – it’s not very expensive to get 50Gb of cloud storage – if you’re an Apple user.

Christine reported that after a bit of a quiet period, the scams had started again and she’d had ones from Amazon and Paypal [I would recommend everyone consider subscribing to the Which Scam Alert Service] and perhaps one from Welsh Water, but there was some discussion over whether this was the Priority Registration Service – which is worth joining in case there’s a disruption in water supply, or indeed joining the similar registers for our utilities. [We’ve done this.]

Fred had gone to the recent General meeting (Roald Dahl) and learnt a few things, and had also renewed his driving licence following Paul’s advice.

Jim was still not sure about where WhatsApp/Signal stored images etc. and reserved the right to comment later, following my investigations.

Renee reported that the online portal for registering a change in marital status was a nightmare. No further comment – we suspected that very few (if any) of us were likely to be needing to use that portal 🙂

Ann had got into a pickle with downloading photos to her Google account that had then filled up her allotted storage and mail had stopped working. I sent a few links (on Signal) to help her work this one out but again promised to wrire n article on that as soon as possible.

I had nothing to report – I’d been too busy in the garden!

I then gave a brief review on the internet browser and search engine markets, the links I used are on Flipboard, but I will try and write an article about this too.

Just like me, Sianed didn’t report on anything – something I too often forgot to do.

That’s about it. A couple of articles for me to write which I’ll try and do as soon as I can.

Our next meeting will be on July 7th which will be an outdoor social meeting at The Castle Coffee bar, where we met before. Pleas try and come along if you can.

Finally, you’ll remember that I left the WhatsApp group and left Jim as the Admin. I asked him last week whether there had been any relevant activity on it. He reported that there had not. Therefore we agreed that he should close it, and that he’ll do shortly. Anyone not using Signal, I strongly encourage you to download the app and start using it. Let me know and I’ll add you to the Computer Group group on Signal.

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Notes of Zoom meeting – 9th June 2022

So I did return!! As did eleven of you. So many thanks to Owen and Ted for holding the fort and particularly to Ted for two sessions, on Paint and using Ancestry. There was once a time when I arranged for the group to go to the Barclay Innovation Centre and Paul and I weren’t able to go. I felt much the same about missing Ted’s Talks (not this TED of course – although its really worth a browse if there’s nothing on TV you fancy watching).

Margaret, Ann, Christine and Owen weren’t able to join us and I had to interrupt Owen’s lunch to get a verification code for Zoom – apologies again, Owen.

I started by just reviewing the notes from the previous meeting highlighting just a few of them. I supported Jim‘s assertion that Windows Defender was sufficient for us for anti-virus control, but could see (once I looked up the details) the logic of Don installing Norton as part of his contract with BT as it was not an add-on that would have to be paid for at the end of a year. I noted that I’d need to follow-up the item on Software Discounts through the Third Age Trust – I think Owen said he’d make some enquiries. I supported the answer that Jim had given to Stella on where messages (and images) are stored in Signal (and WhatsApp) – they are stored on your phone. That’s why Renee had been unable to rebuild her message store on her computer a few months back. [I’d also had to look into this as my sister was getting alarmed at the amount of space photos were taking-up on her phone. Unfortunately there’s no bulk download facility available. You have to select individual media items, save them to your device, then download them to your computer. That’s encrypted security for you!]

I then referred members to my Reply to Ted’s notes of the meeting on 12th May and said I’d return to that matter at the end of the meeting.

I then went through the significant items (imho) that had seemed to have happened since the last meeting I facilitated. These are posted to Flipboard so I won’t go through them in detail.I did in particular draw your attention to the announcement at Apple’s WWDC event, that the next version of their Operating Systems with biometric Passkeys, could be a real game-changer as FIDO was a standard that was being followed by Google and Microsoft as well. Finally I highlighted some of the changes we could expect to see in the next release of iOS (v16) – you would be able to see the WiFi password of your connected network (useful when a trusted visitor asks to connect to your network); there would be improved methods of deleting duplicate photos; dictation would be improved (ie speech-to-text); the Home app would get improvements (ie more Smart Controls), [and incidentally Hive would better integrate with the Apple Home Kit]; you would be able to track medication in the Health app; you would be able to edit/recall iMessages (but not SMS Texts) up to 15mins after they had been sent; and finally you would be able to use your iPhone as a webcam.

Jenny advised us that her work on Digital Exclusion continues. She had a tight deadline to draw together threads and themes linked to Poverty and Digital Exclusion and asked for any help we could offer her on case studies or examples. [After the meeting I stumbled upon Jenny’s article in The Pensioner magazine – a rattling good read! Well done Jenny.]

David mentioned that he’d had an invite to join/use “passwordless” LastPass. I seemed to remember something about this, but suggested that he didn’t volunteer to be in the first wave of adopters. I said that it quite possibly might be connected to FIDO developments … but it isn’t. It’s connected to using LastPass Authenticator. Authenticator software is useful – I’ve used both Google’s and LastPass apps. It replaces the code sent to your phone as a way of verifying your identity. He then described a sad story of failing to learn to play bridge, and then when he had found a suitable online course (from u3a) he’d been unable to use it as the text on his iPad was so small. Various solutions for using your TV to see an iPad or Android tablet were proffered, and it was generally believed that it should be possible. [After the meeting he reported success having “googled” the issue.] I (with Paul’s help) will try and post a short article on the site in due course.

Sianed raised the issue of biometrics maybe not being the overall solution to replacing passwords as sweat on the finger has proven to be a barrier to correct identification, and anaesthetic (or a condition such as Bell’s Palsy) might make facial recognition challenging. I mentioned that Apple was now saying that its facial recognition could cope with masks – so there must be more attention being applied to eyes, perhaps. I also felt that, as with all new technologies, this would be an addition (at least initially) not a replacement. She also raised a problem she and her husband were having with network printer access from a shared computer. We suggested that she needed to look at the printer setup – to see if it was setup as a shared printer.

Paul had to earlier drop out of the call because he was getting a message saying that he was running out of resources for audio. After closing Chrome, all was well. Chrome is a particularly “hungry” app, and members are advised to use Brave, or Bing – both based on the same code-base (Chromium) as alternatives. He advised us that you code use the textno. 7726 to report spam text, and telno. 159 to report bank scams.

Mike had TV problems which had led eventually to getting a second new TV (one would be returned) whilst Budd Electrical and Beam Rite getting involved. They both seemed to suggest there was “no obvious problem”. However Paul gave some useful advice on certain channels appearing to pixelate more than others – my apologies, I didn’t jot down the reason/solution.

Renee reported that her VirginMedia problem appeared to have been resolved and a refund given. She enquired as to whether anyone knew anyone who might repair the power socket on an Internet radio – we suggested Budds Electrical, or to go to where sh’e bough it (JLP) and see if they could repair. Alternatively, rechargeable batteries might be a workaround and acceptable solution.

Stella enquired about how she could get the complete details of her computer (including serial number for instance) before she attempted an upgrade to Windows 11. Jim guided her to Windows 10 > Settings > System > About which hopefully would provide the information she needed. WE reminded her of the need to do a proper backup before attempting the upgrade.

Finally Jenny advised us that she’d recently attended a meeting at Cardiff & Vale College where the facilities were very good. I said I’d follow that up, but indicated that cost was going to very likely drive our choice of venue for September when we restarted face-to-face meetings.

The Future of the Group.

I restated what I’d written in my reply to Ted’s notes of the meeting of 12th May. I corrected the impression I’d obviously left with Ted that I wanted to step down. If I’d said that, even inadvertently, I hadn’t meant to.

I felt that taking Notes and maintaining the website was “a good thing” and I wanted to continue doing that, but also to be able to do more presentation-like stuff, like we used to do, whilst still retaining the intimate “round-the-screen” sharing stuff we’d developed during the pandemic.

I felt that with Owen doing the calling notice, if members could take it in turn to “chair” the “round-the-screen” material, that would relieve me from doing that at the same time as taking notes. Similarly, if members would step forward and do short presentations, for instance on software they use – they don’t need to have slideshows, or Powerpoint; that would also help to refresh the group a little.

I think it was generally felt that the taking of Notes did help, it provided a useful resource to go back to when issues re-occurred. I am pleased that Sianed “volunteered” to facilitate the “round-the-screen” part of the next meeting and am hopeful that others would follow subsequently.

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What a surprise!

Great article Jenny! I missed this when the mag. came out a couple of weeks back. Our Jenny has an article in “The Pensioner” – the magazine of the Civil Pensioners’ Alliance (which I joined because of the good deals on Insurance products).

Digital-Divide

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Notes of Zoom Meeting – 26th May 2022

Ted Richards facilitated this meeting in the continuing absence of “yours truly” from that role. A screenshot of the attendees (minus Sianed’s picture as her camera wasn’t working), is below and a copy of Ted’s presentation on his use of Paint is included as an embedded file below that. Just click on the arrows to move backwards and forwards through the presentation.

Paint

Many thanks Ted, I’m sorry to have missed the meeting, but I’ll be with you all again on the 9th June, and then hopefully no more absences until the end of July when we’ll take a break.

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 3rd March 2022

Not one, but two images from our last Zoom meeting which took place 4 weeks ago – can you believe it. This must be a record for the delay in preparing notes, but we have had a social meeting at the Castle in between, and I have had a few other things on which I know you’d excuse me for – if I was to list them!!!

So let’s go backwards, first, so-to-speak. It was great to see a few of you in the cafe at The Castle, and especially good to see Ralph, who I do hope manages to join us on Zoom from now on. The staff in the cafe were very obliging allowing us to move inside when rain threatened, and even helped us move a couple of tables so that we were all in the same place. So, a successful meeting, and one we’ll repeat … promise!

Now we’ll go forwards, next, so-to-speak. I won’t be around to facilitate the next meeting due on April 14th as we’re having a family holiday in the Forest of Dean that week, but I think that Owen has agreed to cover that one. However, looking further ahead it’s looking increasingly likely that we’re going to jet off to Australia in late April – just because we can (now Covid rules have been relaxed) and because our son over there has said come now because who knows what will happen later in the year. So although we were (and still are) planning to go in November for Christmas, we’re going to do a quick dash for a couple of weeks to see our family over there who we haven’t seen since May 2018 – that’s a long time. So although we haven’t booked our flights yet it looks increasingly likely that I won’t be able to facilitate a meeting possibly on April 28th, definitely May 12th and then May 26th (when we will have returned, but are committed to a trip to the North East for a family homecoming). So we/you need to discuss what we should do about meetings. After that, no plans that clash with Group dates until the end of July – and I hope to keep it that way.

Finally let’s go back, properly to March 3rd and our Zoom meeting on that date.

Owen reported that the work on the new WordPress site for Cardiff u3a was progressing, and I offered advice, or assistance, if required.

Don had bought a dual USB-A wall-charger for £20 (you can never have enough of them, but it’s the missing pesky cables that get me). He had found a solution to a problem he had with sharing with his iPad on YouTube – always the first port of call I find.

Margaret told us about the latest NHS scam; advised us that she’d come across some free WordPress webinars and tips; had discovered a voice-to-text facility/app called “otter”. She also told us that she found that you could turn on live captions in many applications from the device settings. Ted asked whether you could capture text from live-capture; he advised us that he’d found that when the volume was switched on the only capture recorded was from the device, not the stream.

Ted had now got fibre broadband from BT – initial results were looking favourable.

Steve was still evaluating password managers, but thought that he might plump for an open source offering – Bitwarden. It will be interesting to see his decision – as he has done quite a lot of investigation. He also told us that Immobilise (a database linked to an app to record household possessions, etc) was also used by Neighbourhood Watch and the Police.

Renee commented on WiFi extenders. She’d had good experience of using them. We then had a discussion of the merits of Proprietary WiFi Booster systems vs. Extenders vs Mesh vs Powerline. All have their place and merits.

John had been having iPhone problems. Hopefully he’d got some way to resolving some of the problems, especially with email, and receiving it on his new phone. We did advise he to go back to JLP for assistance in getting things set up the way he wanted them.

Christine told us about a Facebook scam that had nearly trapped her, but she’d exited quickly without any apparent harm.

Ann had been having problems with opening Gmail accounts. She’d also cause to speak to Sky customer service, they were unable to help as she was out of contract. She’d been suffering a poor signal on WiFi, had deployed a WiFi analyser and had then found she needed to configure the Router as she had found that using the 2.4Ghz bandwidth was better for greater distances, and the 5Ghz was better for shorter distance and gave greater throughput. [We probably could do a revision session on Routers; always a good topic and sensible to re-visit.]

Fred commented upon a NHS notification – that’s all my notes tell me, so apologies for lack of detail!

Paul told us about a saga he’d had recently with Virgin Money and an ISA account that they’d moved to another provider that he then couldn’t access. The problem seems to have something to do with Vodafone(???) [Renee had experienced the same] – the Ombudsman had taken a year to reply. [Don had also had a problem but had managed to get £50 compensation as a complainant.] The problem seems to be connected to some building societies not being in the “transfer scheme”.

David told us about his new internet bandwidth speeds obtained from Sky Superfast 35 – I smiled at the download/upload speeds of 23Mbps / 9Mbps and 30Mbps / 9Mbps but they are certainly better that the 11Mbps / 1Mbps he’d been experiencing before. He is now going to check the cost matches up to performance. He updated us on the question of EV charging points – a survey is going to be done 4th April. Christine suggested that he should make sure that FastCharge was being provided.

Did I say anything? No idea – it was probably not worth recording anyway. However Jim has posted an article on his EXIF data project which I encourage you to go and read.

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 17th February 2022

No photo of attendees this time as Jim presented his apologies as he was attending a re-scheduled and re-arranged Poetry and Prose group. I will need to find a “deputy” for those meetings he can’t attend, or alternatively Owen perhaps could prompt me to take a shot myself 🙂 I also had apologies from Ted and John who were not able to make the meeting.

We started with a quick review of the last meeting. Renee had downloaded Trello, and was going to look at using it, as was Jenny – who hadn’t yet had time to download it. Thanks Steve for the presentation again. I’m looking for more offers but during the meeting Stella told us about MapQuest which certainly is worth a look. I believe I’ve got it on my phone, but I also have Strava, PlotaRoute and Walkmeter, for walking – none of which I use to much I’m afraid to say.

I mentioned that I’d seen an item on the Welsh News on the “disappearance of copper from Ceredigion” – a reference to the PSTN switch-off and move to digital. I also mentioned that I’d move the post under Jenny‘s authorship to the public Thought grazing site where I will try and keep news up-to-date as the project proceeds. I also referred to Jenny‘s article in the Magazine (Page 81 she tells us).

Then we had a reference to Sianed‘s article on Printing Digital Photographs – which I found very interesting and which left me wondering how and why they do it for free! Finally I welcomed Jim‘s amplification as a Comment under the Notes on what he’d described at the last meeting in reference to deleting items from trash on external hard disks. I asked everyone to look at my notes and correct them in a similar way. Thanks.

I then reviewed a more interesting set of News which I’d sent to the Flipboard Magazine. I encourage you all to take a look occasionally.

We then went round my screen – I’m just picking up those that contributed in this part of the meeting.

David Hughes told us about his travails in negotiating anew contract with Sky, which ended with an upgrade to his Broadband speed from early March without an increase in cost. S0mething others (including me) commented on with VirginMedia and TalkTalk as well. He then told us about an interesting issue/problem the residents of his apartment block were facing – how to get EV charging points in shared landlord-owned buildings. He referenced this website which provided some guidance, and he’d been in touch with someone from Pontyclun who had some knowledge of installing EV-points in similar situations. Someone mentioned that there might be a WiFi solution that linked back to your apartment. Definitely a case of “watch-this-space”. He then finished with a mention of his grand-daughter’s website that worked perfectly on his phone and web browser, but not his iPad. After a bit of scrabbling about, I advised that he need to tell her to investigate Responsive web design technologies – this is often a feature of themes in WordPress for instance.

Owen advised us that his wife was recovering well after the shock of a hospital admittance at the time of the previous meeting. He had progressed with his investigations of using WordPress for the Cardiff u3a website, was re-visiting his knowledge/use of PHP as a programming language and had come across a piece of software called LocalWP that allowed website developers to build a fully-blown WordPress website on a local machine without need for hosting. I offered when he wanted to trial a hosted site that I could provide a sub-domain on my hosted account for testing purposes. This environment might be of interest to Ted and Philip as well as me. I saw the possibility of archiving all my sites onto a machine for posterity!!!! [Or at least my family’s attention]

Paul had been “hit” by a scam suggesting he invest in Anti-virus software – that didn’t go too far!!! He then advised us that within the browser-version of Gmail, you could click on the three dots above a message and Report it as a Scam. This could be very useful to members. In similar vein (but later) Don told us he’d used the Print function under the “three dots” to print an email out, rather than get a screenshot with sidebars added.

Steve updated us on his “negotiations” with TalkTalk which had also led to the cancellation of his NowTV. He had also spent sometime looking at LastPass.

Stella was beaming!!! She’d purchased a replacement 2-in-1 machine from eBay but it had come without being cleaned-off and she found out she would need to re-set it back to Factory Settings. This she had done successfully and she thanked members of the group for giving here the confidence to attempt it herself. She then did the same thing to an older machine. It took longer but she was impressed at how easy it had been to do the task just by watching a YouTube video. Well done Stella.

Renee had a conundrum which hadn’t been resolved by Apple. The number of photos on her phone and laptop didn’t coincide. This was disturbing because sjhe wanted to move the photos off her phone and through the laptop to an external hard disk. I said I’d had a similar experience recently but couldn’t for the life of me remember what I’d done to resolve the problem – but I had. I said I’d try to get the little grey cells working a bit better and let her know if they came back with anything of any use!!!

Don told us he’d been reading a Customer Satisfaction report from Which? on Broadband suppliers. He noted that some of our members would not be that impressed by some of the suppliers (no names, no pack drill). He’d also come across a definition of phishing and had been amazed by the different flavours and terms used.

Christine had also been talking to their broadband supplier (VirginMedia) and had been advised to change their mobile contract (part of the package) to O2 – which were partners of VM to get a better deal – you can’t make up these stories can you! She had also pulled-out of a Lloyds Bank scam when it asked her for the “number on the back of the card” – no, that’s not right!!!!

Ann reported that she’d solved the camera on her Lenovo not working. She inadvertently must have toggled the F8 key on the machine which is a “privacy feature” to switch-off the camera. Glad that one’s been resolved.

Fred reported that he’d been puzzled by a GreenCard Travel email that would appear to be a scam. Something to look out for now that we were all perhaps looking to start driving abroad again.

We then had a discussion on the LastPass video which Sianed thought had been quite good. Several questions were asked and I attempted to answer them as best I could. Some of these I answered subsequently (mainly on subscription costs) on Signal. I refer everyone to their website which has a quite good set of FAQs.

Lastly we went round the screen again to find out if anyone had used, or discovered, useful speech-to-text applications. Owen reported that he’d discovered the wonders of CarPlay on their new car. Messages went from the iPhone to appear as text on the screen of what we used to call the SatNav – but it’s far more now. Paul told us he used the microphone in Text, WhatsApp and Signal (and Notes and Word, etc) to prepare messages, which were surprisingly accurate. I tried to do a demonstration, but failed – I must do some revision on how you can switch to share an iPhone screen over Zoom. That was not the case for Sianed. She found the speech-to-text failed miserable with a Welsh accent. Ann agreed. I suggested they try speaking in Welsh as there might well be a more accurate result. It will be interesting to see. Steve on the other hand was more interested in text-to-speech and he’d been looking at Speechify, but it was costly. I investigated other options and sent a message to Signal. Renee had tackled Siri – she’d meant to do that for some time and found it acceptable, and did arithmetic well!! She also advised Steve to have a look at text-to-speech on Safari – one for me to check out as well. That plus Reader View is making Safari my browser of choice at the moment. Finally, Don had been trying out talking to Google (using the Google Assistant) – we must have another go at this really useful tool again.

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Switch-off of analogue PSTN

This article will record the progress of the planned switch-off of the analogue PSTN (public switched telephone network) by 2025, and its implications to all of our generation, as Openreach moves to implement a fully digital service. The issue was brought to the attention of the Cardiff u3a Computer Group by Jenny Sims, a group member, who has a number of roles including being Chair of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) Digital Working party and an NPC Executive Member.

It’s an article that will change over the next few months and years, so please look back for updates and further information as we become aware of issues, problems and hopefully solutions.

What implications might this have for older people?

  • Digital services are not universally good across rural areas
  • There will need to be a solution to the issue of digital services requiring power – what happens if there’s a break in power supply, this has been highlighted recently after the storms brought down power lines in Scotland and NE England
  • Cell telephony doesn’t provide a 100% coverage as a backup to digital services

What implications might this have for people with certain disabilities?

  • It’s been reported to us that certain people with visual problems have been experiencing difficulties in the Salisbury pilot area with the withdrawal of the 1471 service, with call-back not working, and with needing to install a new phone number

A video showing the opportunities and issues for Telecare

Here’s a link to the Progress Openreach has reported by January 2022. Much of this is very technical, so some of the following information might be more readable.

Here’s a briefing from BT on the project; and an update on what’s happening in Wales forwarded to Jenny in her role sitting on the National Pensioners Convention. Which? have also published a briefing on the subject which I encourage you all to look at. 

Some additional references

Switchover from analogue to digital telephony: UK consumer and micro-business reactions

The UK’s PSTN network will switch off in 2025 – BT Business

Internet revamp for the humble landline – BBC News

OpenReach PSTN Switchover – a technical presentation

Jenny has also written the article below, which will hopefully appear in the latest Cardiff u3a magazine …

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Ring, ring: Ready for the big ‘phone switchover?

Only three years until 2025 when all telephone providers will do the big “switchover” moving landline customers from the country’s traditional telephone network to digital technologies and analogue services are finally shut down. 

Though BT published a timescale back in 2019, many older people’s organisations have expressed concern that the public have not been given enough information about the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) moving to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), what it really means and how it could adversely affect older and vulnerable people.

Among them is the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), which represents 1.5 million members in Wales, England and Northern Ireland. 

Among the big questions is what happens if there’s a break in power supplies and people need to access emergency services – because the new system will run off broadband – and handsets will have to be plugged into an electricity socket.

Providers say solutions will be found – which will include the provision of emergency battery-powered backups for phones and routers.

This scenario became a reality last November when Storm Arwen hit the UK, causing widespread power outages and left 9,000 homes without power for more than a week.

Jan Shortt, NPC General Secretary did interviews with Talk Radio and other stations, and heard from affected listeners.

She said: “They raised the issue of not being able to charge mobile phones and other devices and therefore not able to summon help. It is clear that the majority of the population had not heard of the digital switch.”

In January Ofcom held an online public meeting to give an update on the “switchover” rollout throughout the UK and provide an opportunity to ask questions.

Jeff Richards, an NPC Wales executive member and a retired Swansea BT engineer, attended. He said: “Unfortunately they did not answer any questions that I raised regarding vulnerable customers nor anything on power supply. I felt that my questions were merely swatted away.”

BT have agreed to meet the NPC to address their concerns – which include, who will pay for the battery packs (some around £160) – the customer or provider?

Virgin Media has already promised that vulnerable customers with “accessibility needs or don’t have a mobile phone” will be given an emergency backup line at no extra cost.

Unsurprisingly, customers in various areas have reported teething problems as the system is being rolled out. For example, people in the Salisbury pilot area with visual problems have experienced difficulties with the withdrawal of the 1471 service and the need to get new phone numbers. 

Hopefully, in the three years left of the rollout, teething problems will have been sorted. But be prepared: only an estimated 1.5million out of 29million landlines have so far been converted – and one day those old phones will stop ringing!

For further information:

Jenny Sims is a Cardiff U3A Computer Group Member, Chair, NPC’s Digital Working Party and an NPC Wales Executive Member