Meeting 10th July 2025

Steering Group and next year

Phil on AI

Pteri-July-11-2025


Amazon Prime Day [DIH]

The Indy Best Buys

Best buys from Which?

What have I been up to

MacMini [DIH]

Smart Plugs -> Octopus (Solar) savings [DIH]

Banking switch [DIH]

Phone and Message blocking on iPhone [DIH]

How to get rid of annoying notifications

Hardware

Anker Battery recalls

Over a million recalls for Anker Battry Packs

The fastest USB port on your computer

AI

OpenAI to launch browser to rival Chrome [DIH]

Research reviews and AI [Iain]

Review of Claude

Grok and intelligence (or NOT)! [IAIN]

What LLM does Perplexity use [DIH]

Finding a thread in your Perplexity Library [DIH]

Teslas fail the AI test [Iain]

ISO Standard for AI [Iain]

https://www.archai.io [Iain]

Fraudulent music generated by AI [Iain]

Health

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRGNPnVNNCE [Iain]

British entrepreneur championing health AI with Microsoft

Good news on AI test for Prostrate Cancer [Iain]

Apple

Live translation in next release of Apple’s OS

Why Mac users need VPNs

Ditching Siri for another AI offering [DIH]

Apple considers using ChaptGPT or Claude to provide Apple Intelligence [DIH]

Free Mac apps you should consider

Apple pays loads of tax in the UK

PCs and Windows

Different versions of Outlook [Iain]

Windows 11 and passkeys

More Win11 installations than Win10 finally

Why isn’t Windows free? [DIH]

Google

Google slows down YouTube to foil Ad Blockers [DIH]

Twenty years of Google Earth [DIH]

Gemini can now identify songs

New features for Google messages

Make your Android phone minimal

New Google Photos features coming to iOS before Android

Google Scanner to Drive [DIH]

Making Google Search better ???

Privacy, security etc.

VPN myths

Removing personal info from Google search

Malicious “Unsubscribe” links

Why Passkeys are more secure than Passwords [Iain]

Quishing scams warning: how to spot and avoid dodgy QR codes [Don]

Software

WhatsApp and ads – 1 [DIH]

WhatsApp and ads – 2

Moving to Libre Office for a Danish ministry

Discussion

Post Office Horizon Scandal report volume one – BCS response [Iain]

Settings II (Google) – 9th May 2019

Boot-up
Any progress with websites??
Alternatives to Word on the Mac, but also see this choosing between Libre Office and Open Office, but also look at this article. I think the USP for me to adopt Libre Office is that it will read and write to .docx and .xlsx, not just read which is what Open Office does. The downside is that you can only download the complete office suite, not individual components which might be an inconvenience if you’ve only got limited hard disk space. Let’s do an install. And it installed using c.630Mb of disk storage. I’ve checked to see whether you can use Google docs, sheets and slides offline and you can! So that’s another alternative to using either Libre Office or Open Office and doesn’t require you to install a whole Office suite – just what you want to use as an app on your smartphone or tablet, or through using Google Chrome. Go here to find how to use an “offline” version of the Google apps with Google Drive.
John has offered to lead the session on 13th June.
Here’s another reminder about the format I’m suggesting for next year working with Digital Projects. What I’d like to do is have a Computer Group meeting on the fourth Thursday of the month (OK Christine?) and the Digital Projects on the second Thursday of the month. Generally the Computer Group will be much as it is at the moment catering for internet apps using a browser first and foremost, and then picking up iOS and Android issues as well as Windows and Mac items as well. The Digital Projects group will go into topics such as creating a website (which we’ve just done at a basic level), digital photography (re-visiting Lightroom for instance), digital audio and video editing, building a Linux computer, home media centres, integrating hifi with TV, etc etc. If anyone wants the Computer Group to continue fortnightly, then I need a volunteer to lead that session, I’d still attend if I can, and I will arrange the Digital Projects for another day/time.
Support for General Meeting 9th July, Chris Higley: Maps of Wales and Maps of War. Thanks for those who’ve offered to help; I’ll be sending a message round to those that weren’t present to sign-up, together with a guidance sheet  that explains what’s involved.
Anything else, issues, problems.
News
Problems with Apple power adaptor plugs manufactured between 2003 and 2010.

Affected New
Affected adapter slot detail New adapter slot detail

Anyone using (subscribed) to Apple Music? Anyone chosen the Family subscription? I need to check on saving a downloaded track to MP3 format.
How to uninstall programs on a Mac.
A guide on How to take photos with your iPhone.
Searching for a Copyright Free Image to use. What is Creative Commons?
Windows 7 support ends Jan 14th 2020 – what does this mean? What should you do? Your options – Cross-your fingers, Windows 8.1, Chromebook, Mac, Linux or Windows 10.
Experiences with Google Assistant? Paul has “volunteered” to look into this for next time.
You may be able to delete data held with Google automatically now.
Google and Windows 10 settings
Google Account settings (mainly referencing Android)
My Google Account – this is how you do it. I will look into using the native Gmail app with shared contacts.