Newsletter Archives

• How to link your smartphone with Windows 11

  Posted on February 12, 2024 at 02:44 CST by Lance Whitney • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Lance Whitney

  Connecting your iPhone or Android phone to Windows 11 lets you make phone calls, send texts, and view notifications directly from your PC.

  As an iPhone owner and Windows user, I’d like to be able to access my phone from my computer at times. Maybe I want to make or answer a call, or send or view a text message, but my phone isn’t handy. Or maybe speaking or chatting with someone feels easier when I’m already using my PC for other tasks. Whatever the scenario, this is a capability I often need. And it’s all doable with the right tools.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.07.0, 2024-02-12).

  Windows 11 Android, Bluetooth, iPhone, Newsletters, Pairing Phone, Phone Link, Photos, Texting

• The best news of the year

  Posted on December 18, 2023 at 02:44 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The year 2023 revealed many poor decisions made by Internet giants. Almost every big company seemed to make at least one techno no-no.

  The good news is that the year also saw several positive developments — or, at least, an incremental change that might lead to something better.

  I’ll update you today on some of the most significant news. These situations were first described in stories that I originally covered in an AskWoody column this year.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.51.0, 2023-12-18).

  Public Defender Generative AI, images, iMessage, Keyboards, Newsletters, RCS, Rich Communication Services, SMS, TenKeyLess, Texting

• Google explains why videos sent from iPhones look so terrible

  Posted on August 29, 2022 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Visuals sent from iPhones and iPads via iMessage are seriously degraded, sometimes unrecognizably so, when received on Android phones — and even sometimes on other iPhones. This is because Apple refuses to support a common tech standard, according to a new public effort by Google.

  You may be surprised to learn that some very solid Mac users are the first to complain about Apple’s garbling of their multimedia files.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.35.0, 2022-08-29).

  Public Defender iMessage, Messages, MMS, Newsletters, Public Defender, RCS, SMS, Texting