The key points to consider are

What software or apps you currently use.

What tasks you perform on the machine on a daily, weekly and yearly basis

As an example a

Home user does a bit of email and internet surfing

A designer might need to use several programs with one of them being Sketch then it is Mac only.  Generally speaking creative people tend to use Apple Mac however there are a lot of home users now moving into Apple Ethos as they have the phone, Tablet and desktop. 

Some people vote for Linus based OS and apps.  This I think comes with the caveat that they need to be willing to learn a bit more about the OS and Apps and also be flexible to taking different approaches to issues.

Other points to consider are can you do all your needs online?  If so then, the world is your Lobster.  The caveat here is speed of connection and the reliability. 

My personal choice is to use an Apple Mac desktop and an Android based Smart Phone. 

The key points to consider are

What software or apps you currently use.

What tasks you perform on the machine on a daily, weekly and yearly basis

As an example a

Home user does a bit of email and internet surfing

A designer might need to use several programs with one of them being Sketch then it is Mac only.  Generally speaking creative people tend to use Apple Mac however there are a lot of home users now moving into Apple Ethos as they have the phone, Tablet and desktop. 

Some people vote for Linus based OS and apps.  This I think comes with the caveat that they need to be willing to learn a bit more about the OS and Apps and also be flexible to taking different approaches to issues.

Other points to consider are can you do all your needs online?  If so then, the world is your Lobster.  The caveat here is speed of connection and the reliability. 

My personal choice is to use an Apple Mac desktop and an Android based Smart Phone. 

Hello Sergio:

I do have an old (2007) 21.5 inch MAC which uses a Intel Core i5 CPU which I like to use from time to time.

However I have never tried to add Google Chrome browser to my MAC. 

I use Chrome on my Windows based system because it has a feature that I use all the time -

it will allows one to print to a pdf file and store to one's hard drive, instead of just sending the file to a regular hardware printer.

Have you ever tried to port Google Chrome Browser to your MAC?

Regard wireless phone selection- I don't use a smart phone(s). only regular wireless flip phone - as one gets older ones fingers seem to get bigger and trying to punch in numbers (like 20 digits needed on prescription drugs reorder(s) without making mistakes is nearly impossible on smart phones.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay   

Hello Sergio:

I came across a problem with using a wireless phone vs a smartphone about a month ago, which I have never seen highlighted anywhere.

The wireless flip phone has a "phone keyboard" where ,for example ABC is represented by numeric 2 or DEF is represented by numeric 3 etc.

The smartphone has one screen keyboard showing alphas and one screen keyboard showing numbers etc-it replicates a computer keyboard.

Many financial operations are now requiring a secondary security code via one's phone (verbal) that gives one a security factor that is combination of alphanumeric information,  that can not be punched in using the phone keyboard.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay 

Hello Sergio:

Regarding your Android phone, what does it take to unlock your phone? Example facial or fingerprint verification.

How do you make sure that your heirs can access your phone when you die?

That question was posed in one of my retirement magazines published this week.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay 

Usually the face or fingerprint unlock is in addition to the pass/code unlock, rather than replacing it. So a strategy for making sure someone else can access the phone would be to have the pass/code written down in a suitable place.

Personally, I'm not too worried about that because my phone is not the key to everything. It's a useful tool, no more. Although for others, the phone is key to their lives with accounts for everything.

Getting access to my personal laptop, now that is much more important. But my wife knows my password, as I know hers.

Of course the key thing here is setting a memorable and secure password. There are plenty of strategies for that. But I'm obviously not going to state which one I use.

Peter Brooks said:

Android phone, what does it take to unlock your phone? Example facial or fingerprint verification.

How do you make sure that your heirs can access your phone when you die?

We use pattern lock on all our Android devices, and we both know what it is. Not actually for that reason, more so that we can answer each other's devices when they're driving etc. Of course if we were both in the same car crash that wouldn't help our kids, so it is a good point that we should either let them know or keep a copy of the address book from our phones somewhere they can get access to. Like, I suspect, a lot of us on these forums we've learned far more than we wanted to in recent years about tidying up the affairs of lost ones, it is a pain if you can't find contact details. In many ways my mother was the easiest as she never had a computer or a smartphone.

BUT we don't use Google Pay etc, if we did we wouldn't be using pattern lock, it isn't brilliantly secure: https://www.kaspersky.co.uk/blog/how-to-lock-your-android-smartphone/26103/#:~:text=In%20addition%2C%20entering%20patterns%20often,lock%20to%20protect%20your%20smartphone.

Our other security features are to look scruffy, have cheap second-hand phones, and live in Cornwall (not in the now posh second-home end of Cornwall but in the end that no-one goes to). But to be fair these aren't deliberate security features, the lower need to worry about security (or indeed much else) is just a fringe benefit.

Cheers,

Andy

Hello Andy:

The retirement article that I quoted, stated that for the iPhone one can go to into the settings to create a "Legacy Contact ".

Regarding your comment about the death of both parties in a car crash brings up another another legal question. Which one died first?

Most US Wills cover this situation by defining which person shall be defined as being the last one to die.

Peter Brooks

Our solicitor made sure that we drew up "mirror wills" so that it didn't matter..