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 

I don't think anybody actually likes Microsoft.  The only real advantage of Windows is that it's Windows-compatible, which means there's endless software out there to run on it.

I don't think people realise that there is a similarly endless list of GPL (and other licences too) software for Linux derived OS's out there as well!

 Peter Brooks Actually, a little search turned up this company that offers Laptops preinstalled with Linux, with AMD processors and even a warrantee!

Buy a Linux Laptop? Preïnstalled with Linux | Laptopwithlinux.com

Other providers are available and I've never used this company, but this is an example of what a google search turned up.

Its not significantly cheaper then the MS alternative, which shows you how much MS subsidise some PC manufacturers.

More here mainly for those in US:-

https://linuxpreloaded.com/

I note on my Raspberry PI, the method of updating to the next version of the OS is to rewrite the SD card again. Which is a bit of a nuisance.

I glad to see you are using a 2015 MacBook. However later versions (for example 2016, 2017, 2018), had the Butterfly keyboard problem.

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