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Gmail for Android’s new swipe actions
The newest version of Gmail for Android (8.5.20) allows you to control what will happen with a left or right swipe from the screen. Gmail has long allowed you to archive or delete messages with a swipe...
View ArticleThe connection between the end of net neutrality and the AT&T Time Warner merger
I see a connection between today’s ruling giving the go ahead for the AT&T/Time Warner merger and yesterday’s official end to net neutrality. While the decisions themselves were unrelated, the...
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A dash camera for ‘just in case’ makes sense
This post first appeared in the Mercury News A friend of mine posted on Facebook that he was involved in a head-on collision with a drunk teenage driver that seriously injured him and his wife and...
View ArticleShould you buy a standing desk or improve as I did?
One of my doctors recently reminded me that “sitting is the new smoking,” a mantra repeated by many in the medical community. He suggested I cut back the time in my chair. So, when a PR person from...
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The good and bad of location tracking
This post first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News Two recent news stories about cell phone location services recently caught my eye. One was a positive development and the other quite negative,...
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Study finds bipartisan concern over social media censorship
This post first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News It’s been obvious for awhile that we’re starting to experience a tech backlash, with an increasing number of people expressing skepticism over...
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Looking back at 35 years as a newspaper tech columnist
Although I had written about tech for PC and other magazines, my first newspaper column about tech ran on July 3, 1983. It was my first of 19 years of syndicated columns for the Los Angeles Times. I...
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Larry’s LA Times columns from 1984
Scroll down for my LA Times columns from 1984, including two that were about “1984.” And one about the brand new Mac showed to me by “Apple’s young chairman,” Steve Jobs. Click here for Larry’s 1983...
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Pet peeves about tech and life annoyances
This post first appeared in the Mercury News I could probably write a series of columns on my pet peeves about little and big things that bug me about technology, but I’ll start with ones that have...
View ArticleSophisticated tech used by both Russian hackers & DOJ investigators
Scroll down to read the indictment I don’t know what was more sophisticated, the Russian hacks or the U.S. Justice Department’s impressive computer forensics team that was able to break down these...
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Google’s $5 billion European fine unlikely to have much impact
This post first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News The European Commission on Wednesday hit Google with a record-breaking $5 billion fine for requiring Android makers to bundle Google search and its...
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Google finds the ‘key’ to online security
Google employees are now using a physical USB key to log on to their devices and, according to Krebs on Security, none “of its 85,000+ employees successfully phished on their work-related accounts...
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Lenovo brings visuals to smart speakers
This post first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News My wife, Patti, is pretty ho-hum about most of the products I review. But when I put Lenovo’s new Smart Display in the kitchen, she loved it,...
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Facebook & Instagram offer controls to manage time spent online
Facebook has announced tools to enable both Facebook and Instagram users to better manage the time they spend using those apps. That will include an activity dashboard, a daily reminder and enhanced...
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‘The Russians are coming’ (back) online
The ability to influence who leads our country may be more powerful than the ability to blow things up This post first appeared in the Mercury News The 1966 movie “The Russians Are Coming, The...
View ArticleRegular folks gettng a sextortion e-mail that includes their password
A friend called me the other day to say that she got an email asking for money to prevent the sender from sharing a comprimisng video of her watching porn. Normally she would have ignored it, but it...
View ArticleForget the formulas — pick a TV-size that pleases you
I recently purchased a 55-inch TCL 5- Series 4K TV for a media room in my house. I brought it home, set it up, sat down to watch TV and immediately had buyer’s remorse because the set was too big for...
View ArticleMixed reviews for pricey Magic Leap Augmented Reality headset
The initial reviews (see below) are somewhat mixed, but tech journalists who have had a chance to test out the Magic Leap One AR headset are — at least — impressed by the effort and the goals of this...
View ArticleOnline tools give do-it-yourself projects a boost
As you may know, I run a small nonprofit internet safety organization called ConnectSafely.org, and like most nonprofits, we’re always looking for ways to save both time and money. There are situations...
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