Category Archives: Computers

The Ultimate Social Media Guide – Part 1

April 6, 2015 Computers Made Simple Leave a comment

We’ve covered some parts of current social media already. Things like Facebook, WeChat have had in-depth study here on Computers Made Simple. What’s left? Lots. Here’s a list of some of the apps that we’ll be working on:

1. Periscope – It’s currently only available from the Apple store but we understand that there’s an Android version coming soon. Once we get access to that, we’ll be detailing Periscope’s pluses and minuses.

Once this gets to Android, we’ll review it.

2. Instagram – Yes it’s old and somewhat gray but Instagram is still viable and fun. We’ll explain how to get followers and the best way to discover who to follow. There are some tricks and tips that we’ll share too.

We’re very active on Instagram. It’s a great way to share memorable photos and moments with the world.

3. Snapchat – This fun app isn’t just for teens or tweens. It’s a fun way to check out popular events happening all over the world. Whether it’s the X-games or just a TGIF celebration, you’ll be able to catch it on Snapchat. Stories are getting more popular on Snapchat and we’ll explain how to create your own.

Photo of Snapchat icon — **It’s not what you think. OK, there’s some of that too but there’s lots more that comes with this app.**

4. Vine – Silly and endlessly entertaining, Vine is a great way to while away those minutes while you’re waiting for your next appointment or when you’re on your way to work…as a passenger, of course.

Short and fun videos, that’s Vine.

5. Small, but fun, time-wasters – We’ve got lots of these on our various devices, doesn’t everyone? We’ll itemize our favorites, just in case you haven’t heard of them.

Hours of fun with this one. We love trivia so it’s always being used.

What are your favorite apps? Let us know and we’ll check them out. If we see something that needs explaining, we’ll do a post on it.

Comments and questions are welcome but Likes on our Facebook page get immediate attention. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook . Thanks for reading!

Computers

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO WECHAT – PART 6

March 30, 2015 Computers Made Simple 6 Comments

Photo of WeChat stolen from the Internet — **Protect your WeChat account. It’s not rocket science.**

We’re winding down this series of posts on WeChat. A large number of our readers seem to lose access to their accounts for one reason or another. For that reason, we’ve tried to show you how to protect your account, your contacts and your chat history. Here are a few final tips and reminders for you:

1. Make sure you link your email address and/or your current mobile phone number to your WeChat account. You don’t have to link both items but you must link one in order to protect your account.

2. If you change phones, back up your contacts and chat history \to the WeChat servers before you get rid of your old phone. Once you have uploaded your data, unlink your old phone number. Before you unlink your number, link your email address, right? Then do the reverse on your new phone.

3. Remember that your options for account recovery are limited unless you link something up with your WeChat account. These options include QQ, your mobile phone number, your email address and Facebook. If your WeChat account is valuable to you, protect it.

4. Features like Shake are fun but don’t wear them out. If you get unusual results using Shake, give it a break. Find something else to do that doesn’t overload the WeChat servers. Shake is fun, not a way of life.

5. Probably the worst thing you can manage to do on WeChat is to get banned. Once you’re banned, it’s difficult if not impossible to get your account back. Sure, there’s a recovery page but it’s up to WeChat to decide if you should be reinstated.

6. Don’t add third party apps, ones that promise to help you find compatible users or assist you in any way. WeChat is fine as a standalone app. You know who makes it, you know what it can access and what it can’t. Don’t download apps that aren’t mainstream ones. You’re just asking for trouble if you install these things on your mobile device.

7. Above all, send yourself your WeChat password in an email every time you change it. This is basic common sense but you would not believe the number of people who contact us because they’ve forgotten their password.

Good luck! If you run into problems, let us know. We’ll do our best to sort things out for you but reread our tips to learn how to protect yourself.

Comments and questions are welcome but Likes on our Facebook page get immediate attention. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook . Thanks for reading!

Computers

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO WECHAT – PART 5

March 25, 2015 Computers Made Simple 6 Comments

So far we’ve opened a WeChat account with a temporary and free phone number, verified our email and played around with the social parts of the app. In this post we’re going to get a new password. If you forget your WeChat password, there are two ways to get back into your account. One is by SMS and the other is by email. There is a third option but it exists ONLY if you have signed up for WeChat with QQ. Today, it’s email that we’re going to use.

1. We logged out of our account. Since we used a ridiculously easy password, we weren’t too concerned about forgetting it. We did make one mistake though. Follow along to hear about it.

WeChat forgot password 1 — **Switch account, log in or get a new password. We chose the last.**

2. Once you’re logged out, you have some choices. You can switch to another WeChat account on the same screen or log in again to the same account. Or, and this is the reason for this post, you can tell WeChat that you forgot your password. The other option is to sign in by SMS but we’ll leave that for another time.

WeChat forgot password 2 — **Yes, we forgot our password although we could still log in with an SMS that WeChat will send us.**

3. If you tell WeChat that you’ve forgotten your password, there are three options open to you: reset via email, log in via SMS or sign in with your QQ password and ID.

WeChat forgot password 3 — **Three options. We want to ‘Reset password via email’.**

Note: In order to regain a lost password, you must have either a phone number or an email account linked to your account. That seems obvious, right? You would not believe the number of readers who don’t seem to get this point. Don’t use a made-up number or email account to register for WeChat. Make sure you verify at least one of the two ways that WeChat can communicate with you if you forget your password. WeChat will only send SMS messages or emails to verified accounts. Why? Because if they did it any other way then anyone could steal anyone else’s WeChat account. Think about it and make sure you verify a number or an email account.

4. Fill in your email address, the one that is linked to your WeChat account. We had to do this a few times because we forgot what email we used to sign up. Then, when we used autofill, it somehow made a typo and WeChat wouldn’t accept the email address, even though we were sure it was correct. It wasn’t until we actually typed the address into the slot that we we able to get WeChat to send us the new password form.

WeChat Forgot Address 4 — **Use autofill at your peril. Better to type it in yourself.**

5. Press Next and wait. Go to your email account and check both the inbox and the junk mail folder. It could take a few minutes for the message to come through so be patient. When the message arrives, open it to see this:

WeChat Forgot Address 5 — **Here’s the email. That URL is long enough, isn’t it?**

6. Click on the link and this comes up.

WeChat Forgot Address 6 — **Make it strong and memorable. Hey, at least write it down!**

7. Fill in the new password. Click OK. This comes up:

WeChat Forgot Address 8 — **Done! Now go log in to make sure it worked.**

8. Go back to your mobile device and sign in with your new password. Write it down so you don’t forget it again.

Comments and questions are welcome but Likes on our Facebook page get immediate attention. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook . Thanks for reading!

Computers

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO WECHAT – PART 4

March 24, 2015 Computers Made Simple 2 Comments

We learned how to link an email account to our WeChat profile in our last post. Today, let’s link a Facebook account to WeChat.

1. You can link the two accounts whether or not you have Facebook installed on your mobile device. We have done it both ways, no problem.

2. Go to Me then Settings then My Account. Whatever you can link WeChat with is shown on the page. The reason we say that is because your screen may be different than ours. We’re in North America so we see what’s available here, not in Asia, for instance.

3. You should see something like this:

Photo of WeChat page 1 — **Here’s what you’ll probably see. ‘Facebook Not Linked’**

4. Next, you’ll see the Connect to Facebook page.

Photo of screen — **Read the fine print first then click Connect to Facebook if you agree.**

5. Now, fill in your Facebook details including email and password, then press Log In.

Facebook detail screen — **Fill in the details.**

6. Once you do that, there will be a few screens which tell you everything that Facebook wants to do. WeChat will see your public profile, your Facebook name, your profile photo and some other information.

Facebook Requirements — **Read the details and click OK if you decide to go for it.**

7. Next, you have to decide if you want WeChat to post on Facebook. We’re not sure what they will post so if you choose Yes, make sure you check to see what they post!

Photo of WeChat/Facebook — **It depends on what they post, right? Be careful!**

8. Once you have decided on these things, the two accounts will link up. We got this notice, not sure what the ‘null’ means however.

Linked Facebook Account — **The option here is to Unlink so we would guess that we are now linked. Yay!**

9. Next, when you go back to My Account, you’ll see your Facebook account name. You’re done!

Details of linking — **Gerry Garcia? Wasn’t he..but he’s…yes, he’s fake.**

Note: Anything you see here about our account is not real. We have several trial Facebook accounts using names that we have made up. The same goes for WeChat and phone numbers. There are many ways to fake your identification, right?

Ok so we’ve linked email, phone and Facebook. If you signed up with QQ then you’ve already linked that too. What’s next? Well, we will show you how to recover your account if you lose access to it. Stay tuned!

Comments and questions are welcome but Likes on our Facebook page get immediate attention. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook . Thanks for reading!

Computers

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO WECHAT – PART 3

March 23, 2015 Computers Made Simple Leave a comment

Let’s lock up our WeChat account, shall we? There are three ways to do that. You can use your mobile number, your email or your Facebook account. Here’s how to link your email:

1. Press Me then Settings then My Account.

2. Depending on how you registered for WeChat, you will see different options on this page. We registered using a mobile number. For us, only email and Facebook are showing. What you see here may be totally different from what someone else sees. This is about what we can do with our account in North America.

3. Email verification is the easiest. Click on the word Email then type in the email address that you want to link to your WeChat account. Make double/triple/quadruple sure that you type the address correctly. If you happen to make a typo, someone else could steal your account before you realize it.

4. Once you fill in the details, wait patiently for the verification email to arrive. This is what it looks like:

WeChat email verification 1 — **Click on the OK and your account is automatically linked to your WeChat account.**

5.Click on OK and this is what opens up in a new tab:

WeChat email verification 2 — **Success!**

6. Remember that you cannot link two email accounts or two phone numbers to your WeChat. Only one of each. If you have to register a new email or number, you have to unlink your old one. Keep that in mind.

We’ll link a Facebook account to our WeChat in the next post. In the meantime, comments and questions are welcome but Likes on our Facebook page get immediate attention. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook . Thanks for reading!

a little bit of hi-tech, a little bit of common sense and a lot of fun