Entries by Ross

Is Alexa always listening?

Amazon’s Echo Virtual Assistant (infamously known as just Alexa) functions primarily on the idea of complete voice-control and having a single wake-word which lets these clever little robots know that it’s their time to shine. By saying “Alexa” around your device, it wakes from slumber, listens to your voice request, assists accordingly and then goes […]

Windows 7 has reached it’s End of Life

The date has been announced – January the 14th, 2020 – the date that Windows 7 reaches its end. After this date, Windows 7 will no longer be supported or updated by Microsoft, and current users will have to upgrade to Windows 10. Windows 7 is a decade old this July, launched in 2009 – […]

Password security

Too many people are still not taking password security seriously enough The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has just published the results of its first survey analysing public databases of breached accounts to see which words, phrases and strings people used. One of its most alarming findings was that millions of users were still […]

Beware of expensive paperweights!

We have had an interesting job at Colchester IT recently. As part of a customers computer repair, they provided us with a ‘2TB’ hard drive they had bought on Amazon in order to complete a data transfer. They mentioned that it was playing up but if we could sort it out then it would be […]

Cyber security in 2019 – are you insured?

Cyber security in 2019 – are you insured? The most recent figures for the extent of cybercrime published by the ONS (Office for National Statistics) in March 2018 state that 4.5 million such crimes had been committed in the previous 12 months. The ONS figures cover all types of cybercrime, including child pornography. In the […]

Merry Christmas

Wishing all our customers a Very happy Christmas And A Prosperous New Year There’s still time to take advantage of our special Christmas gift. We are giving a Cadbury’s Selection tray to every customer who purchases a laptop or has a repair from December 1 to December 24. Pop in and see us before Christmas.

Digital predictions for 2019

Christmas giveaway and what do the digital experts predict for 2019? We’ve had a look at some of the developments in digital technology that experts think we might see becoming more widespread next year Chatbots: Using natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analytics is likely to improve and if it does it could be much […]

Microsoft news

Microsoft will be ceasing to support Windows 7 from December 2018 in line with its police of only supporting older versions of Windows for two years or less from release. For some of you this may mean investing in a more powerful PC or laptop because the Windows 10 operating system is considerably more space […]

A tablet that is good for work purposes

The new Microsoft Windows 10 Surface Go has received good reviews for use with a detachable keyboard for work purposes. It is described as a “budget”, ie low cost model, which means it does have some limitations, according to the Guardian’s Samuel Gibbs, who describes it as better for work than for play. This means […]