There have been a lot of tech surprises in the coronaviruses.
We ran into a problem of a constant scarcity of hardware. Apple this year changed its data practices, including a tool to find child pornography on its phones, which critics said was an invasion of privacy. Many of us who ordered high-quality face masks to protect ourselves from the coronaviruses had to go through an ocean of fakes.
Valuable lessons to improve our relationship with tech for years to come, like becoming savvier online shoppers and taking control of our personal data, were found in this.
Think of it as New Year's resolutions for tech. My top recommendations are here.
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Tom Grillo was a writer for The New York Times.
Many white-collar professionals were forced to work from home because of the Pandemic. It shows how little we invest in our tech infrastructure, like the networking equipment and broadband services that power our internet connection.
People tend to buy gadgets first when they spend on technology. Video streaming sticks were one of the top-selling items on Black Friday according to a research report by Adobe.
Infrastructure should be the first thing we spend money on. A survey from Consumer Reports shows that one-fifth of consumers hold on to their routers for more than four years. We should upgrade our wi-fi routers every three to five years, according to wireless experts. The new standards for routers make it easier for multiple devices in a home to get a robust internet connection.
Your internet service provider should be able to tell if your internet connection is good or bad. You should consider investing in a faster plan if your broadband plan is no longer sufficient. Shoot for 40 megabits a second if your household streams a lot of video.
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Glenn Harvey has credit.
If you tried to buy a high-quality face mask online, you probably ran into a lot of fakes. The problem of poorly constructed masks is still a problem today.
The issue of fake goods online has been a problem for a long time, but the Pandemic has made it life threatening with masks. Amazon and other retailers have policies to ban the sale of fake masks, but new sellers with fake masks are always available. It has become a game.
The lesson? Before you click the buy button, make sure to vet. Read the reviews of the buyers. If it is an unknown brand, check the seller. Some online tools can look for signs of fake products and fake reviews.
It is important to be careful when buying vitamins and dog food. Buy these goods at a brick-and-mortar store.
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Glenn Harvey has credit.
One of the biggest tech surprises of the year was delivered by Apple.
The company announced a software update in August. The software included a tool to find child pornography on the phone. Once a number of matches were found, an Apple employee could review the photos and inform the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The company's pro-privacy image was undermined by the implications of its content-flagging system, which ran counter to the company's positive intent of preventing child abuse imagery from spreading. The technology could be disabled if people chose not to back up their images to the cloud.
When we use cloud services, our data is at the discretion of a tech company. The lesson? Changing how we manage our data will allow us to be more independent of the big companies and their cloud services.
Security experts advise taking a hybrid approach to our data. We need to back up our data to the cloud but also keep it on devices like physical drives. Even if the internet is down, you can still access important files with a local backup. If you become unhappy with a cloud service or get tired of paying subscription fees, you have an easy exit because you already have a copy of your information.
According to Acronis, only 17 percent of people take the hybrid approach. If you decide to leave a cloud service, it will be harder to pull your data out of it if you wait too long to create local backups.
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Glenn Harvey has credit.
Many shoppers who tried to grab deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday last month quickly realized there was something amiss.
Many items that we typically buy at a discount, like a new laptop or a new wireless device, were not on sale or out of stock. That was the result of a global chip shortage and disrupted supply chains, which have snarled manufacturing and the shipping of items around the world.
Waiting until Black Friday to spend has not been wise, but the scarcity caused by the swine flu has made this clearer than ever. Black Friday promotions are often better than the deals that emerge throughout the year.
It's difficult to know when the cool stuff is cheaper. You can follow sites that alert you to sales to find discounts. Wirecutter tracks deals on its website and on its social media accounts.
Camel Camel Camel, a website that lets you plug in products sold on Amazon and set up email alert for a price drop, can help track promotions for specific items. You can skip Black Friday if you get ahead of the holiday shopping frenzy.
