Monthly Archives: June 2019

iOS 13 Comes Out Mid-September

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If you’re an iPhone user like myself, you might be just as pumped for this improved software to be released. With updates come new features, and I’m a fan of new features on my phone. iOS 13 was announced at the WWDC earlier this month and this operating system includes a plethora of updates and optimizations, such as:

  • new dark mode
  • new Siri voice
  • new map experiences
  • new tools for photo editing
  • new sign-in
  • faster performance (up to 30% faster)
  • quick path typing
  • and more!
source: apple.com

The Apple press shared a statement of the availability of the new operating system update being released:

“A public beta program will be available to iOS users next month at beta.apple.com. New software features will be available this fall as a free software update for iPhone 6s and later, and will be available with iPadOS for iPad Air 2 and later, all iPad Pro models, iPad 5th generation and later, and iPad mini 4 and later. iPadOS also introduces new capabilities and intuitive features that take advantage of the unique characteristics of iPad.”

So while it says the update will come out in the fall, many are speculating that the release will come in between September 9th-17th. Remember with any beta program comes possible risks as it may not allow your phone to function properly because of the errors in the testing. So if you become part of the beta testing for the iOS 13, make sure you back up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and your Mac using Time Machine beforehand. Beta testing program is available for free, so check it out if interested.

For help with any operating systems, call us at 1-800-620-5285.  Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities. This blog post was brought to you from our staff at the Frisco Computer Repair Service, if you need computer repair in Frisco, TX please call or text the local office at (469) 299-9005.

Recall Notice: Apple MacBook Batteries

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As of June 20th, Apple warned MacBook users of a voluntary recall notice to certain laptop batteries. In their press release, certain units were sold right around the months of September 2015 and February 2017. The batteries in these units pose a possible risk of overheating, causing a safety concern.

To find out if your MacBook is included in this recall, you can visit the Apple Support Recall blog post and put in your laptops’ serial number. The serial number can be found, according to Apple by looking to, “see which 15-inch MacBook Pro you have. Choose About This Mac from the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of your screen. Confirm your model is “MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015).” If you have that model, enter your computer’s serial number below to see if it is eligible for this program.”

Search for an authorized Apple Authorized Service Provider to set up an appointment to receive a replacement, free of charge. This may take up to 1-2 weeks for service to be completed, but definitely worth it.

For inquiries or help with any Apple brand products, call us at 1-800-620-5285.  Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities. This blog post was brought to you from our staff at the Denver Computer Repair Service, if you need computer repair in Denver, CO please call or text the local office at (720) 441-6460.

Need More OneDrive Storage? Check this out!

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Yesterday, the General Manager of Microsoft 365 announced new storage plans on OneDrive. If you have a OneDrive account, you can get in on this additional storage.

With an Office 365 account, you can pay $69.99/year in one lump sum (which comes out to about $5.83/month), or pay $6.99/monthly. And with that plan comes with 1 TB of storage. You can, then, choose to upgrade for extra GB.

source: microsoft.com

On top of that, if you only have a “storage only” plan in your OneDrive account, the 50 GB option is increasing to 100 GB for the same price of $1.99/month. Seth Patton writes, “That’s enough space to store over 50,000 pictures (at 2 MB per photo). This new plan is perfect for automatically backing up your phone’s camera roll and scanning and saving documents, receipts, and more right from your phone. You can also use it to back up your files and share and collaborate on documents. This new plan will roll out soon. If you’re currently using our 50 GB plan, you’ll automatically get 50 GB more storage added to your account at no additional cost.”

These new OneDrive plans will be rolling out in the coming months, so be on the look out for them.

If you have any questions regarding Microsoft OneDrive, call us at 1-800-620-5285.  Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities. This blog post was brought to you from our staff at the Phoenix Computer Repair Service. If you need computer repair in Phoenix, AZ please call our local office at (602) 445-9862.

Personal Vault Announced by Microsoft

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Seth Patton, General Manager of Microsoft 365 introduced OneDrive Personal Vault today on their blog. He states, “With the growing presence and sophistication of online threats, it’s increasingly important to have the right protection and tools to help safeguard your devices, personal information, and files from being compromised.”

This new security feature includes additional protection your more important files and information on your personal account. And while OneDrive initially has its own set of security measures, many customers seemed to want just a little more.

The Personal Vault has some pretty handy benefits, including:

  1. Easy Access: adding a 2-step authentication, fingerprint, PIN code, or a code sent to e-mail or through text.
  2. Scan Documents: using the OneDrive app on your phone, you can take pictures or scan documents and place them directly in your Personal Vault.
  3. Locks up Automatically: after a certain time amount of inactivity, your account locks up on its own.

Personal Vault will be available to everyone by the end of 2019, so keep a look out. However, if you’re in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, you’ll be accessible sooner!

City paid Hackers $600,000

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Riviera Beach, FL recently paid ransomware hackers $600,000 to unlock their computers. The ransomware hackers had locked all the government computers and encrypted all their data. The Riviera Beach City Council gave into the ransomware hackers’ demands. They currently appear to be in the process of getting their data back right now.

The city of Riviera Beach apparently had no backups of their data. The infection appears to have started on a single computer from clicking on an email. The ransomware spread to their entire network network before it encrypted all their data.

We have seen this same sort of attack at many businesses and home user’s computers. Inside a small network running off a single router at your home or business an infected computer can spread infections across all your systems. Windows and Apple computers inherently trust other computers within your own local network. They only have minimal security protections against other systems on your own network.

All of Riviera Beach’s problems could have been solved with having a backup of their data.

What to do to protect Yourself?

Ransomware and hackers can strike at any time and the most cost effective protection is to have a backup of your entire system and data. We recommend all our clients have both an on-site and off-site backup. A $50 external USB hard drive is all you need for an on-site backup. Off-site backup services like Carbonite start at $72 a year and backup all your data instantly upon creation.

The are several reasons why you want both an on-site and off-site backup of your data. On-site backups are often targeted by ransomware attacks before they encrypt your local data so that you have no method to restore your data without paying them. On-site backups are also more susceptible to fire, theft and just general wear and tear (all hard drives eventually ware out). Off-site backups are very slow to restore from, sometimes taking up to a week to download all files if you need to do a total restore.

By having both an on-site and off-site backup you minimize your risks. On-site backups are great for a quick restore of a deleted file or going back quickly to a previous revision of a file. Off-site backups allow for a greater length of time to restore files. Backup services like Carbonite store multiple revisions of your data so you will have 5-7 snap shots over time to restore from. Off-site backups are great for a home, business or an entire city that has been hit with ransomware where you lose all access to your computers and data.

How to restore after ransomware?

After you have been hit by a ransomware attack often your best move is to reformat the computer. Additionally, all computers on your network should be turned off or isolated from one another. You will need to keep them off until you can verify that all systems are clean.

Windows 10 and MacOS allow quick methods to format the entire hard drive and start from scratch. Once you have a base Operating System up you should install anti-virus software immediately. If you have a on-site backup (hard drive, flash drive, NAS, etc) that is not encrypted or infected with the ransomware you can restore off it.

Off-site backups are the clear advantage for post ransomware cleanups. Even if encrypted data has been uploaded to their service you can restore a previous version of the file. You can often restore from as recent as the previous day’s version of a file. We often see clients after a ransomware attack and off-site backup services like Carbonite have entire teams dedicated to assisting you with restoring files after a ransomware attack.

For professional help with backups, proactive ransomware security or post ransomware cleanup, call us at 1-800-620-5285.  Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities. This blog post was brought to you from our staff at the Phoenix Computer Repair Service. If you need computer repair in Phoenix, AZ please call our local office at (602) 445-9862.

iPad Gets its own OS

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At WWDC 2019 earlier this month, Apple announced that iPad was getting its own operating system. Branching off from the original iOS, the company is attempting at making an even better and more unique experience for iPad users.

Apple includes on their website that this new iPadOS can give you, “multiwindow experiences, add full drawing experiences for Apple Pencil, and contribute fonts for systemwide use.” This can benefit those who can easily multitask and quickly maneuver from app to app. This OS will also improve the iPads’ performance on the internet, extending the web app efficiency.

But to top it all off, the iPadOS will be able to handle external drives. This supports not only the brand new iPad Pro coming out soon, but also previous iPads! The OS will be available for beta testers by the end of this month, and open for the public by the Fall season. Keep a look out!

For help with any Apple brand products, call us at 1-800-620-5285.  Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities. This blog post was brought to you from our staff at the Denver Computer Repair Service, if you need computer repair in Denver, CO please call or text the local office at (720) 441-6460.

Catalina Update Available Earlier for Mac Users

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This past week at WWDC, Apple revealed an major update to MacOs, naming it Catalina.

This Catalina update will:

  1. replace iTunes with Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV
  2. allow your iPad act as a second monitor for your Mac
  3. run iPad apps

Although this update release isn’t until the Fall season, Apple stated that Mac users can use the beta version of Catalina in July. Just sign up for the Apple Beta Software Program. Apple adds in the FAQ section of the program that, “since the public beta software has not yet been commercially released by Apple, it may contain errors or inaccuracies and may not function as well as commercially released software.” Make sure you have a backup of your files so that you don’t lose whatever is on your Mac drive.

For help troubleshooting MacOs or any other Apple related issues, call us at 1-800-620-5285.  Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities. This blog post was brought to you from our staff at the Mesa Computer Repair Service, if you need computer repair in Mesa, AZ please call the local office at (480) 240-2950.

Is Your Computer One of the Million Susceptible to Malware?

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Yes, you heard that right.

Last month, Microsoft warned users that their computers may be unprotected. While they released fixes back on the 14th of May for a ‘Remote Code Execution vulnerability‘, Microsoft explains that it’s ‘wormable‘ and could cause a handful of issues to your computer.

Simon Pope, the Director of Incident Response, Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) includes, “It’s been only two weeks since the fix was released and there has been no sign of a worm yet. This does not mean that we’re out of the woods. If we look at the events leading up to the start of the WannaCry attacks, they serve to inform the risks of not applying fixes for this vulnerability in a timely manner. “

Their fix to this vulnerability: simply update your system as soon as possible.

Better to be safe than sorry.

For help updating, restoring or dealing with any Windows 10 issues, call us at 1-800-620-5285.  Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities. This blog post was brought to you from our staff at the Denver Computer Repair Service, if you need computer repair in Denver, CO please call or text the local office at (720) 441-6460.