ABOUT CLARK HOWARD
Find more answers to your consumer questions, plus Clark’s book “Living Large in Lean Times,” at ClarkHoward.com.
Listen to Clark Howard weeknights from 6 to 9 p.m. on AM1290/95.7FM News Talk WHIO.
Computer sales just had the biggest drop in history of the PC ever. Sales have fallen off a cliff. Nobody wants one anymore because of the tablet revolution.
Tablets are great. I travel with both a tablet and a MacBook Air. Yet the MacBook gets 95 percent of my eyeball time. That’s because a computer or laptop gives you so many capabilities with the keypad and the better ease of surfing versus a tablet.
You can get a basic laptop now for $200. I just saw fully loaded 17-inch laptops for $349. A year ago, those might have been well over $1,000.
The economics are so positive for you. So yes, tablets have a role to play. Speaking of which, this coming Christmas, you’ll be able to get a nice Android tablet for $99. Not an off-brand; a name brand. They’re great for consuming content, but not so great for doing any kind of work.
Ultimately, there’s a need for both. I know some people have bought an add-on keyboard for tablets and feel like that’s sufficient. Microsoft also has some laptop-tablet combos. But for me, the simple answer is traveling with both.
You can find the best deals on electronics at DealNews.com and see predictive price analysis at Decide.com.
Digital afterlife
What happens to your accounts, usernames, and passwords when you die?
Google has a solution. They’ve rolled out the poorly named Inactive Account Manager as a feature if you’re in the Google orbit.
I activated my Inactive Account Manager and designated a couple trusted individuals who have access to all my Google activities. I set mine for 90 days. After 90 days of no activity on my accounts, my designees will get all my info to access everything I have on Google.
I hope Facebook will follow their lead and come up with a method to allow trusted family and friends to have access to take over a page in a similar way.
In the past, people have just given log-in info to trusted parties. There should be an official procedure though. People’s web presence is so much a part of our lives now. If you are a Google person, go to Google and type in Inactive Account Manager on your Account Settings page so you can turn this on too.
We never know when we will expire, right? So this is way to make sure loved ones will be able to handle a lot of our stuff for us when we no can longer do it.
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