Mossberg’s Mailbox
July 15, 2009
by Walter S. Mossberg
There’s no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.
Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.
Recently, you reviewed some new Apple laptops whose batteries are sealed in and can’t be removed by the user. But I have had situations with some laptops where the only way to restart them when frozen is to remove the battery. How can this problem be handled if the battery is sealed in?
On Mac laptops, you can shut down the computer, even if the software appears frozen, by holding down the power button firmly and continuously for 5-10 seconds. You then wait a few seconds, press the power button again, and the machine should start up. This is different from the more common scenario where a brief press of the power button brings up a dialog box allowing you to choose to shut down or restart the Mac, or to put it into sleep mode.
Apple says there is another method you can use instead of removing a battery. Pressing the Control and Command keys simultaneously with the Power Button restarts the computer.
I live in the U.S. and when I visit Europe I have no cellphone, which makes it difficult to stay in touch during my trips. I am completely ignorant about cellphones and use a pay-as-you-go model that doesn’t work in Europe. What type of phone do you recommend I buy that I can use both in the States and abroad? I do not need a built-in camera, or any other fancy add-ons. I only want to be able to call people.
The two major U.S. phone carriers whose underlying technology is compatible with the system used in Europe are AT&T and T-Mobile. Given your needs and your usage pattern, I’d go into one of their stores and look for the least expensive and simplest model that can operate on all the frequencies used in the U.S. and Europe. These phones are typically referred to as “quad band” or sometimes as “world phones.” I would also try and find a plan that minimizes overseas roaming charges, which can be quite high.
Another option is to look for an “unlocked” phone that can accept different SIM cards, the small chips that connect phones to carriers. That way, you could have one SIM for use in the U.S. and another for whatever country you are visiting.
I have hundreds of folders in “My documents.” In each folder there may be hundreds more individual files. Is there a way to rapidly search for key words in all of those documents in order to locate any files that might contain a particular word?
If you are using Windows XP, you can download and install various desktop search add-on products that can solve your problem. The best known are Windows search, from Microsoft, at http://bit.ly/Dflai, and Google Desktop Search, at desktop.google.com. If you have Windows Vista, it comes with a built-in desktop search function that can accomplish that task, though you can also use the Google product.
You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.
Comments
In regards to cell phones in Europe, I would look, specifically, at T-Mobile’s hot spot capable phones, or Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA.) From my understanding, if you purchase one of these phones, the Blackberry 8900 Curve, for example, and pay the $10 extra for hot spot service, you can use the phone anywhere in the world where there’s wifi and call home for free.
Posted by David Garber at July 15th, 2009 at 4:28 pmhttp://www.telestial.com/ sells European sim cards. They have one called the Explorer, that can be used in most counties without buying country specific sim cards. the cost per minute rates are reasonable.I use this card when I travel, it has a one year life after the last refill.
Posted by Allen Condon at July 15th, 2009 at 9:40 pmhttp://www.Mobal.com sells phones that can be used in 170 Counties with no contract and a permanent phone number. their phones do not have a time limit on the sim card. I do not know their charges.
My daughter recently went to France and in the process of finding her an appropriate cell phone I ran across a program Verizon offers. If you’re going to travel to Europe for 30 days or less and you’re a Verizon customer, they will ship you a phone (you pay nominal shipping) with the SIM card for the destination country. The overseas access charges are $1/minute with a $5 one-time fee or $1.50/minute with no fee. Texting is $.50 for outgoing messages and $.05 for incoming messages. With this program, you keep your US phone number and, presumably, only answer the calls you’re willing to pay for.
Posted by William McLarty at July 16th, 2009 at 9:54 amThe discussion of cell phones in Europe left out an important issue. We traveled in Europe last summer and tried to be sure our AT&T cell phone service would work. We had the right “GSM” kind of phone provided by AT&T. I called AT&T more than once to say where we were going and ask what to do over there; I was assured everything was OK. It wasn’t. The phone wouldn’t even “register” with a cell phone tower. At first we thought it was our being out of range but even in big cities (Cologne, Mainz, Vienna, etc.) nothing worked. I complained when we returned to the U.S. and after lots of confusion was finally told that they had failed to set a flag in our account to permit use outside the U.S., despite multiple pre-trip calls to them.
Ultimately they did refund half of a one-month subscription charge but not the $150 we had to spend at a credit-card pay phone in De Gaulle airport to make an important call to one of our children.
Posted by Robert McNeill at July 16th, 2009 at 11:57 am