What are USB port speeds? The new standard for Apple is the USB 3.1 – also called USB-C – that transfers your data at 10 gigabits per second. Now that’s fast!

Here is a short history of USB speeds. USB 2.0 in April 2000 transferred speeds up to 480 megabits per second. USB 3.0 was launched in 2008 with 5 gigabits per second.

In 2013, Apple introduced Thunderbolt, which provided speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. Then Thunderbolt 2 launched and provided up to 20 gigabits per second.

Get the free Photo Duplicate Cleaner for Mac Notebooks at the App Store and get rid of all your duplicate pictures.

Did you know that you can change text colors in many programs on the Mac? Opening text edit, you will notice a solid black box on the top menu bar. Click on it, and a color wheel shows up allowing you to change text colors.

In the new IOS 10 for the iPhone, Siri can send money to other people from your iPhone contact list and ask for money via Square Cash.

Now, Siri will be able to control third party apps like LinkedIn and WHATSAPP. For instance, tell Siri to “send Donald Trump one dollar,” and the SQUARE cash app would transmit the funds.Tell Siri to send Donald a message in LinkedIn: “I’m not voting for you.” Expect a vulgar return.

Mophie has announced a wireless charger for laptops, iPads and iPhones for about $100.

Be careful of password managers protecting your stored passwords, as more are getting hacked. Also, if you ever see the message “would you like us to save your password?” in browsers like Google, Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Opera, DON’T DO IT!

Please update your iPhone and iPad, because a security hack called Trident can infect and totally take over your device’s camera and microphone, track your movements and log all messages. This can be done with only a text message sent to you.

Many people have two or more keyboard apps on their iPhones or iPads, like Kanvas or Gif. Let’s say you’re in the notepad and want to switch keypads. Just press down on the world globe icon and choose your keypad.

Ever hear of Swedish Candy? Someone started putting candy in their shipping box to the computer repair center and got priority. So, next time you’re shipping a broken computer to HP, stick in a box of Tootsie Rolls.

Now, Google Photos 2.0 offers free photo storage.

Okay, I just found out how to get a new iPhone 7 for almost free. On Sept. 16, the new iPhone 7s became available at AT&T and Sprint stores. Take your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus and trade it in. The only cost will be a 4 percent tax charge for the iPhone 6, which amounts to about $26. For the iPhone 7 Plus, add on $100.

The program is called AT&T NEXT, which allows you to trade in your old, good condition iPhone for a new one every year.

The IOS 10 is out, and Smileys by Apple is a new emoji app. Download and enjoy the new features, which I’ll explain in the next article.

Send your computer-related questions to mauimist8669@yahoo.com.