Many people ask me how to back up all their stuff on either the iPhone or iPad – especially all the thousands of e-mails and pictures. There are so many ways, and most seem confusing or too complicated.

Well, Bucko, I have some good news for all you scared, computer-illiterate Millennials. Go to the website Imazing.com and download the app, which by the way costs a whopping $15 but well worth it. Once it’s downloaded, click on the app (if you don’t have your iPhone connected up using the charger cord, then it reminds you). Once connected, it gives you a few options to choose from. Don’t choose Encryption.

This app will just blow you away. It saves all your phone calls, messages, notes, photos, iBooks, apps, music videos and more. Now you can clean up that mess on your phone and even have more space – after deleting the 11.05-minute video of the Lahaina fireworks.

For all you Windows users, guess what? You can download the same version and back up your iPhone or iPad on a Windows computer. And people say I only write about Apple products!

I usually don’t visit the App Store, because I end up wanting to buy all the new apps out there. I got suckered into buying a new one called TextGrabber. This app cost me about $3.99, and it enables you to take a video or snapshot of a newspaper article (or plain paper document) and turn it into text, so you can copy it to Microsoft Word. It will also translate a document from Spanish to English. I tried it out and found it to be pretty accurate. You’ll probably come across a few misspelled words, so don’t drag out that big, old, clunky, beat-up Webster’s Dictionary. Just click on the word and then hold down the Option Key, then Right Click on it, and a menu pops up displaying the correct spelling. I bet Mark, the Lahaina News editor, uses that secret to edit all the Lahaina Bypass letters sent to the newspaper.

I just finished rebuilding a beautiful 20-inch iMac computer that works great. If interested, just give me a call. Also, if you plan on traveling to Poland or Telugu and want to take along a small, lightweight laptop, I have two rebuilt mini laptops ready pass through Customs. With the new travel laws out, they may ban some of the bigger laptops.

Do many of you iPhone people use Facetime to make a call? It only works with another iPhone if you want to see a live video of the other person. But my friend Dick Sargent, owner of Sargent’s Fine Art, showed me how to download and set-up WhatsApp, which allows iPhone and Android users to talk and see each other. While talking with him, he showed me a Picasso painting selling for… I think $50. Or was it $50,000? Just walk into the gallery if you need to find out.

Here is a trick to use with Messenger. If you want to send a reply back without typing in a full message, just press and hold on the receive window, and a menu pops up of a heart, thumbs up, ha ha, “?,” and “!!” Another way is if you turn your iPhone sideways, another menu opens up with written messages like “Thank You” and “Happy Birthday.”

Here is one for all you Windows users. Luminar is the smart photo editor program that is powerful enough to replace Photoshop and Lightroom. And now the beta of Luminar for Windows is ready. Being a successful Mac-only software company for years, they are now expanding to the PC platform.

There is s Smart Speaker war going on. The Siri-powered HomePod is a smart speaker costing $349 that will compete with Amazon’s Echo, which retails for $179.99, and the even more reasonably priced Google Home that retails for $129.99. Amazon also has a cheaper version of its Echo for only $49.99 – folks, that’s a good deal! Mr. Cheap says that’s a “no-brainer for me.”

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