Posts from Online Tech Tips for 11/22/2019

In this issue: YouTube Music Review – A Nice Streamlined Way To Listen To Music Videos - [View in browser]( Thursday, November 21, 2019 YouTube Music Review – A Nice Streamlined Way To Listen To Music Videos by Mark O'Neill | [Online Tech Tips]( When you think of streaming music, you are spoilt for choice. The market leader is arguably [Spotify, with Apple Music]( coming in a close second. Then it’s platforms like Pandora taking up the slack. But what about YouTube? Illegal music uploads to YouTube are nothing new. But these days, all major artists and business-savvy bands are making their own official YouTube channels with their music free for anyone to hear. Not only does it help them find new fans, but they can monetize their videos with YouTube ads, helping them to bring in some extra revenue. YouTube has latched onto this and now has a dedicated YouTube music video site and mobile app with both free and paid options (the paid option for $12.99 a month removes all YouTube video ads, but $12.99 to skip ads after 5 seconds is outrageous). You can [get YouTube Music here]( and on iOS & Android. YouTube Music Videos Pull In All The Music You’ve Already Listened To If you’re like me, you’ll have listened to music on YouTube quite a lot. Therefore you may have your own [specially curated music playlists]( as well as music in your ‘liked’ lists. So YouTube likely already has a good idea of what you like to listen to by studying your track record. When you start YouTube Music for the first time, all of that music history is pulled into the app. You can further refine your music choices by specifying what artists you like. You can come back to this screen at any time via the link in the settings. Once you go back to the main Music screen, it will begin to self-populate with your liked music, liked artists and what YouTube Music deems to be ‘similar’ to your likes. You can listen to automatically generated playlists based on an artist you liked or a genre that you tend to listen to. A lot of my music likes on YouTube are from the 1980’s, so that is partly what I found when I studied YouTube’s playlists. You also get a mixtape of “endless personalized music” which you’ve either liked in the past or similar ones which YouTube is convinced you will enjoy. Playlists like this are ideal for when you’re working or travelling, and you want to have some background music. Just click play and it will jump from one song to another without any input from you (except for when you need to skip an ad). Listening To a Song On YouTube Music If you tap a playlist or artist, the screen will change to the playlist on the right, and the YouTube music video of the song currently being played on the left. Here are the features to look out for : - The two horizontal lines to the right of each song title will let you drag songs into a different order in the playlist. - Giving a song the thumbs-up will tell YouTube to give you more songs like that. - Giving a song the thumbs-down will tell YouTube to avoid further music like that, and it will also immediately bounce you to the next song in the playlist. Like Spotify and Apple Music, YouTube’s algorithms only know what you like if you teach it. - Clicking the three vertical dots underneath the video opens up even more options. Bear in mind though that any changes you make with these options will be immediately reflected on your regular YouTube account. Is It a Spotify Killer? In a word, no. As much as YouTube would like to think they are just as good as Spotify or Apple Music, they are just not there yet. Videos depend on the person who uploaded them and that person can easily delete the video. Videos can also be very low quality or even mislabelled as something else. Which is why $12.99 a month for no ads is a bit of a cheek. But if you use it as a free user and don’t mind skipping the ads, it is a nice way to listen to music on YouTube. The endless playlists are a nice touch if you have your curated music on YouTube like I do. You may also like these other posts from OTT: [How to Set Up Android Guest Mode and Why You Should]( [Online Services Using The “.new” Domain For All Your Favorite Apps]( [How To Clear The Cache Of Any Web Browser]( [How To Setup a Power Schedule on Your Smart Plug]( [The Best On-The-Go Accessories for Your Smartphone]( How To Spot a Fake Website Or Phishing Attempt This Holiday Season - [View in browser]( Thursday, November 21, 2019 How To Spot a Fake Website Or Phishing Attempt This Holiday Season by Patrick Hearn | [Online Tech Tips]( The holidays are almost upon us. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are less than two weeks away. For retailers, it’s the most wonderful time of year—revenue goes up as shoppers scramble to snag the best deals and finish their Christmas shopping early (like they always say they’re going to do, but somehow never succeed in doing). Unfortunately, this time of year is also a favorite of scammers. When there is a great deal and a finite number of products, consumers might not look too closely at whether a website is the real deal or not. Scammers take advantage of this to throw together a fake website that could fool someone at first glance (and sometimes on even more thorough inspection.) All they need is for you to enter your credit card information and they’re off to the races. The best defense against scams and phishing attempts this holiday season is to know the signs. Knowledge will be your strongest weapon. Here’s what to look for as you begin your Christmas shopping so that you come out the other side with your identity, bank account, and sanity intact. Check The URL & Sender It’s dead simple to make a website that looks just like a real one. It’s not unusual to encounter a website or receive an email asking you to confirm some information or to log into your account to investigate suspicious activity. The email might look like it comes from a trusted source. You can read it a half-dozen times and find nothing out of place. However, there are two things to remember. First of all, the URL they provide isn’t necessarily the one it sends you to. Here’s an example. Open the link below in a new window. []( Surprise! The URL might be written out, but it takes only a few seconds to direct a hyperlink somewhere else. Phishing attempts use this to direct customers to a fake sign-in page that steals their user IDs and passwords for retail sites, banks, and more. Another trick is a domain name that has a valid domain name attached along with a fake part, making the domain completely fake. Below is an example. It may look like it’s super easy to spot, but on a mobile device, the address bar normally only shows the first 10 to 15 characters in the domain name, meaning the last part will be hidden. [](#) The second thing to remember is that any site (that you should use, anyway) will log you in through a secure protocol. Look at your URL bar. See the “HTTP” at the very start of the URL? That’s an acronym for hypertext transfer protocol. When you log into a website, make sure it says HTTPS. The added letter stands for secure. This means data sent through the website is encrypted. Hover your mouse over the hyperlink and look at the destination. As a rule of thumb, no legitimate website or bank will ever email you and request your username and password. This is almost always a sign of a phishing attempt. If something seems suspicious, contact the organization directly and ask before you submit. Finally, check the sender of the email. Often it will have a name or might say something like Customer Support. However, if you look for the actual email address, it’s often something like xsdflkjsf@fakemailprovider.com—clearly a fake account. Search The Text Most phishing emails are variants of one another. An easy way to check whether something is legitimate is to search the sender and a few sentences. Just copy and paste the text into Google with the word “scam” and see what results it returns. The chances that you’re the only one to be targeted by a scam is minimal; most of these attempts originate out of farms and are sent to thousands of users at once. Many phishing emails will warn you that your account is about to expire or that you need to log back in or enter billing details, often with an apology for the inconvenience. The majority of institutions will not request these details via email, but will instead ask you to check your account. Channel Your Inner English Teacher & Look For Spelling & Grammar Mistakes You might stumble across a website with some amazing deals, but you’ll notice something seems off—namely, the spelling and grammar are atrocious. Many fake websites and scam emails share this trait in common. Proper spelling and grammar is a key aspect of presentation, and proper presentation is a key aspect of professionalism. Websites go to great lengths to ensure readers can understand their message. If you find a website with awful spelling and grammar that requests any personal information from you, it is almost guaranteed to be a fake website scam. One exception to this rule would be some amateur blogs which share deals they find that direct you to Amazon. These blogs might use affiliate links which will earn them a commission if you buy the product at no extra cost to you. Amateur sites might not always have the best spelling or grammar, but as long as they are not asking you to enter credit card or other personal info, they should be safe. Look For Too-Good-To-Be-True Deals Online retailers exist to make money. If the deals seem like they would lose money on them, they probably would—which means the deal is likely fake. Sometimes you might still receive a product, just something lower-quality than you thought. The website [Wish]( is a great example of this. While popular, Wish products are often counterfeit or significantly lower in quality. The website is not a scam or a phishing attempt, but it isn’t entirely honest, either. Pay close attention to the deals on any website you visit. As a general rule, you should only shop online at certified, known retailers. Websites like Amazon, Website, Best Buy, and others like those are usually safe. Brand-specific sites are often a good bet, too. But if you find a site that you’ve never heard of offering an iPad Pro for $100, stay far away. Joseph Heller said “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you”. Cybercrime has steadily increased year after year and it’s impossible to keep track of every new scam. Between 2013 and 2018, the FBI reports that businesses lost $12.5 billion to scams online. Almost 91% of all phishing attempts start with an email; unfortunately, many people receive notifications of sales through their email. Be vigilant and trust your gut. Once you know what to look for, the majority of scams are almost laughably easy to identify. You may also like these other posts from OTT: [How to Set Up Android Guest Mode and Why You Should]( [Online Services Using The “.new” Domain For All Your Favorite Apps]( [How To Clear The Cache Of Any Web Browser]( [How To Setup a Power Schedule on Your Smart Plug]( [The Best On-The-Go Accessories for Your Smartphone]( Check out more posts from our publishing family: Help Desk Geek Posts [Create a Portable Version of Any Application in Windows]( Nov 21, 2019 by Sydney Butler These days, most of us have multiple computers that we take with us, but what if you wanted to turn any computer into your computer? That’s where the idea of “portable” apps come into the picture. By loading up a flash drive or external hard drive with these apps, you simply have to plug the […] [READ MORE]( [How To Get Around Your School Or Workplace Firewall]( Nov 21, 2019 by Elsie Otachi It’s becoming increasingly common today for schools or educational institutions, workplaces, and governments to block websites. One of the most popular examples of such restrictions is the Great Firewall of China, which enforces internet censorship in the country to slow down cross-border internet traffic, and block access to certain foreign websites. If you’ve come across […] [READ MORE]( The Backroom Tech Posts [How To Set Up a VPN With Cisco]( Aug 19, 2019 by Joseph Boone The Cisco name is synonymous with networking hardware and telecommunication equipment on a global scale. It is one of the most recognized names behind most enterprise routers and a good portion of the internet backbone routers used today. The company also provides the Cisco AnyConnect app, which is used in many colleges and universities as […] [READ MORE]( [How To Encrypt Data In Amazon S3]( Jul 20, 2019 by Aseem Kishore Most data uploaded to the cloud is protected by the standard username and password authentication, and is usually stored in plaintext for easy access and retrieval. However, because some data can be sensitive and confidential, this level of protection will not be enough against certain threats or to meet certain requirements such as : External […] [READ MORE]( Switching To Mac Posts [How To Fix a Mac That Won’t Sleep]( Nov 20, 2019 by Mahesh Makvana If you’re facing issues putting your Mac into the sleep mode, it’s likely you have some items interfering with the sleep procedure. There are a few things you can do to find those interfering items. Once found, you can have those items removed or stopped from running on your Mac. These items could be anything […] [READ MORE]( [How To Fix An iPhone Stuck In a Continuous Boot Loop]( Nov 18, 2019 by Joseph Boone After installing the newest iOS updates, restoring your iPhone, or even attempting a call, your iPhone could be at risk of being locked into a continuous boot sequence. The iPhone boot loop. This means that every time you attempt to open your device, it may reach the primary home screen but then immediately reboot itself […] [READ MORE]( ABOUT ONLINE TECH TIPS Welcome to Online Tech Tips – A blog that provide readers with daily computer tutorials, technology news, software reviews, and personal computing tips. My name is Aseem Kishore and I am a full-time professional blogger. I graduated from Emory University with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. Copyright © 2019 Online-Tech-Tips.com, LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you joined our newsletter on our website, www.Online-Tech-Tips.com. 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