Back to the Future Part II got it right! Now that it’s 2015, everybody’s wearing multiple neckties. Image credit: Universal Pictures

In this episode of the Deemable Tech podcast, Ray, Tom and producer Sean are back for more tech chatter. First, they help a listener looking for a good way to organize and filter her email inbox.

Then it’s time for a few reviews! Sean continues his series of subscription box reviews with the healthy snacking service Graze and the “Comic Con in a box” fun of Nerd Block. Ray reviews the LoopPay mobile wallet and smartphone accessory, as well as Tunity, an app that allows you stream audio from a muted TV on your device. And Tom shares his experience with the voice recorder and note-taking app Cogi.

If you haven’t already done so, please leave a review of the Deemable Tech podcast in iTunes. As more of you review the show, the higher it’s listed in iTunes, allowing new listeners to more easily discover us. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter where we deliver these podcast episodes and our radio segments straight to your inbox each week.

Download: #68 Sean Wears Two Neckties

Links mentioned in this episode

• Unroll.me
• Mailstrom
• Graze
• Nerd Block
• LoopPay
• Tunity
• Cogi

Q: I have an email conundrum. I have had Comcast internet for years but have decided to switch to another provider because I don’t get online that much or watch cable. The problem is that I don’t want to lose my Comcast email address. Is there a way to keep my same address even if I don’t have Comcast?

Image credit: OpenClips / Pixabay

A: Unfortunately, Shelly, email addresses are not like phone numbers: you don’t get to keep them if you switch providers. But we think we can make losing your email address a little less painful.

There are a ton of free email services out there that are not tied to internet providers. And, as it turns out, most of the free ones are better than the ones you pay for. These include Yahoo Mail, Outlook, and Mac.com. Far and away the most popular, though, is Gmail.

Gmail is also our personal favorite, because it’s easy to use, has a lot of features, and (most important for you) it interacts well with other email providers. For instance, you can import all of your contacts from your old email account into your new Gmail account.

This process pretty easy. Once you have signed up for Gmail, click the settings icon (it looks like a gear), click “Settings”, go to the “Account and Import” section and click the “Import Mail and Contacts” button. Then just follow the instructions.

Of course, you’re going to want to send a message from your old email address to all of your contacts letting them know that you’re switching to a different one. We would also recommend setting up email forwarding on your old address a few weeks before you cancel that account. This will automatically send new messages from your old address to an email address you specify (for example, your new Gmail address). That way, as messages come through, you can respond from your new account and let people know to begin sending emails there.

The hardest part about switching email addresses will be updating all of the online accounts you currently have linked to your email (e.g. your bank account, Facebook, etc). Unfortunately, Shelly, there isn’t a quick and easy fix for this – you’re going to have to simply log in into all of those accounts and change them by hand.

This might seem like an arduous task, but we think it will be worth it in the end to have an email account that is free, can be accessed from anywhere, and isn’t tied to whether or not you want cable.

Q: I recently changed my e-mail password, and now my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone will not show my e-mails. I assume the old password is somehow encoded in the phone. I cannot find a way within the “setting” folder to put the new password in to access the e-mails. How can I now access my e-mails on the S4?

A: Dale, it sounds like you are looking in the settings for the email app, but you won’t find it there!

Image Credit: Simon / Pixabay

Android phones, including the Samsung Galaxy models, store all the big, important passwords, like email accounts and social media accounts, in the same place. You need to bring up “settings”. Not the settings for the email app, but the main settings menu that you get to from the desktop.

Then you need to scroll way down. You’re looking for a section called “Accounts”. Keep scrolling down until you find it. Under that you should see an option called “Email”. Tap that. Then tap “Settings”. Then tap your email address again. Now you should see a page with a bunch of options, including one that says “password” – tap that and enter your new password.

Basically, any time you want to change a major password you have to go under “Accounts” under your main settings. Your email login, your Facebook login, your Twitter login, your LinkedIn login, it’s all stored there. These are all apps that have deep, native integration into the Android operating system, so it actually makes some sense for them to be stored down in the main settings of the phone.

That’s pretty similar to how it is handled on the iPhone and iPad too. Under the Settings app, you tap “Mail, Contacts, and Calendars”, then tap the account and tap your email address, then enter the correct password.

In this episode of the Deemable Tech podcast, Ray and Tom answer your questions about controlling your Apple TV with your Mac, keeping your emails up-to-date across multiple devices, managing your iTunes music library and more!

If you’re looking to buy a new laptop, the guys also take a little time to discuss a few of the best laptops according to Laptop Magazine and PC Magazine.

We’re currently working on our second hour-long public radio special, and we want you to be a part of it! Leave us a voicemail with your tech question at 1-888-972-9868 to “audition” for the show!

#62 This Is How Deemable Tech Does It

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Laptop Magazine’s Best Laptop Guide
• PC Magazine’s Laptop Guide

Q: I have a problem. Recently my friends have been getting emails from me that are empty except for suspicious links in them. It looks like spam. I’m sure that I’m not the one sending them! What do I do?

A: You’re not alone here, Ashton. We’ve gotten strange emails from friends on numerous occasions with nothing but a link or just weird text in the message. It goes without saying that you should never click that link. If a friend unexpectedly sends you a link to a website that you aren’t familiar with, don’t assume it’s safe to click! Contact them through another method like Facebook or on the phone, and ask them if they really sent you that link and what it is.

Image credit: notoriousxl / Flickr

It sounds like you and your friends have found yourselves the victims of unscrupulous spammers. You see, spammers know people are much more likely to open an email from people they know, so what they try to do is make an email look like it’s from someone they know. There are several ways they can do this.

The first way is to somehow break into your account, and actually send spam emails from it. To do this, of course, they need your password. The way they are most likely to get this is to pose as a website you often visit and ask for your email address and password. You give it to them, thinking it’s legit, and then they can simply log in and go crazy with your inbox.

Another similar method is to infect your computer with a piece of malware that will take over your email. In either case, the first thing that you need to do is to change your password! That will lock them out.

We want to stress the need to be very careful about where you enter your email address and password. When you are about to enter that information on a website, pay close attention to the address bar at the top of your browser. There should be a lock icon visible next to the address, showing that this site is securely encrypted. In addition, the normal address for the website should show. For instance, if you’re logging into Yahoo Mail you should expect to see “us.mail.yahoo.com”.

Changing your password should stop spammers from sending spam directly from your account. Unfortunately, it won’t necessarily stop them from impersonating you. There’s a third type of email attack where spammers send emails that look like they come from you but don’t. This is harder to defend against, as your email account hasn’t actually been compromised. The good news is that usually the spam isn’t going to people you know because the spammers don’t have access to your address book. However, you may receive strange bounce back emails telling you that a message you never sent could not be delivered. That’s a clue that this is happening.

If you’re the victim of this type of spam, your best bet is to, well, wait. You’re only hope is that the spammers will get tired of using your address and just move on to a different one. If they don’t, your other option may be a painful one: changing your email address and updating your information on every other site you use that address to log into.

That can be a long and arduous process, so it’s a good idea to be proactive. Be wary of giving your primary email address to everyone who asks, and think about having a secondary address that you can use to sign up for new websites that you aren’t familiar with. That will keep your main email address from winding up on some list of emails for unscrupulous spammers. And, again, always double check the web address of a site before you enter your email and password to make sure it’s the real deal.