After telling you all about my ordeal with Xfinity, I left you dangling.  Now, my new phone service is here, but to get it, I had to learn a big lesson.

Don’t sign up for Xfinity phone service over the phone or even at your local phone store. With them, you have to go to the corporate store.

That’s what a clerk at my local Xfinity told me. “Why not just call the corporate store?” I asked.   “They don’t have a phone number,” she said. Sure enough, Google listed it as the same 800 number that created my nightmarish runaround.

One long bus ride later, I was at the corporate store. They said my phone deal never went through because I’d frozen my account at one of the three credit-reporting agencies. So I unfroze it while standing at the counter.

But the competent-looking guy helping me was still having trouble getting my phone deal solidified after at least ten minutes of working on it. Finally, after going through all the hoops, he assured me that a free phone was on its way. He said I would get a refund for the one I paid for but never received. All I had to do was activate the new phone when it arrived.

  When I got home, however, I found a spammy-looking email from Xfinity saying I had 72 hours to verify my account by uploading my driver’s license. I’d ignored similar emails because they looked suspicious. Besides, I had already given my driver’s license number and Social Security number to at least three Xfinity agents. Finally, I threw caution to the wind and emailed them my precious ID. Bingo, a free Pixel 6a arrived a few days later. 

My phone plan costs only $15 a month for one gigabyte of data and unlimited phone calling and texting, and my internet is only $5 a month. The internet service is great and I expect to get excellent phone reception too, because Xfinity uses Verizon to handle mobile data.

Google Pixel 6a Versus Pixel 7a

The Google Pixel 6a, $349 from the Google store, is nearly as good as the $499 Pixel 7a, the latest version of Google’s budget phone, though the 7a has a faster processor, a slightly bigger display, and slightly newer graphics. But according to Digital Trends, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between a photo taken by the 6a and one taken by the 7a. In half of their tests involving 14 photo comparisons, the cheaper phone did a better job.

Talking to Your Tree

Did you know you can talk to your tree? All you need is the tiny TreeTag box from ePlant and its artificially intelligent app. 

Here’s a real chat, according to the company. Tree: “Hello there, it’s me, your tree. I have been leaning more than usual and am worried about toppling over.” Homeowner: “How much are you leaning?” Tree: “Two degrees to the North.” Homeowner: “How can I help you?” Tree: “Call an arborist.” 

The TreeTag has sensors that report a tree’s tilt and temperature, and checks to see if it’s getting enough light and nutrients. A bridge sends data to your phone from up to 100 trees. You can pre-order the TreeTag for $149 from ePlant.com. 

Facebook Marketplace Tips

Here’s a tip for dealing with Facebook Marketplace. When sellers show almost no posts or friends, they might be fake. 

Other red flags include: requiring a gift card as payment or asking you for a deposit. I got these tips from VPNOverview.com, which compares the best virtual private networks for protecting your privacy. 

Measuring Distances

Go to Google Maps on a computer to find the distance between two points in Nature. For example, choose two spots in a large lake, a woody area or the Grand Canyon. Click on any point to start, then right-click it and choose “measure distance.” Next, click a second point. You’ll see the distance displayed below.

The Biggest Windows Myths

Contrary to some of the biggest myths about Windows, here are the facts.

First, it’s OK to remove a USB drive or memory stick from the computer quickly. You don’t need the “safely remove” feature. Second, don’t worry about the Google Chrome web browser being resource-heavy. It’s fine, though Firefox is better if your computer has limited memory. Third, skip defragging your PC. Fourth, don’t worry about antivirus software slowing down your machine. That no longer happens. Fifth, your Windows computer shouldn’t slow down over time, but if it does, there are things you can do about it, such as removing unused programs and scanning for malware. 

Read up on other Windows myths by looking up the PCWorld.com article “Busting the 8 biggest Windows myths.”

Soft Robots

A researcher in China created a liquid metal that can coat paper without using glue or losing its conductivity. In a kind of metal origami, the coated paper turns into soft robots flexible enough to go where ordinary robots can’t, such as underground tunnels on Mars. Checkout this momentous achievement by Bo Yuan of Tsinghua University in China in an article on ArsTechnica.com. His research was published in Cell Reports Physical Science.

Internut

Search on “WP Beginner: The truth Behind Making Money on YouTube” to find out what people are really earning from their videos. Many claim you can make thousands of dollars in a morning. It’s more like $10 an hour on average.