Can Anyone Recommend a Book/Website That Will Explain EVERYTHING : 0 (

[MissWooWoo]

everything to do with smartphones/tablets/wi-fi/apps/downloads that is because I am gradually losing the will to live here and every year I feel less and less like I know what the hell is going on! There is all this amazing technology out there and I'm not really utilising any of it apart from sending the odd email and doing a bit of online shopping. I feel so old behind on everything, things are moving so fast and I've barely go to grips with a very old smartphone

help!

[PedroPonyLikesCrisps]

There's no one place, there never is for anything. The best way to keep up with technology though, is to read tech news. There are some good tech websites out there where you can read up on the latest happenings.

Mind you, I guess the real question is, do you feel you need anything in particular from technology? Some people are content with online shopping and the odd email. What do you feel like you are missing out on?

[LittleTyga]

Go to John Lewis and get one of their staff to talk you through things. You could say you are thinking of getting a Tablet and could they explain what they do and then compare it to a Laptop to discover their main points. It's only by using the things you truly get an idea what they do!

[ladyWordy]

Well, you can't go from nought to nerd in five minutes, but you don't really need to. ;)

Pedro has nailed it really. Try to pin down what you need/want to know, and follow that up. There is no need to learn everything techie just to keep up, and it's not feasible to do that anyway.

You don't have to learn about car engines to drive a car, or keep up with all the latest in fuel efficiency technology etc. It's ok just to drive it.

I read a tech writer's article a short while ago where the author felt that, despite years immersed in technology, he was starting to feel he couldn't keep up! So you see, it can happen to anyone!

[MissWooWoo]

I don't know what I want really, just to be able to do simple things like download an app to an (old) iphone that was given to me by my SIL. Tried it, didn't work because it wasn't compatible with my phone, eventually worked out that my phone is too old to take the upgrade to ioS 5 but I feel like I should have been able to work this out straight away rather than spending half a day googling and reading a lot of stuff that made no sense to me about "versions".

I openend a twitter account but I'm buggered if I can see how it works! It's simple right? not to me? what does it mean when #threegoldstars (for example) is put up on the tv screen in the middle of LoveToDance?

I see an ad for what looks like a laptop on the tv but the keyboard comes off, does this make it a tablet and a laptop at the same time and er what's the difference?

I feel totally at sea and more and more disconnected

[PedroPonyLikesCrisps]

Some specific answers for you:

The iPhone, tricky one because you need to know several things. Firstly that there are different versions of iOS which is the operating system that runs on the phone. Secondly, iOS gets updated every so often and newer versions don't necessarily run on older handsets. Finally, that some apps only run on certain iOS versions. To some this is obvious, but to others it's not. But understanding the interplay between phone, operating system and app is crucial here. You've learned this now so you're a step further on! Also, worth practice you'll get better at knowing HOW to Google more efficiently to get the answers you need.

Twitter. Now personally I'm not a big fan and I don't really understand the point. However, words that come after hash tags (#) are merely keywords. When people post things on Twitter, they write out the hashtag and the word in their post. This means that other people can search for this keyword and see all the other posts in the world which are related to that particular topic.

Tablet/laptop. So, traditionally, a laptop folded open to reveal a screen and keyboard and a tablet was just a screen with all the interface through that screen. A little while ago, a company ASUS designed an Android tablet with a keyboard you could attach or detach as you like. It was called the Eee Pad Transformer. There are now 4 versions of this ASUS tablet (of which I own one and they are brilliant!). Since the success of this "transformer" tablet, other companies have been copying the idea for themselves. There are now a handful of tablets with keyboards, some running Android and some running Windows 8. The latter you might consider to be more like a laptop with a removable keyboard (because typically the laptops would be running windows) and the former more like a tablet with an attachable keyboard (because the tablets typically run Android). Ultimately, there's not much of a difference between these so called "convertibles" and laptops other than they tend to be smaller (10" screens like the now dying netbooks) because they are designed to be used as handheld devices rather than lap devices.

Anyway, hope that helps!

[MissWooWoo]

thank you pedro, yes that does help. You answered another thread I posted under this topic so you'll see I have a lot to learn; I think I will spend some time looking at some old threads as I'm sure they are a fountain of knowledge.