 Jensen & Fern, relaxed and ready for what’s next That’s right! Jensen’s coming back from paternity leave, just in time to celebrate 13 years since opening Asheville Digital Lifestyle. It’s been a wonderful last few months as we welcomed baby boy Fern to the fresh air. He’s doing great, and with mama Beth on the mend as well, we’re looking forward to supporting you! If you haven’t already gotten an eyeful of Fern, you are welcome to check out his photo album, and learn more about his birth story on our Meal Train page. Click here to book an appointment. Hours of operationAs of December 1 our hours of operation will be: Monday - Thursday from 8am - 4pm You can always check our Google page for our current schedule. Feedback requested on alternative providersDid you use our alternative providers list to get tech support while we were closed? We would love your feedback about how it went with any of the local providers that we recommended. You can contact us to give feedback. Pricing updateWe have updated our pricing for appointments. Remote support calls now start at $150, and in-person support starts at $350, depending on location. This is a $30/appointment change from our prior pricing. Click here to see our full pricing info. We continue to provide no-cost support via the Tech Tuesday program at 12 Baskets on Tuesdays from 10:30am-12:30pm Holiday scheduleWe will be closed from December 22 through January 4. We will reopen on Monday, January 5. If you need support while we are gone, click here for alternative support providers
Asheville Digital Lifestyle continues to be temporarily closed for paternity leave. If you need tech support during this time, click here to visit our alternative tech support service providers guide.
We will post future updates about our availability to this blog and on our via our newsletter.  Jensen & Beth welcomed baby boy Fern to the fresh air of life on October 5! While the family had some challenging times in the hospital initially, they were able to bring him home this week. Fern is now in good health, and mom is healing from the birthing process. All three are in good spirits, and acclimating to their new life together.
You can follow along on their journey thus far by viewing updates on the Meal Train website. Click here to check out Meal Train. Want to see more photos of Fern? Click here for the photo album.  The time has come! With Beth at 39 weeks and birth about to arrive, the time has come to temporarily close Asheville Digital Lifestyle and focus on nurturing momma and baby. We are not preannouncing a specific date of return. Our family subscribes to the philosophies present in "The First 40 Days" book to give the family at least a month or two to heal, bond, and put the right foot forward to nurture new life. You are welcome to follow along with the family's newborn journey by visiting their Meal Train website.
Rest assured, Jensen fully intends to return to Asheville Digital Lifestyle and continue supporting the people of Western North Carolina after he returns from paternity leave. If you need support in the meantime, we have compiled a list of resources so you can get the support you need while ADL is closed. Click here for our alternative tech support service providers guide. Future announcements will come via our newsletter, and will also be posted right here on our blog. We are pleased to announce a new cell phone donation program! As you may know, we've been providing no-cost tech support via the Tech Tuesday program during lunchtime at 12 Baskets (Tech Tuesday will continue even during paternity leave thanks to the generous support of fellow volunteer Sebastian). We have also been starting a cell phone donation program that provides phones to people in need.
That's where you come in! Do you have an old cell phone that you no longer use? Donate it! We have a donation box set up at Emergency Tech Repair. Please make sure you wipe the personal data from your phone prior to donating it. For instructions on wiping your phone, click here for iPhone instructions, and click here for Android instructions. DONATION LOCATION: Emergency Tech Repair 1417 Patton Ave Asheville, NC 28806 Hours: Monday thru Friday 10am - 6pm  Have you heard? Jensen & Beth are having a baby! They are expecting their first little one in September. All are healthy, and with Beth in the third trimester the happy couple is making final preparations to welcome new life.
We are thankful for the support of the community. If you're curious to learn more or consider special support for the growing family, click here to visit the baby's registry. Big thanks to Asheville Digital Lifestyle clients and friends who have supported us over the years to make ADL a success! Asheville Digital Lifestyle is operating normally at this time.Jensen is expecting to take paternity leave starting sometime in September. We're advising clients to take care of planned projects by the end of August. We'll keep you updated on our availability via our newsletter, email autoresponder, website and voicemail greeting. We will not pre-announce a date of return upon the start of leave, but Jensen is looking forward to returning to ADL and continuing to support the people of WNC after the new family member is warmly welcomed, and the family is settled.  We know that interesting technology issues and questions will pop up while we're gone on paternity leave, so we've created a list of resources to ensure you have places you can turn to when you need support. The list includes local tech support and repair resources for the Asheville and Hendersonville areas.
It also has contact info for larger technology companies like internet service providers, cell phone carriers, and commonly used software services. Click the following link for our guide: Contact info for local tech support providers & commonly used software services  PCs running Windows 10 will lose security support from Microsoft this year in October.
For folks not ready to say goodbye to their Windows 10 computers, Microsoft will offer a 1 year paid security extension, providing an extra year of security updates for $30 per computer. Microsoft will likely offer the paid upgrade by advertising it directly on Windows 10 users' screens prior to October. Those who continue using Windows 10 unsecured after October will run the inevitable risk of security and usability problems cropping up as the system ages. Although antivirus programs often continue to function on out-of-date operating systems, hackers eventually discover unpatched security issues, which an antivirus may not be able to protect against. Some people are at higher risk using an unsecured operating system, and benefit more from staying on a computer that has up-to-date security:
Windows 10 machines will continue to be useful, in part because web browsers will continue to function on Windows 10 for years to come. Microsoft has announced that the Edge web browser for Windows 10 will continue to receive security updates through October 2028. Chrome and Firefox will likely have a similar timeline. Our #1 recommendation for folks currently on Windows 10? Backup your data, either via hard drive or a cloud backup service. Older computers are more likely to have data loss issues, so having a reliable backup becomes increasingly important as a computer ages. Considering a new computer? We can guide you through the process.  Asheville Digital Lifestyle's founder Jensen and his spouse Beth are expecting a baby! With the little one due in September, Jensen & Asheville Digital Lifestyle will go on sabbatical to concentrate on supporting the new family member.
At this time we continue to operate normally. If you are considering future projects with us, we recommend engaging our services prior to September to ensure that we are available to support you. You are welcome to ask questions, and we will provide resources on tech support alternatives prior to the sabbatical.  Changes to text messaging are ramping up lately, and we're here to explain.
The basic text messaging format, around since the days of the flip phone, is SMS (if it includes a photo or video, it's called MMS). Virtually any phone connected to a cellular carrier can send texts via SMS, and low-quality (sometimes blurry) photos & videos can be sent via MMS. Because of the limitations of SMS/MMS, several years ago Apple created iMessage (iPhone users, you know you are sending iMessages when the messages are colored blue). In the years since, a competing format used by Android smartphone users was created called RCS. Both RCS and iMessage have benefits including indication of whether the message was received by the recipient, whether the other person is currently typing, and the ability to send/receive higher-quality (less likely to be blurry) images & videos, along with files such as PDF or Word documents. RCS used to be an Android-only affair, but iPhones & Androids can now communicate via RCS if the carriers of both phones support it. Yes, it can be a confusing mishmash, but the upshot is that manysmartphone users can now communicate more easefully regardless of whether they are on Android or iPhone. However, some of our clients have seen reliability issues with sending and receiving SMS messages since the cell phone carriers shifted their focus to RCS. If you have any problems sending or receiving SMS or RCS messages, the first troubleshooting step is to contact your cellular carrier. |
AuthorJensen Gelfond is the Founder of Asheville Digital Lifestyle. He helps people use their technology more effectively and joyfully. Categories
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