Apple

Jody has a ten-year-old iMac. He saw an ad for a 21.5" iMac for $375 refurbished. Leo says that it's always best to buy refurbished directly from Apple. It may cost a little more, but the peace of mind is better. This sounds like a big corporation dumped a bunch of older machines onto Amazon Renewed for sale. Sounds like a good price, though. It really comes down to what year it is, what OS version it's using, and if it can be updated. A Snow Leopard Mac, for instance, can't be updated to Lion. So it's likely a 2010 machine. 

Mark needs to prove where he was to someone. Leo says that you can see where you've been by going to google.com/dashboard. Click on maps, then more, then timeline. If it's enabled in the application settings, you will see a history of where your phone has checked in within the network. It should go as far back as 18 months at least. If that isn't good enough, you could contact your carrier as they will have that information available. But that information is only available to law enforcement as they can get access to that information without a warrant. So using Google is your best bet.

Mark got a 2017 iPad Pro from a pawn shop for about $300, which Leo says that's a pretty good deal. Should he get an iPencil for the iPad Pro? He also wants to know how to wipe out the keychain password file. Leo says that he has an iPencil for his and he rarely uses it. If you sketch or annotate notes, then it's a good option. But if you don't, save yourself $100. Also, wipe the iPad completely so there will be nothing in the keychain. Turn on Keychain syncing and it'll sync to your Mac. Can he view his password list in the iPad?

Jerry is looking to get a new computer and wants to know if the new Mac Mini is good for occasional video editing and sound recording. Rich says that the Mac Mini was thought dead, but the new version has had a bump in specs. Pretty much any computer will work for editing basic video for the internet. But 4K video is going to require more power. For $800, the basic Mac Mini really isn't up to the task. Rich recommends maxing out the RAM and hard drive if the budget allows. But remember, that the Mac Mini also requires one to buy a monitor. keyboard, and mouse.

Richard has an old computer running Windows XP. He'd like to boost the memory and hard drive. Leo says that most PCs are upgradable with off-the-shelf components, even the most proprietary brands. Go to Crucial.com or Kingston.com and use their memory picker. Input the model and they'll indicate exactly what is needed. Just remember though, running XP is dangerous to use online. Microsoft doesn't support XP anymore with security patches, and so it's just a target for hackers and exploits. 

Bill is having issues with losing the internet on his iPhone X. Leo says that this is a known issue with the iPhone X, and he thinks it may be a manufacturing issue. He recommends bringing it into the Apple Store. Since he loses connectivity on his network, and it comes back after he reboots the router, that leads him to believe that the router is losing the iPhone's IP address. He can set a static IP address on the phone in the settings, but he'll have to go into the router settings to reserve the IP address. A new router could solve this issue, but don't spend money unless necessary.