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I woke this morning to a frantic text asking if I could get iPlayer working on Chromecast. My client had been on the phone to Samsung all yesterday evening and in the end their advice was to get a new telly. Well that wouldn’t have helped because that wasn’t the problem.

The problem was a recently-introduced iOS setting called Allow iPlayer to access Local Network and this needs to be turned on.

So I turned it on, and this particular Christmas crisis was over.

Happy Christmas everyone 🎄🥂

In case you hadn’t heard, it’s Christmas Day on Friday, and if you’re not sure which gadget to buy it’s not too late to give us a call at Sussex Smarts on 07766 760215.

And if you’d like to book a slot to help set up a new toy, we’re working from Mon 28th December. In this modern world, tech is essential and we’ll be working in every tier.

Finally, have a Happy Christmas!

The short answer is that ‘no’, you probably don’t need specialist anti-virus software. Here‘s an excellent article on the subject – make sure you read past the first few paragraphs.

However, it would be a very good idea to update you version of Mac OS to either Catalina or Big Sur if you haven’t already updated.

At Sussex Smarts, we’d be very happy to help with this, although it should be a straight-forward process. The critical thing to do is to make sure that you make a Time Machine backup before you start.

Here’s the update. We set up the Vodafone Mi-Fi this morning and our customer is now getting ~30Mbps in rural West Sussex and it’s only £17pm for the first six months thanks to a Black Friday deal.

All that’s left to do is for them to cancel their BT Broadband deal.

Another happy customer 🙂

Here’s a link to the original blog post.

As many of you already know, our home is our showroom. Discretely hidden inside a Georgian apartment in central Chichester, and at little expense, we have all the components of a smart home.

If you’re interested in how a smart home could help with day-to-day life, or even if you’re just curious, email us and arrange a free demo and a coffee.

Our mission is to save our customers money and now we can offer trade access to Costco to all our customers. Technology savings are usually about 5-10% so it’s worthwhile for any laptop, tablet or TV.

If you know exactly what you want, all you have to do is to ask us to check the price. If you’re not sure, then we’ll help you choose. That’s what we do.

Do you know that you can use a smartphone as a camera for Zoom, Skype, etc if your PC or laptop doesn’t have a camera?

Your smartphone will provide great picture quality and of course you can move it to your most flatttering profile…

The software is called Epoccam and it’s free.

Another money-saving tip from sussexsmarts.com.

Recently, we were commissioned to help a customer choose a Mi-fi provider.

What’s Mi-fi? It’s a Wi-fi box that uses mobile 4G technology instead of wired broadband.

The background to this is that living in the country, their broadband was unreliable and slow and we were looking at alternatives to wired broadband provision. They also have a second home overseas, and free overseas roaming for the Mi-fi means that they wouldn’t need to sign up for a broadband contract there.

In short, faster wifi for less money.

We have just shared our report with our customer, and I’ll report back in due course. Meanwhile, we also anomymised the report, and you can read this version which is for Sussex Smarts Towers.

We would be delighted to help if you are frustrated with your mobile or broadband suppliers. All you have to do is pick up the phone! Or send an email, or chat, or even write to us.

Technology is more important than ever during a lockdown and Sussex Smarts will be working throughout the autumn lockdown to help our friends and our community to stay connected.

Remember, no question is too simple and we’re always happy to help.

For example, Zoom is surprisingly simple to set up and use, and if you already have a smartphone or laptop it won’t cost you a bean.

Philips Hue bulbs are simply the best smart lighting available. No other system comes close. We have lots here at Sussex Smarts towers…

For a limited time, lots of the bulbs are 50% off. Click here for the details, and if you’re not sure which ones to choose, just give us a call or pop us an email.