Advances in technology are moving at such a pace it can make your head spin. Smart phones, smart homes, smart watches, smart washing machines even smart toothbrushes….what’s next?
The pace of change is dizzying, new versions of products are being released on an annual basis with manufacturers competing at every turn for your business.
Hand me ups
Technology upgrades often tempt us to buy the latest, greatest iteration, but what do you do with last year’s technology?
Some companies will offer a trade-in service while others will take your old equipment away for free (replacing a fridge, cooker or a washing machine). There is also a new trend … gifting last year’s technology to elderly relatives.
This new trend of ‘Hand me ups’ is having a positive impact on society. It ensures that as technology advances those who are either reticent to invest or scared of new developments are never too far behind. It also means spending more time with relatives and connecting with them more frequently.
Check your operating system
When passing this technology along, obviously time is spent showing how to use it, but as time goes by the software that actually makes the technology work – the operating system - becomes outdated and requires an update. This is particularly relevant for computers, laptops, smart phones or any gadget that can access the internet.
Not updating the operating system can leave your computer, laptop etc open to intrusion from unwanted visitors, ‘hackers’, and importantly can put at risk and restrict your access to savings and bank accounts.
Update to a supported system
All websites are always built using the latest software. Paragon, like other businesses, try to make it easy for customers to navigate from page to page and from section to section and makes sure it works with many older operating systems (backwards compatible).
There does though come a time when companies like Microsoft ‘Windows’ and Apple ‘IOS’ (to name but two) stop supporting their older operating systems in favour of building newer ones, and it’s at this point businesses tend to stop supporting them too. When this happens, access to websites becomes much more difficult and they don’t display all the content.
Recently, a small number of customers tried to access the Paragon website but couldn’t because they were using a very old operating system.
PCs and laptops running Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 8.0 are no longer supported. Windows 8.1 is fine as long as you upgrade your browser to Internet Explorer 11 or use Chrome.
For iPhones and iPads, your device must be running iOS7 or higher to access our website, and for Macs as long as you a running OS X you will be fine using Safari, Chrome or Firefox browsers.
Android devices from Android 5 (Lollipop) onwards are supported.
It is important then to ensure that the operating system on your devices is always up to date. There are 1.25 billion Microsoft ‘Windows’ users in the world with Apple ‘IOS’ users a distant second, both make it very easy to update the operating system. By updating, you ensure you reduce the risk of not being able to access certain websites and therefore being unable to manage your finances online.
As discussed, ‘Hand me ups’ are great at helping to stay connected with relatives and introducing new-ish technology to some among a generation who are still unsure. But when gifting a phone or a laptop, do stay connected and help to make sure that the operating system is kept up to date.
30 May 2018