learn, laugh, live

Phones, Tablets & Computers

Status:Active, open to new members
Organiser:
Michael Davies
Group email: Phones, Tablets & Computers group
When: Monthly on Monday afternoons 2:00pm-4:00pm
4th Monday, October to May
Venue: Otford Methodist Church Hall
Cost: £2

Group meetings are held at the Otford Methodist Church Hall normally at 2pm on the fourth Monday of each month (October to May). Entrance £2, includes tea and biscuits. There is usually a talk on a topic of interest, followed by a question-and-answer session. Talks are normally illustrated and projected onto a large screen, and members can raise problems they are experiencing with their computers.
The group committee which organises the talks continues to be short of volunteers and anyone who would like to join us will be warmly welcomed. Technical expertise is not required; members with ideas and topics for talks will be invaluable.

There will be another visit to Sevenoaks school on 5 November for members to have one-to-one one tuition from the pupils. Any member wishing to join this visit should send an email to computing@sevenoaksu3a.org.uk and we will send a copy of the joining information.
Read more about a visit earlier this year.

The PTC group will be holding its first open meeting of the 2026/27 year on Monday 26 October at 14:00 in the Otford Methodist Church Hall. The talk will be given by a speaker from Wokingham u3a on Generative Artificial Intelligence. The November meeting was originally scheduled for 23 November but we have been forced to change to Friday 27 November. We will send out a global email nearer the date with full details. Since this is the last meeting before Christmas, we will be having mince pies with our tea/coffee

It is absolutely vital to ensure your device is backed up. Photos take up  a lot of space so consider paying for extra storage to avoid losing irreplaceable data and choose from say Google Drive £1.59 /month for 100GB, One Drive may be free for Microsoft 365 subscribers, Apple iCloud, Dropbox, and BT Cloud free for some BT broadband customers.

Internet Security software is often set to renew automatically without the user’s intervention and the renewal price may be 3 or 4  times higher than the original purchase price. It is possible for the user to alter the auto-renewal option although it is not always very easy to find.

On October 14th 2025 Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 10. However, if you aren't ready to upgrade yet you can sign up for Extended Security Updates so you can continue getting important security patches beyond 2025. Click here to see how to do this. In addition, Windows comes with the Defender anti-virus software. Whilst Defender is a ‘no cost’ option you may want to install a more comprehensive anti-virus security package for greater peace of mind when using Windows 10. Paid for examples of such packages are Bitdefender, ESET, Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton, Malwarebytes. There are also good free packages available from companies such as AVG and Avast, though these may come with in-built advertisements and upselling.”

Forthcoming events

26 October 2026
2:00pm
Meeting
The PTC group will be holding its first open meeting of the 2026/7 session on Monday 26th October in the Otford Methodist Church Hall at 14.00 and the talk will […]
Cost: £2

Last updated: 20 October 2026