Just thoughts …

Tag: Google

  • All things Google (and more) – 13th February 2020

    Boot-up

    Visit to Barclays Eagle Labs – now arranged for the next meeting – 27th February. Here’s some more detail about what they’re all about.

    As part of Barclay’s community commitment,  we have also opened a new office in Cardiff designed to help businesses grow and start up in Cardiff. Great for budding Entrepreneurs (which statistics show can be high in the over 50s)  and inventors. Part of the Eagle Lab office hosts  a “Maker Space’ that houses laser cutting, vinyl printing, 3D printing, electronics equipment including soldering etc. It has a distinctly digital feel too with a really switched on Engineer running the lab. I will contact them to discuss what is actually available there and suggest things you might be interested in.

    I have  13 confirmed attendees. I’ll contact Ashley Croome (the switched on Engineer) with details of who’s coming and discuss whether we need to split into two groups, or just stay at one. After the Science Group visit he advised me … “For group sizes, with the science group we had about 10-15 per group and that seemed to work really well as it wasn’t so overcrowded that people didn’t get a chance to ask questions, and try things like the VR we have set up here.”
    The venue for the visit is:
    Barclays Eagle Lab, 1st Floor Brunel House, 2 Fitzalan Road, Cardiff, CF24 0EB

    Next meeting after Eagle Labs is on 12th March, then Paul will lead on 26th March and 23 April. I’m assuming there will not be a meeting on 9th April because of Easter. I’ll be back after that … for a while at least 🙂

    Whats Up with WhatsApp – an interesting discussion about how you can “trick” an Android tablet into believing it’s a phone (without a SIM) between Margaret, Jim, Paul and myself. I’m not sure I’m completely the wiser, but it revolves around a solution for an Android tablet that Paul had already described (which works for him) and is also described in this post and on an iPad this post describes how to do it. If you want to see the WhatsApp log of the chatter and confusion, look here.
    Undo Send function in Gmail (from desktop, not mobile) setup in Gmail Settings > General, selectable from 0 -30 secs, so not as long as I thought.
    Clearing Off-Facebook Activity and a video to help you.
    The death of Adobe Flash – Apple puts the boot in.
    We had a question about Exporting email from Tiscali (TalkTalk) from Ann, who was concerned she might lose her old emails. It looks like the most useful way of doing it is to setup POP3 Forwarding of an Email account into Gmail – in Gmail > Settings (gear wheel) in the browser …

    … get the correct settings for your server, as in …

    and as long as you’ve selected Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s been downloaded) and as long as your email provider supports POP3, your email should be downloaded from that server and into Gmail.

    Gear Guide

    Has anyone bought, or obtained anything recently they’d like to tell us about? It doesn’t have to be a computer, laptop, tablet or phone – just something that’s digital, ie used a computer processor in some way?
    Here’s a provocative thought … what applications do you use that depend largely upon the use of a peripheral? Are you using the best application for that hardware? Perhaps you don’t have any choice, but if you do perhaps you should choose the most appropriate application for the hardware.
    Jim updated us on his broadband upgrade using his new Router liked to a SIM-card (have I got that right, Jim?). He’s also purchased a dongle to watch live Freeview TV. This is not connected to the broadband, but it might cause his battery to lose power a bit more rapidly than it did before.

    Apps Galore

    That slot in the meeting where members are encouraged to share their experience (and possibly excitement) at a new app they’ve started using for their smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop machine.
    OpenStreetMap – creating maps for collaborators – a couple of examples – Canals and Railways, Land use and Buildings, but what about creating a shared Google Map ?

    What’s IT all about?

    That occasional slot in the meeting when we might do a bit of explanation of terms used in Computing, or in the use of digital devices.
    Mesh Networks – which ones are members using:
    Paul – BT solution
    Don – Deco M4, with TP-Link AC1200
    WiFi Reception – interesting fact … the range of the WiFi Router decreases as the signal frequency increases. However, the inverse also holds true, namely the closer you are to your WiFi router the greater the bandwidth you have as signal frequency increases. Therefore in a big house, maybe you need to employ 2.4Ghz; in a compact house it’s a good choice to use 5Ghz and maybe even employ a router that supports tri-band – which might give the best of both worlds!

    The main topic

    I use Google apps on my desktop and mobile devices – and I’m an Apple fanboy! However, it’s just come to my notice that a couple of Google developments have passed me by, which have caused me to think about whether I might be better to use more Google apps on my Apple mobile devices, rather than the native Apple apps
    I rely on Gmail and Calendar. I have done for years. It’s a family joke – “if it’s not in the Google Calendar – it’s not happening”. I have been caught out  few times. I also use (and will continue to use) Google Maps extensively for mapping, the Apple version is not quite there yet, but it’s improving!
    I have used Google Hangouts and Paul and I have tried to get that working – but it’s impractical to even try and demonstrate it at this location 🙁
    We have looked at Google Assistant, as a way of interfacing with the virtual world, but I haven’t embraced it – probably because I still rely on the native Apple mobile apps and Siri is the way into these; but, it would have to be said, probably not as well as Google (or Amazon – Alexa).
    But now I’ve become aware of Tasks, which you can access from Gmail, and  Calendar and if only it interfaced completely with Google Assistant – I think I’d be making the switch to using more Google apps on my Apple devices, but, and there’s always a but … why does Google makes things so difficult! Just remember there’s Google Keep (for notes) and Google Reminders (for reminders); and … you always have to remember Google have the nasty habit of dropping things just after you’ve got used to using them – Reader, Picasa and Google+ to name but three! Let’s have a look!
     

     

  • Is it time to move to more paid subscription services?

    Is it time to move to more paid subscription services?

    I have to admit, the events of the past few weeks have made me look much more seriously at paying more for the IT services that I’ve taken for free up until now. Of course they’ve never been free, I’ve had to put up with the adverts and the email messages I don’t really want – alerting me to this deal, or that deal, and I’ve willingly put up with that as a price worth paying for the service I’ve been receiving. But two events have changed my mind, and moreover I feel the IT world is actually changing slowly as a consequence of the mistakes (to be exceptionally generous) of Facebook and Google; and the decision of Apple to switch more attention to Services, targeting this as their  main income stream for the future, and not relying on Hardware alone.
    So what were the earth-shaking events in the Harrison-IT-world? Well the first was Google’s announcement that having hidden the news of a potential security weakness in an API, for several months (presumably to secure their stock-market price at the time Facebook was struggling, and presumably also after ensuring that the potential breach was secured) they used this as an excuse to kill-off (sorry “sunset”) Google+ next August. Now this service was not the success Google hoped it to be, and most definitely has not generated the revenue they hoped it might, but for me, my family and for many communities (particularly of photographers – because of the close linkage to Google Photos) – it was a hugely valuable tool. Now, we have to look for another social media platform. It could be Google Photos – Google may have plans to “enhance” it to take on features from Google+, or it could be another platform, but it’s just a pain in the neck having to move off something we’re used to! Google have real history with “sunsetting” tools that people get used to using [Thanks to @MrSimonWood for this link.]
    The second was Flickr’s announcement that they were going to limit their Free account to 1000 images – excluding those that were licensed under Creative Commons, which a lot of mine are. They are encouraging users to take out a Pro subscription to remove restrictions and allow more and larger images to be uploaded. This didn’t meet with the same “horror” feeling. I immediately felt that this was a decision that would secure the future long-term of the service under the new owners – SmugMug. [A feeling that I didn’t have when 500px made changes to their platform which led me to delete my account.] So I immediately subscribed and took advantage of the first-year discount price (still available for a few more days I believe).
    So what am I saying. I’m saying that if there’s a service that I really want, and I really need some feeling that it’s going to be around for a while, I should pay for it. I wasn’t given that option by Google – shame on them; it appears I’ll never be given that opportunity by Facebook. Both of them are essentially marketing and advertising platforms. I don’t see either of them being able to develop a hybrid model as Flickr has been able to do.
    This all makes Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan and Microsofts’ Office 365 seem so much more sensible. I’ll continue with the former, but decline the latter as my roots are now firmly planted in the Apple world where I look to see how they will develop their Service offerings in Music, TV, Home and Car fields.
    Interesting times.