Apps for your new Device: 10 apps I use and several others to try!

Did you get a new device for Christmas? A device might be an iPhone, an iPad or any sort of tablet or phone that uses Android as an operating system. Because I use an iPhone and iPad that is what is highlighted in this post. Most of these apps have android versions.

Now is the time that you are probably looking for new apps to use on your device. Since there are so many this blog will just share a few favorites that you might want to try.

MY 10 DAILY APPS

I use my iPhone and my iPad several times a day. Here are the ways that I use them. 

1. I use the Clock in the morning for meditation. Once I start meditating I find that having a timer set helps me to focus on my inner self instead of what time is left. I also set it for an hour when I am with a client to help us keep track of the time we work together. I also use it as an alarm clock when I am traveling.

2. I use the Map function, either Maps or Google Maps, to figure out how to get to my next customer's house. I can even have it talk to me to tell me the directions as I drive. Once I even used it when I was already at the address I was supposed to be at, but could not find the building. By following the blue dot that showed where I was in relation to the destination I finally found it.

3. Of course I use it as a phone on a regular basis.

4. I use Messages to text my husband when I just have something short to say like, "on my way home"

5. When I am in a waiting room or flying and want time to pass quickly I play Angry Birds or Candy Crush Saga. These are the kinds of games I like, but there are tons of other games with better graphics and more action.

6. Gmail has an app that connects to my email, so if I am somewhere that I can't get it and need to I can access it. I find it harder to write back on the iPhone, but sometimes I do.

7. Contacts-I use this all of the time to find addresses, emails or phone numbers for people. I really LOVE the fact that it is with me all of the time.  I can add people into it easily.

8. Calendar-I use this all day to schedule things for the future, to see what I am doing in the next few hours or even to look back to see what I did in the past.

9. Grocery IQ - This is an awesome app that keeps my grocery list for me. I can put into it lists of items that I buy from certain stores and then when I am at the store it is easy to look and see what I usually buy there. I use it to make my weekly shopping list and then check off the items as I get them. I never write grocery lists anymore!

10. Lots of sites are websites that also have mobile apps. I use Yelp to find restaurants I am interested in going to OR to review services that I have used. Facebook has an app. These apps make working on your device a bit easier and help you skip the step of having to search for them on a browser

I use the iPhone all day. It has changed how I do things. As you can see, most of the apps that I regularly use came with the phone or are free to download. There are so many apps out there that I don't usually download anything that costs something.

Following is a list of other recommended apps that I found online with a few comments.

Waze - This is another MAP app that is free and comes highly recommended. It can also give you traffic warnings. It can be used in a social way so that others can see where you are driving and you can see their routes.

Shazam - This is an amazing app that can find the name of any music that you hear. It does have to be close enough to the origin of the sound to figure it out. I am in a coffee shop now and it is not able to find the music that is playing.  

i-nigma - By now you have probably seen those square marks that look sort of like bar codes. They are often on advertisements, but you see them all over now and they ask you to scan them for more information. These are QR-Codes. i-nigma is a QR-Code scanner. Here is one that I made with another app called QR Code maker.

Layar- This app lets you get an idea of what people who are using Google Glass might be seeing. It is sort of a futuristic app. Amazing and fun.

Lose It - This app can help you keep track of what you are eating, how much you are exercising and how your weight is changing. It works on calories and tells you the calories of food. It can read barcodes and enter the information from the barcode into the program. 

Tree ID - This is an app I downloaded to find out about a tree that I did not recognize in my yard. It walked me through the identification process. I think it is really handy to have.

Flashlight - This is not an app, but is a part of the regular operating system on an iPhone. If you slide up from the bottom after turning it on you are given a window with a lot of choices. Choose the one that looks like a flashlight and it makes the camera into a very strong light.


As I wrote this and looked for icons I realized that there are many more apps that I use often. There is just so much available!

Some of the apps in this post are from this New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/business/basic-apps-for-smartphones-and-tablets.html?hp&_r=0

Should I use 2 Step-Authentication?

WHAT IS 2 STEP AUTHENTICATION?

Authentication means making sure you are who you say that you are. Using a password is the main way that you are authenticated by most websites. But what if someone finds out your password. Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter (and other large companies) have designed a way that you can have two layers of security for your accounts with them. First you have to put in your password. Second a random code is texted to your cell phone. When you get the message you type the code into the website and you are in. If someone has your password it is most likely that they do not have your cell phone also. 

NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS SHOULD YOU USE IT?

The more secure you want to be online the more important it is to use the two-factor authentication. You can set this so that it does not happen on your own computer, but only when you are using a public computer or one that belongs to someone else. 

In Facebook click on the gear in the top right to get the settings.  Then choose Security. Look down the list on the left until you see Log in Approvals. This is where you set up your phone to be an extra layer of security.

In Google after you log in find your picture, or the default picture in the top right corner. When you click on it a window will pull down and you should click on the word Privacy. This will open a webpage that will give you lots of information about how to be more secure. If you want to set up 2-step authentication slide down the page and click to "find out more about 2-step authentication. 

Follow similar steps to set this up in Yahoo, Twitter and other programs. The choice will be found in your settings under security or privacy. 

The more secure your computer is the more difficult it is for anyone, including you, to use it. I like the advice of Socrates "Know Thyself". How old are you?  How good is your memory? What do you use your computer for? How often do you use computers other than your own? Do you have a cell phone and do you use Text Messaging? 

For someone who uses a computer all of the time for business purposes or for regular banking it is a good idea to be as secure as possible even if it is frustrating sometimes. For someone who mostly plays solitaire and sometimes gets online to do email it may not be worth the effort. Then there are all of the many cases that fall inbetween. So, know yourself, is the best advice that I have. 

SOMETHING EXTRA

Since we are talking about security I thought I would also mention the Captcha Codes. Wikipedia says it stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. 

You often have to fill them out at the bottom of a form or application that you are submitting. They are getting more and more difficult to interpret. They were devised to make sure that it was a real person who is filling out the form. Today there are robot computers that can fill in forms and send notes, but they cannot read pictures of letters and numbers. 

If you cannot read the code on the page that you are on there is a speaker you can click on to hear the audio of the captcha. You can also press the circle arrows (or reload) to get a new code. There are several really tricky letters and numbers to read (L, l, I, and 1 for example), so never feel like you are stupid. You are SO much smarter than any computer.

How Can Airplanes Allow WiFi Use?

 Last weekend I flew to Chicago to visit my son. It was a new experience on a flight for a few reasons. None of the reasons had to do with weather although it was an issue this weekend.

For Christmas I got a GoGo Pillow for my iPad. https://www.gogopillow.com/
It actually fits all sorts of tablets (kindle, nook, android, mini ipad, regular ipad, etc...) The thing about it is that the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) rules have changed so that you can use small devices on the plane even on take off. They still ask that you put away your laptop because it is big. If you want to pay you can even be online while FLYING!  Since I am not a Geek, I don't really know HOW they do that. From what I have read you are connecting to a WiFi that is on the plane, but you cannot use other Internet Connections or use your phone. 

What you CAN do is connect to your email online, so that you send and receive right away. You can stream a video or TV show from the Internet to watch rather than have to take up space downloading it to your device first. You can just look up things on the Internet (maybe plan your trip or shop!) while on the plane. Our airline was offering TV shows and movies that you could purchase and watch through your device for a small amount (99 cents for a TV show). This was on a 3 hour flight where there is usually no entertainment (except for the flight attendents reading the rules).

They ask that during the take off and landing that your device (iPhone, Kindle, etc...) is in Airplane Mode. That means that you have chosen the setting where your device cannot try to connect (ping) during that time. Laptops and devices are always sending out messages to see what else is around them. Even if you are not going to get onto the Internet your computer can see what options are available. 

So, what did I do? Well, it may sound boring, but it did make the time go fast. I set my iPad up on the GoGo Pillow so that I could see it easily. Then I played Candy Crush Saga, Solitaire, and Angry Birds Star Wars. No one told me to put it away when taking off or landing!  I did check out connecting to the plane's wifi and decided I didn't want to spend any extra money to be online. 

After several hours in the airport with a flight delay because of weather I was pretty brain dead, so this was all I could do at the time!  Also, take offs and landings are times when I want to be occupied with something other than noticing how well things are going. iPad games are really good for that!

I also liked using my Gogo Pillow to as an iPad case. I don't think that all tablets will fit, but anything the same size or smaller than an iPad 2 will fit inside the zippered area.  It is pretty cool.

________________________________________________________________________

Extra Bonus Information:  How to put your iPad or iPhone into Airplane Mode. On the HOME screen choose the Settings icon. The first thing you see when you get there is Airplane Mode on the left side. Just click the slider and it will turn green. That shows that Airplane mode is on. As long as this is set you will not be able to connect to the WiFi at all.

When I change internet providers Do I need to change my email address?

INTERNET PROVIDERS

Recently a client of mine moved.  Because the client was now living in a different part of town the internet provider was different. The internet provider is usually the company that installs cable or your telephone as well as giving you internet service. 

My client's email address was the one that came with the internet provider. The change of providers meant a change in email address also.

Providers give email addresses to their customers for free along with the internet service. That means that they host an email server where all of your email (sent and received) is stored. If you are no longer their customer you must sign up for a new address either with your new provider or with one of the free online providers; Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Zoho.  There are more listed here:

http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm

CLIENTS

It is easy to be confused about email online and email clients. A client is the program that is ON your computer that lets you read your email without going through a browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer. Some common clients are Mail (on the Macintosh), Outlook, Entourage, Windows Live Mail, and Thunderbird. These programs will go and get your mail, put it on your computer and also send your mail from your computer. 

It is handy to have one of these programs in case you are somewhere that does not have an internet connection. Using one of these programs without an internet connection you can read any email that was downloaded when you last were on the Internet and you can write email or replies. Anything you write will not be sent right away, but the next time you can connect to the internet they will send automatically. Until they are sent they sit in your inbox and wait.

When I don't have an internet connection and try to go to gmail to get my mail this is what I see.

I cannot even read my old email messages. I could write email on Word or another word processor, but I would still have to create a message, copy, paste and send it when I am on the Internet again.

An email client needs to be set up to connect to your internet provider so it knows where to look for your mail. Each provider has different information that you need to set a client up. Search online for your internet provider and look for information about setting up an email client. It should tell you the POP or IMAP server (that is the computer for incoming mail and the SMTP server (that is the server for sending, or outgoing, mail). You can then go to the settings in your email client and enter this information. It should make the client work!

A FINAL WORD

It can cause a lot of frustration to change email addresses. After thinking about this for a while it seems to me that the best way to go is to get a free email address from Gmail, Yahoo or one of the others. Then if you change providers you do  not have to change your email address!

Things to do with Word You Might not Know About

Microsoft Word is probably the software that almost everyone uses and associates with using a computer. Microsoft Word 2013 adds some important features. You can try these features on other versions, but they may only work on MS Word 2013.



Only in Microsoft Word 2013 - Edit and save PDFs directly in Word. If you have a .pdf document that you want to edit first open up MS Word 2013 (you have to upgrade if you have an earlier version). Then choose FILE>OPEN and find the .pdf. It will open in Word and you will be able to edit it and then Save As .pdf. It will save your changes!

These are TABS

If you like using TABS to switch between windows in a browser, now you can do the same thing with different documents that you have open at the same time. Just download this free add on. It will work with older versions of Word. If you have Microsoft Word 2013 you will have to purchase a $25 copy.





Use different Key Strokes or clicks to easily select different amounts of text. Triple Clicking anywhere in a paragraph selects the whole paragraph. Control Clicking anywhere in a sentence will select the whole sentence. Holding the Alt Key and Dragging your mouse over any rectangular space will select the specific text that you drag over.

Microsoft Sky Drive is the place that Microsoft has created for saving things online. If you have images saved in this location and are using Word 2013 you can choose pictures directly from the Sky Drive to put into your document.

Have you ever seen a document sample with "lorum ipsum...... " latin words? Those are place holder words which help you to visualize what a document will look like after you replace those words with your own. With Word 2013 you can generate your own placeholder text. When you are in a document type =rand(p,l) and press enter. The p stands for paragraphs, so you put a number instead of the p that indicates how many paragraphs you want to generate. The l (L) stands for how many lines you want the paragraph to be.

Words dictionary - You may not realize that when Word does a spell check it is checking words that are already in its dictionary. If you want more words in the dictionary you can add them one by one. If you type in a word that the program thinks is misspelled, but you know it is correct you can right click the word and choose "add to dictionary". That word will be added and it will not show up as misspelled any more. You can also download Bing's Dictionary for Word 2013. If you have Word 2013 you can go to this link to download the add on. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/store/bing-dictionary-english-WA103136166.aspx?redir=0

Toggle between word cases - It often happens to me that I leave my caps lock on and find I am typing all in caps when I did not mean to be. The other side is that sometimes I am done typing, but decide that a word should be Capitalized or in all lower case. After highlighting the words you can just click SHIFT and F3 at the same time and it will toggle between ALL CAPS, Camel Case (Where The First Letter Of Every Word Is Capitalized) and lowercase.

Recover Unsaved Documents - Have you ever experienced the horror of closing a document you were working on and then realizing that you had not saved it? I think we all have.  In Word 2013 click "File" and then "info" and then "manage version" and you will have a choice to "recover unsaved documents". Click on that and then find the one you want to save and do that right away!

These ideas come from:

http://www.cmitsolutions.com/corporate/blog/10-tips-tricks-apps-and-add-ins-supercharge-microsoft-word#list

Safe Holiday Shopping on the Web

It is easy now to sit at home and shop online. You can go to almost any store, small businesses or even people selling on eBay or Craig's List. There are just a few things that you need to know when you are purchasing items online:

Where are you when using your computer?

You should never shop or bank online when you are using a public Internet connection, even if it has a password. You don’t know who else has access to that same network and can hack into your computer.  Keep actual purchasing to when you are at home on your own password protected network. If you have a WiFi network at your house that is not password protected you need to find someone to help you set up a password as soon as you can and do NOT do anything financial online until you have that settled.

Is it safe to use my Credit Card online?

Safe use of Credit Cards online is a huge issue for anyone who sells or buys online. It is nice to know that it is as important to the people you buy from as it is to you.  The Marketing Industry has come up with safety standards called “PCI Safety Standards”. These tell a merchant what they need to do in order to be in compliance and has a system for regular review of sites.  Larger companies must be compliant with these standards or they are fined a great deal.

It is more difficult for small businesses to keep up with the standards, comply to all of them and to keep up with a regular audit. It is not unknown for them to “white” lie when asked if their security system is up to date. For that reason when purchasing on a small business it is best to use a company like PayPal to handle the Credit Card transaction. 

Is it a reputable site?

This can be tricky. Often you can look at the URL (website address) to get some idea. For example http://target.com takes you to the Target website,

but http://target.org takes you to a totally different looking site that does have choices for clothing, cell phones, and kitchen among other things. People buy these URLs and put up a page hoping that people will access the page by accident. Because they have advertisements on the page they get income every time someone accidentally goes to the site. 

Sometimes sites actually LOOK very similar and it is hard to tell the real one from the fake one:

The World Trade Organization was spoofed by critics of the organization. If you look at http://wto.org you will see the actual World Trade Organization.

Go to this site and see how it looks. It is easy to confuse it with the site below. Click on the link and see the similarities and differences. 

But if you search for World Trade Organization there is also one called http://gatt.org. GATT is an old acronym for the WTO and the site looks VERY similar. You have to read carefully to see that actually there is no way that the second one could be an accurate site. The first article title should lead you to ask questions:

"WTO Announces Formalized Slavery Market For Africa"

This same thing happens in email also. Sometimes questionable emails are even from people who I know!  I have learned that if I ever get email from anyone that does not have a meaningful subject line (it has Hi, or something pretty meaningless in the subject OR if it is an empty message with only ONE link saying something like “check this out” I immediately delete that email. Often the email box of a friend has been hacked and someone is sending things out in their name.

The one RULE to FOLLOW is easy. 

If you have doubts-don’t do it!!   

Safe Searching (search engine)

There are several special search engines for shopping online.  The one rated the best is Google Shopping http://google.com/shopping.  

When you go to the website it highlights the newest, and best offers that they have today. They regularly post pictures of the newest, best sellers. 

If what you are looking for is not on the main page all you need to do is to search. When you search a huge list of results come up. You can sort them in anyway that is useful to you. You can sort by highest price, lowest price, or review score. 

There are many of these Shopping Search Engines.  Some of them are for pay. You get an account with a password and then you can 

Other Shopping Search Engines to Try

Nextag http://www.nextag.com/

Price Grabber http://www.pricegrabber.com/

Google http://google.com

Amazon http://amazon.com

Shopping.com http://www.shopping.com/?sb=1

Bing Shopping http://www.bing.com/

QVC http://www.qvc.com/

Shopzilla http://www.shopzilla.com/

And there are many others!

Look for reviews before you buy

Go to your favorite browser (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari)

Type into the search bar an item you would like to purchase and add the word “review” at the end. 

The results that come up now are reviews of the item that you are thinking of purchasing. I usually read through a few of them to take note of the quality of the item and if it was what it sounded like online after it was delivered. You can also find out if people had difficulty returning items. This could save you headaches in the future.

BROWSING ONLINE

Browsing online is always safe and does not cost you anything. You can learn a lot about products and enjoy looking even at things you do not want to purchase. 

Remember that all of your moves online are kept track of by someone. This is not all bad. It is supposed to make it so that the ads that appear when you are on a site with ads are ones that you might be interested in. This keeps you from getting offensive ads. If you don’t like someone knowing anything about you it is probably better to stay offline.

BONUS SECTION:  Shopping on eBay

1. Open up a browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox)
2. Type in “ebay.com” in the location space and press enter.
3. In the top left look for Sign In or Register.
4. Choose Register.
5. The webpage will ask a small amount of information and you will create a password. Since you may spend money on this account you will want to make it a unique password.
6. Safe passwords have
1. 8 or more characters
2. Is not the name of your pet or your address
3. Uses at least one number and at least one capital letter (probably not the first letter because you want it to be hard to guess)
4. Can also use a symbol like - _+= 

Now that you have an account you can sign in:

On the home page there is a space that says, “I’m looking for...” Type in what you are looking for in this slot.

I am looking for a bathroom scale for my husband for Christmas, so I will type that in.

It came up with over 2000 results.  I can narrow my search by choosing digital or analog, upright or floor, etc...

Up front you are told the Shipping fee. Some are free and others have an amount for shipping. 

You can Buy it Now without bidding on an item and having to wait to see how other people bid.

When you choose an item it gives you lots of additional information:

1. Item Specifics-This will let you know if it is brand new, or if it has been used and what condition it is in.
2. Description - More details written by the seller.
3. Shipping, Payments, Returns - Spells out what is expected in these areas for the person who purchases the item. 
4. Seller Info - This tells you their Seller ID, what percentage of positive feedback they have had. If you scroll down you can see more details and how their ratings break down. If there is a rating you want to find out more about you can click on it and the whole list of the actual reviews of the seller will show up.

Watching TV and Movies with your computer

Do you remember when you got your first TV?  Remember how you had to get up every time you wanted to change the channel because no one had invented the remote yet? There weren't that many channels to choose from. Now we have remotes and too many channels, but I find that often when I want to watch there is nothing "good" on.

Things are changing! Now it is easy to watch what you want, when you want to watch it. If you have DVR you can record your favorite shows and watch them at a convenient time.

So, why I am I writing about TV and DVR when this blog is about technology tips? It is because I never have gotten a DVR and I am even thinking of getting rid of cable. I have learned that I can easily watch shows from my computer on my TV. The following gives you a step by step guide of how to do it and then several places you can go online to find free or paid shows. 

HDMI PORT

Hooking your computer up to your TV

Do not be afraid of this!  It involves cables that you may not have seen  before, but you can get them at a Radio Shack or Best Buy with the help of the sales person. This is easiest to do if you have a laptop or even an iPad or other tablet, but it can be done with a desktop computer. The computer will need to be near the TV or have really long cords.

VGA PORT

1.  Check on the back of your TV to see what ports you have on it. You will need to plug in BOTH the sound and the picture.

SOUND CABLE

2. The sound will be going out of your computer and then needs to be plugged into some sort of speaker. For mine I just use speakers that I use for my computer to play music.

SPEAKER

VGA CABLE

HDMI CA

3. The picture can come through either VGA or HDMI cords. Check to see what you have on the back of your computer. Newer TVs will have both choices. HDMI is high definition, so it should be your first choice. VGA will also work well.

ONE TYPE OF VGA ADAPTOR FOR MAC

So, you will need two cords and maybe an adapter depending on your computer. For a Mac either VGA or HDMI will require an extra piece of connector to go between the HDMI or VGA cord an the Mac. Newer PCs will have both an HDMI port and a VGA port. There are different adapters for iPads and other devices. Look at the ports on your computer to see which ones you have

ADAPTER FOR MAC CONNECTED TO VGA CABLE

Now your TV is hooked up to your computer. You will need to let your TV know which input you want it to look for. I have to change mine to PC. It then looks for the PC and displays the screen that is on my computer.

The next thing is to find shows that you want to watch. The following links will take you to lots of possible places to find TV shows. You can skip the TV and watch them on your computer or tablet. It is much more fun though to run them through your TV and watch them on the big screen.

MEMBERSHIPS

Netflix and Hulu are two of the most popular sites for subscribing to TV shows or Movies. With both of them you pay a certain amount each month and then you can watch as much as you want from their sites. When you set it up you get a login and a password that you must enter in order to access your account.

Netflix has two different plans. One is streaming video. All of the shows and movies that are available can be used right away. The other plan is borrowing CDs. I will not go into that since it is not the subject of the blog post.


OTHER PLACES TO FIND SHOWS

Crackle
Crackle by Sony is limited. There may not be full seasons for some shows, but there are many that are free. You will have to watch some ads and it does not seem to be something you can avoid.

TV.com
Reviews, discussion forums leads to full episodes that reside other places like Hulu or Netflix

FreeTVHub.com
International channels, less popular programming

Hitbliss.com
This sounds like an interesting new idea. It is sort of a pay as you go system where you pay by watching ads. 

Television networks (FOX, NBC, ABC, PBS)

Amazon Prime

WHAT ABOUT THE REMOTE?

If your have an iPhone you are in luck.  There is an app called Mobile Mouse which allows you to manipulate your computer using your iPhone. It also works with an iPad or iPod. You download the app to your iPhone and then another app onto your computer that makes it into a server for the app. Your iPhone uses WiFi and works just like a mouse with your computer!

There are other options for the Android. I have not tried them, so I cannot speak to them though.