November 2014 Newsletter: Windows 8 Wi-Fi and Limits, Smartphone learning recap, My Tracks and Google Earth , more...

Monthly Issue # 85 November 30, 2014 www.geeksontour.com
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November Travels

Where we’ve been: In mid November we flew back from Florida to where our motorhome was in storage near Cottonwood, AZ. We stayed at the Thousand Trails park, Verde Valley and taught several seminars at the clubhouse there. See our November photo album for more.

Where we’re going: For all of December we’ll be in Casa Grande, AZ at Palm Creek Golf and RV. We’ll be offering seminars every week while we’re there. We also hope to play some Pickleball and take some hikes! See our Calendar/Map page for more details.

By the way, our pictures, Blogs, Web Albums, maps, and videos are all examples of what we teach. If you’re a traveler, we teach you how to plan, preserve, and share your travels. It makes the experience that much more enjoyable to get creative on the computer and share yourtravels with friends and family. Check out our Learning Library of Tutorial Videos. There are plenty of free videos to whet your appetite for learning.

December – all month at Palm Creek Golf and RV in Casa Grande, AZ. We’re giving seminars 2 times each week.
January – Geek Week at Scenic Road RV in Quartzsite.

For more details, see our website Calendar.

Q&A Forum

Here are some of the topics that have been discussed this month. Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership!

November Recap of our What Does This Button Do? Smartphone Educational Show

A few hearty souls have made it a regular part of their week to watch our live show every Sunday. It’s an educational show about smartphones and tablets. When they watch live, they get to ask questions in the comments and we try to answer them live on the show. Every show is automatically recorded as a Youtube video – so if you miss it live, no problem. All the ‘reruns’ are listed on our Weekly Show Page. Here’s a list of the shows we did in November:

Episode and Date	Topics	Show Video with Notes for Members	Free on Youtube
#20: 11/23/14	Scanning barcodes and QR codes, Google Goggles	#20 w/Notes	Youtube #20
#19: 11/9/14	Your phone and tablets’s pictures in the cloud using Google+ Photos. Discussion with guests Robin Seaver, Catherine Tracey, Judi McDowell	#19 w/Notes	Youtube #19
#18: 11/2/14	Swype Keyboard (followup to episode #7) Guests Bill Joyce and Diane Melde; Apps: First Aid and Urban Spoon	#18 w/Notes	Youtube #18

Sample of Show Notes

Column 3 refers to Notes for Members, let me explain. Each show is 30-60 minutes long. They are all free on Youtube for anyone to watch. Let’s say you missed episode 12. You see from our Weekly Show Archive page that we covered what to do when you lose your device. You’re interested in that topic but don’t want to spend 30-60 minutes watching the whole show, you could scan thru the show notes.

Don’t Go Over Your Internet Limits. Windows 8.1 Wi-Fi Tools Can Help.

Like water or electricity, Internet usage may be metered. There are three things that Windows 8.1 can do for you:

Track the amount of data (Internet usage) that is happening over a given connection
Define a connection as metered or unmetered
Limit the Internet usage when connected to a metered connection

Roadtreking Podcast Interviews the Geeks

Listen to Mike Wendland’s Roadtreking podcast. He interviewed us this past week using Skype.

Listen to the Podcast

Swiss Army Knife App

Do you have a flashlight app? How about a compass app? Or a stopwatch? A timer? A Bubble Level? When you want to use one of those, can you find it? Do you even remember its name? I use the Swiss Army Knife app all the time, it combines all those tools that I need occasionally into one simple App that is oh-so-useful.

I especially like the magnifying glass. I used it the other day to read the model number from the back of an iPhone. Jim tells of helping someone read the numbers on a tiny SIM card – it was impossible to read without it!

Train Ride Recorded on Google Earth with My Tracks App

We called and made reservations for the Verde Canyon Railroad. We arrived the next day around noon and boarded the train at 1pm. Then I turned on My Tracks on my smartphone. This is so cool. It is GPS aware so it just keeps drawing a line on a map that plots where we are. But, more than that, you can take pictures along the way and they will be added to the correct spot on the map. When your trip is complete you stop the recording. Then you can view the tour or share it.

Boosting your Wi-Fi

Our friends at TechnoRV have written a helpful booklet titled: Guide to Boosting your RV’s WiFi. It’s a quick read with plenty of pictures. You will understand a lot more of what’s involved in connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot so you can be an educated consumer. The booklet also details the 3 levels of solutions that TechnoRV sells. We know that they use everything they sell and they know what they’re talking about..

Get the Guide to Boosting your RV’s Wi-Fi

That’s all for now. We hope you learned something. Your next issue will be next month. Any questions, please visit our forum. If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! If you received this issue forwarded by a friend you can subscribe to get your own copy delivered to your in box – it’s free. You can also visit the archives of past newsletters,

Happy Computing!

The Geeks on Tour website is an online learning library for Travelers who want to learn to use their computers and mobile devices for managing digital photos, making blogs, using maps and other online resources. Anyone can watch our free videos, read articles on our Computer Tips for Travelers Blog, sign up for our free monthly newsletter, or Picasa weekly tips. A small fee makes you a ‘member‘ and you can then view any of our 260+ video tutorials on these subjects in our Learning LIbrary.