Everyone can view any episode for free. Just click on the play button above.
Scroll down to see the show notes, after 2 weeks, these will be available for Members Only.
Members get access to the extensive show-notes Chris writes up after each show. Read them online and follow links directly to the parts you’re interested in. We recommend you print them out and keep them in a notebook. It’s a great way to learn.
You’ll learn some highlights from the 4 seminars we taught live at the FMCA RV Rally in Gillette, WY. Plus you’ll learn how you can access all the class materials for study anytime.
RVing is such a wonderful way to visit friends. Through Florida, Alabama, and Texas we “driveway camped” at several friends and were able to catch up on each others’ lives. Being on the road reminds us of important smartphone skills when you’re traveling. Below you will find articles on Google Maps, managing time zones, emailing photos, and reading Kindle books.
Upcoming RV Rallies
We are currently in Wyoming where there are 2 major RV Rallies happening. We will be presenting several seminars at each one. Whether you’ll be joining us in person or not, you can access the class materials for all of these seminars on the web pages we’ve made.
Thank you to our premium members for supporting us and making this newsletter possible! If you learn something from us, and you’re not a member, consider joining us now.
We are traveling. Our local time may be MDT, CDT, or EDT. Make a note.
July 11th and 25th
August 8th and 22nd
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Google Maps Quick Tip: How to see your destination when it’s in navigation mode
We use Google Maps to navigate all time. Sometimes, I need to remind myself exactly where it is navigating to. If you don’t know this trick, you need to stop navigating and back out to see what you entered for a destination, then start navigating again.
The trick? Just swipe up on the map, tap Directions, then scroll to the bottom. Here’s a 30 second video that shows how.
You don’t need a Kindle device to read a Kindle book
The free Kindle app for both iOS and Android, gives us all the ability to read books using our smartphones and tablets. We can take our entire library of books with us everywhere we go.
Extra benefits of Kindle books is the ability to look up words, identify characters, and follow links.
For example, if you get the Kindle version of Learn Google Photos, when you come across a link to watch a tutorial video, you can click it and watch right from your phone.
Emailing sounds simple right? But there are actually several different ways to accomplish sharing photos using Google Photos. Many people use the first way of sharing photos “Send in Google Photos” and they are distressed when their intended recipient does not receive an email. This article explains the problem and specifies ways of sharing that DO send an email.
Google Photos is changing all the time, and we have several ways of alerting you to the changes, but sometimes the changes are significant enough that we need to reprint the book. The Learn Google Photos book has been updated to reflect the changes that took place on and before June 1, 2021. If you click the image at right, you will go to the Amazon page to look inside the book at the first several pages of the Kindle edition of the book.
Make sure to tune in to Episode 214 of our YouTube show. We will be using the Learn Google Photos 2021 book to demonstrate how to use the Kindle app.
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If so, we’d love to get a review from you. Click the link below and you should see a right sidebar with all Geeks on Tour stuff, scroll down a bit and you should see Reviews and Write a Review.
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. If you’ve learned something from us along the way, we’d love a Google Review from you!
Create calendar events using the time AND the time zone.
Scenario: you are planning a visit to Buenos Aires and you’ve arranged to meet your friend Lisa for dinner at 6pm. You’re still in Denver when you make this date and you want to enter it in your calendar.
So, what’s the problem?
As you can see with the instructions above, it’s very clear how to enter an appointment in a different time zone. The problem is that, when you look at the calendar right after you create the entry, it won’t say 6pm because I’m not in Buenos Aires yet. On my calendar it says I’m having dinner with Lisa at 3pm! Don’t be confused. The calendar is displaying time according to where I am, the current time for my calendar is Mountain Time Zone. How do you see, and/or change, the calendar’s time zone? In the settings:
This is working exactly as intended. Think about it – if you weren’t physically traveling to Buenos Aires, but Lisa asked if you could join her on a Zoom call at 6p her time, you would want your calendar to alert you at 3 because there is 3 hours difference between your locations.
For even more about managing time zones, see Episode 215 of What Does This Button Do?
Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She and her husband, Jim, produce a free YouTube show called What Does This Button Do? They have been in the technology training industry since the 80s. Now, as semi-retired travelers, they specialize in teaching technology of interest to other travelers.
Everyone can view any episode for free. Just click on the play button above.
Scroll down to see the show notes, after 2 weeks, these will be available for Members Only.
Members get access to the extensive show-notes Chris writes up after each show. Read them online and follow links directly to the parts you’re interested in. We recommend you print them out and keep them in a notebook. It’s a great way to learn.
You’ll learn how to set time zones properly on your phone or computer, how to get the time in another zone, and how to schedule calendar events in different time zone.
1:00 How to add a multiple time zone clock on your phone’s home screen
Both iOS and Android give us ways to add a widget to the home screen that displays a clock for more than one time zone.
iOS: Long press on the home screen and you’ll see a + appear in the upper right corner. Tap that and widget options appear. Scroll thru them until you see clock. Now you have 3 choices – take a look and pick the one you want and tap “Add widget.” Last you edit the widget and select the cities you want.
Android: Long-press on blank area on a home screen then tap on the widgets icon at the bottom. Find the clock and choose the dual clock by touch and hold. Tap on the cities and tap change to enter the city you want. Tap back to go back to your home screen.
12:26 How to set the proper time on your devices as you travel
Make sure that you change the time zone and not the time itself. If you change the time without changing the time zone, you’ll create a royal mess!
Cell phones usually are set to get the time automatically from the connection to the cell towers. If you don’t want it set automatically, you can turn that off in settings. On a windows computer, you right-click on the time in the lower right corner, then choose Adjust Date/Time. Make sure to adjust the time zone, not the time itself. You can also choose to set time zone automatically, just realize that sometimes it takes a while.
There are lots of tools available for converting time zones, but we think the easiest is just to ask Google. “Hey Google – convert 7pm Miami time to Los Angeles”
Time zones are calculated by adding or subtracting hours from a standard time. That standard time is called GMT or UTC (Greenwich Mean Time, Universal Time Coordinated. This time comes from a place in England that is on the Prime Meridian – the starting point for longitudes on the planet. When you enter a time into Google Calendar, it is actually storing the GMT time, then it uses the Time Zone to add or subtract from there.
24:00 How to enter times and time zones in Google Calendar
When you enter a time into a Calendar event, you are also entering a time zone, whether you know it or not. The default time zone comes from the Settings for the Calendar. Click the gear icon at the top right of the calendar, choose Settings, then scroll down to Time Zone. Note that you can set a primary and secondary time zone. If you do then both times should appear on your event.
To schedule an event in a different time zone from where you are, just click on the link to Time Zone and specify the zone for the location where the event is happening and make sure to set the time for the local time where the event is happening.
In Episode 214 of What Does This Button Do? we go into detail on using the Kindle app on mobile devices.
You don’t need to own a Kindle device in order to read Kindle books. The free app for Android or iOS is perfectly capable. Using the app on your phone means you have your entire library of books in your pocket wherever you go. If you want a bigger screen, you can use the app on your iPad or Android tablet.
And, there’s more …
Words are defined
When you’re reading in the Kindle app and you see a word you don’t understand, just long-press on it and a dictionary definition pops up! The first time you try this, you will be prompted to download the dictionary.
Characters are explained
When you’re reading and see a character’s name that you don’t remember, you can long press on the name and a “X-Ray” box pops up that quotes a passage where that character was referenced earlier in the book. If that one reference doesn’t spark your memory, you tap the “Go to X-Ray” button to see all the references to that character. Not all books have the X-Ray feature. To see if your book does, open it in the Kindle app, then tap the 3-dot menu in the upper right – you should see X-Ray in the menu. If it’s not there, the book does not support it.
Bookmark and highlight places you want to revisit
To bookmark any page, just tap in the upper right corner. You should see a blue ribbon appear. Tap again and it will disappear. To see, and go to, a previous bookmark, tap the middle of the screen, then the notebook icon at top. You should now see all the bookmarks you’ve already created and you can tap on the one you want to visit. You will also see highlights you’ve made by dragging across text. You can see just the bookmarks by tapping on the filter button at the top right and select Bookmarks.
Share passages with friends
Let’s say you learn something about using Google Photos by reading our book in Kindle version and you’d like to share this thing you learned with a friend who uses Google Photos. All you need to do is drag your finger across the passage in the book to highlight it. Then you tap the share button, choose your method of sharing – e.g. email or text message, and send to your friend.
We covered all these features and more in Episode 214 of our YouTube show, What Does this button Do? If you are a premium member of Geeks on Tour, you will also see the detailed show notes there.
Kindle version of Learn Google Photos 2021
Because of the major change in Google Photos on June 1, we’ve published a new version of the Learn Google Photos book.
If you use Google Photos and you haven’t bought the book yet, now is a great time. Even if you have already bought the book, we recommend now getting the Kindle version at just $7.95 it is a real bargain.
Because you can read it on your smartphone or tablet, it’s easy to bookmark and highlight important passages so you can easily return. I also means that the links will be live and they will take you tutorial videos and other resources.
Everyone can view any episode for free. Just click on the play button above.
Scroll down to see the show notes, after 2 weeks, these will be available for Members Only.
Members get access to the extensive show-notes Chris writes up after each show. Read them online and follow links directly to the parts you’re interested in. We recommend you print them out and keep them in a notebook. It’s a great way to learn.
You’ll learn how to read, control, and annotate Kindle Books on your phone. We’ll use the new Learn Google Photos 2021 Kindle Edition to demonstrate the Kindle app on your smartphone.
The big RV Rallies were all cancelled in 2020, but they’re ON this year. Both the FMCA Int’l Convention, and the Escapees Club Escapade are being held during the month of July in Wyoming. We’ll be there, and we hope to see many of you there too. The Escapade is already sold out, but
if you’re registered, there is still room in our pre-rally Smartphone Photography workshop.
Since we’re getting ready to hit the road ourselves, the theme for this newsletter is Travel Planning. We use lots of different maps and apps to plan our travels – we’ll be teaching a seminar at both rallies called, “Maps and Apps for RV Trip Planning”. If you can’t attend, you can still view all of the class materials here.
Check out the articles this month about calculating dates in your travel plans, staying at Harvest Hosts, and finding those scenic gems with the Roadtrippers website.
We’re also happy to announce that our Learn Google Photos book has now been updated to reflect the changes in the product before and thru June 1. We’ll be showing the Kindle version of it as we teach how to control the Kindle app in Episode 214 of our YouTube show on June 6.
Thank you to our premium members for supporting us and making this newsletter possible! If you learn something from us, and you’re not a member, consider joining us now.
If you use a trip-planning app, here’s how it usually goes … you enter your starting location and your starting date, then you enter every night stop along the way and the app will calculate the dates of arrival. But what if you don’t want to plan every night? We’ve come up with an easy trick to make it all work.
When you travel by RV, you don’t really need a place to stay, you just need a place to park. RV parks with full hookups are nice but not always necessary. If you’re willing to park somewhere without hookups, you have many more options. One of our favorites is called Harvest Hosts.
All of the tips above are part of our seminar called Maps and Apps for RV Trip Planning. We will be presenting that seminar at both the FMCA and the Escapade RV rallies in July. We presented the same seminar at the Tampa RV Supershow in January, and also to several clubs over Zoom.
We’ve collected all the class materials and put them on one page for you to peruse whenever you want! Just visit the page Maps and Apps for RV Trip Planning and you’ll be able to download the seminar handout and view the slides we use to present the class.
You’ll also find links to all the apps and websites that we mention. Last but not least there is a playlist of over a dozen of our tutorial videos on subjects related to travel planning.
Google Photos is changing all the time, and we have several ways of alerting you to the changes, but sometimes the changes are significant enough that we need to reprint the book. The Learn Google Photos book has been updated to reflect the changes that took place on and before June 1, 2021. If you click the image at right, you will go
to the Amazon page to look inside the book at the first several pages of the Kindle edition of the book.
Make sure to tune in to Episode 214 of our YouTube show. We will be using the Learn Google Photos 2021 book to demonstrate how to use the Kindle app.
Leave us a Review
Have you learned something from Geeks on Tour?
If so, we’d love to get a review from you. Click the link below and you should see a right sidebar with all Geeks on Tour stuff, scroll down a bit and you should see Reviews and Write a Review.
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. If you’ve learned something from us along the way, we’d love a Google Review from you!
We need to be in Gillette, WY no later than July 5 in order to present our seminars for the FMCA 103d Int’l Convention and RV Expo. We want to visit a couple of friends along the way, and perhaps even see some new sights. I use Roadtrippers to plot our route because it has the best features for adding or changing stops, but it doesn’t tell me what dates we’ll be where.
Of these 3, RVParky is the simplest. Since I only want it for the one thing – calculating dates – I choose to use the simplest one.
I use RVParky for the big picture, including dates
I can even use RVParky for International travel planning
Calculating Trip Dates
To plan a trip on RVParky (or any of the 3 actually) you enter a start location and a start date. Then you enter a location for each night’s stop along the way and enter how many nights you will stay. It will calculate the dates along the way by taking the Start date, adding nights stays along the way to come up with an Arrival date at the next stop. If it doesn’t work out right, you can change the start date and it will recalculate. Although that makes perfect sense, there’s a big problem with how we plan our travels.
We don’t want to plan every night
We only plan known destinations, not every night along the way. For example, between Fort Lauderdale, FL and Gillette, WY we’ve planned one stop in Florida, one in Texas, and one in Colorado. All three of those are places where we will be visiting with friends. For the nights in between, we don’t want to plan. We just drive until we’re tired, then we look for a campground, or a Walmart, or a Cracker Barrel.
We don’t want to plan a location for those stops but we still need to account for the number of nights, so I add the travel nights to the previous stops and the calculation works out.
How about air travel?
We use this for International travel as well. After entering the start date of a Liveaboard (like a cruise), 10 days on the boat, then 4 days at a hotel, RVParky calculates the date we need to get a flight out. We use this for planning the trip before any reservations are actually made. This is how we sketch out our plans. Once reservations are made, we use Google Drive and Tripit to store and organize them. Tripit can also store any itineraries that a travel agent works out for us.
What about you?
Do you have and tips and tricks for how you do your travel planning? Leave a comment.
When you travel by RV, you don’t really need a place to stay, you just need a place to park. RV parks with full hookups are nice but not always necessary. If you’re willing to park somewhere without hookups, you have many more options. One of our favorites is called Harvest Hosts. Rather than pulling into a Walmart parking lot, or a Cracker Barrel, when we want something a bit more fun, we’ll check the map for host locations up ahead on our route. It might be a winery, a farm, or even a museum. Membership in the Harvest Hosts system gives you access to the contact information for the hosts, so we can email or call them and see if they have availability. We usually do that the day before we plan to get there. So far, everyone has said yes and we’ve had some memorable nights parked in picturesque vineyards, exciting air and space museums, delicious breweries, and tasty farms.
The Harvest Hosts website makes it easy to see the hosts along your route
Once you’ve joined Harvest Hosts, you can use the tools on the website, or the app, to plot your route and see all the hosts along the way. Click on a host to see the contact information.
As I write this article, I take a look at the map in the Houston area and see a host that is an air museum. I’m going to mark that as a favorite so that, when we get close to the Houston area, I will be able to find this place again.
Harvest Hosts have been some of our most memorable RV stops.
We’ve stayed at Air and Space museum hosts a few times and especially enjoy being amongst the rockets and planes in the evening when everyone else has gone home. The wineries are always good. One time we were treated to live music, and another winery stop was during the Solar Eclipse in 2017.
Everyone can view any episode for free. Just click on the play button above.
Scroll down to see the show notes, after 2 weeks, these will be available for Members Only.
Members get access to the extensive show-notes Chris writes up after each show. Read them online and follow links directly to the parts you’re interested in. We recommend you print them out and keep them in a notebook. It’s a great way to learn.
