Category Archives: Newsletter

September 2021 News: Google Photos issue

September 7, 2021

September 2021 | Issue 169 | Archives

What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

3,021 Miles traveled in August

August was a play month! We visited a national park, drove over a 12,000 foot pass in the Rockies, visited lots of friends, showed off our Star Trek geekiness by stopping at the Future Birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk (photo above), slept at a winery, and hung out at the shore. Fun, fun, fun.

We’re home now. Here’s the complete summer tour map:

There were no work stops on our schedule this month, but that didn’t prevent us from doing some online work. Three online events happened to be all about Google Photos – so we decided to dedicate this issue of the newsletter to that topic. See articles below about Editing with Google Photos, Making movies with Google Photos, and 30 questions answered
about Google Photos.

What Does This Button Do? (YouTube shows)
August 8 #217 Technology for Travelers: Prepare to be offline

August 29 #218 Making movies from your photos with Google Photos

Recent Tutorial Videos

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.

What’s coming up – Our Calendar September 2021

We’re Presenting Online

Things are all online-only on our calendar this month.

Sept 12, 2pm ET- Episode 219 of “What Does This Button Do?
Sep 12, 3pm ET Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
Sep 13, 3pm ET Members Only Zoom – Google Photos update
Sep 20, 7pm ET- Google Photos: Ask Chris Anything Live
Sep 24, 7pm ET- Members Only Orientation and Q&A Live
Sep 19, 2pm ET- Episode 220 of What Does This Button Do?
Sep 19, 3pm ET Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting

October

We have one in-person Roadtrek Rally planned starting on the 26th in Sarasota, Fl.

Oct 10, 2pm ET- Episode 220 of What Does This Button Do?
Oct 10, 3pm ET Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
Oct 18, 7pm ET- Google Photos: Ask Chris Anything Live
Oct 24, 2pm ET- Episode 220 of What Does This Button Do?
Oct 24, 3pm ET Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
Oct 26-28, Roadtrek Rally in Sarasota, Fl.
Oct 29, 7pm ET- Members Only Orientation and Q&A Live

Live YouTube Shows Sundays at 2pm Eastern time “The Button Show”

September 12th and 26th

October 10th and 24th

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum. Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions

All about Google Photos

Jim and I are evangelists for Google Photos, so it surprises us when we meet someone who doesn’t know what it is. We recently asked someone if they used Google Photos, and they said “Sure, I Google for images all the time.” No, no, no, we’re not talking about public photos, we’re talking about your private library of photos and videos. I have 84,000 photos and videos stored in my Google Photos account. From scanned photos of me as a baby, to high school
graduation and world travels, to to selfies from last week at the beach. I can simply search for any photo I want to see.

We pay $20/year for storage space in the cloud. With that we get all the features that are part of Google Photos. In this newsletter issue, we’ll tell you about 2 of these features:

Improving your photos with Editing,
Making movies from your photos and videos.

The 3d article is about our open Q&A session where you’ll be able to see our answer to 30 different questions about Google Photos.
Lastly, we’re announcing a members-only Zoom meeting to discuss recent updates to Google Photos

Want to learn more? Buy the Book – Learn Google Photos 2021

Editing can take your photos from trash to treasure

Built right in to Google Photos are tools for improving your photos. Tools like Crop, straighten, Adjust exposure, Adjust color. You can use these tools on the computer/web version of Google Photos as well on the iOS and Android app. Whenever you’re looking at your photos, take a minute to make them look better.

This article gives you the exact process to make the changes in the photos above, and it includes a YouTube show where we demonstrate that and more.

Read the article

Using Google Photos to make instant movies from your photos

If you use Google Photos to store your photos and videos, you need to try making movies! It is drop-dead easy to make short movies complete with music that you can then share with your friends.

This article outlines the 3 basic steps to create a movie and also tells you about some of the options. If you use motion photos (Live photos on iPhone) be prepared for a treat when your movies come to life!

At the end of the article is a 50 minute video with lots of demonstration and discussion about the easiest and best ways to make movies.

Read the article

30 Questions answered about Google Photos

Most every month, we host a Youtube and Facebook live stream for open Q&A about Google Photos. During our August session, we had 30 questions.

You can watch the full 1 hour show, or you can read thru the list of questions and click on the timeline link for just those that pique your interest.

Google Photos update – for members only

If you are a premium member of GeeksOnTour.com, please join us on Monday, Sep 13 at 3pm Eastern time for an update on Google Photos. There’s nothing major, but a lot of minor changes since the book was published in June. Some of these changes could be important for you!

We’ll be using the Zoom links for the Backstage Pass. You can find that link on the Member Login page.

What: Zoom meeting for members only
When: Mon Sep 13 at 3pm Eastern
click here to add to your Google Calendar
Where: Zoom meeting link for Backstage pass found here.
Topic: Google Photos updates

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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.

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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!

August 2021 News: Photo Editing issue – Google Photos, Snapseed, Samsung Gallery, Apple Photos

August 6, 2021

August 2021 | Issue 168 | Archives

What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

Out West

July was a busy month! We presented seminars at 2 rallies in Wyoming, then we played! We visited hot springs, and took a covered wagon ride, then met up with friends parked in the wilderness and took a hike. We visited National Parks, and drove over a 12,000 foot mountain pass. If you like the photo above, be sure to read the complete article on using Snapseed to “beautify” your photos and you’ll learn exactly how it was done.

Where travel meets business

As we write this newsletter, we are parked at a unique location in Montrose, Colorado where some RVers you may have heard of – HeathAndAlyssa.com – have decided to settle down and build their own RV Park! They are focused on providing a place where mobile entrepreneurs can have not only an RV Park, but co-working facilities complete with high-speed Internet, conference facilities, and more.
They haven’t even broken ground yet, but the schoolhouse on the property has fibre Internet, plenty of air-conditioned working space, showers, and a kitchen. We ended up staying 3 days, got a lot of work done, and had fun getting to know the other RV Entrepreneurs who were parked there. It’s not really an RV park yet, but you can reserve boondocking sites here. Thanks Heath and Alyssa – and good luck in your endeavors, we love the concept.

Beauty of the West!

Our travels in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado this month were filled with so much beauty that I’ve decided to dedicate this newsletter issue to photo editing. We took lots of photos with our phones, then used Google Photos for basic editing, Snapseed for “beautifying” and some special features of Apple Photos as well as Samsung Gallery that we had fun with. I hope you’ll read thru these tips and follow along to learn just how easy it is to have people go “WoW!” when they see your photos.

If you have the book, Learn Google Photos, editing is covered in Chapter 7. And here’s the YouTube playlist of videos that goes along with Chapter 7.

Materials from the RV Rallies

We presented several seminars at 2 RV rallies in July. Whether you joined us in person or not, you can access the class materials for all of these seminars on the web pages we’ve made.

FMCA – 4 seminars: all class materials here
Escapade – 3 seminars: all class materials here

Right now, these pages are open for anyone to view. We leave them open for about a month then change their status to members only.

See you Sunday!

It’s been a while since we’ve done our Sunday Live YouTube show – did ya miss us? We will do our best to be somewhere with Internet and electricity this Sunday so we can stream episode 217 of What Does This Button Do? We’ll tell you all about our travels for the past month and give lots of tips about living off-grid and off-line as well as a few of our favorite travel apps.

Recent YouTube Shows

What Does This Button Do? (YouTube shows)
July 11 #216 Technology for Travelers: 4 seminars

Recent Tutorial Videos

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.

What’s coming up – Our Calendar August 2021

We’re Presenting Online

Plenty of content on our calendar this month!

August is a travel month. Pay close attention to time zones.

Aug 8, 2pm CDT- Episode 217 of What Does This Button Do?
Aug 8, 3pm CDT Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
Aug 16, 7pm ET- Google Photos: Ask Chris Anything Live
Aug 22 2pm ET Episode 218 of What Does This Button Do?
Aug 22, 3pm ET Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
Aug 27, 7pm ET- Members Only Orientation and Q&A Live

We’re not sure what September’s calendar will look like. If we’re back home, we’ll have the regular line-up of shows and specials.

Sep 5, 2pm ET- Episode 219 of What Does This Button Do?
Sep 5, 3pm ET Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
Sep 13, 3pm ET Members Only Zoom – Google Photos update
Sep 19, 2pm ET- Episode 220 of What Does This Button Do?
Sep 19, 3pm ET Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
Sep 20, 7pm ET- Google Photos: Ask Chris Anything Live
Sep 24, 7pm ET- Members Only Orientation and Q&A Live

Live YouTube Shows Sundays at 2pm OUR LOCAL time “The Button Show”

We are traveling. Our local time may be MDT, CDT, or EDT. Make a note.

August 8th and 22nd

September 5th and 19th

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Get vaccinated.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum. Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions

Basic Photo Editing using Google Photos

If you’ve never used Google Photos to enhance your photos, then you need to learn how to get in to edit mode and to navigate amongst the different tools (see this video). If you already know that, then there are just two features that made the difference in the photo above:

Adjustments: Shadows – slide to increase light in the shadows
Pop: Scroll to the right until you find More…, choose Pop and slide to increase
Done and Save

Read the article for more examples

Beautifying your photos using special editing features of the free Snapseed app.

Once you start playing with Snapseed, you won’t be able to stop. The option called Ambiance takes any scenic shot and makes it look like a painting. It’s just one slider and it makes such a difference.

Some special editing features of the Samsung Gallery app

I felt this picture needed a better sun, a happier sun, a fun sun! So, I used Samsung Gallery and added a sticker.

Read the article to see how this is done.

A special editing feature of the iPhone Photos app

As long as you know how to take a “Live” photo with your iphone, you won’t believe just how easy it is to get the effect above. The article includes a video that shows you exactly how to do it.

Read the Article

Learn Google Photos 2021 available at Amazon

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.

Buy from Amazon: Kindle version 7.95 | Paperback 24.95

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.

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June 2021 News: Travel Planning, Harvest Hosts, Google Photos 2021

June 5, 2021

June 2021 | Issue 166 | Archives

What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

Get ready to travel

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.

What Does This Button Do? (YouTube shows)
May 23 #213 How to play your music in the car

May 8 #212 Our problem with Trip Planning – Solved

May 17 Learn Google Photos open Q&A (make sure to use the chapter links in the description – they link to 27 separate questions!)

New Tutorial Videos

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.

What’s coming up – Our Calendar June/July 2021

We’re Presenting LIVE – online and in person!

Lots of stuff on our calendar this month!

June 1, 3pm ET Venice Technology User Group Travel apps
June 6, 2pm ET Episode 214 of What Does This Button Do?
June 6, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
June 20 2pm ET Episode 215 of What Does This Button Do?
June 20, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
June 21, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions
—————————————————————-
July 7-10 FMCA 103rd International Convention in Gillette, WY.
- Wed at 2:30 MDT – Smartphone Photography
- Thur at 1 MDT – Remember & Share your Travels: Photos, Maps, Blogs
- Fri at 9am MDT – Google Photos
- Sat 2:30 MDT – Maps & Apps

We’ll have a table in the FMCA Information Center for Books and Memberships

July 11, 2pm MDT Episode 214 of What Does This Button Do?
July 11, 3pm MDT Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
July 16-17 Camp Reboot – Smartphone Photography & Google Photos
July 18-23 60th Escapade in Rock Springs, WY
- Mon at 3pm MDT Smartphone Photography
- Tue at 8:30am MDT Maps and Blogs
- Wed at 10:30am MDT RV Trip Planning

We’ll have a booth in the Escapade vendor area for Books and Memberships

Live YouTube Shows Sundays at 2pm Eastern time “The Button Show”

June 6th and 20th

July 11th

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Get vaccinated.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum.

Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions

Travel Planning: Calculating Dates

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.

Travel Planning: Staying at Harvest Hosts

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.

Places we would have missed without Roadtrippers

If you want ideas of sights to see and places to stay, you can’t do better than the Roadtrippers website and app.

Maps and Apps for RV Trip Planning

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.

View the Class Materials

Learn Google Photos 2021 now available at Amazon

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.

Buy from Amazon: Kindle version 7.95 | Paperback 24.95

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.

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May 2021 News: Last chance for Google Photos free storage, QR codes, Google Lens

May 6, 2021

May 2021 | Issue 165 | Archives

April with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

Becoming Home-bodies

Chris is not known for having a green thumb! But, with all this time at home, she just had to do a little digging and planting. Her favorite thing in the garden though, is this little froggie statue. It’s been there as long as she can remember and it had lost its eyes. She asked Jim to use the 3D printer to make him some new ones and they turned out great! Now, if only he could 3D print some flowering bushes.

Club Presentations

We presented six seminars over zoom during April. The topics included Google Photos, Blogger, Snapseed, and a Hodgepodge of Tech Tips. If you belong to one of the organizations that invited us, you already know about it. For the rest of you, we are listing the classes along with a link to all class materials on our website. And, if you are a teacher, you are welcome to use our materials for your own class. Just go to GeeksOnTour.com and click where you see the word “Classes” – it will
take you to this page. It’s quite a resource – check it out!

What Does This Button Do? (YouTube shows)
Apr 25 #211

Hodgepodge of Tech Tips including Google Lens

Apr 11 #210 Google Photos: Do these 2 things before June 1

Apr 19 Learn Google Photos open Q&A (make sure to use the chapter links in the description – they link to 32 separate questions!)

New Tutorial Videos

What’s coming up – Our Calendar May/June 2021

We’re Presenting LIVE – online and in person!

Lots of stuff on our calendar this month!

May 4, 1:30pm ET – Senior Planet Colorado Hodgepodge of Smartphone Tips (Zoom)
May 6 7:30 pm ET – Cajun Clickers Computer Club – upcoming changes in Google Photos (Zoom)June
May 9, 2pm ET – Episode 212 of What Does This Button Do?
May 9, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
May 17, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.
May 23, 2pm ET – Episode 213 of What Does This Button Do?
May 23, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
May 28, 3pm ET – GOT Member Orientation Zoom Meeting for all Premium Members
————————————–
June 1, 3pm ET Venice Technology User Group Travel apps?
June 6, 2pm ET Episode 212 of What Does This Button Do?
June 6, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
June 20 2pm ET Episode 213 of What Does This Button Do?
June 20, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
June 21, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions

Live YouTube Shows Sundays at 2pm Eastern time “The Button Show”

May 9th and 23rd

June 6th and 20th

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Get vaccinated.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum.

Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions

Last chance to take advantage of Google Photos’ Free unlimited storage before June 1.

If you use Google Photos, I want you to do something right now. Go to One.Google.com/storage and check your account’s usage. It will look something like the screenshot above. If you see that Google Photos is using up any storage, there is an easy way to reduce that number to 0 by retroactively compressing all photos and videos to the size called “High Quality.”

Recover Storage

The command is called Recover Storage and you will find it on the web version of Google Photos, under the settings button – the gear. Just click Recover Storage, then click Compress. That’s it!

If you don’t see a Recover Storage button, that means that you are already paying for storage, but you can still compress all past photos and videos by clicking back and forth from the Original Quality setting to the High Quality setting. You will be prompted if you want to compress past files, check the box to recover storage then click confirm.

Do this before June 1. Watch the video below if needed.

Read all about Google’s new storage policy

Recover Storage for your Google Account Tutorial Video 689

QR Codes are everywhere

You’re seeing them in restaurants these days. Scan the code to read the menu on your phone. They’re also on business cards, brochures and correspondence. To scan them, all you need to do is point your phone’s camera at the code, then tap the message that pops up.

Read the article for more tips.

Google Lens will tell you about the things around you, including translating.

I bought this plant to put in my back yard garden, but I don’t know if it needs sun or shade. If I knew the name of the plant, I would just google how to care for it, but I have no idea what it is called. This is where Google Lens comes in. You just focus on things in the real world and it will “google it for you.” Imagine being able to “Google it” for anything in the real world as well as online. Are you wondering where your friend bought that cool kitchen
appliance? Just get out your phone with Google Lens, point it at the appliance and you’ll find out. You’ll even get a link for where to buy it. What is this menu item that’s written in Italian? Google Lens can tell you.

Read the article to learn more.

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.

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April 2021 News: Computer to Google Photos, Smart Watch heart monitoring, Four Seminars for you

April 9, 2021

April 2021 | Issue 164 | Archives

March with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

Springtime travel

Since we’re both vaccinated now we feel good to travel. March was the FMCA RV convention in Perry, GA. We traveled there in our little RV, had gorgeous weather, and presented 4 seminars. Read more and see how you can access all four seminars in the article below: Presenting 4 seminars at an RV Rally.

On the way home we stopped at a friend’s near Gainesville, Florida and were in awe of the stunning Azaleas – thus the photos above.

Club Presentations

We presented several seminars over zoom for computer clubs – and you can benefit by visiting GeeksOnTour.com/clubs – you will see what topics we presented for which clubs AND you’ll be able to access all the class materials we used. It’s quite a resource – check it out!

What Does This Button Do? (YouTube shows)
Mar 21 #209 How wearable technology can improve your health in 2021 with Dr. Ron Brown

Mar 7 #208 Use Google Photos instead of Apple photos or Gallery

On our Learn Google Photos YouTube channel we offer a monthly live “Ask Chris Anything” on the 3d Monday at 3pm Eastern.

Mar 15 Learn Google Photos open Q&A (make sure to use the chapter links in the description.)

New Tutorial Videos

What’s coming up – Our Calendar March/April 2021

We’re Presenting LIVE – online and in person!

Lots of stuff on our calendar this month!

April 11, 2pm ET – Episode 210 of What Does This Button Do?
April 11, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
April 12, 1:30pm ET – Senior Planet Colorado How to make a blog with Blogger (Zoom)
April 19, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.
April 23, 10am ET – Deerfield Beach Computer Club Topic TBD (Zoom)
April 25, 2pm ET – Episode 211 of What Does This Button Do?
April 25, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
April 30, 3pm ET – GOT Member Orientation Zoom Meeting for all Premium Members
——————————–
May 4, 1:30pm ET – Senior Planet Colorado Hodgepodge of Smartphone Tips (Zoom)
May 6 7:30 pm ET – Cajun Clickers Computer Club – upcoming changes in Google Photos (Zoom)
May 9, 2pm ET – Episode 212 of What Does This Button Do?
May 9, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
May 17, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.
May 23, 2pm ET – Episode 213 of What Does This Button Do?
May 23, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
May 28, 3pm ET – GOT Member Orientation Zoom Meeting for all Premium Members

Live YouTube Shows Sundays at 2pm Eastern time “The Button Show”

April 11th and 25th

May 9th and 23rd

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Wear a mask.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum. Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions

It’s time to upload all those photos from your computer to Google Photos.

In Chris’ book: Learn Google Photos, Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are all about gathering your lifetime of photos into one place, your Google Photos account. Chapter 1 teaches you about your Google Account. Chapter 2 is about how to automatically gather all the photos taken with your phone – it’s easy – just install the Google Photos app and
turn it on!

Upload all photos from your computer now

If all the photos you’ve ever taken are on your phone, then you’re done. But, most of us have many years worth of digital photos stored on our computers also. The goal is to have your entire life’s collection of photos in your Google Photos. So, how do you get those photos from the computer to your Google account? Read this article to find out. We’ve taken an excerpt from Chapter 3 to tell you how to set up some automatic software that will gather all the photos found on your computer and
copy them to the cloud in your Google Photos account.

Now is the time to do this! If you use the “High Quality” size setting, then all the photos and videos that you upload now will be stored forever free! That changes on June 1, so, read the article and do it now!

How will wearable technology improve your health in 2021?

We wear a watch to tell the time, right? You can also wear a watch today to tell you your heart rate, your blood oxygen level, and whether you have Atrial Fibrillation. You can also see your patterns of heart rate, blood oxygen, and level of sleep all night long, possibly alerting you to future problems.

Learn all about it from our friend, Ron Brown MD, in episode 209 of our “What Does This Button Do?” show.

He even expects the Apple Watch to be able to do bloodless blood sugar monitoring later this year. This will be a game-changer for people with diabetes, saving billions of dollars and oh-so-many headaches with blood-sugar testing.

Video and show notes here

A quick video about the Apple Watch and heart monitoring

Apple Watch and Your Health Tutorial Video 684

Presenting four seminars at an RV Rally

We actually taught seminars live and face to face this last month, but just because you weren’t there doesn’t mean you can’t benefit also. Read this article and you’ll discover how you can get free access to all the class materials for the four seminars we presented:

Smartphone Photography: take a good shot and make it better
How to remember and share your travels with photos, maps, and a Blog
How to Organize your Photos using Google Photos
How do I make my own custom Google Map

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.

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March 2021 News: Club presentations, YouTube chapters, Bitcoin, Data Privacy

March 8, 2021

March 2021 | Issue 163 | Archives

What’s Up in February with Jim and Chris – the Geeks?

We got shot!

Shot with our 2 Pfizer Covid-19 vaccinations that is. It took some perseverance to get the appointments, then several hours in a long line of cars to get to the vaccination site at Hard Rock Stadium, but we’re done! We feel like we have a new lease on life.

That was the extent of our excitement this month. We were home all month. We did a couple “Button” Shows on YouTube (see below) and some members-only meetings on Zoom. Our articles are a bit different this month, opinion pieces about Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and Data Privacy. We still have one ‘how-to’ article about chapters on YouTube videos.

Club Presentations

What Does This Button Do? (YouTube shows)
Feb 21 #207 Data Privacy with Phil May

Feb 7 #206 Tech Tip HodgePodge with 3D Printing and CryptoCurrency

On our Learn Google Photos YouTube channel we offer a monthly live “Ask Chris Anything” on the 3d Monday at 3pm Eastern.

Feb 18 Learn Google Photos open Q&A

New Tutorial Videos

What’s coming up – Our Calendar March/April 2021

We’re Presenting LIVE – online and in person!

Lots of stuff on our calendar this month!

March 7, 2pm ET – Episode 208 of What Does This Button Do?
March 7, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
March 10-13, FMCA International Convention in Perry, GA. We’ll be presenting 4 live seminars and signing books.
March 15, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.
March 21, 2pm ET – Episode 209 of What Does This Button Do?
March 21, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
March 26, 3pm ET – GOT Member Orientation Zoom Meeting for all Premium Members
April 4, 2pm ET – Episode 210 of What Does This Button Do?
April 4, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
April 18, 2pm ET – Episode 211 of What Does This Button Do?
April 18, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
April 19, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.
April 30, 3pm ET – GOT Member Orientation Zoom Meeting for all Premium Members

Live YouTube Shows Sundays at 2pm Eastern time “The Button Show”

March 7th and 21st

April 4th and 18th

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Wear a mask.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum.

Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions

YouTube Chapters

This article will show you how to use YouTube chapters to jump to just the parts of a video you want to watch.

If you are a YouTube creator, you’ll learn how easy it is to create these chapters.

Read the Article

Geeks on Tour Accepts Bitcoin

What actually IS Bitcoin, you ask? Well, that’s what we want to know as well. We’ve been studying, learning, and experimenting. We think that Bitcoin, or some cryptocurrency, is here to stay. We think that the technology behind cryptocurrency – the Blockchain – will change our world every bit as much as the Internet and smartphones have done.

Who owns your personal data? Hint: it’s not you.

On 2/21 we did our YouTube show #207 on Data Privacy with a guest, Phil May who is a data privacy professional. I’ve thought of little else ever
since!

If you use a smartphone, or any online services, you are probably aware that some of your personal data is being collected. But when all the data about you is out there and gets aggregated, it amounts to a loss of privacy.

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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.

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February 2021 News: LastPass, Phone to TV with HDMI, Learning from our friends, 2021 Survey results

February 10, 2021

February 2021 | Issue 162 | Archives

What’s Up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks?

We got out of the house!

The Florida RV SuperShow asked us to present seminars in January. They requested, and we agreed, several months ago. We thought for sure the pandemic would be under control by January. As Covid started spiking, we expected them to cancel the show but they didn’t. We thought long and hard. We were only obligated for one hour each day, we could spend the rest of our time in our RV. We would wear masks at all times except when we were actually speaking. The show limited attendance at the
seminars and spaced the seating accordingly. We decided it would be safe enough, and we were feeling cooped up enough, that we went. It was FUN! How we’ve missed live audiences.

Other than Tampa, we were home. We did a couple “Button” Shows on YouTube (see below) and some members-only meetings on Zoom. We started a new tradition this month of holding a member orientation meeting over zoom. We will continue to do this on the last Friday of every month at 3pm Eastern time. We give a short tour of everything on our website, then open it up to questions. It was fun.

What Does This Button Do? (YouTube shows)
January 10 Trip Planning and our Favorite Apps

January 24 Password Managers – How to use LastPass

On our Learn Google Photos YouTube channel we offer a monthly live “Ask Chris Anything” on the 3d Monday at 3pm Eastern.

January 18 Learn Google Photos open Q&A

New Tutorial Videos

What’s coming up – Our Calendar Feb/Mar 2021

We’re Presenting LIVE – online and in person!

Lots of stuff on our calendar this month!

February 4, 9pm ET – Wisconsin All Computer Users Club Presentation
February 7, 2pm ET – Episode 206 of What Does This Button Do?
February 7, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
February 15, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.
February 15, 8pm ET – Tucson Computer Society presentation via Zoom
February 21, 2pm ET – Episode 207 of What Does This Button Do?
February 21, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
February 26, 3pm ET – Member orientation via Zoom
February 27, 3pm ET – Google Photos Workshop 1 $49. Must pre-register.
March 7, 2pm ET – Episode 208 of What Does This Button Do?
March 7, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
March 15, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.
March 10-13, FMCA International Convention in Perry, GA. We’ll be presenting 4 live seminars and signing books.
March 21, 2pm ET – Episode 209 of What Does This Button Do?
March 21, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting

Live YouTube Shows Sundays at 2pm Eastern time “The Button Show”

February 7th and 21st

March 7th and 21st

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Wear a mask.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum. Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions

Managing your passwords: Getting started with LastPass on computer and mobile

In last week’s episode of our “What Does This Button Do?” show, we covered LastPass. See Episode 205: Password Managers – how to use LastPass. Please watch that show to learn more details about LastPass. This article will tell you how to get started on computers and mobile devices.

How to use your phone to watch movies on your TV – and stay under your data limits.

Many of us have data plans on our phones that have Unlimited on-device data. What that means is that, as long as you are viewing online media on your phone, you can view as many hours as you want. But, if you turn on the hotspot feature for your other devices to share that data, there are definite limits and associated charges.

Let’s say you want to watch a Netflix movie. Just pull it up on your phone and watch right? Oh, but it looks SO much better to watch and listen on your TV’s big screen. And, for more than one person to watch, the TV is necessary. If you use your Smart TV’s Netflix, it will need to connect to Wi-Fi and that will cost you. Or, if you cast your phone’s screen to the TV using something like Chromecast, that is still using WiFi. The answer is to connect your phone directly to the TV. This
article will tell you how.

Read the article

2021 Learning Survey Results

We may be old dogs, but we learn new tricks every day. And we’re going to keep learning in the year to come.

Last month we sent out a survey. This month we have the top ten topics identified. Read the article to see what they are and leave us a comment about your learning priorities.

Read the article

Learn more with help from our friends

We figure that we’ve been stingy long enough!

In this article we tell you about how we learn more about technology with a little help from our friends … and so can you.

These are people we have met over the years who share our passion for learning (and teaching) technology. We’ll start this month by telling you about 2 of them.

Read the article

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.

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January 2021 News: Use Google Photos for free, Make your own maps, Year of Zoom, 2021 Survey

January 4, 2021

January 2021 | Issue 161 | Archives

What’s Up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks?

2020 – the year that Zoomed right by

The world stopped for a pandemic this year. We stayed home. The photo above is from last weekend when we couldn’t stand it anymore and made camping reservations at a wonderful county park, just 4 miles from our house!

With no travels to mark the passage of time, the year went quickly. Luckily we had the Zoom meeting software to hold our Google Photos workshops, Club meetings and other workshops were also delivered over Zoom. So many people have gotten comfortable with Zoom that we are starting a new, monthly “Member Orientation” to welcome people to Geeks on Tour and answer questions about our website.

We even used Zoom for various social events, birthdays, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and a memorial service. In looking forward to 2021, we count our blessings that we are healthy, financially stable, and able to continue our work and passion for teaching technology – by using technology!

See our tutorial videos on using Zoom at this playlist page. Learn Zoom

What Does This Button Do?
Note – we took December off from our live YouTube shows. See you again on January 10.

New Tutorial Videos

What’s coming up – Our Calendar Jan/Feb 2021

We’re Presenting LIVE – online and in person!

Lots of stuff on our calendar this month!

January 5, 7pm: Presentation for Sterling Heights Computer Club “How do I make my own custom Google Map” will be live on our YouTube Channel
January 10, 2pm ET – Episode 204 of What Does This Button Do?
January 10, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
January 13-17 Florida RV Supershow Live Seminars 10am Daily
January 18 at 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.
January 20, 11am-1 ET – Google Photos Workshop 1 $49. Must pre-register.
January 24, 2pm ET – Episode 205 of What Does This Button Do?
January 24, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
January 29, 3pm ET – Member orientation via Zoom
January 30, 3-5pm ET – Google Photos Workshop 2 $49. Must pre-register.
February 4, 9pm ET – Wisconsin All Computer Users Club Presentation
February 7, 2pm ET – Episode 206 of What Does This Button Do?
February 7, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
February 10, 11am ET – Google Photos Workshop 2 $49. Must pre-register.
February 15, 3pm ET – Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.
February 15, 8pm ET – Tucson Computer Society presentation via Zoom
February 21, 2pm ET – Episode 207 of What Does This Button Do?
February 21, 3pm ET – Backstage Pass for Members Only Zoom meeting
February 26, 3pm ET – Member orientation via Zoom
February 27, 3pm ET – Google Photos Workshop 1 $49. Must pre-register.

Live YouTube Shows Sundays at 2pm Eastern time “The Button Show”

January 10th and 24th

February 7th and 21st

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Wear a mask.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum.

Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions:

Google Photos Workshops

Did you notice the Google Photos workshops in our calendar above? These are 2-hour classes delivered over Zoom with no more than 8 people.

Workshop 1 = Getting the most from Google Photos using your smartphones
Workshop 2 = Gathering photos that were not taken with a phone. Computers, USB drives, other cameras, prints and slides.

The classes are taught by Chris Guld, a Google Product Expert for Google Photos. These 2-hour Workshops include a printed handout and several hands-on exercises. See more detail at GeeksOnTour.com/Workshops

You can still use Google Photos for Free

There has been a lot of outcry over the Google announcement that Free Unlimited storage for all your photos and videos will be ending on June 1, 2021.

Three things to know:

All photos and videos uploaded in “High Quality” before June 1 are stored for free and will be grandfathered in beyond June 1. (So upload everything NOW)
Even after June 1, Google will still offer unlimited storage for all photos and videos – there just may be a fee.
Even after June 1, Google will still offer Free storage for all photos and videos – it just has a limit of 15GB.

In other words, even after the change, Google will still provide unlimited storage and they will still provide free storage. They just will not provide unlimited free storage. If you upload everything you have now, then starting June 1 you keep your new uploads under 15GB, it’s still FREE!

2021 Learning Survey

We may be old dogs, but we learn new tricks every day. And we’re going to keep learning in the year to come.

How about you?! Learning keeps you young y’know. We have a long list of topics, and we want to know what most interests you.

Just click this link and then choose your level of interest for each topic. There is also a space where you can write in any other topics that we don’t mention.

Take the survey

Make a map for your 2021 travel plans

Most people have not heard of Google My Maps. It is different from Google Maps. My Maps is just that – it is for your maps. The base map comes from Google Maps, but you mark the places you want to go. You can also add lines, routes, comments, links, and photos to your places. You can get to
My Maps by going to MyMaps.Google.com. Make sure you are signed in to your Google Account, then you can begin to Create a Map. You can also get to My Maps from Google Maps – click the 3-line menu at top left, select Your Places, then you’ll see a tab for “Maps” at the left.

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.

Geeks on Tour google review

November 2020 News: Old phone as webcam, Getting rid of passwords, Google Photos and Snapseed

November 10, 2020

November 2020 | Issue 159 | Archives

What’s Up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks?

We actually got out on the road for a couple of small trips in Florida during October. The photo above was just snapped out the window as we drove through the Northern Florida countryside. The original photo isn’t so pretty. I used Snapseed to enhance it
and create the picture you see here. See the article in this newsletter on Google Photos and Snapseed.

Have you checked out our new YouTube channel specifically for Google Photos? You’ll find it at YouTube.com/LearnGooglePhotos. Go watch a few tutorial videos and be sure to subscribe because next week we will start our monthly Live Q&A for Google Photos.

Did you know that Chris has been writing a technology newsletter since 1983?!? She’s been feeling a little nostalgic lately and pulled out her archives of old issues. See the article and read her newsletter from Spring of 1989 all about WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and Corporate Computer Training.

Would you like to get rid of passwords? Hang in there, because that is the direction things are going. Learn how to use “Sign in with Google” now and be prepared for passwords to become a thing of the past. See the video below.

What Does This Button Do?

We added two new episodes to our YouTube “Button” shows in September.

Tutorial Videos – for members

What’s coming up – Our Calendar Nov/Dec 2020

November Workshops for Google Photos

We have scheduled Google Photos workshops for Nov 10 and 21, and Dec 2. If you purchased our Book Launch Special with the 2 hour Google Photos workshop, please click here to register for the date you would like to attend.

If you didn’t sign up during the special, but you want to register for a workshop at the regular price of $49, click here.

We’re Presenting LIVE – online!

November 7, 2-3pm ET Google Photos APCUG exclusive Computer User Group presentation for member clubs.

November 10, 7-9pm ET Google Photos Workshop $. Must pre-register.

November 16 at 3pm ET Google Photos Live Q&A streaming to Facebook and YouTube. Chris will demo and take questions.

November 21, 2-4pm ET Google Photos Workshop $. Must pre-register.

December 2, 10am – noon ET Google Photos Workshop $. Must pre-register.

Live YouTube Shows Sundays at 2pm Eastern time “The Button Show” about every other week. Check our Home Page at GeeksOnTour.com where we post a yellow note about our plans for the upcoming Sunday.

If we don’t do a live Button Show, we’ll do a Member Zoom at 2pm Eastern.

Live Zoom meetings for Premium Members after the live shows. Watch your email for announcements of scheduled shows, or check the message on our home page.

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Wear a mask.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum. Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions:

Need a new webcam? Use an old phone.

When you get a new phone, do you keep the old one? I want you to know that the old phone is still a great camera. Add a stand, and a little software app and you get yourself a high quality webcam.

I use my old iPhone and this $20 phone holder stand as a “Document Camera” for recording demonstration videos.

This same setup can be used as a camera for video conferences like Zoom. This article will show you how.

Sign in with Google

This video is about using Sign in with Google. The time is coming when you don’t need to set up accounts with their own password. Start learning to “Sign in with Google” now. See Episode 202 for more info on passwords.Sign in with Google

Make your photos beautiful with Snapseed

Snapseed is a free app from Google for either Android or iOS mobile devices. It is almost PhotoShop-like in how much it can improve your photos, but it’s a lot easier. Just a tap here, and a swipe there, and you’ll have a photo that people say “Wow” when they see it.

The great thing is, you can get to it right from Google Photos. First you need to install the app. It’s a free app from Google, get it in your iOS App store or your Google Play Store. All my photos are in Google Photos, so I can just open any one of them, then choose to edit in Snapseed. The process is slightly different in Android
and iOS.

Android: tap the Edit button, Choose “More” at the right end of the list, choose Snapseed
iOS: swipe up on photo, Choose Open in Snapseed. If you don’t see that option, you need to force quit your Google Photos app and restart it. See video in this article.

Read the Article

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Have you learned something from Geeks on Tour?

If so, we’d love to get a review from you. Click on this link

October 2020 News: Google Photos Workshops, Self-Publishing, Blog2Print

October 4, 2020

October 2020 | Issue 158 | Archives

What’s Up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks?

Her book is done, Chris relaxes. Jim took this photo with his Pixel 4XL. It does such a nice job in portrait mode. Notice the blurred background. Then Google Photos automatically copies the photo from Jim’s library to Chris’ library because of our shared library settings to save photos of each other.

Our book launch special is over, but you can still get the book from Amazon, or the special spiral bound book from LearnGooglePhotos.com

What Does This Button Do?

We added two new episodes to our YouTube “Button” shows in September.

Tutorial Videos – for members

We also added several new short show-me videos for Google Photos. See the complete list here.

What’s coming up – Our Calendar Oct/Nov 2020

October Workshops for Google Photos

We have scheduled Google Photos workshops for Oct 4, 5, 14, 17, and 24. If you purchased our Book Launch Special with the 2 hour Google Photos workshop, please click here to register for the date you would like to attend.

If you didn’t sign up during the special, but you want to register for a workshop at the regular price of $49, click here.

We’re Presenting LIVE!

October 16-18 Roadtrek Rally in N. Florida. Seminars on Google Photos and Blogger. Attendance is closed.

Live YouTube Shows Sunday at 2pm Eastern time about every other week. Check our Home Page at GeeksOnTour.com where we post a yellow note about our plans for the upcoming Sunday.

If we don’t do a live Button Show, we’ll do a Member Zoom at 2pm Eastern.

Live Zoom meetings for Premium Members after the live shows. Watch your email for announcements of scheduled shows, or check the message on our home page.

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Wear a mask.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum. Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions:

This video is about updating your apps. Specifically your Google Photos app, but all apps work the same way when it comes to getting the latest update on your phone.

Is yur Google Photos app up to date? 652

How to self-publish your book

I have now self-published my fourth book, Learn Google Photos. I am no expert on self-publishing but I do know how easy it is and I wanted to tell you about it. We use Kindle Direct Publishing for both the printed paperback as well as the Kindle eBook. There is no charge for the publishing process and all you have to do is provide a Word document or .pdf file of your book.

Our friend, Nick Russell has self-published 42 books, all listed on Amazon.com. Read the article to learn more, then watch the YouTube show to get step-by-step instructions as well as an interview with Nick about how he makes his living with his self-published books.

This video is about how to print a hard-bound book from blog posts you’ve made in a blog. I use Blogger, but this works with WordPress as well. I love having my personal memories in a beautiful coffee table book – it’s easy!

How to Make a Blog Book Tutorial Video 602