Category Archives: Newsletter

Geeks on Tour Monthly Newsletters

August 2023 News: Deleting photos, Volume buttons, Google Maps live view, plus lots of new content

Image

  August 2023 / Issue 192  / Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything we do possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68 for one year only.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

The waterway in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

July

After Jim’s successful hip replacement in June, he is literally walking on water in July! (note: I was able to capture that shot because I use Live/Motion Photos and can pick my frame. see Tutorial 809) He even went scuba diving the last week of July. He didn’t bring home any lobster but it was a success nonetheless.
Starting in August we have travel plans to the Bahamas – assuming we are able to get our renewed Passports back by then. We sent them in in May and it’s not looking good. 😒

Classes 

You can see all classes from past months on our Classes page. We did not present any classes in July, but we did start a regular segment on the Tech for Senior show – Mondays at noon Eastern.

We did 2 of our Sunday Live “What Does This Button Do?” shows:


In this newsletter:

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  • Deleting photos with Google Photos
  • Google Maps Walking directions with Augmented Reality
  • Multiple uses for the Volume buttons on your phone
  • Dark
    Photos

Geeks on Tour Member

  • 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.

Recently added “Pick-a-Tip” for members only


What’s coming up – Our Calendar August and September

The Geeks are supposed to be attending a conference in the Bahamas in August. Here’s hoping our passports arrive in time.

We have online classes, though.

Chris is starting a new Podcast, Fun With Photos!

The videos will premier on Tech For Senior’s Mondays at Noon ET

View the Geeks' online Calendar

Let us know if you would like a Zoom presentation for your group.

August

September

  • “What Does This Button Do?” 2pm ET Sunday Live on YouTube
    • Sept 3 Episode 263
    • Sept 24 Episode 264
    • Members Only Backstage Zoom after the shows
  • September 10 and 17 Fun With Photos Podcast at 2pm ET
  •  Tech For Senior’s Selected Mondays at Noon ET “Fun With Photos”

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.

That way you’ll get notified when we go live.

Ask the Geeks

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

Your Smartphone’s Volume Buttons do more than you Think

When you press the volume up or volume down button what’s happening? Is it changing the volume of your phone ringer? Is it changing the volume of who you’re listening to on a phone call. Is it changing the volume of your notifications? Or is it
changing the volume of music or videos?

In general, the volume buttons are context sensitive. That means, if a video is playing and you press a volume button, you’re adjusting the volume of videos. If you’re talking on a phone call, pressing a volume button adjusts how you hear the person
on the call. But, what if nothing is going on? What does the volume button do?


Using Live View on Google Maps:If you ask Google Maps for walking directions, there is a really cool feature called “Live View” which will show you the real scene in front of your eyes and overlay pointers telling you where to go.
Check it out.

Walking directions AR Tutorial Video 590


Google Photos – when you delete photos does it delete from cloud, device, or both?

It’s important to be clear what exactly you’re deleting when you delete your photos.

Read the Article


Fun with Photos 1: Dark Photos

On Sunday July 30, we posted episode 1 of Fun with Photos. Our plan is to post a new episode on Sunday afternoons whenever we are not live-streaming our “Button Show.” Episode 1 was about managing those dark photos.

Watch Video


Join us on a Hawaii Cruise – January 2024

See GeeksOnTour.com/Hawaii for
details


Leave us a Review

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! You might want to remove the Unsubscribe information at the bottom of the page. That will prevent one of your friends from Unsubscribing
you.
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!
Geeks on Tour June 2023 Newsletter Orchid photo

June 2023 News: Hawaii Cruise, Trim Videos, Group Chats, Chatting with AI,1984 Time Capsule, and more…

This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything we do possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68 for one year only.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks
May
In May we took a quick RV trip to the Tampa area to present a seminar at Sun City Center Computer Club, see links to the class materials below. Then we were home in Fort Lauderdale for the rest of the month.
We’re excited to have orchids blooming in our back yard and the photo above is
an example of editing the photo. See the video of how it was done, using Google Photos.
Here is my original photo:

We did 2 of our Sunday Live “What Does This Button Do?” shows:

Update on our Hawaiian Cruise!

In case you missed it in the last newsletter – You are invited to join us in January 2024 – as we cruise the Hawaiian Islands on NCL’s Pride of America. You can find all the details at GeeksOnTour.com/Hawaii Reserve and make $125 per person deposit by June 10 to lock in the current group pricing. That deposit is refundable up until September when the full amount is due. The trip will include a whale watching excursion in Maui.

10,000 Subscribers

We’re so close! 9,978 subscribers on YouTube. We’ll be at that 10,000 milestone real soon. If you haven’t yet subscribed, please visit our YouTube Channel: YouTube.com/@GeeksOnTour and
click the Subscribe button. We’ll highlight our 10,000th subscriber and link to their YouTube channel in our next newsletter.

In this newsletter:

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  • Group Chat Apps
  • Chatting with Artificial Intelligence: ChatGPT, Bard, Bing Chat
  • Trimming Video on your phone
  • Time capsule moment: 1984

  • 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 and July

The Geeks are staying pretty close to home for a while.

Jim is recovering from hip replacement surgery.

We have online classes, though

Let us know if you would like a Zoom presentation for your group.

June

July

  • “What Does This Button Do?” 2pm ET Sunday Live on YouTube
    • July 9 Episode
      260
    • July 23 Episode 261
    • Members Only Backstage Zoom after the shows
  • July 18 7pm ET Ask Chris Anything Google Photos Live on YouTube

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.

That way you’ll get notified when we go live. And we’re almost to 10,000 subscribers!
Ask the Geeks

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

  1. Titan Authenticator
  2. Google Passkeys
  3. Google Saved Passwords
  4. Hacked Facebook

How to trim videos on your phone

You don’t want to miss a second of your granddaughter’s graduation ceremony, so you start the video camera rolling as she’s walking up to the stage. Now you wish you hadn’t done that! Nobody wants to watch the 3 minutes
of her walking, they just want to see her step onto the stage and get her diploma. And, you should probably cut out that part where she tripped.

No problem, if you took the video with your phone, you can use Google Photos, or even the Photo Gallery app that came with your phone, to easily trim the beginning or end of your video. It’s a little more complicated to
cut out a piece in the middle, but this article will show you how.


What is a group chat app? And, which one is best?

Today we have apps that allow groups of people to communicate with each other – instantly – like you are all in the same room at the same time. Group chat apps are oh-so-useful for communicating with multiple people at
the same time. You can plan events, brainstorm ideas, or just keep up with what everyone is up to. You can also share photos, videos, and files with everyone in the group chat.

The problem is, we have so many apps to choose from. In this article we’ll list several of the contenders, then we want to hear from you. Do you use a group chat app? If so, which one and how do you like it. Take just a minute to respond to our survey.


Chatting with AI a tutorial video:

Artificial Intelligence apps are all over the news. Many of you have taken ChatGPT for a spin, but how about Google’s Bard? or Microsoft’s Bing Chat. This video shows you how to get to each of them
and ask your questions. Best part, it’s all free.

Online in 1984? A time capsule moment.

I (Chris), along with my mother, Marilyn, opened a computer training center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1983. I wrote a quarterly newsletter for 14 years to keep in touch with the students who attended our classes. This was back when we had to get a newsletter typeset, printed, addressed, stamped and mailed! I kept a copy of
each one and it’s fun to thumb through them. The following article is from one of those newsletters in the Fall of 1984. It’s about my first use of online services. I used a personal computer and a modem to connect to a service called CompuServe so I could participate in an electronic bulletin board called Whole Earth Software Catalog. It’s really a blast from the past for me. I hope you enjoy it as you open this time capsule to 1984 …

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! You might want to remove the Unsubscribe information at the bottom of the page. That will prevent one of your friends from Unsubscribing
you.
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!
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May 2023 News: Never-Ending Tips, Hawaii Cruise, Edit a PDF file, Timer on Phone camera, and more…

  May 2023 / Issue 189  / Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything we do possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68 for one year only.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks
April
In April we took an RV trip to Georgia to present some seminars at the Escapee’s Eastern RV Rally. Among other things, we taught how you can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) with ChatGPT to plan an RV trip. Then, on our way home we stopped for a few days at Walt Disney World’s Epcot and had a fun time! I took the photo above, but you may notice some magical additions. I used the AI in Canva to make the fairy, and other tools, also in Canva to put
our RV on the monorail. Neverending fun these days with AI and images!
Here is my original photo:

Classes 

You can see all classes from past months on our Classes page. We presented 1 class during April:

Join us on a Hawaiian Cruise!

January 2024 – You are invited to join us as we cruise the Hawaiian Islands on NCL’s Pride of America.

Jim’s (Mr. Geek’s) 70th birthday is coming up. He wants to go to Hawaii and he
says, “the more the merrier,” so we’ve arranged a group cruise through a travel agent. This is not a guided tour. Everyone who signs up will be free to do their own thing.

We will have 2-3 optional group meals and 2-3 optional group classes a la Geeks on Tour. The topics will probably be about smartphone photography and Google Photos with a lot of
smartphone “HodgePodge” in between. We’ll have a group photo album and maybe a photo contest. If we have enough interest we’ll book a group whale watching excursion since January is supposed to be a prime time for whales.

Save the dates on your calendar – Jan 6-13, 2024 and check it out at GeeksOnTour.com/Hawaii for all the details. Reserve and make $250 deposit no later than June 10. The best cabins are first come, first serve.

In this newsletter:

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  • Never-Ending list of Tech Tips
  • How to edit a PDF file using
    the Free Google Docs
  • Using the timer on your phone’s camera
  • Force Quit Apps to ‘Fix’ phone


Geeks on Tour Member
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 April and May

View the Geeks' online CalendarThe Geeks are staying pretty close to home for a while.

We have online classes and some Florida presentations.

Let us know if you would like a Zoom presentation for your group.

May

June

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.

That way you’ll get notified when we go live.

And we’re getting closer to 10,000 subscribers!

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

  1. Converting Picasa to Google Photos
  2. From Google Photos to One Drive
  3. Undo Blog Formatting
  4. Quattro Pro

Using your Phone’s Camera Timer

Do you remember setting your old fashioned camera on a tripod, setting a timer, then walking around to get in the group shot? Did you know that your phone’s camera has the same timer feature? It’s actually very useful for selfies. Set the timer and press the shutter button, while the timer counts down you can hold the camera out
without the need to raise your other hand to press the button.

This article explains and shows you how on both iPhones and Android.


Reboot and/or Force Quit Apps to ‘Fix’ a phone problem – a video


Need to Edit a .PDF Document? Use Google Drive, it’s easy and free.

PDF files used to be cast in stone, you could not change them. Not so any more. With the free Google Drive and Google Docs, you can. This article shows you
how.


Never Ending List of Tech Tips



Here’s a new feature on our website, check it out at GeeksOnTour.com/Tips. This is a members-only feature, but there is one category called “Free Samples” that anyone can browse. There are tips on iPhone
Basics, Android Basics, Phone Photography, Google Photos, Google Maps and much, much more. Use the Search bar to look for a tip on anything. Rather than the complete articles and tutorial videos that fill our website, these tips are short and to the point with links to learn more if you want. We’re just getting started on these tips so there are a few dozen now, but it will grow to hundreds of tips real soon!  Most of them are answers to questions we get asked, so if you want a particular
tip to be added, ask a question on our Q&A page.

See the Tips

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! You might want to remove the Unsubscribe information at the bottom of the page. That will prevent one of your friends from Unsubscribing
you.
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!
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April 2023 News: AI/ChatGPT, Editing w Google Photos, Google Calendar reminders, RVillage

  April 2023 / Issue 188  / Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything we do possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68 for one year only.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks


The waterway in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
March

At the beginning of March, we were still traveling in Indonesia. The photo above comes from Bali. It’s called Garuda Wisnu Kencana. Wisnu is the god, sitting on his eagle-like steed called Garuda. Imagine the statue of Liberty, now make it a third bigger! You can see this statue from the plane! It was quite impressive. We completed our travels and arrived home mid-March. We’re happy to be home for a while.

Classes 

You can see all classes from past months on our Classes page. We presented 1 class during March:

Live YouTube shows
We did 2 of our Sunday Live “What Does This Button Do?” shows:

In this newsletter:

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  • Can Artificial Intelligence like ChatGPT plan your next trip?
  • Using Google Photos powerful editing tools
  • Magic Eraser video
  • Google Calendar Reminders
  • How to get your RVillage Map now that RVillage is closed

  • 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 April and May

The Geeks are staying pretty close to home for a while.

We have one rally in Georgia and some Florida presentations.

Let us know if you would like a Zoom presentation for your group.

April

May

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.

That way you’ll get notified when we go live.

And we’re getting closer to 10K subs!

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

  1. Email Deletions
  2. Icon on Some Photos
  3. View Selected Photos
  4. Face Detection Results are Gone

If you’re using Google Photos under the free 15GB plan, you’re missing some powerful editing tools

If you use Google Photos and you’re struggling to stay within the 15GB Free storage allotment. Stop Struggling! Bite the bullet and pay $2/month. That gets you a Google One subscription with lots more than just the storage. Included in the plan are some WAY Cool editing features like Dynamic, Magic Eraser, and Background Blur.

Read More

Play this video to learn how to use Magic Eraser


Can Artificial Intelligence like Chat GPT plan your next trip?

Every techie worth their salt is writing about the Artificial Intelligence tool called ChatGPT. In February I wrote about using
ChatGPT to write poetry
! Now that we’re back home and thinking about an RV trip, I decided to ask it to plan a trip for us. It doesn’t actually make your reservations or give turn-by-turn directions, but I find it quite useful in giving me an outline of where to go. The key is in learning how to talk to AI Chatbots.

Read the article here.


How Google Calendar can keep you from missing an event by setting your default notifications.

I’ve been using Google Calendar to notify me of upcoming appointments ever since I started using a smartphone, and yesterday I found it especially useful. I want to make sure that all of you know how to set the default settings so that you get a
notification before any upcoming event.

I had completely forgotten about my Yoga class at 10:30. I also completely forgot about a dinner party we were going to at 6pm. Because of my default settings in Google Calendar, I get a ringing automatic notification an hour before any
appointment. Whew! I made it just in time. Thank you Google Calendar!


How to get your RVillage Map now thatRVillage is closed 

RVillage shut down, disappointing many RVers, but you can still get your places data and make a map.

Read 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.

 If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! You might want to remove the Unsubscribe information at the bottom of the page. That will prevent one of your friends from Unsubscribing
you.
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!
Geeks on Tour, 411 Walnut St. #4816, Green Cove Springs, FL, 32043, USAUnsubscribe   |   Change Subscriber Options

March 2023 News: Sharing Apple Photos, Smartphone Typing Shortcuts, Blog posts without Internet and more …

  March 2023 / Issue 187  / Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything we do possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68 for one year only.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

A month in Indonesia …

February
The photo above comes from a liveaboard dive boat named the Mermaid 1. We were on board, doing 2,3, or 4 dives a day for 12 days in the Togian Islands area of Indonesia. We saw everything from whale sharks to nudibrancs (a beautiful type of sea snail) and a true explosion of beautiful corals and sponges.

See our Photo Album here. There are still more photos to come. I’m writing this on board the Mermaid 1 on our last day, then it’s off to Bali for one more week.

March – We will be home March 10.

Classes

You can see all classes from past months on our Classes page. We presented 1 classes during February:

We did 1 of our Sunday Live “What Does This Button Do?” shows:

In this newsletter:

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  • How to share Apple Photo album to non-Apple users
  • Smartphone typing tips
  • Write your blog post even without an Internet connection, via email
  • 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 Join NowC
What’s coming up – Our Calendar March and April

The Geeks are on tour most of February thru mid March.

We’ll try to go live from Indonesia but expect Internet connectivity to be sparse.

March

  • “What Does This Button Do?”
  • Mar 12: Episode 252
  • Welcome back from Indonesia
  • Mar 20 Valencia Reserve Photo Club Google Photos Presentation
  • Mar 26 : Episode 253

April

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.

That way you’ll get notified when we go live.

And we’re getting closer to 10K subs!

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

  1. Accessory Gadgets
  2. Transfer Photos to iCloud
  3. Find location of a shared friend
  4. Uploading Photos to
    Blogger

Download Your Google Photos the Right Way


If You Can Send an Email, You Can Write a Blog Post

We’ve been keeping a personal, travel blog, using the free Blogger.com website for many years – you can learn how by watching Episode 190 of our What Does This Button Do? Youtube show.

While we’ve been on our dive trip, we’ve been without an Internet connection much of the time. Using the “Post by email” method, I can still write my blog posts
when the days are fresh in my mind. Since I can compose an email with no Internet connection, I can write whenever the inspiration suits me. When I click “Send”, it will go to Blogger whenever I do have a connection. This article teaches how to set it up.


Smartphone Typing Tips

Although I did bring a Chromebook laptop with me on this dive vacation, I’ve been using my phone for all basic tasks (including writing Blog Posts) and I’ve been reminded of a couple of nice shortcuts that I thought I’d pass along.

How to share an iPhone’s photo album with a non-iOS user

If you take pictures with your iPhone, you may use the Apple Photos app for making and sharing albums. The problem with this is that you can only share that
album with other iPhone users, (or iPad or Mac.) This is why I like Google Photos so much – it plays nice with both Apple iOS and Android. Albums are not transferrable between Apple Photos and Google Photos – you’re stuck with the tools in the app that you used to make the album.

This article will teach you the sharing technique that will work for anyone, whether they use an Apple device or not.


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! You might want to remove the Unsubscribe information at the bottom of the page. That will prevent one of your friends from Unsubscribing you.
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!
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January 2023 News: Vignette, YouTube 'chapters', Calendar reminders, Still shot from video and more…

  January 2023 / Issue 185  / Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything we do possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68 for one year only.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

Sun sets on 2022

As the sun sets on 2022 – we wish everyone a healthy, happy
2023

December
The photo above comes from our last scuba trip of the year. (Do you like the way the edges are darkened? That’s called “Vignette” and you can do it easily with the Google Photos – see the how-to below.)
Friends from the UK joined us and we visited Bimini in the Bahamas and went
diving with Neil Watson Scuba Center . They are known for their special excursion, diving with Hammerhead Sharks. The Hammerheads did not disappoint. Check out those teeth!

Sharks are magnificent animals who deserve protection. Also in this picture is “Joker,” a tiger shark and a nurse shark. Yes, they were close enough to touch!

Classes 

You can see all
classes from past months on our Classes page. We presented 2 classes during December:

We did 2 of our Sunday Live “What Does This Button Do?” shows:

In this newsletter:

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  • How to add a vignette to a photo
  • How to capture a still shot from a video
  • How to set multiple reminders for an event on your calendar
  • How to watch just the parts you want with YouTube chapters
  • Blast from the past 2005: WiFi and Frequency Interference
  • 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 January and February

January is Mr. Geek’s birthday month. Celebrate with us!

January

  • Jan 8 2pm Eastern: Google Photos Live Q&A
  • “What Does This
    Button Do?”Jan 15 2pm Eastern: Episode 249  How to transfer photos from your phone to a computer
  • Backstage Pass after every live Button Show for Premium Members only
  • Jan 16 7pm ET Valencia Reserve Photo/Computer Club Presentation Rescheduled to March 20

February

  • “What Does This Button Do?”
  • Feb 5: Episode 250
  • Rest of February and part of March we will be in Indonesia

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.

That way you’ll get notified when we go live.

And we’re getting close to 10K subs!


Ask the GeeksAsk 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



How to set multiple reminders for a calendar event
Have you ever created an event on your calendar then missed it anyway? I have several online events
that are on my calendar, they even give me a one hour reminder notification, and I still miss it because I started doing something else and completely forgot at the one hour mark.
This article shows you how you can set multiple reminders using Google Calendar (or Apple’s iCalendar.
We think you should do this for our next Live Show Episode 249, because it’s about transferring photos from your phone to your computer and we don’t want you to miss it on Jan 15 at 2pm
Eastern.
You can have your calendar remind you of this by email or notifications, one day before, one hour
before, and even 5 minutes before. Read the article to find out how.
Happy New Year! May you never miss an appointment in
2023.

How to watch just the parts you want with YouTube “Chapters”

Have you noticed the chapters in YouTube videos? They allow the viewer to know what topics are included in a given video and to jump straight to the parts
they’re interested in. This article shows you how to use the Chapters to watch just the parts you want. It also shows you how to create those chapters for your own videos on YouTube.


Blast from past 2005: The early days of Wi-Fi

When we were brand new fulltime RVers, we worked for a company called Coach Connect who installed Wi-Fi in RV parks. We work-camped at a park in Arizona called Palm Creek and helped the RVers use the Wi-Fi system. We actually made house-calls! err RV-calls. Here’s an article from our personal blog about when Chris filled in doing Jim’s rounds: “Chris the Magic Techie

And, here’s an article from 2010 about how hotspots’ radio frequency interference prevented Steve Jobs from doing his demo when the iPhone 4 was announced. In 2005 while managing a busy hotspot at an RV rally, we learned firsthand about that interference. Maybe we could have helped Steve Jobs?!

Leave us a Review

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 If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! You might want to remove the Unsubscribe information at the bottom of the page. That will prevent one of your friends from accidentally  Unsubscribing you.
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!

November 2022 News: Collages, Zoom Basics, Panorama photos and more …

  November 2022 | Issue 183  | Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything else possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68
for one year only
.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks
October was half travel, half home
The photo above was from a Roadtrek Rally in St. Augustine where Geeks on Tour presented a seminar on smartphone photography to a LIVE, IN-PERSON audience! So much fun.  Do you know how we got Jim in the picture twice?? hint: read the article in this issue about
Panorama photos.
By the time you read this, we’ll be winging our way to a scuba diving resort in Cozumel, Mexico. Chris will be diving on her 70th birthday, at the same place we dove on her 60th birthday. Life is good!
As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  1. Add a website icon to your phone’s home screen
  2. How to take Panorama photos
  3. Google Photos collages
  4. Zoom meeting basics
  5. Blast from the past – a 2005
    video about Copy/Paste
  • 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 November and December

November

It’s Chris’ birthday month and we are celebrating by diving in Cozumel and cruising in
the Caribean over Thanksgiving.

December

  • What Does This Button Do? Episodes on chosen Sundays at 2pm Eastern
  • Backstage Pass after every live Button Show Sundays at 3pm Eastern
  • Dec 5, Noon ET –Tech for Seniors – Chris will be a guest on the show
  • Dec 21, 7pm ET – Snapseed Presentation on Zoom for PC-Tech Users Group @ CPHL

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.

That way you’ll get notified when we go live.

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

  1. Touch issues on phone
  2. Uploading Duplicates
  3. Picasa Photo Format
  4. Hotmail Question
Zoom Basics

Zoom meetings leapt into the spotlight in 2020 during the global pandemic when everything shut down and millions of people used it to meet with others when
meetings could not be held in person. They found it fast and easy and oh-so-useful. 2 1/2 years later, it is assumed that you know how to participate in a Zoom meeting, but we know there are people who are still ‘newbies’ so here are some of the very basics.

How to take Panorama pictures with your smartphone

When you travel, you get so many opportunities for beautiful photos, and, if you have a smartphone you have one of the best cameras ever made. Taking panoramas, like the photos above is just a simple setting. You don’t need to take multiple photos and “stitch” them like with older cameras.

Read this article to find out how we got Jim in the photo twice! (see the photo at the top of this newsletter.)


Making Collages with Google Photos and Picasa



Making a collage using Google Photos is SO easy. You just select the photos, tap the + and choose Collage. It’s done. If you’ve done this in the past however, you’ve been frustrated that you had no control over which photo was placed in which position, or how a photo was cropped to fit the collage.
Those days are over. There is an upgraded collage tool in Google Photos now. It’s only available on the mobile app though – either iPhone or Android, but not computer.

Read the article

Blast from past 2005 video: Cut, Copy, Paste

An oldie but a goodie. Even though this video was made 17 years ago and it was on Windows XP – I think it still teaches good stuff! Sure looks funny though.

Copy Paste

One thing I notice is that I don’t make tutorial videos this long anymore. It really is good stuff though 🙂

Read More

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Reviews and Write a Review.

 If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! You might want to remove the Unsubscribe information at the bottom of the page. That will prevent one of your friends from Unsubscribing you.
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
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October 2022 News: Prisma, Word Processing, Backup or Sync, and more…

  October 2022 | Issue 182  | Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything else possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68 for one year only.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks
September was half travel, half home
The artwork above comes from a photo of the Blue Ridge mountains, then I used the Prisma app to create the artwork with one click. See the article about Prisma in this newsletter (just click the image above.)

Classes 

We didn’t give any classes over Zoom during September, but you can see all classes from past months on our Classes page. We call it a “Class” when we deliver a 1-2 hour seminar to a group on a desired topic such as Using Google Photos, Editing Photos with Snapseed, and Map-making with Google My Maps. The web page for each class includes a slide show, several videos and sometimes a written handout. If the class was delivered over Zoom, we may also have the recording of the whole class. These classes are for our
premium members, although we leave them open to the public for the first couple of weeks.

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  1. Embed YouTube video into Powerpoint
  2. What happened to Word Processing?
  3. Turn photos into artwork with Prisma
  4. Backup or Sync, what’s the difference?
  5. Google Photos Q&A: Ask Chris anything
  6. Blast from the past – a 2007 article about traveling with computers
  • 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. Join Now
What’s coming up – Our Calendar October and November

October

November

  • What Does This Button Do? Episodes on chosen Sundays at 2pm Eastern
  • Google Photos Q&A on a chosen Monday

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.

That way you’ll get notified when we go live.

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

  1. Same Google Photo on Multiple Devices
  2. Reverse Chronological Order Posts in Blog
  3. Backing Up Quicken Each Month
  4. Picasa Photo Format
  5. Hotmail Question


Turn photos into artwork with Prisma

Prisma is a free app for both iOS and Android and it is just so much fun. Simply open the app, open a photo from the camera roll and then tap on one of the
artwork styles.

Backup or Sync, what’s the difference?

If you learned technology when the #1 lesson was Backup, Backup, Backup, it’s time to take another look at your
processes. Things have changed. Sync is the new backup, but the devil’s in the details. Be sure you will have what you need if disaster strikes.


Whatever happened to Word Processing?

One of the very first software programs I used on a personal computer was WordStar. I used it to write letters, articles, outlines, newsletters, class materials,
and more. Before computers, I had a typewriter. With WordStar, I could toss my old typewriter in favor of this new “Word Processor.” After WordStar came WordPerfect. I liked WordPerfect so much that I became a WordPerfect Certified Trainer. WordPerfect was my specialty from 1986 to about 1992 when I started teaching MS Word on Windows. See this 22 minute video of my 1988 “audition” to be an
advanced WordPerfect Instructor
at my computer training center, Computer Savvy.

Google Photos: Live Q&A 9/26/22

32 Questions asked and answered. See the chapter links to see each question.


Blast from past 2007 article: Traveling with Computers
2007 article living in an RV

An old article from our early years as fulltime RVers. We learned how to keep our computers comfortable on the road.

Read 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.

 If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! You might want to remove the Unsubscribe information at the bottom of the page. That will prevent one of your friends from Unsubscribing
you.
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!
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September 2022 News: Google photos tip, Tech for Travelers, Drones, and Bitcoin


Image

 
  September 2022 | Issue 181  | Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything else possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68 for one year only.

What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

August was a vacation month
The photo above shows us in our camper van at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. When you put your camper on a ferry, you have a houseboat! We love ferries. We took 3 of them on our way up the east coast to New Jersey. Then we left the camper with a friend and flew to England
to visit friends and celebrate a 60th birthday. We partied hearty, then we played tourist for a few days in Southampton, Stonehenge, and Isle of Wight. Now we’re back to our camper in New Jersey and will head south via the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We are loving life! We wish all our US friends a fun and happy Labor Day holiday.
 

Classes

Just because we’re on vacation, it doesn’t mean we don’t give some classes! As long as we have good internet, we can deliver them from anywhere, even from our camper van in a national park! We gave 2 such classes in August. You can see all classes from past months on our Classes page. We call it a “Class” when we deliver a 1-2 hour seminar to a group on a desired topic such as Using Google Photos, Editing Photos with Snapseed, and Map-making with Google My Maps. The web page for each class includes a slide show, several videos and sometimes a written handout. If the class was delivered over Zoom, we may
also have the recording of the whole class. These classes are for our premium members, although we leave them open to the public for the first couple of weeks.

We also did 3 of our Sunday YouTube shows:

In this newsletter:

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  1. Google Photos Tip: How to capture a still shot from a video
  2. Technology for Travelers – when it works
  3. Jim is done with drones
  4. Chris thinks Bitcoin is fascinating, what do you think?
 
 


Geeks on Tour Member

  • 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 and October
Back from our UK trip and headed home in the RV
Regular schedule of shows and some presentations


View the Geeks' online Calendar

 
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click on the bell for
notifications, and Like us on Facebook.
 
That way
you’ll get notified when we go live.
 

September

  • September 11 2pm ET Episode 242 “What Does This Button Do?”
  • September 11 3pm ET Backstage Pass Zoom Meeting for Members Only
  • September 19 3pm ET Google Photos
    Live “Ask Chris Anything”
  • September 25 2pm ET Episode 243 “What Does This Button Do?”
  • September 25 3pm ET Backstage Pass Zoom Meeting for Members Only

October

  • October 4 7:15pm ET Kentucky Indiana PC User Group Presentation
  • October 9 2pm ET
    Episode 244 “What Does This Button Do?”
  • October 9 3pm ET Backstage Pass Zoom Meeting for Members Only
  • October 11 10pm ET Laguna Woods Presentation
  • October 19 3pm ET Google Photos Live “Ask Chris Anything”
  • October 21 2pm ET Episode 245 “What Does This Button Do?”
  • October 21 3pm ET Backstage Pass Zoom Meeting for Members Only

 Stay safe. Wash your hands. Get boosted.


Ask the Geeks

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

  1. Google Photos vs. Gallery on Android
  2. Facebook app or browser
  3. Google Photos Face Recognition wrong
  4. Picasa Photo Format
  5. iPhone Storage

Google Photos Tip: How to capture a still shot from a video

 


Technology for Travelers – when it works


Image

Technology allows us to travel our way. It gives us complete freedom, but when it doesn’t work, it can be agonizing.

This article tells you about our recent experiences traveling in the UK. spoiler – we love trains travel.


Jim is done with Drones


Image

He got his first drone in 2014, and he crashed his last drone just this year while we were in Italy. He’s decided he’s too old for the stress of flying drones. “I think I’ll stick to flight simulators in virtual reality. When you crash them, no one’s heart or wallet gets hurt!”

Read the article to see why he thinks this way and be sure to click the link to his playlist of drone videos he’s done over the years. From a hot-air baloon
festival, to an RV park in Malibu, to a dive boat in the Indian ocean, there’s some pretty cool videos here.


Chris thinks Bitcoin is fascinating, what do you think?


Image

The world of technology changes fast. Chris is passionate about learning and teaching technology and she sees Blockchain and Web3 as the next big technology.
Bitcoin is just the tip of the iceberg.


Blast from past: Going way back this time


1993 New about Computer Savvy

Click the picture to enlarge and read the article about the Computer Training business that Chris owned from 1983-1996. Jim was the network administrator for Computer Savvy.

Read More

 
Leave us a Review


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! You might want to remove the Unsubscribe information at the bottom of the page. That will prevent one of your friends from Unsubscribing
you.
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!
 
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Chris Guld Product Expert

July 2022 News: Google Photos storage, Fireworks photos, Google Photos Q&A, Blast from past

  July 2022 | Issue 179  | Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything else possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68
for one year only
.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks
Chris has been a Product Expert for Google Photos since 2016. Each year, Google has a conference for all the product experts around the world. This year it was in New York City. Learn all about it by going to Twitter and searching for the hastag: #PES22. But, the most important thing to
know is that Chris received the Video Creator Award! They used a Superhero theme at the award ceremony, and she loves her blue cape!
For the month of June we were mostly home

Our neighborhood in South Florida is great for walking, especially when the Royal Poinciana are in bloom.
Classes
We did not deliver any classes in June, but you can see all classes from past months on our Classes page. We call it a “Class” when we deliver a 1-2 hour seminar to a group on a desired topic such as Using Google Photos, Editing Photos with Snapseed, and Map-making with Google My Maps. The web page for each class includes a slide show, several videos and
sometimes a written handout. If the class was delivered over Zoom, we also have the recording of the whole class. These classes are for our premium members.

In this newsletter:

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  1. Cloud storage for Google Photos costs less than you think
  2. Fun with fireworks photos
  3. Google Photos Q&A
  4. Blast from the past – tutorial video from 2007
We did 2 new episodes of our “What Does This Button Do?” YouTube show, in June:
Show Notes
If you’ve been missing our show notes, we have good news! Chris finally got caught up and the show notes are now ready for Episodes 233, 234, 235, and 236. Whew! If you don’t know about our show notes, here’s your article: If you like our YouTube show, you’ll love our show notes
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 June and July 2022
We’re back home for a while! It sure is nice to be back in our studio.
Regular schedule of shows and some presentations
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.
That way you’ll get notified when we go live.
July
  • July 6 6:30pm ET Snapseed presentation via Zoom to STUG
  • July 10 2pm ET Episode 237 “What Does This Button Do?”
  • July 10 3pm ET Backstage Pass Zoom Meeting for Members Only
  • July 11 12noon ET Chris is a guest on TechForSenior
  • July 13 noon-2 Bitcoin and Blockchain for APCUG Webinar Wed
  • July 18 time tbd Google Photos Live “Ask Chris Anything”
  • July 24 2pm ET Episode 238 “What Does This Button Do?”
  • July 24 3pm ET Backstage Pass Zoom Meeting for Members Only
August
  • August 7 2pm ET Episode 237 “What Does This Button Do?”
  • August 7 3pm ET Backstage Pass Zoom Meeting for Members Only
  • August 15 time tbd Google Photos Live “Ask Chris Anything”
  • August 18 PCBUG Presentation on Google Photos over Zoom
  • August 21 2pm ET Episode 237 “What Does This Button Do?”
  • August 21 3pm ET Backstage Pass Zoom Meeting for Members Only
Stay safe. Wash your hands. Get boosted.

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

  1. Photo Scanning
  2. Google Photos on Computer
  3. Uploading from an SD Card
  4. Freeing up Space on Google
  5. Google Photos too Small

Fun with Fireworks Photos

Fireworks animation
If you’re like me, you can’t resist taking photos of fireworks, even though my only camera is my phone. Here’s a couple ideas on fun ways to use those photos. In this article, we show you how to make an animation like that above, also how to turn your photo into artwork. Happy 4th of July!


Cloud storage for Google Photos costs less than you think


Our route in Sicily
Do both you and your spouse use Google Photos? Are you reaching your 15GB limit on storage? Did you know you could purchase just one plan upgrade – minimum $20/year – and share it? It’s called the Family Plan.

It’s easy, but it’s kind of hidden. This article and video will show you how.

Read the article


Google Photos Q&A, June 20
Chris answers 20+ questions in this YouTube Live-Stream, complete with demonstrations on computer, iPhone and Samsung, Android phones.

Blast from the Past: Tutorials from 15 years ago

We’re celebrating GeeksOnTour.com’s 15 year anniversary all year. And, here’s a tutorial video about Internet Explorer 7 from 2007. It’s fun to see these old screens and feel nostalgic! Many of the current browser tools started with IE7, so much of the teaching is still valid. Check it out.

First look at Internet Explorer 7 – tutorial video 050

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!


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