Tag Archives: #WDTBD

Dashcam Apps to Document your Travels

Would you like to have an automatic recording of the road you traveled? Think of the beauty you could capture driving through the mountains. Or how about just a documentary on getting out of town.  When that jerk pulled out in front of you, how would you like to capture that license plate?

Maybe it’s not important enough for you to buy a dashcam. Did you know you could use that tablet that’s just been gathering dust? Just add a free Dashcam app, mount it onto your dash (velcro will do) and turn it on! No data connection required. You do want to have it plugged into power though, since it is running all the time it will drain your battery pretty fast.  Here is a sample of the video and stills captured from our RV as we got out of town!

We used a 7 inch Samsung tablet and the Daily Roads Voyager app for Android. If you need an app for iPhone/iPad, we found one called DashCam. We discuss dashcams in our What Does This Button Do show #101. Here’s a link to the point where we start the section on dashcams.

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How Does a Dashcam Work?

If the dashcam is running all the time, how does it store all that video? Does it use the Internet? No – you do not need an Internet connection, everything is handled directly by the phone or tablet. The vidoe is stored on a loop. It’s recording all the time, but when it reaches the specified time limit, it starts deleting the beginning of the recording. Any time you want to keep a portion, just tap the screen to save and a specified amount of video, or still frames, will be stored in a separate file. If you’re in an accident, the accelerometer in the device alerts the app and it automatically saves that segment.

Some dashcams are now calling themselves “Black Boxes” because they can record not only the video out your windshield, but also audio, and diagnostic information from an OBD – On Board Diagnostic – device. We haven’t tried it yet, but CaroO is one that makes this claim. Next trip, we’ll give it a shot.

The Button Show, 100 Episodes … with Notes!

imageImagine that your local community college offered a free course for anyone interested. You don’t even have to register, you just show up every week to learn more about the current state of personal technology; smartphones, tablets, computers, and the Web. You love your smartphone but sometimes it seems to outsmart you and you want to learn more, so you start attending the class. Now imagine that you don’t even need to go to the community college, you can take the class in the comfort of your own home, sitting in front of your computer or your Smart TV!

Welcome to “What Does This Button Do?” aka The Button Show

If you like technology and you like to learn, you’ll love our show! It’s a weekly educational show on YouTube by Geeks on Tour. We usually go about 45 minutes. Past topics include “What is the Home Button?”, “What are Location Services?”, “Facebook Tips”, “How to Keep my Battery Charged”, “Navigating with Google Maps”, and “Google Photos FAQs.” The show is usually just Jim and me (Chris) but we sometimes have guests as well. We use multi-media to teach our lessons. We do some discussing of topics, but there’s a lot more than chit-chat. We usually have a PowerPoint slideshow to explain concepts and go over important points, and we always have live demonstrations using both Apple iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad and Android devices like Samsung phones, or Nexus tablets. Sharing our computer screen, we also demonstrate features on the web.

Even though we’ve produced 100 episodes, we’ve just begun! We keep learning new things, getting new devices, and there is constant change!

Show Notes

imageWhat if you don’t want to watch the whole show? Or, what if you watched a show a few weeks ago and just need to remember one thing? We’ve taken your class notes for you! Here’s a sample: Show Notes from Episode 93 in .pdf format. Every section of the notes includes a time link. Clicking that takes you to the YouTube video at the point where that section begins.

Three ways to get the show notes:

  1. Become a member and you get all of them. If you are a Geeks On Tour member, you can visit the Weekly show page and there is a link to every show with notes.
  2. $.99 per episode at TheButtonShow.com. If you are not a member, we are starting to make the .pdf versions available for $.99.
  3. All 100 .pdf show notes are on our Learning Library USB Drive for $49. It also includes all our tutorial videos and eBooks.

How to Watch

  1. Live (Sundays at 2pm Eastern) on our Youtube channel
  2. Anytime on TheButtonShow.com

If you Subscribe to our YouTube Channel (and click the little bell for notifications) you will receive notice whenever we are going live. Usually that is every Sunday at 2pm. If you watch live, you can leave comments/questions in the chat window and we may answer during the show. We also sometimes invite viewers to jump into the live stream after we stop broadcasting for further discussion.

On Wednesday, we post the show on TheButtonShow.com, complete with show notes. The show notes are a benefit of membership. If you are a Geeks on Tour member, you have access to all the show notes.

TheButtonShow.com
buttonshow

 

What’s with the Propeller Hats?

If it’s not fun, it’s not worth it! We try not to take ourselves too seriously. I can get a bit too “teachy” sometimes and Jim can get too “techie.” The hats are meant to remind us to have fun.

Propeller-Head is another word for Geek!

These beanies have been our signature since we were married nearly 20 years ago!

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#97 Living the RV Dream

Show Notes for Members below

Not a member? Join here. This episode covers:

  1. Tip o Week: Setting an Alarm
  2. Beginner’s Lesson: About RVing!
    Interview John & Kathy Huggins, LivingTheRVDream.com
    Interview Eric and Tami Johnson, TechnoRV.com
  3. App o week: Ookla Speedtest, OpenSignal, Google Maps

Download .pdf (you’ll see a Dropbox login, but you can just close it – no Dropbox account is needed)

Click Here To View This
Beginning Where are we?
Living The RV Dream Rallyimage
1:11 Tip of the Day – Set an alarm with OK Google (or Siri)
Simply talk to your phone: Android = OK Google, Set a timer for 15 minutes.
Apple: Siri = hold down on home button until she’s listening, then “Set a timer for 15 minutes”
1:34 Interview John and Kathy Huggins of LivingTheRVDream.com
John and Kathy have been fulltime RVers for about 10 years. They are best known for their weekly podcast, “Living the RV Dream” and for their extremely popular Facebook Group: Living the RV Dream.  Over 34,000 members and growing daily!
imageThey’ve also written a couple of RVing books. So You Want To Be An RVer? will tell you everything you might every want to know about RVing!
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John and Kathy discuss how RVing has allowed them to see so many things in the United States. Especially Mr. Rushmore!

Note: we had a little technical difficulty with the video for a while, but we covered with photos – and the live video does pick up here.
10:16 We talk with John and Kathy about Internet Technology on the Road.
15:28 Interview Eric and Tami Johnson of TechnoRV.com

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Eric and Tami bought TechnoRV from our friends Phil and Tracey May. Years ago, we put together our own RV rallies called Techno-Geek Learning Rally. Phil and Tracey have since moved back to their home in the UK. We are enjoying getting to know Eric and Tami.

They talk about how they made the decision to go RVing. With 3 kids in college, they have a few more considerations than many of us!

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Eric and Tami are continuing the TechnoRV process of evaluating, using, and supporting products that are useful to RVers. They’ve done a great job of vetting their products, teaching how to use them, and supporting their customers.

Some of the products they sell at TechnoRV.com
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25:16 Eric does a little bit of Show and Tell and teaching about  his Wi-Fi booster equipment. Indoor antennas, outdoor antennas, and repeaters. Wi-Fi vs. Cellular.
He shows the Alfa Desktop WiFi Booster. The Alfa WiFi Repeater, and and Outdoor WiFi Booster TubeThere’s lots more on their website, and if you fill out the form on this page, you can get their
“Guide to Boosting your RV’s WiFi”http://www.technorv.com/RV_WiFi_Boosters_s/85.htm
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33:05 App of the Week
In addition to our App, both of our guests had some suggestions!
Ookla Speedtest, OpenSignal, Google Mapsimage

Printicular is the only app we’ve found that can access your Google Photos. Choose the ones you want to print, send to the Walgreen’s nearest you and you can pick up your prints in an hour!
36:11 Tami gets excited about Google Photos!! She learned this week how easy it is to import her lifetime of photos from many different sources.

Ends at 37:55 Complete Playlist of What Does This Button Do shows.

Technology for Travelers: Geeks Teach at an RV Rally

Getting ready to teach our first seminar, "Technology for Travelers", at the Living The RV Dream Gathering

Getting ready to teach our first seminar, “Technology for Travelers”, at the Living The RV Dream Gathering

We just spent last week at an RV rally called “Living the RV Dream Gathering.” People from all over the country who travel by RV gathered here to learn, make friends, and have fun. We presented 4 seminars and one day-long smartphone photography workshop. For RVers, we almost always start with the seminar we call “Technology for Travelers.”

What IS Technology for Travelers?

We have a very specific meaning of Technology for Travelers. We aren’t talking about the satellite dishes, tire pressure monitors, or GPS devices. Although that could also be called Technology for Travelers, we like to teach what can be done with computer technology to Plan, Preserve, and Share your travels.

We have been traveling by RV since 2003 and our most prized possessions of those years are our pictures, maps, and blogs. If you enjoy your memories as much as we do, we think you need to learn how to use your smartphone and/or your computer to do the same!

Photos

We take hundreds of photos every month while we’re traveling. We use our iPhone and Android phone most of the time, but also some ‘real’ cameras. We gather our best pictures, using Google Photos,  and put them into albums for each month. Then we make a page on our blog to show off those albums. You can learn how to use the free Google Photos from our Book, Tutorial videos, and more on our website.

photo albums

Maps

We use Google’s free My Maps to make our own maps for each year. We start planning for the next year by creating a map like “2017 Geek Travels.” Then as the year progresses, we keep modifying that map. We change destinations, add destinations, and populate each stop with photos and descriptions. At the end of each year, we add the map to a Maps page on our Blog. You can learn how to make these maps with the tutorial videos on our website.

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Blogs

Pictures and maps tell most of the story, but I also like to write out my memories journal-style. Facebook is great for sharing small moments, but to have a complete journal I like using Google’s free Blogger.com. As noted above, you can also use your blog to create pages for other things, like pictures, maps, and videos. The blog is where I put it all together!  I created our blog when we were first just thinking about RVing. That was in early 2003 when Blogger.com was the only option available for a free journal/website. I still think it is the best option, and it is free and easy. Since our beginning in 2003, we have written nearly 2,000 posts. We are now ordering hard-bound, 4-color, coffee table books for each year on the road. Thumbing thru those books is one of my favorite things to do!

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Even if you don’t travel by RV, if you have memories you want to keep, check out our Tutorial videos on Photos, Maps, and Blogs. If you do travel by RV, we hope to see you at a Rally sometime down the road! There are hundreds of possible RV rallies to choose from. Most of them are organized by RV Clubs. Living the RV Dream’s website lists all the major clubs here. You can see where we’ll be on our calendar.

Test your Smartphone Smarts #10

Here is the tenth in our series of Review Questions from our “What Does This Button Do?” show. These can’t be graded, but if you want to see the discussion of our answers to these questions, you can click the link provided. The link will take you to the time in the specific episode where we start the discussion of review questions. Since we have produced 97 episodes so far, this “Test Your Smartphone Smarts” will be an ongoing series of posts here.

Click here to watch our answers
Episode #38: Mobile Device Choices #38 Show Notes

  • Your choice in operating systems is:
    1. _____________ 2. _____________?
  • T/F: All mobile devices include GPS capability
  • T/F: To receive phone calls from anyone, you must have a smartphone, not a tablet.
 37:19
Episode #39: Sharing Pictures with Facebook #39 Show Notes

  • Once you pick a picture and share it, you have options to make it visible to Public, or Friends, or ____________, or ____________.
  • To share a picture on a business’ Facebook page, you need to start where?
 39:55
Episode #41: Google Hangouts  #41 Show Notes

  • Hangouts is an App that will do 3 types of communication: 1 ________ 2 _______ 3 _____
  • T/F: An old smartphone (without cell service) or a tablet can use Wi-Fi and Google Hangouts Dialer to call any phone.
 37:35
Episode #42: Getting Started with Google Photos
#42 Show Notes

  • Google Photos ______________ will put together automatic movies, animations and more fun creations!
  • T/F: If you previously uploaded pictures to Picasa Web Albums, or Google Plus photos, you will see those using Google Photos.
 48:46

If you click the time link, you will be viewing the Youtube video for that episode. The link takes you directly to the end of the show where we discuss the review questions. You can always drag the video playhead to the beginning to watch more of that episode. And, if you are a premium member of Geeks On Tour, you have access to the show notes for each episode. You will find all show notes on the Weekly Show page. So, how did you do on the questions? Leave any comments below! See previous “Smartphone Smarts”