Show Notes for Members below
Not a member? Join here. This episode covers:
- Tip o Week: #Hashtags
- Beginner’s Lesson: Getting Help on Google’s Free Products
- App o week: Google Voice
Tag Archives: #WDTBD
#94: Do I Need Antivirus for my Phone? What Does This Button Do?
Show Notes for Members below
Not a member? Join here. This episode covers:
- Tip o Week: Camera Roll Game
- Beginner’s Lesson: Anti-Virus for Phones
- App o week: Gas Buddy Updates
#93: How to use Voice Dictation?
Show Notes for Members below
Not a member? Join here. This episode covers:
- Tip o Week: Text on Pictures with Snapseed
- Beginner’s Lesson: Voice Dictation
- App o week: Hurricane Tracker
Test your Smartphone Smarts #9
Here is the ninth 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 93 episodes so far, this “Test Your Smartphone Smarts” will be an ongoing series of posts here.
| Click here to watch our answers | |
Episode #34: Transferring Photos #34 Show Notes
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34:50 |
Episode #35: Google Now #35 Show Notes
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41:29 |
Episode #36: Apps or Mobile Websites #36 Show Notes
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40:56 |
Episode #37: Live from an RV Rally
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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”
#92 How to use Google Calendar on your Phone
Show Notes for Members below
Not a member? Join here. This episode covers:
- Tip o Week: Factory Reset to rejuvenate an old phone
- Beginner’s Lesson: Google Calendar
- App o week: No app – Drone video of Long Beach Island
Test Your Smartphone Smarts #6
Here is the sixth 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 83 episodes so far, this “Test Your Smartphone Smarts” will be an ongoing series of posts here.
| Click here to watch our answers | |
Episode #21: Notifications Show Notes
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37:00 |
Episode #22: Contact’s Photos Show Notes
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38:07 |
Episode #23: Ringtones Show Notes
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37:55 |
Episode #24: Bluetooth Show Notes
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32:44 |
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”
Navigate with GPS by Taking a Picture!
That’s right! Take a picture of a place you need to return to. Take that picture with a smartphone that has the GPS tagging feature turned on. Now, when you need to return, you can view the picture, see the GPS location and navigate back. Pretty slick. Here’s the details:
- I used a Samsung Galaxy S5. This should work with any type of Android device as long as you have Google Maps version 9.21 or higher. It does not seem to work on an iPhone … yet.
- I used Google Photos to view the photo
- Before taking the picture, be sure you have the Location Tags (aka Geotags) turned ON in your camera’s settings. I leave mine on all the time.
- Now, when you take a picture, view it using Google Photos and tap the i (for Information) you should see a map with a marker.
- Tap the map marker and it will open Google Maps, then tap the Blue car button and it will navigate to the place where the photo was taken.
If you are an RVer – this is SO useful! For a long time now, we’ve been teaching people about the ability to save a location with a star in Google Maps, then you can navigate back to the star at any time. I still use this technique, but my Google Maps is getting to be covered with stars! This method of using a picture and navigating to it is great for situations like yesterday. We were staying at a large RV park for only one night, we really didn’t have a feel for the directions within the park at all. So, I took a picture of our motorhome on our site. Then, after going out to dinner, I opened the picture (using Google Photos) tapped the i, then tapped the map and we were getting directions back to our exact site. It would be really useful if you’re trying to return to a boondocking site in the middle of nowhere!
- App: Google Maps and Google Photos
- Author: Google
- Cost: $0
- Platform: This feature only works on Android right now
Some tutorial videos related to this topic:
- Episode 74 of What Does This Button Do – at timeline mark 24:50: Navigate to a Picture
- 403. Google Maps – Saving a Location with a Star
- 419.Google Navigation – Add a Stop
Also our What Does This Button Do? Episode 15: GeoLocating Photos, Waze app
Internet on the Road: Then and Now
Click the picture to read our Blog post for that day.
In celebration of our 100th issue of our newsletter, we’re looking back to the beginning. Our third newsletter – August 4, 2007 – featured an article “The #1 Best Thing to Improve your Wi-Fi Internet Connection.” If you read that article, you will see that surprisingly, not much has changed about improving your Wi-Fi connection. But, cellular barely existed back then! Now, it’s the primary method used to get online.
Even before we called ourselves Geeks on Tour, we lived in an RV and traveled the country representing a company called Coach Connect (now out of business.) They installed Wi-Fi Hotspots in RV parks and we followed along behind and taught the staff and visitors how to use it. When we needed Internet and we were not at one of these parks, we used our Datastorm Satellite dish (also now out of business.) We liked it so much that Jim became an installer, and we went to all the Datastorm Users Rallies.
We taught “Internet on the Road” at many FMCA and other rallies.
It was Coach Connect that gave us our start teaching seminars at the big RV Rallies. In 2008 we wrote a 4 page article for FMC Magazine that we thought was a definitive guide on Internet on the Road! Now, our friends Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard of RVMobileInternet.com, have published a 243 page book on the topic! And, they update it constantly on their website. They keep track of the Cellular providers, all the different plans, and all the different devices. That is a fulltime job and we’re so glad they’re doing it! Chris and Cherie were our featured guests on a recent “What Does This Button Do?” show. Episode #72: How Do I Connect to the Internet while Traveling? Clicking the link will take you to our Show Notes. We normally reserve our Show Notes for members only, but this one we’re making public. You can watch the full YouTube video, (about an hour), or you can just read the notes, or you can read the notes and click the links in the left sidebar to watch the portion of the video pertaining to the notes.
Cherie Ve Ard and Chris Dunphy of Technomadia.com and RVMobileInternet.com
Copy and Paste through the Years!
This month we’re celebrating our 100th Newsletter by going back to our very first issues and revisiting the articles.
In the second issue of our newsletter, back in August of 2007, a main article was about Cut, Copy, Paste. That article was talking about computers:
- Cut – select the text or object you want to remove and use Ctrl-X (or right-click and select ‘Cut’)
- Copy – select the text you want to duplicate and use Ctrl-C (or right-click and select ‘Copy’)
- Paste – position your cursor where you want the cut or copied text to appear and use Ctrl-V (or right-click and select ‘Paste’)
Copy and Paste with Smartphones
Now people want to know how to copy and paste with their smartphones! There is no way to hold down a ctrl (or cmd) key, and you can’t right-click, so what do you do? The key is to long-press. If you touch the screen somewhere on the text you want to copy and keep holding down, you will see some type of markers pop up. Those markers can be dragged into place so that they highlight from beginning to end of the text you want to copy. Now take a look around, either directly above the selected text (iOS) or at the top of the screen (Android) you should see options to Cut or Copy. Tap on Copy. Then move to whatever the location where you want to paste and, once again, Long-Press at the spot where you want to paste. An option for Paste should pop up.
We also have tutorial videos that go into a bit more detail and show you exactly how to do this.
- 12. Using Cut, Copy and Paste (Geeks on Tour Membership required)
- Copy and Paste with your Smartphone (takes you to a What Does This Button Do? Episode 59, when the quick tip was copy/paste – about 4 minutes)
To enjoy full access to the Geeks On Tour Library of “How To” Videos sign-up for a membership today!
Add Video to your Blog
We’re writing this article to commemorate the 100th issue of our Geeks on Tour Newsletter! The first issue, back in July of 2007 included an article on Adding Video to your Blog. This article today is an updated version of that same topic.
Blogger and Google Photos
We use Blogger to make our Blog, and adding video is quite easy. If you took the video with your smartphone or tablet, and you use Google Photos to upload that video to your Google account, it’s as simple as 1-2-3:
- clicking the Insert Video button on the toolbar:
- Choose “From Your Phone” (this doesn’t mean directly from your phone! It assumes you have your phone’s photos and videos backed up to your Google Photos)
- Click the video you want and click Select
Blogger and Youtube
Every method of displaying video is subject to some quirks and problems. Since Youtube is the biggest provider of video worldwide, we find it has the least problems. Therefore we recommend uploading your videos to your Youtube account and using that for your blog. What’s that? You say you don’t have a Youtube account? If you have a Google account (a __@gmail.com address), then you have a Youtube account! If you really don’t, then it’s easy and free to get a Google account. Just go to Accounts.Google.com and click “Create Account.”
Upload to Youtube: go to YouTube.com and make sure you are logged in with the account you want to use for your videos (it should be the same as you use for your photos.) Click the Upload button in the upper right corner of the screen. Now you’ll have two choices
- Upload from your Computer
- Import from Google Photos
Insert into Blog: Here also you have two choices, the super simple way is to use the Import from “My Youtube Videos.” The other way is to view the video in Youtube, click the Share button and then Embed – here you have some options if you click on “Show More” right below the video preview.
This shows you some HTML code, copy that code and paste it into the HTML view of your Blog. That’s it! When you publish your Blog, you will see your video.
Here are some tutorial videos that go into more detail. You must be a Geeks on Tour premium member to view them.
To enjoy full access to the Geeks On Tour Library of “How To” Videos on Blogger and other topics sign-up for a membership today!