phone
Google Lens Might Be The Future Of Google, The Future Of Mobile, The Future Of Everything
Google announced a number of new products and services at its developer conference last week. One of them, Google Lens, might change the world. It might be the most important technology announcement in ten years. Of course, it’s just as likely that it will turn out to be nothing important, just another bit of vaporware that is underwhelming when it appears and is abandoned two years later. […] continued
Read moreWeChat, QR Codes, And The Future Of Mobile
China uses smartphones differently than anywhere else in the world. It’s a fascinating story! Understanding WeChat and why QR codes are displayed everywhere in China will give you a context to understand the importance of Google’s announcements last week. I’ll tell you about Google Assistant and Google Lens in the next article. […] continued
Read moreTechnology Is Boring
Technology in 2017 is just a bit . . . dull. There’s not much going on. You hadn’t really thought about it but now that I mention it, you know it’s true, right?
Choose your metaphor. It’s a plateau. It’s the calm before the storm. We’re in a holding pattern. We’re almost – but not quite – at a couple of tipping points. […] continued
Read moreGoogle Gboard For iPhone: Swiping Is Better Than Typing
Have you started swiping instead of typing? Old news for some people, perhaps an eye-opener for others. Sure, your thumbs can dance like hummingbirds over your phone keyboard but there’s an even faster way to type messages. Let’s talk about phone keyboards, then take a look at Google’s iPhone keyboard, which raises the bar and makes it perhaps the best iPhone keyboard yet. […] continued
Read moreRules For Computer And Online Safety 2017
Email & online security | Computers | Phones & tablets
Passwords | Phone scams | Wire transfers
These are the rules for computer and online safety in 2017. You can download a copy here.
We are required to be paranoid and vigilant. Bad guys are coming up with inventive and sophisticated ways to fool us in email messages, on the phone, and on the web. […] continued
Read moreAmazing Tales Of Phone Profits And Market Share
I have a couple of numbers about Apple and Google for your entertainment. The numbers are 88 and 91. They’re not what you expect. It’s an interesting world.
Android – 88%
Nearly 90% of all phones shipped worldwide in the third quarter of 2016 were running Android, according to Strategy Analytics. […] continued
Read moreGoogle Adds Blue Skies And Photo Scans
(Happy Thanksgiving! Next article will be Monday, November 28.)
Google continues to provide the best tools for non-professionals to work with photos. It has introduced a new app for scanning old photos, and it has improved the editing tools in its Google Photos app. Your skies will always be blue.
Google Photoscan is a new iOS and Android app to make great looking digital copies of paper photos. […] continued
Read moreLastPass Is Now Free On All Devices
LastPass announced this week that it is now free to use on all your devices, including computers, phones and tablets. Here’s the LastPass announcement. If you’re a LastPass user, you can install the LastPass app on your phone or iPad now. If you’re not using LastPass yet, there are no excuses: it’s time to take control of your passwords. […] continued
Read moreThunderbolt And Lightning, Very Very Frightening
Remember the lyric in Bohemian Rhapsody? “Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening me!” It’s right before “Galileo, Galileo” and the part where everybody starts shaking their heads back and forth.
This article has nothing to do with Bohemian Rhapsody. I want to tell you what you need to know about Thunderbolt and Lightning ports on computers and phones. […] continued
Read moreSpotify Daily Mix: Better Playlists Through Algorithms
If you’re a regular Spotify listener, you’ve got to check out the new Daily Mix playlists!
Before we get to that, start with the advice: if you listen to music, you should have a paid Spotify subscription. For $9.99/month, you can play just about anything from the entire history of recorded music on demand. […] continued
Read moreDon’t Answer The Phone! And Other Advice About Robocalls
It’s not your imagination: robocalls are on the increase. The volume of robocalls has risen sharply in 2016. Complaints are up. The government and big companies are taking new steps to try to rein in the scammers and perhaps tame the “legitimate” telemarketers. It may be a losing battle, because the scammers and nuisance telemarketers are leveraging new technology and taking advantage of decreasing costs of doing business. […] continued
Read moreGoogle Duo And Communication Overload
Google introduced a new app for video chats last week. Google Duo makes one-on-one video chats as easy as possible, with nothing required except a phone number and someone on the other end who’s running the app or willing to install it. Google Duo doesn’t even require a Google account. Setup takes only a moment, and once it’s set up it literally requires only a single tap to start a call. […] continued
Read morePokémon Go And The Future In Front Of Your Face
Pokémon Go was the most downloaded app in its first week of release in the history of Apple’s iOS App Store. Everyone has been playing Pokémon Go. It is the biggest example yet of Things That Unexpectedly Become Worldwide Obsessions Even Though They’re Pointless (TTUBWOETTP). (Also see Gangnam Style, vuvuzelas, Grumpy Cat, Flappy Bird, ice bucket challenge, and PewDiePie.)
The game doesn’t matter. […] continued
Read moreScan Documents And Create PDFs With Your Phone
It has become easy to use your phone for quick scans and to create PDFs on the fly. Find an app to use and remember it when you get a receipt or document that should be scanned on the fly.
Each of the major cloud services – Microsoft OneDrive (Office Lens), Box (Box Capture), Dropbox, and Google Drive – has an app for scanning documents with the phone camera and storing the scans online. […] continued
Read moreOffice 365 And The Sharing Problem
The Exchange mailboxes run by Office 365 are now standard in businesses of all sizes. They are supported on every device imaginable, from Windows and Mac computers to the native mail/contact/calendar apps on iOS and Android. Office 365 is one of the most commonly deployed applications among businesses. It has surpassed Google Apps and it’s growing fast. […] continued
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