Tag: technology

Google Photos workshop, part 2 – Monday 28 Oct

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How to manage your photo collection – in practice

The first of a new series of Agewell Mobile workshops

I have installed the Photos app on my device. What should I do next?

The workshop last week (Google Photos workshop part 1) was very successful — so successful that we didn’t have time to finish, and we didn’t even start on some of the most important points. We under-estimated the interest in this topic and the number of questions that would be asked. We will continue next week — and we have space for a few more people who are not complete beginners.

Where and when?

  • Whitmore Community Centre, 2-4 Phillipp St, N1 5NU
  • Monday 28 October, 2 to 5 pm (the door will be open at 1:30 pm).

How to get on the workshop or ask a question

  • We have now filled all available workshop spaces!

Workshop links

  1. About Google Photos
  2. Google Photos support
  3. 30 tricks to master Google Photos
  4. Beginner’s guide to Google Photos
  5. Wikipedia – Google Photos

Google Photos workshop, Monday 21 Oct

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Is this the solution to your photo storage problem?

The first of a new series of Agewell Mobile workshops

How can I manage thousands of photos, and how do I get them off my phone?

Google Photos is Google’s considerable foothold in this particular world of digital confusion. It’s an app that works on all devices. It offers free and unlimited cloud storage for all your photos and videos. It automates the upload from your device to the cloud storage area. It helps you organise your photo collection, and it helps you share it with your friends – or keep it as a private library.

It’s surprisingly easy, so at the workshop we will all install the app, upload some photos (which we will provide), and admire our results and how Google has organised them.

Does Google really love us as much as that? Is there a catch?

There are certainly some issues that can’t be ignored. We can talk about those at the workshop.

What about other ways to store and organise our photos and videos?

We have plenty of choices – but few, if any, are as convenient as Google Photos. We can examine them at the workshop. For example …

  • Cloud storage that is not free.
  • Transferring your photos to an external hard drive.

Where and when?

  • Whitmore Community Centre, 2-4 Phillipp St, N1 5NU
  • Monday 21 October, 2 to 5 pm (the door will be open at 1:30 pm).

How to get on the workshop or ask a question

  • You can just turn up on Monday afternoon (just before 2 pm).
  • Better – because we have only 15 places – tell us you are coming.

Can you remember 1989?

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How has the Web changed your World?

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Then: Knowledge was hard to reach. Now: We have the world's information at our fingertips. #ForTheWeb
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“Suppose all the information stored on computers everywhere were linked. Suppose I could program my computer to create a space in which everything could be linked to everything.” – Tim Berners-Lee
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Then: Waiting by the phone for your call. Now: You're always with me. #ForTheWeb
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Then: Never more than a hobby. Now: the world is my marketplace. #ForTheWeb
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Then: Feeling alone. Now: I meet others who have my diagnosis. #ForTheWeb
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Then: Feeling like one voice. Now: I can connect with millions. #ForTheWeb
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The World Wide Web is 30 years old this week

What difference has it made to your life?

30 years can change everything

The web has transformed our daily lives — from how we communicate with loved ones to how we work to how we learn. But right now more than half of the world’s population remains offline, and those of us who are online see unsettling stories each day about data breaches, so-called ‘fake news’, and other ways that technology is threatening our freedom and privacy. We need to change this by building a better web — one that works for everyone, everywhere.

Visit World Wide Web Foundation – ‘For The Web’

Recycled software

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Another way to avoid exploitation

Don’t pay for over-priced software that you don’t need!

This post is about how you can find a cheaper and more appropriate version of MS Office (which includes MS Word), if you really need it.

Recommended MS Office versions

  • MS Office Home and Student 2007 — possibly the best deal, but not common now. One license allows you to install on three devices.
  • MS Office 2010 Pro — widely used. For example, the current A5 flyers and A3 posters for the drop-in and podcast were edited with MS Word 2010 because that’s what I use to edit complex documents for commercial printing. MS Publisher 2010 is also very useful — and the last version of Publisher that can create documents in the CMYK format that commercial printers require.

More recent versions of MS Word are not superior, just more expensive.

How to buy a retail product key

This is how we got MS Office 2007 or 2010 on the drop-in laptops.

What you need to know about buying MS Office this way …

  • What you actually pay for is a licence key — a retail product that can be transferred and traded.
  • Always make sure that you are paying for a key, not a recurring subscription.
  • The software itself is a free download from the Microsoft server. Your retail licence key allows you to install and use the software legally — and you can move it to a new computer when you need to.
  • When you buy a retail licence key, the seller company provides full instructions on what to do with it.
  • By the way — if you have bought a Windows computer with MS Office pre-installed, you do not have a retail key. You cannot sell it or move it to a different computer.

Sellers

There are several UK sellers in this market. I’m not going to recommend any of them because you — as the buyer — must use your own judgement, not mine. I have been satisfied as a customer of Software Geeks (softwaregeeks.co.uk), but they have competitors and it might be foolish to ignore them.

Getting help

Although this procedure is quite straightforward, digital beginners can easily get lost. However, our drop-in volunteers can probably help you — provided you are already comfortable buying online with a credit or debit card.

If you are a Windows user, our volunteers might also point out that …

  • Open-source LibreOffice Writer (libreoffice.org/discover/writer) would probably meet all your word-processing requirements — and it’s free.
  • All versions of Windows since 1995 have included a simple word-processor named Wordpad — so if your needs are basic and you don’t need a spellchecker, you already have what you are looking for.

Your old technology stories

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An old-style hob kettleHello Hackney podcast,
Friday 20 July, 2 to 4 pm

Our VIP guest will be Belén Barros, who is interested in your stories about old and new technology.

She wants to hear about your radios, your washing machines, your vacuum cleaners, your cameras, your computers, your phones and any other gadgets you’ve ever had, bought or built.

So we could have a conversation about familiar technology that is considered obsolete even though it works, and replacement technology that requires adaptation to an unfamiliar and unsettling way of life (eg- smartphones instead of landline phones).

Or perhaps you could bring a gadget to make your point (I’m still using a kitchen blender that I bought more than 40 years ago; it looks odd, but it works perfectly).

Follow this Google search link for more ideas: old technology

Please bring your voice to Whitmore Community Centre on Friday afternoon.

Wordpad for beginners (28 Feb)

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Learn simple word-processing with our volunteers

Wordpad

Wordpad is a basic word-processor that has been free with every version of Windows since 1995. It’s also very good — so if you have a Windows computer, it’s worth searching for.

Our volunteer team today will help you get started with Wordpad — and help you do something that looks difficult, but is really quite easy — adding photographs to your document.

Voice Recorder

Voice Recorder is a very simple Windows app for recording voice — yours and anyone else close to the microphone. Our volunteer team will show you how to do it.

Blog your efforts

You can blog your photos easily. Blogging documents and voice recordings is not so easy, but we can do it for you later.

AcTo Dementia — Accessible Touchscreen Apps for Dementia

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Supports people to find and use dementia-friendly touchscreen apps

AcTo Dementia provides recommendations and guidance on accessible touchscreen apps for people living with dementia. This website is an ideal resource for anyone with a diagnosis of dementia, or anyone looking to support a person with a diagnosis, to find and use apps on a tablet computer for entertainment. We are a group of university researchers unaffiliated with any app developers and all of our recommendations have been through an evidence-based review process.

Visit AcTo Dementia