PHONE DATA

Even if you have an "unlimited" phone data plan, there may be a clause in the contract that allows your carrier to slow your phone when you reach a "limit". To avoid this annoying breach you can take a couple of step to avoid hitting that barrier.
Most plans will probably have at least 1 or 2 gigabytes of data before you hit the speed reducing barrier. For most that should be plenty. For power users of anyone under special circumstances this limit can come too quick.
The number one thing that can eat up your data is streaming video. Phone screens have reached amazing resolutions. Before streaming a movie or other video source ask yourself if you need to see it at the highest resolution.
The best solution is always to get on a trusted wifi source. Then you won't be using any data from your plan.
 The next data gobbler is sending video and still pictures to friends and websites. Here is an important fact: You can't see 16 megapixel resolution on a phone or computer screen. So most of the time you don't need to shoot at that high of pixel count. Go into settings and set the pixel count to something that make more sense. If your going to print the picture above a 4x6 go ahead and use the highest resolution you can. For screen viewing something around 1200 horizontal pixel count should be fine.
I use a separate camera app preset for lower resolutions for most snapshots. See the settings screens below. Suit your own taste, but if you want to reduce your data use this is a good place to start.

I hope this helps someone with hitting your data caps.

Free Up Space On Your Android Phone With Google Photos

You can set up Google Photos app to save your pictures automatically to your Google Drive. First make sure you have Google Photos installed. If not here is the link. https://goo.gl/y7Hmdw
Now open Google Photos app.

Tap the three dashes in the upper left corner. Select settings.

 

Look for Google Drive and make sure the slide switch is on. Next tap Back up & sync. Make sure the slide switch is on there as well. If you have added camera apps you made have additional folders that contain images. if so tap on Back up device folders and activate the slide switch.

Now give it a day or so to back up your pictures.

If all this was already set you can go back into settings. Your ready to free up space.

So here is the part that will free up storage space on your phone. 

Go back into settings and tap Free up device storage. Or on the previous menu Free up space. A pop-up window will tell you how many files photos and videos will be deleted. It will also tell you that the pictures have been safely backed up to your Google drive. 

So you can easily free up hundreds of megabytes of space on your phone or tablet with this feature. I hope you found this helpful.

Mobile Maps - Android

In my opinion maps on a mobile phone are some of the most useful apps available. Here are some of my favorites.

Of course Google Maps has changed GPS usage forever. http://goo.gl/aUY7pZ 

Add Streetview and you have the ability to see what your destination looks like. http://goo.gl/n0cDFu

You can navigate just fine with Google Maps but the Driving shortcut makes it a little easier to get strait into that mode. For places you goto often.

Find directions

1. Navigate to the widget section on your phone or tablet.
2. Find the "Directions" widget .
3. Tap and hold the widget and drop it on your home screen.
4. At the top, choose a mode of transport.
5. Type a destination and create a shortcut name.
6. Check any boxes that match your preferences. ...
7. Tap Save.

You ask why do I need a GPS for places I goto often? Because Google maps gives up to date traffic reports. So you can quickly see how your trip to work is going to go for example.

 

c:geo is a Geocaching app. We'll save that for another post.

That brings us to GPS share. This app allows you to share your location with other people. Via all the methods you can share other information about yourself. For example you can text it to an individual. Making it possible for that person to find you in a crowd. Or you could share it on Facebook or Twitter to give a group of people a link to locate you.

You could also use it to mark a spot you want to remember. These are some of my favorite map apps. Do you have some to share?

Money Saving Tech: Free Magazines

I retired recently. So money saving measures are on my mind. OK maybe that not a new thing for me. Did you know your local public library is a source of free digital media? That's right besides free books you can get e-books, audio books, movies, music, and magazines. This post will be about magazines. Go to your library website. Chances are you will find a link to digital content similar to the one shown here.

Look for a electronic magazine link. You will need an account with the offering company. For me that is Zinio. I plan to check out Flipster soon. Warning! They also sell magazine subscriptions. You may want to purchase a magazine not carried by the library. That is fine, and the prices are usually quite good. However I have to warn you. I only purchase single editions. I bought a couple of subscriptions and had a very hard time keeping them from auto renewing.

Anyway the library selection is really very good. Hundreds of magazines are offered at my library.

The list is also searchable by topic. Photography for example.

You can read them from your PC at the Zinio website or you can put the app on your tablet. Download the magazine (many back issues are available too). Once you get used to the tablet page flipping technique you love getting magazines for free.

Some Online Educational Sites

How to Take Free Courses from Top Universities - Techlicious . I want to add a couple of my favorite online educational sources. Free step by step learning at http://www.gcflearnfree.org/ . Free and paid serious multimedia learning across a huge library of courses are here https://www.udemy.com/.

Happy learning!

Breaking From Cable TV

Breaking From Cable TV

Antenna
The latest disruptive technology. Streaming TV from the internet. Sometimes (rarely) things old are new again. This new thing includes an old thing. TV via antenna. It turns out that if you live in a metropolitan area you can get free TV over the air. You just need an antenna. There is a bonus to doing this. A better picture. Yes it's true. Your cable company compresses your local TV channels to save bandwidth. You may notice a slightly sharper picture by using an antenna. I recommend you get an amplified antenna (see the example link). It's probably a good idea to try this before cancelling your cable. Read 5 Steps to breaking with your cable company: http://goo.gl/lnG14F before you make the call. Antenna Example: http://goo.gl/aUUTdl

Internet
Besides an antenna you will probably want to have access to the internet. The internet has a huge amount of programming available for free or very little cost. If your internet service provider (ISP) is your cable company you will want to make sure you keep this service when you cut the cable TV service. To get internet programs on your TV you will need a device. The device can be the TV itself. Internet TV's (AKA Smart TV) are available from multiple manufactures in various sizes. If your not wanting to lay out the money for a new TV there are a number of devices to make your current TV "smart". Stand alone devices come with a remote and access the internet to bring programming to your TV. Some of them also allow you to stream video from your computing equipment. Desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, they can all be used to stream to an Apple TV for example. Or you can stream to a Chromecast from Google. WARNING: Your ISP may block premium streaming content like HGTV for an example. However you may still get the programs by going to their website or other websites like ULive.com.

Good Luck. Please share any information you have with me.
Update: Here is a current state of the cable industry. http://goo.gl/KcXDMC

Devices
Stand Alone.
Apple TV: http://goo.gl/7m3XU4
Roku: https://www.roku.com/
Amazon Fire TV: http://goo.gl/VY7V3C

Broadcast from other devices.
Chromecast: http://goo.gl/9CYtiR

Websites
Google: https://play.google.com/store/movies?hl=en
Apple: http://www.apple.com/itunes/video/
Netflix: https://www.netflix.com
Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/
Crackle: http://www.crackle.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/
Sling TV: https://www.sling.com
ULive: http://www.ulive.com/
Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/
CBS all access: http://goo.gl/EWs8WX
5 little known sites http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-lesser-known-free-sites-watching-tv-shows/

Password Recovery

Have you ever needed to get your password from a site log in?
You know like this ...

Well it turns out it very easy. Just right click in the box where the dots conceal your password.

Select "Inspect element" from the menu that drops down. You'll see the code that makes the webpage. Look for the word "password".

Right click the "password" line, and select "Edit attribute".

Change "password" to "text". Your password will be displayed where the dots were. I hope this will be help you if you ever need it.

Case Study: Saving Money In The Digital Age

Everyone has different providers and plans. I thought I would give my example as a way to reduce cost.



Cable TV $120+ cellular service $120+. That's over $240 dollars a month. Think about that. That is what we were paying. When our year with AT&T U-Verse caused discounts to expire we received notice that our bill would jump to over $180. That shocked me into action.



TV:

We have changed to Comcast Xfinity Internet, HBO, Streampix, basic service $50+. Hulu+ $8.

Roku 3 is 5x faster and has a motion controller for games A one time $100.



Phone:

Republic Wireless Moto G phone $150 one time. Monthly cost $10 for unlimited Talk & Text, no Data except via wifi.



New monthly cost: Phone $20 TV $60 for about $160 a month in savings! That is $1900 in savings a year! Minus the one time costs and we will still save around $1500 the first year.