Keeping track of my stuff…

Quick note – my MacBook Pro is being repaired, and I had to add this post from the iPad Blogger app. It is my first time using the app, and it has very limited features and is not importing my bold text, links, and it is not letting my reposition images. I will fix this post as soon as I have my Mac back!


If you are anything like my husband and I, you regularly visit numerous website that require a login with a username and password. As it is never a good idea to use the same password for multiple websites, how do you remember all your different passwords? And what about all the other information you need at your finger tips — your spouse’s social security number, medical insurance number, retirement account numbers … well, you get the picture. We are all responsible for too much information!

A few years ago I wrote a column about how difficult it is to keep track of all this information. Back then, my solution was to use a small notebook, divided into sections with write-on tabs. The system worked very well, but the notebook was something else I had to keep track of. If we traveled, I had to be certain that I had my notebook with me. Last summer I resolved to find an electronic version of my notebook for my iPad. I tried several different apps, and I found a solution that I am very happy with — Keeper.

Keeper is a database specifically designed to catalog and protect your passwords and private information. The app is free to download, and initially I entered a few records before taking the plunge and entering all of my information. The app divides your records into categories, or folders, with builtin fields for the name of the record, login name, password, web address, and notes. You can also add custom fields specific to each individual record.

The app itself is password protected, and when you select the app, the first screen that appears looks like a vault with a text box to enter your password. (It is very important to create a Keeper password that is easy for you to remember, but not easy to crack.) The app allows three tries before self-destructing – and erasing all your data (although it remains available for online retrieval).

Once I decided to keep using the app, I installed it on both my iPad and iPhone. While Keeper is free to download, it costs $9.99 per year, per device to sync your information between devices. In addition to syncing devices, the subscription gives you unlimited online backups and storage, web access from anywhere, and 24/7 live support. The best part is that my iPhone and iPad are in sync. Information entered on one device immediately appears on the other.

Keeper is pretty amazing, and I am using it to store all of our important information, not just login information.  My Keeper contains fifteen folders, and each folder stores from three to twelve records, and making edits on already entered information is relatively easy. I can also assess my records online, from any computer, by logging into the Keeper Security website.

Keeper versions are available for Mac, Windows, and LInux computers; Apple iPads, iPhones, and iPods; Android smart phones and tablets; Windows phones; and the Amazon Kindle Fire. For more information on Keeper, visit the website at keepersecurity.com.

Linda's 5-Stage Backup Plan …

What is the best way to backup the important data on your computer? There is no right or wrong answer to this question, only what works best for you. To help you get started on making your own personal backup plan, today’s column is an overview of how my husband and I go about backing up our computer data.

Last week I listed five steps for backing up data, and I mentioned that you can backup to flash drives, external hard drives, or to a cloud (internet) storage service. In the recent past many people also created backups on CD and DVD discs, but these discs are much too small and slow for serious data backup, and I do not recommend using them. What follows is an expanded version of my 5-Step Backup Plan. 

Point 1 – Create a complete backup of your computer's hard drive. 

For my MacBook Pro I use TimeMachine, a native backup utility installed on all Apple computers running Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). If you have a desktop Mac, you can leave an external USB drive plugged in all the time and TimeMachine will make incremental backups every hour. With my laptop, I plug the USB drive in every few days and activate TimeMachine. Eddie's Dell laptop is backed up to a second USB drive using the backup utility built into Windows 7. If you prefer not to use the builtin options, a bit of research will uncover numerous other third party backup solutions. 

Point 2 – Backup your most important files to a flash drive every time you make changes.

Eddie uses Quicken to keep track of our financial records. To insure that he never loses any of this very important data, he keeps an 8 GB flash drive next to his computer, and at least once a day, he creates a file backup on the drive. For my part, my most important files are my photographic images. When I import photos from a camera to my hard drive, I also put copies of the photos on a flash drive as a safety measure. 

Thumb-sized flash drives are very inexpensive, with 8 GB drives selling for under $10, and you should have several in your desk drawer. 

Point 3 – If one backup is good, two is better.

One backup copy of your hard drive is never enough. If the backup data saved in one location is lost, having a second copy can be a life saver. The second copy can be saved on a second external hard drive, or in the "Cloud." Cloud storage services are remote facilities that you connect via the Internet using password protection. A major advantage of Cloud storage is that your data is accessible from any computer, anywhere that has a secure Internet access. 

In addition to our local backups, Eddie and I both store copies of our data in the Cloud. After some extensive research, we purchased a two-year subscription to ZipCloud. Most of the Cloud-based services offer a 30-day free trial, and we tried several plans before settling on ZipCloud. One of the clear advantages of ZipCloud over competing plans was the availability of unlimited storage at a very reasonable price. 

ZipCloud backups are incremental – the initial backup can take a long time, but subsequent backups are much faster. Cloud-based backups need fast, broadband internet connections. At home in New York we have high speed Verizon FIOS and it performs excellently. At TR we have a Centurylink DSL connection which performs reasonably well, although at a significantly slower speed.

Point 4 – Keep one backup of important information in a remote location. 

In the past, good advise was to keep a copy of important files in a safe deposit box. With the advent of cloud storage, it has become much easier to store files remotely. In addition to periodic backups of his complete drive, Eddie creates a daily ZipCloud backup of his financial files. ZipCloud also allows for the backup of external hard drives, and as soon as I put my photo library files in order, I plan to back up all my external USB drives.

Point 5 – Make periodic backups of smart phones and tablet computers.

You might be surprised how much information is stored on your smart phones and tablet computers; information that needs backing up in case something happens to the devices. Apple iPhone and iPad are backed up every time they are connected to the iTunes application on both Macs and PCs. 

Apple iPhone and iPad users, whether you are PC or Mac computers users, should have iTunes application installed on your computer. iTunes was originally developed to download and manage music on the computer, and when the first iPod music player was released iTunes was as a conduit to transfer music from the computer. It has since evolved into the management software for all of the Apple iDevices (iPhone, iPad, or iPod). Apps (small programs that run of the iPhone and IPad), as well as music, can be download into iTunes and then transferred to an iDevice when it is plugged the computer via a USB cord. Additionally, until recently, every time one of these devices are recognized by iTunes all of the information on the device is backed up on the computer. The backups still occur, but you now have a choice as to wether you want to backup to the computer or to Apple’s iCloud service. Everyone who creates an Apple account, which is necessary to utilize the iTunes App Store to download free and purchased apps, is automatically allocated 5 GB of iCloud storage. If you have a lot of information on your iDevice, you would need to purchase additional iCloud space. I choose to backup my devices to my computer.

There is no native method of backing up Android devices, but you can find directions at this online CNet article. 

Not if, but when …

I wrote in last weeks column that my focus for 2013 would be using your computing devices to make life easier — and life isn't easier when you are worried about the safety of information on your computer hard drive. Hard drives fail. There is an adage that it is not "if" a hard drive fails, but "when." Add to that all the information you keep on smartphones and tablets, and we all have a large amount of data to worry about. 

If you have been reading my columns over the past several years, you will know that I am an avid photographer. I take many pictures, and I use my computer for enhancing and editing my work. Often, I will have multiple copies of an edited photo, and many of my images are used in various commercial endeavors. During the summer I began the monumental task of totally reorganizing my digital photo library. Without going into the gory details, the drive I transferred my files to went bad before I could back up the files, and I lost a large volume of work. 

The drive was under warranty, and it was replaced without a problem. I also have backups of some my photo work scattered across my many USB drives, and I keep backup copies almost all of my unedited images. Needless to say, I have a big job of recovery and re-editing to do this winter, as well as making sure that I have one or more backup copies of all my important files. 

I am a strong proponent of making frequent backups, and I practice what I preach, but even when you backup religiously, things can go wrong. If you have a large amount image files, as I do, one backup location is not enough. I have images scattered across many different drives, and each of those drive needs to be backed up. What follows are some practices you might want to consider to avoid having a similar disaster. Next week's column will cover more specifics on backing up your important data. 

1. Perform backups of your computer hard drive on a regular basis — daily, or at least weekly, depending on how often you make changes to important files.
2. If you keep your financial records on your computer, using Quicken or a similar financial record keeping program, consider backing up just those files to a USB flash drive every time you make changes.
3. One backup copy of your hard drive, or important files is never enough. If you back up your internal drive to an external drive, consider subscribing to a cloud (online) backup service as well.
4. Keep backups of important information in more than location (see number 3, above). If you keep all your backups in your house, and there is a disaster of some kind, you lose everything. 
5. Backup tablets and smart phone regularly, either to your computer, the cloud, or both. 

If you are looking for additional information before next week's column, do a Google search of COMPUTER BACKUP. Anything from CNET is a good place to start.

Happy 2013!

As the new year begins I cannot help but think about how my use of computers has evolved since retiring from teaching in 2003. Back then I prided myself on being on the cutting edge of technology. I had a Palm Pilot type PDA  (personal digital assistant) device which held my calendar, address book, and occasional notes. My computer was a top-of-the-line Macintosh laptop with a 17 inch screen, 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM and a whopping 10 gigabytes (GB) hard drive. I kept track of student attendance on my PDA (as a high school teacher I saw multiple classes each day), and my grade book was a spreadsheet I designed to automatically compute averages and final grades. 

Much has changed since then. Teachers in schools all over the country (including my high school) keep attendance records and grades online. PDAs have been replaced by smart phones, and tablet computers have carved out a large portion of the computer marketplace. Personally I use a smartphone, tablet, and a laptop computer. And while many of the functions of these devices are not too different than the functions of their 2003 predecessors, they interact with each other seamlessly. When I make an entry to my calendar, address book or note pad on a single device the information is shared between all three devices. 

When I began writing OnMouseClick, my goal was to help novice computer users navigate the ins and out of working with personal computers. As the years passed readers became more comfortable with computer use and the focus of OnMouseClick shifted to the world of online technology – and in 2012 to social media. This season OnMouseClick will focus on tying everything together. How to setup a smartphone, tablet and personal computer to work in tandem? What accessories are necessary to make devices work smoothly? What applications (or apps as they are called for smartphones and tablets) can be used to connect and communicate with the online world? What apps can be used to make life easier and more fun? What apps keep track of important information? How can online information be kept safe and secure?

An operating system (or OS) is the backbone of any computing device, and determines how the device works. My computer, smartphone and tablet are all Apple devices, using OS X version 10.8 (Mountain Lion), and iOS 6 respectively. However, most of the applications running on the three devices have counterparts that run under Window or Android operating systems, and I will offer relevant information when available.

My 2013 personal hardware lineup includes a MacBook Pro Retina with 8 GB memory and a 250 GB hard drive; a 64 GB iPad 2, and a brand new 32 GB iPhone 5 that replaced my iPhone 4 for Christmas (thanks Santa). My husband uses a Dell laptop running Window 7, a 64 GB iPhone 4, and Santa brought him a 32 GB iPad 3^rd Generation (replacing his original 64 GB iPad).

And so it goes…

Hard to believe another publication season of the TR Times is over, and with it the tenure of managing editor Marilyn Collins is ending. Marilyn has been a joy to work for, and I will miss her. I wish her and Jerry fair winds as they embark on their next adventure.

Earlier in the season I promised to write about online video chats, and I never quite got around to it. The idea of seeing a video of the person on the other end of a phone was promised, and teased, for decades, but it is only recently been fulfilled.

I remember seeing demonstrations of futuristic video phones, also known as teleconferencing, when I was a child. By the late 1980's video conferencing systems finally reached the consumer market place. For the system to work, both parties needed  the same device, which if I remember cost around $700, and the pictures were actually slow-scan video — still pictures taken every couple of seconds, giving the images a jerky quality. At the time I was taking part in an educational project between my school district and a school in what was then the Soviet Union, and holding periodic videoconferences were part of our grant. 

Telephone to telephone video conferencing never really made it to the mainstream, but today we have something much better. With a video enabled computer and dedicated software, a computer can be used to make video calls (known as video chat) to other computers, anywhere in the world, and see realtime video of the party on the other end.

Almost all laptop computers purchased today come with built-in webcams and microphones. A webcam is a small, wide-angle camera, located above the screen in the center of the computer. When activated the camera captures either still images or video, depending on the software being used. What you will see on your computer screen when video chat software is running is a video image captured by the computer at the other end of the chat. Since the computer camera are wide-angle in nature, the image area can be fairly large. If someone sits close to the computer you will see just their face, but if they move away from the computer you can see the room behind them — perfect for seeing young grandchildren at play. 

The most well known of the video chat services is Skype, which since 2011 has been owned by Microsoft. All you need to use Skype is for both parties to have Skype software installed on their computers and to register for a free Skype account. Yahoo also has a video chat service, Video Messenger, that, while not as well known, is very intuitive to use. As with Skype, you need to install the free software on your computer and sign up for a Yahoo account. Both Skype and Yahoo have apps for Apple and Android mobile devices, which can video chat with other mobile devices or with computers running the corresponding software. To be compatible with video chatting mobile devices must have a front facing camera.

FaceTime is a pre-installed, video chat application made exclusively for Apple computers, iPads, and iPhone 4 and 4s models. An added feature on the iPhone is the ability to activate FaceTime at the press of a button during a cell phone call with another iPhone. Similar features are available to users of Android devices with the Google Voice app.

For information about Skype, visit www.spype.com, and for Yahoo Messsenger visit messenger.yahoo.com. 

Thank-you to everyone with a hand in editing OnMouseClick, especially my husband, Eddie, who every week reads, and edits, the column before I e-mail it to the TR Times. Safe travels to all our readers — see you next season!

  

iPad Presentation Information

Links cited in iPad presentation — 3/20/2012

• iCloud — www.icloud.com
• Dropbox — www.dropbox.com
•  AirPrint Activator — netputing.com

Multitouch Gestures

• Use 4 or 5 fingers
• Pinch together to go to home screen
• Swipe up to reveal multitasking bar
• Swipe left or right to move between apps

My Three Cameras…

A common theme to this season's OnMouseClick columns has been the evolution of technology, computers and the related devices that all of us use on a regular basis, and one of the most ubiquitous of these devices is the digital camera. Just about everybody has at least one digital camera, and many of us have more than one. I have three, at least three that I use on a regular basis.

I have been an avid photographer since my late teens, even working in the photo department of a magazine after college. Back then I used a 35 mm, single lens reflex camera, shooting primarily in black and white and printing on high contrast, matte paper. Once I began teaching I drifted away from serious photography, for years using a point-and-shoot film camera for family photos. It wasn't until the advent of digital photography in the 1990's that I rediscovered photography as an art form. Today the three cameras that I use are a Nikon D90 DSLR (digital single lens reflex camera), a Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot, and an iPhone 4. I love shooting with my DSLR and its interchangeable lenses, but when I do not want to carry around a large, heavy camera, I have my smaller cameras to fall back on. Both fit comfortably in a pocket or small purse, and even if I leave the Panasonic at home, I always have my iPhone with me.

One of the main advantages of digital over film photography is the instant feedback. Polaroid cameras were popular because they produced finished photographic prints in a matter of minutes, even if the quality of the prints was less than stellar. With digital photography we don't have instant prints, but we can view our images on the camera's LCD screen, and if we don't like what we see, we can delete.

Another advantage of digital photography is the ease in editing. Instead of using an
enlarger, chemicals, and a darkroom to process photographs, today's photographer uses a computer and photo editing software. In fact, today's photographer doesn't even need to use a traditional computer, but can edit images on smart phones and tablets. As I wrote last week, Adobe had introduced a tablet version of its flagship Photoshop program, Photoshop Touch, for use on the iPad and Android tablets. Last week another popular graphics program made the move from the traditional computer to mobile devices. On March 7, in addition to announcing the newest version of the iPad and a upgrade to the iOS operating system (from 5.01 to 5.1), Apple unveiled a version of iPhoto for both the iPhone and iPad.

Anyone who uses a Mac is familiar with iPhoto, as it comes pre-installed on all Apple computers (a similar application, Picasa, runs on Windows computers). Both programs are image editors, but they also provide a vehicle for cataloging and displaying photos.
With the mobile version of iPhoto, you can edit photos, sort them into albums, and group them by events, locations and themes. Another feature of the app is the ability to "beam" images directly between an iPhone and iPad running on the same WiFi network.

This is a feature I am really going to appreciate, since I like to use my iPhone for picture taking, and my iPad for image editing. Two weeks ago I wrote about DropBox, a cloud computing service, to implement the transfer of photos from iPhone to iPad. While not complicated, it involved uploading an image to DropBox from the iPhone and saving it on the iPad to the built in photo app. Now, with iPhoto, I can make the transfer in one easy step.

The mobile version of iPhoto requires iOS 5.1, the newest version of the iPhone and iPad operating system, and is compatible with the iPhone 4 and 4S, and all iPads except the original iPad 1. It can be purchased from the iTunes Store for $4.99, and once downloaded, it can be installed on both the iPhone and iPad. Click this link for more information.

Cool Stuff…

I listen to a bi-weekly podcast, The MacGeek Gab, and one of the regular features is a segment called Cool Stuff Found. This week I thought I would follow their lead and devote the column to some cool stuff that might be of interest to some of you, especially those of you with iPads, iPhones, and Android devices.

I find myself taking more and more photos with my iPhone. To quote the photographer Chase Jarvis, "The best camera is the one that is with you." While my main camera is a digital single lens reflex camera, a Nikon D90, I almost always have my phone with me, and its 5 megapixel camera takes excellent images. If an iPhone photo is a keeper, I run it through some basic image enhancement before saving it or posting it to Facebook or my photo blog. I prefer to do my editing on the iPad, transferring my photos between the iPhone and iPad with Dropbox, a cloud computing service I wrote about in OnMouseClick on February 24.

Which brings me to the first cool thing, a photo editing app that runs on both the iPad 2 and Android tablets. The app, Adobe Photoshop Touch, brings a host of Photoshop style editing features to tablet computers for $9.99. I installed it on my iPad last week, and the more I use it, the more I like it. It doesn't take the place of the photo editing applications I use on my computer, but when I want to do a quick edit of a photo I took with my iPhone, the app offers robust editing capabilities. With it I can do just about everything I can do with Photoshop Elements and it is not far behind Adobe's flagship program, Photoshop.

If you have a smart phone you can connect to the internet through a G3 (or in some cases G4) cellular connection supplied by your mobile broadband carrier — AT&T, Verizon or Sprint. A cool thing that you may not know is that with most smart phones you can share the internet connection with other devices by turning the smart phone into a Personal WiFi Hotspot. In order to do so you need a compatible smart phone (if you don't know if your particular phone is compatible, call your carrier to find out) and an enhanced data plan with your wireless company. Once your data plan is setup, all you have to do is go to the settings on your phone and turn on the hotspot feature. Once turned on, the network can be joined by other smart phones, tablets, and computers, which will access the Internet wirelessly through the phone.

Each carrier charges a different rate for using a device as a Personal Hotspot, and the allowable data allowance varies. Verizon charges $20 on top of the basic cost of a data plan, and hotspot users are limited to 2 gigabytes of data. AT&T requires a 5 gigabyte data to enable a mobile hotspot, and the cost ranges from $50 to $60 a month, depending on the phone. Sprint charges $29.99 a month to add a 5 gigabyte mobile hotspot to an existing data plan.

Finally, a start-up company, OnLive, has introduced an app that lets users run a cloud based version of Windows 7 desktop and Microsoft Office on their iPads and Android tablets through a WiFi connection to OnLIve servers. The app is free, as is the service with a 2 gigabytes of cloud storage, and additional storage is available for a monthly fee. While initially Office is the only software available, the company has announced that a pro version of OnLive will be available soon that will allow users to customize the service with additional software.

Click on these links for more information about the products mentioned in this column:
Photoshop Touch
AT&T
Verizon
Sprint
OnLive

The Future is now…

In 1987 John Sculley, who was then CEO of Apple Computer, commissioned a mockup of a device he envisioned the company designing in the future. The device was named the Knowledge Navigator and it was envisioned as an artificial intelligence based, magazine sized tablet, capable of anticipating and acting on the user's needs. To showcase the idea, Mr. Sculley commissioned a fictional video, set sometime in the future, using the device to prepare a lecture in collaboration with a colleague in a remote location. While the product John Sculley imagined never came to fruition, it has much in common with the smartphones and tablets we use today — minus the ability to anticipate our every need. In the late 1980s I often used a copy of the video in presentations at educational conferences.

This past week I became aware of a series of new videos, this time produced by Corning Glass. The videos are titled A Day Made of Glass, A Day Made of Glass 2, and A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked. The videos feature a family of the future as they go through a day using computer devices that are totally integrated into their environments; environments made of glass and based on Gorilla Glass, which is used in most of the smartphones and tablets computers we use today.

As the narrator of A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked says at the culmination of the video "the story is about the way we will use technology and communicate in the future. A story about ubiquitous displays, open operating systems, shared applications, cloud media storage, and unlimited bandwidth." The emphasis on cloud media storage is mine, and brings us back to the topic of my last OnMouseClick, cloud computing.

Cloud computing is here today, and will become more and more prevalent in the future. Last week I mentioned DropBox, a easy to use, free cloud computing solution. There are hundreds of other such systems available for use and you are probably already using some of these systems, even if you are not aware of it. As mentioned in last weeks column, if you upload your photographs to photo sharing services you are using cloud computing. If you use Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo! Mail you are storing and accessing your email in the cloud. Anyone who uses Google Docs is cloud computing. Google Docs users upload documents such as word processor files, spreadsheets and presentations, which are then stored on Google servers and available for online editing from any computer.

Apple recently unveiled a new cloud based service, appropriately named iCloud, which allows users to backup iPhones and iPads online, and share documents across devices. The service offers a free 5 GB of storage to anyone with an Apple ID, and additional storage space is available for a fee.

Services exclusively offering cloud storage for hard drive drive backup are becoming increasing popular with both individuals and businesses. Theoretically, if you backup the data on your computer hard drive to a cloud storage service, you never have to worry about a hard drive crash, a power surge frying your computer, losing your laptop, or a disaster that destroys external backup drives. Companies that provide cloud backup generally store your computer files on multiple remote servers so that client files are available 24/7, even if one of the host servers is down for maintenance.

I say theoretically, because you have to be a smart consumer if you chose to backup your precious data to the cloud. A good place to start your research is an online article published by PC Magazine last August, Disaster-Proof Your Data with Online Backup. The article provides a good overview of cloud data storage, and reviews several of the popular services.

Links to use when posted:

Knowledge Navigator

A Day Made of Glass

A Day Made of Glass 2

A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked

PC Magazine Article - Disaster-Proof Your Data with Online Backup

Up, Up to the Cloud…

Cloud computing. Save it to the cloud. Cloud storage. Download  from the cloud. These are terms you might be hearing often lately, but what do they mean?

To understand the cloud, we need to look at how computing has changed in the last few years. Five years ago the software applications you installed on your computer came on CD discs. Today when you buy new software it will most likely be purchased online and downloaded directly to your computer from the internet, or as it is more commonly referred to, the web. When your computer operating system is updated, it happens automatically. The updates are downloaded from the web and installed, sometimes without your even being aware it is occurring. If you take many digital photos, you may upload them to Flickr, Kodak Gallery, Picasa Web Albums, or any of the many other photo sharing websites for storage and sharing with friends and family. If you use Facebook, or any of other social media websites, your posts are stored on remote servers for sharing.

What does all this have to do with cloud computing? The term cloud is being used as a metaphor for the web, and the many thousands of servers that make it work. In 2012 computer use revolves around the web, and cloud computing is the delivery of computing services via the web. When you save data to the cloud, it is saved on a remote server and can be retrieved from any device that is connected to the web. 

I have written in earlier columns that I use an Apple notebook computer, iPad, and iPhone. My husband also has an iPhone and iPad, as well as a Windows laptop, and I can use the cloud to transfer data between all of these devices, wherever we happen to be. If my daughter-in-law posts new photos of our granddaughters on her Facebook page, I can download them to one of my devices, then distribute the photos to all our other devices using cloud service, such as Dropbox. 

Dropbox is an web-based service that allow users to upload files, store them on a remote server, and access them from any computing device. The service is free for the first 2 GB of storage — which works fine for me — with additional storage available for a modest fee. To use Dropbox you download and install a free application on your computer, tablet, and/or smartphone. Then all you have to do to share files between devices is drag and drop them on the Dropbox application. When you open Dropbox on another device, the file will be visible and ready to save.

I save the photos of our granddaughters to the Photo app on our iPhones and iPads. On my husbands PC I save the photos to the Windows Pictures folder for use as screen savers and desktop backgrounds.

Dropbox is only one of many Cloud services available, and next week I will write about some other Cloud alternatives.

Is a tablet for you…

For the past two weeks the subject of OnMouseClick has been my iPad and its many uses.  I realized that I forgot two valuable iPad options — one is watching videos, the other is its photo storage ability. My iPad works great with both You Tube videos and Netflix. We subscribe to Netflix, and with the Netflix app, we can watch movies and television shows right on our iPads. I also use my iPad as a photo album. Ever since I received my iPhone in June of 2009, I have tried to keep up-to-date family photos on the phone. Since I often have my iPhone with me, I also have the photos with me. Now that I have an iPad, I also have an easily portable, extensive photo album. In addition to family photos, I also plan to set up my photographic portfolio on my iPad.

Today, I am going to finish writing my series of articles on tablet computers, covering some things to consider if you are thinking about buying one. The other night we were having dinner with friends, and I brought along my iPad to show off the most recent photos of our granddaughters. My friends were very impressed with the iPad (and our beautiful granddaughters as well), and they both agreed they each wanted one. Which got me thinking – while it is a very impressive, versatile device, it isn't for everyone.

Tablet devices work by touch screen. To operate the device you use your fingers to select icons and move objects around the screen. When you need to enter information, an on screen keyboard appears. Using a touch screen can be a lot of fun, but does take some getting used to — and may be more trouble than it is worth for some people. Not only do you need to adjust to the touch screen technology, but each tablet uses finger swipes, known as multitasking gestures, in different ways. For multitasking gestures on my iPad, I use one finger to make selections, two fingers to move from one photograph to the next, and four or five fingers to switch between apps. To reduce or magnify what is on the screen, you place your thumb and forefinger on the screen and pinch them together (reduce) or move them apart (magnify).

Another thing to remember is the size of the screen. The most common screen size in tablet computers is 10-inches, such as the Apple iPad, and 7-inches like the Amazon Kindle Fire. Understanding screen size can be confusing, because measurements are made on the diagonal, and for every inch there is an increase in total screen size. Thus, a 7-inch screen has half the actual surface area of a 10-inch screen. EIther way, the screen is much smaller than the one on desktop, and even laptop, computers.

I have a friend who does a fair amount of traveling, and she just bought herself an iPad. She basically uses a computer for email and the internet, and decided that a lightweight iPad would be the perfect device for her travels. However, this same friend has a low frustration level when it comes to technology, and I have horrified visions of her chucking the iPad out the window when she cannot get it to do what she wants.

If you decide to buy a tablet, take a trip over to Best Buy, or one of the Apple Stores, and take a test drive before you buy. Spend some time getting the feel of using a touch screen and learning how to use multitasking gestures. 

What my iPad can do…

**A caveat about iPads, and tablet computers in general. Apple's iPad is by far the most popular of the new breed of tablet computers, but it is by no means the only tablet on the market. I am writing about the iPad, because that is what I use. Also, in this column I will be referring to APPS, which are small software applications designed for use on smart phones and tablet computers.**

Today, as I prepared to write this column, I received the March issue of MACWORLD magazine, and coincidentally this month's lead article is "iPad at Work: Is the iPad Ready to Replace your Laptop?" The magazine answers that the iPad is not quite ready to replace the laptop, but it comes pretty close. 

As I have written before, I have an Amazon Kindle eReader, which is an exceptional device for reading books that do not have a lot of graphics. The Kindle is small, lightweight, and the screen can be read in the brightest sunlight. For other types of reading the iPad is far superior. Last year I subscribed to the New York Times on my Kindle, and a new issue was downloaded each morning. Now, with the New York Times app installed on my iPad, news stories are updated several times a day. Magazines that are available for the iPad are interactive, often including video content as well as text and images.

Every year when we pack out RV for the winter months, I fill an entire cabinet with reference books on digital imaging, web design and book art. I am looking forward to replacing many of these book with iPad versions — literally putting the reference material at my fingertips and freeing up some much needed storage space.

I mentioned in last week's column that I started a recipe file on my laptop using the database program BENTO. In addition to the computer version of BENTO (it is an Macintosh only product) there is an app version for both the iPad & iPhone, with files synchronizing across devices. When I first set up the database on my laptop, I would move my laptop to the kitchen table when I wanted to use a recipe. Now  I have my recipes files on the iPad, which it is much more convenient and takes up less space. I also don't have to worry about touching my laptop keyboard with messy fingers. If I get my iPad touchscreen dirty, I just wipe it clean. 

I also use Bento to keep track of our RV travels. I make a record of every campground and service station we visit, with rating information that we use when we pass that way again. Having copies of the database on both my iPad and iPhone makes it very easy to search for the appropriate records while traveling.

I keep a spreadsheet on my laptop for our medical records. The spreadsheet software is another Macintosh only program, NUMBERS (EXCEL compatible), with an iPad app version. With the spreadsheet on my iPad it is much easier to keep track of doctors appointments and prescription purchases. I am writing this column on the iPad, using the app version of PAGES, the APPLE word processor I use on my MacBook (Microsoft Word compatible), and a wireless keyboard that makes typing on the iPad much easier than using the on-screen keyboard.

Of course, I use the iPad for email, web surfing, weather forecasting, and game playing. Sudoko, solitaire, backgammon, and Angry Birds are fun to play on the iPad, and I have a large selection of learning games for our almost three-year-old granddaughter. I highly recommend ANOTHER MONSTER AT THE END OF THE BOOK, and interactive games featuring ELMO and GROVER from Sesame Street. Brianna loves them and her increasing understanding of the iPad touch screen is very exciting to watch.

I really, really like my iPad…

First, an apology for once again putting off writing a column about video chats. We just returned from a six week visit with our son's family in Arizona, and since we saw our granddaughters in person everyday, there was no reason for video chats. We miss them terribly, and I will arrange a video chat soon — after which my skills will be refreshed and I will be ready to write a column on the subject.

For this week's topic, I want to discuss our families tablet computing history. For Christmas 2009 Santa brought me an Amazon Kindle. As I have written in previous columns, I love the Kindle and it is a boon to a voracious reader like me living in a motor home for half the year.  I am always reading a book, sometimes more than one at a time, and, being able to keep a book collection on the Kindle is a great space saver. I also subscribe to the New York Times on the Kindle, which provided my breakfast table reading material. When I first got the Kindle, I thought that I might also be able to use it for my recipe files — and while it is possible ( I gave it a valiant effort), it was not a good solution for my electronic recipe file. 

In 2010 Santa brought my husband Eddie an Apple iPad. He uses it to visit web sites , read newspapers, magazines, books, and videos. He reads the New York Times on his iPad, but because we are subscribers of the print edition of the paper at home in New York, the iPad version is free — more on that point later. I certainly liked the iPad, but I had my Kindle and was very content. Except, I did think that the iPad would work well in the kitchen. I had already begun to create a database of favorite recipes on my Apple laptop, and since there is an iPad version of the database software I use (BENTO, more on that in a future column), it occurred to me that using an iPad for recipes would work even better. 

Eddie OK'd my putting Bento, and my recipes, on his iPad, and it worked out well, except of course if Eddie was already using his device. Then, this fall when we arrived at TR I decided not to subscribe to the New York TImes on my Kindle. The price had gone up, from $15 to $20 a month, and it seemed unfair that as print subscribers we could download the iPad version for free, but had to pay for the Kindle version. So, at breakfast, while Eddie was reading the St. Petersburg Times (the name hadn't changed to the Tampa TImes yet), I would read the New York Times on his iPad until he was ready for it.

The more I used the iPad, the more I appreciated the elegance of the device, and thought that it would be really nice to have one of my own. And, much to my delight and surprise, Santa brought me an iPad2 this Christmas. Now, I not only get to read the New York Times and have my recipe database to use whenever I need it, I also use it for word processing (I am typing on it right now!), spreadsheets, and a wide variety of other purposes. I really, really, like my iPad.

Next week I'll give you an in depth look at how I use my iPad, and how it integrates with my Mac Laptop and iPhone.

Click the Like Button…

I am postponing for another week a column on video chat. I had some technical difficulties and did not resolve all the specifics of using video chat programs before writing the column. Stay tuned — I plan to write about video chat next week.

Meanwhile, I realized that there is one very important FACEBOOK feature that I did not cover in the last two columns — the LIKE button. With the LIKE button you can let your FACEBOOK FRIENDS know that you enjoy their comments, without leaving a comment of your own. Once you LIKE something, your friend will get notification that you liked the post. Examples of things you might like are family pictures, funny videos, political quotations, and personal comments from a friend to you. 

There is a second kind of LIKE in FACEBOOK, and that is LIKING a business page, also known as a FAN PAGE. A FAN PAGE can be the page of an actual business (such as Travelers Rest Resort), an entertainment venue (a movie, TV show, radio show, or a podcast), an informational website, a magazine, or even a celebrity. You may have been invited to visit a FAN page when you listened to a radio or television program. FAN PAGES have a LIKE button at the top of the page. Click on the LIKE and you become part of the FAN community with access to updates and messages from the page owner, and the chance to post comments on the page. 

If you no longer wish to receive updates from a particular FAN PAGE, you can UNLIKE the page by going to FAN PAGE and scrolling down the left-side of the page until you see UNLIKE. Click it and you will no longer receive updates. 

In other technology news, since Christmas I am the proud owner of an Apple iPad2. Having a tablet doesn’t take the place of my laptop, but it is a wonderful complement to my digital world. Later this winter I plan to write about life with my MacBook Pro laptop, iPad2, iPhone 4, Amazon Kindle, and two digital cameras. 

If you have been using FACEBOOK and have questions, please do not hesitate to email me at onmouseclick@digitalquinn.com.

Making Facebook Yours…

FACEBOOK is many faceted, and as you use it you will discover numerous ways to customize it to fit your needs. One thing you will want to customize on your FACEBOOK page is a profile picture. 

Profile pictures appear in the top-left corner of the page and can be changed as often as you like. Most people choose a self-portrait, while others include pictures with family, friends, pets, or even a favorite landscape. My current profile picture is one of me with my two beautiful granddaughters, and the page of a good friend of mine features a picture of her cat.

To add a profile picture to your page, begin by choosing a photo on your computer hard drive. I suggest a close-up photo that will show up well in a small, thumbnail size. Open your FACEBOOK page and click the EDIT PROFILE button in the top right-hand corner. If at first you don’t see an EDIT PROFILE button, click on your name on the on the right side of the blue bar at the top of the screen.

The first screen to appear is BASIC INFORMATION, which can be filled in if you choose. Along the left side of the screen are other choices, one of which is PROFILE PICTURE. Choose PROFILE PICTURE and you will see an empty box just waiting for your picture. Depending on the browser you are using, you will see either a CHOOSE FILE or BROWSE button — click on it and navigate to the image you want to upload. After you have selected your image, click on OPEN or CHOOSE (again, which one you see depends on the browser you are using), and the photo will upload to your FACEBOOK page. Click on the HOME button and you will be back on your WALL page.

Your PROFILE PICTURE is now in place and you are ready to tackle adding comments and pictures for your FACEBOOK “friends” to see. Comments are what you want to say, and for every comment you can choose to add one photo, or a group of photos which will then be grouped together into an album.

To add a comment click in the dialog box at the top of the page that contains the words “What’s on your mind?” Type your comment and then click on ADD PHOTO / VIDEO. You will then be given the option of uploading a single photo (or video) or creating a photo album. If you choose to upload a single photo, navigate to the photo (or video) you want to upload, just as you did for the profile picture. If you choose album, navigate to the folder that contains your images (all of the photos must be in the same folder on your hard drive), and shift click on the photos you want to add to the album (by shift clicking you can select multiple photos at one time). Click on CHOOSE or OPEN (depending on your browser) and the album will be added to FACEBOOK and attached to your current comment.

If anyone has specific questions about using FACEBOOK, email them to me at onmouseclick@digitalquinn.com. The subject of next week’s OnMouseClick will be making video calls with SKYPE and YAHOO.

Happy New Year…

Happy New Year from the high desert of southern Arizona. We have been visiting with our son and his family since early December, and we cannot put into words how wonderful it was to be with our two beautiful granddaughters (and mom/dad) on Christmas morning. We plan to be back in Florida sometime in January, but I didn't see any reason to miss the deadline for the TR times. We are living in a connected world, and since this column is about technology, it's appropriate that I submit my first column for 2012 via e-mail from Arizona. 

The theme of last season's OnMouseClick columns was up-to-date technology, with the last two columns devoted to the subject of social media, with emphasis on Facebook. I hadn't planned to revisit Facebook quite so soon, but an exchange I had recently with a TR resident changed my mind.

In early November I was catching up with a TR friend who had just arrived from up north, when she told me that she was a new grandmother, but had not seen any photos of her grandson in two weeks. I asked her if she was using Facebook to keep up with her grandson, like we do with our granddaughters, and she said that she didn't use or understand how Facebook works. It occurred to me that a good way to begin OnMouseClick for 2012 would be to give some simple directions on how to create your own Facebook account. 

Facebook is a website for users, who join for free, and who share information about themselves through text, photos and videos. Our daughter-in-law regularly post photos of our granddaughters, and we are delighted by every photo posted online. True, she could easily send us e-mails with the photos attached, but by posting on FACEBOOK she can share the photos not only with our extended family, but also with friends from around the world. We receive an email from FACEBOOK on each new post of our friends so we do not have to log onto to their account and wonder if new photos of our princesses are available.

First, a few caveats for those of you worried about privacy. A Facebook account can be as public or private as you want. I personally have no desire to have hundreds of friends — I am content with a small group of family members and friends as my "Facebook friends." My actual Facebook page is available only to these "friends,." You can control who reads and views your account.

To get started, go to www.facebook.com and fill-in the requested SIGN UP information. You will be asked for your first and last name, your e-mail address, a password, your gender, and birthday (your birthday can be visible as part of your profile, or hidden, it is up to you). Click on the Sign Up button and you have a Facebook account — it is that easy.

Your main Facebook page, know as the Wall, is where your "friends'" posts and comments will appear. Posts can be composed of text, photos, and videos. You can click that you "like" a post, or make a comment. If you make a comment on the post of "friend", your comment will appear on the other person's wall. At the top of your FACEBOOK page is a blue bar, and at the right end of the bar is a drop-down arrow. Click on the arrow and you can choose to edit your account and privacy settings. 

Once you have set up your account you will want to find "friends". In the blue bar at the top of the screen, just to the right of the word FACEBOOK, is a search box. Type in the name of someone you want to friend (Facebook uses the word friend as both a noun and a verb), and a list of possible matches will appear. To narrow down the list of hits, you can use SEARCH TOOLS to add additional filters, such as a city, educational institution, or workplace. Once you locate the correct person, click to send a FRIEND REQUEST. Soon you will be able to keep up with friends and family, share photos, and find out what is going on in their lives.

You might also find yourself searching for old friends from high school and college. This past summer I located a roommate from my early days of teaching. We had been out of touch for over twenty-years, and when I last saw her she was living in California. We connected on Facebook and I found out that she and her husband now live on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. On our way south in October we stopped to visit with them and enjoy their hospitality — a visit made possible only by Facebook.

Next week OnMouseClick will cover how to go about adding text and photos to your FACEBOOK wall, and giving it your own personal touch. 

Winding down…

Earlier today I discovered that my niece is very excited that she fits into a sweater that was too tight last month, my daughter-in-law is happy that yesterday was a good day with our two granddaughters, and another young mother I know was happy this morning to have some free time to relax. How do I know all this? They posted on their Facebook pages, and since they are my Facebook friends, the comments appeared on my Facebook Wall. 

Last week I wrote about Social media in general, and Facebook in particular. Because of social media like Facebook, the process of social interaction and communication is changing. It is becoming accepted practice, especially for the younger generation (the ages of the women mentioned above range from 27 to 32), to share minute details of their lives on Facebook. I, on the other hand, cannot imagine why anyone, other than close friends or family, would really care if I am taking time to relax or how my clothes are fitting.

Other types of social media that were briefly mentioned in last week’s column include blogs, podcasts, online videos, and wikis. The simplest definition of a blog is an online journal, written by one person, or a group of people, about a specific topic. Blogs are written by laypeople who want to share information on a topic that interests them, by professional journalist as an alternative to traditional print media, and by people who fancy themselves as journalists, but are not part of the established media. What makes a blog different than print media, such as magazines and newspapers, is that the readers of a blog are invited to comment back, making them very interactive. 

OnMouseClick appears weekly in the TR Times, and it is also posted online in a blog at onmouseclick.blogspot.com. If you read the online version and you would like to ask a question or make a comment, you can click on COMMENTS at the bottom of the post and start a dialog. 

The same is true for podcasts. Podcasts are basically radio style broadcasts over the internet, and as with blogs, podcasters are both laypeople and professionals. Most people download podcast to mobile devices, such as iPods and MP3 players, and listen while exercising or commuting, but podcasts also invite listener participation through the internet. Some excellent free podcast are made by Bloomberg Radio, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and ESPN. If you have an interest or hobby, there is a good possibility that somebody podcast on that subject.

The most popular platform for posting online videos is YouTube, where anyone can create a YouTube (www.youtube.com) account and upload videos to share and interact with the online community. With YouTube anyone can become an actor, director, and producer. There are many fledgling musical groups and film makers who post their work on YouTube in the hopes of attracting an audience.

Wikis are a different type of social media — collaborative websites which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. The most notable wiki website is Wikipedia, a free, online encyclopedia maintained by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. While much of the information found on Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) is initially written by professionals, anyone can make additions and corrections to entries, although the foundation does exercise editorial control. Other notable wikis are Wikitravel, a project to create an up-to-date and reliable world-wide travel guide (wikitravel.org); Wikihow, a collaborative writing project designed to created the world’s largest how-to manual (www.wikihow.com); Wikinews, a website designed to present up-to-date and unbiased news coverage ( en.wikinews.org), and of course WikiLeaks (http://213.251.145.96). WikiLeaks defines itself as “a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public.” It is better known as the organization, founded by Julian Assange, that recently leaked classified documents to several mainstream news organizations.

And that is my last informational OnMouseClick paragraph for the 2011 season. By the time you read this I hope that Eddie and I will have arrived in Arizona for a month-long stay near our son and his family. I hope that you all enjoy the remainder of the season at TR and have a safe and healthy summer. See you next fall!

Social Media, Social Networks…

Today’s column is about the phenomenon of social media, and more specifically, Facebook. But first, I want to introduce you to a new Google website that recently came online. The website is Art Project, powered by Google and its stated goal is to bring works of art, housed in museums around the world, to everyone’s computer screen. The project is in its infancy, and initially there are only seventeen museums participating, but the project shows great promise for the future. Each museum offers a few works of art to view, both paintings and sculptures. The art work is viewed in high resolution, and can be magnified for close-up viewing. In addition, there are virtual tours of the museums — you can move from gallery to gallery, and even see the view from the outside the museums. One of the seventeen museums is The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, a favorite of mine. I took the virtual tour and enjoyed it immensely. When I got outside the museum, I found that I was also able to explore the streets of New York as well. The website can be found at www.googleartproject.com.

If you have been following the news in the past few weeks, you will have heard that young Egyptian dissidents used Facebook as a way of organizing protests, and “The Social Network”, one of the top grossing films of 2010, was based on the founding of Facebook. But what exactly is Facebook? It is considered part of a wide array of Social Media that is available on the internet. And what is social media? In simple words, it is a way of sharing information with other people over the internet, using both computers and smart phones. The content of social media is designated by the users, and is dependent on user interaction. Types of social media include blogs, wikis, online videos, podcasts, and social networks. 

Facebook falls into the category of social networks. People set up a free account with Facebook, and then proceed to “friend” other Facebook users. You can invite people you know to be your “friends”, people you know can ask to “friend” you, and you can connect with, and “friend,” people who have similar interests. Every Facebook user has their own set of web pages; the main page is called the wall, and all of your friends can post messages on your wall. Users can also post photos and videos to share with their friends.

Some Facebook users have hundreds and even thousands of friends. Others, like me, limit their Facebook friends to friends and family from the real world. Our son was living in Japan when our first granddaughter Brianna was born, and photos and videos posted on Facebook kept us connected  during her first year. When Brianna took her first steps, our son and his wife captured it on video, and it was so exciting to share that special moment with them. In November they moved to Arizona and their second baby,,Julianna, was born in January. Julianna is now a month old, and we have followed her development through the photos posted on Facebook.

The more you use and interact with Facebook, the more you will discover. Many businesses, television and radio shows, artists, politicians, and celebrities maintain a presence on Facebook and urge customers, clients and audiences to follow them. There are games you can play (have you heard of Farmville?), and interest groups you can join. To sign up for a Facebook account, or just to see what it is all about, visit www.facebook.com, and, of course, there is also a Facebook app that lets you check your Facebook message on your smartphone.

Next week will be my last column for the 2011 season. We are heading west to see our beautiful granddaughters (and our son and his wife as well!). Facebook is nice, but there is nothing like being with our family in real life, and we cannot wait! 

This week — Twitter…

Shortly after submitting last week’s column I read a “Blondie” comic strip that was very timely. Dagwood asks his son how things are going with his girlfriend. The son replies, “We’re having communications difficulties! She keep telling me to call her or post something sweet on Twitter or Facebook! But I’s much rather just text her...” If you read last week’s column you know what texting is, but do you know about Twitter and Facebook? 

The word twitter was originally a verb used in conjunction with bird chirping sounds. The modern use of Twitter, however, is a noun that refers to  a “real-time information network” that allows anyone to send and receive short (140 characters maximum), bite-sized bits of information, called tweets.  It is a way to quickly discover news about subjects and people of interest, and to share your ideas, comments and thoughts with others. 

Before you can use Twitter, you need to create a free Twitter account by visiting the Twitter website (www.twitter.com), or by using the Twitter app on your smartphone. Once you have an account, you can sign up to follow the tweets sent by people or organizations that interest you. Messages from the accounts you are following will appear in a readable list on the Twitter homepage on your computer, or on the Twitter app on your smartphone. Instead of sending emails or text messages to a long list of people, you can send one message to your Twitter account, and the service distributes it to all your followers. Twitter users can organize impromptu gatherings, conduct group conversations, or just send up a quick update to let people know the latest updates or activities.

What are some real world examples of Twitter use? First, imagine that you are listening to a news show on the radio, such as the Diane Rhem show on NPR. Every morning the host, Diane Rhem, covers one current, newsworthy topic. During the show Diane Rehm invites listener questions and comments by telephone, Facebook and Twitter. If you find yourself talking to the radio in response to something you hear, now you can send a tweet instead.

Second, image that you belong to a the TR Bicycle Club and you find a route that you think would make a good ride for the club. Send out a tweet to the club members, who have registered with Twitter, and find out what they think before actually planning the ride. In another example, you have a close group of friends who follow each others’ tweets. You are taking a walk at TR and decide to head over to the Snack Shack for lunch. Send out a tweet on your mobile phone, and see if any of your friends want to join you. Finally, there is a celebrity or public figure who you really like. Sign up to follow them on Twitter and you will be privy to their constant tweets — or at least the Tweets posted by their publicist or press secretary.

Using Twitter isn’t for everyone, but it does have some real-world applications that are worthwhile. A recent article in the New York Times highlighted methods of dealing with flight cancellations after the December blizzard in the Northeast. People who followed their airline’s tweets had a much better chance of being rebooked then those who relied on the telephone and airline personnel. Following airline tweets was not something I have done in the past, but next time we fly, I am going to sign up and follow the airline on Twitter! 

Remember that tweets can also be immediate responses to events or thoughts. There have been recent reports of individuals in both politics and sports (as well as elsewhere), that have gotten themselves in “hot water” because of instant comments posted via twitter. Sometimes a little reflection, aka time, is a required filter than an immediate response.

If you want find out more about Twitter and how to use it, check out the Twitter Help Center at http://support.twitter.com/entries/13920-frequently-asked-questions. And if you are not interested in using Twitter, at least you have a frame of reference the next time you hear someone mention it on television — or when you are talking to your grandkids! 

Understanding Communications in 2011. And by the way, HRU…

Do you send text messages on your cell phone? If not, you probably don’t know what HRU means. It is a shorthand way of saying “How are you?”, and is one of the hundreds of abbreviations for words and phases used by people who send text messages, or “texts,” on their cell phones. 

In the last decade, the art of communication has changed drastically, mostly among the younger generations, and it is sometimes difficult for us "old-timers" to comprehend what is going on. Today’s teenager cannot imagine life without a cell phone, nor what it was like not be connected all the time, 24/7. With a cell phone you can make and receive phone calls anytime, anywhere, but in this era of fast paced communications, some people feel making phone calls is too slow . The youth of today want instant access to everyone, but without having to stop what they are doing. This is the age of multi-tasking, and “texting” plays a big part.

With “texting” anyone with a cell phone can type out a short message (text messages are limited to 160 characters), enter the phone number of another cell phone, and click send. The message is instantly relayed to the chosen recipient, who is alerted to the arrival of a text by a tone that sounds on their cell phone. Text messages can be sent back and forth while the participants are involved in other activities. (Unfortunately, one of the other activities is often driving, but more about that later). Because of the brevity of text messages, an entire vocabulary of abbreviations and acronyms has been created to make texting easier. Visit the website NetLingo to see page after page of popular shorthand for texting.

Those of us in our generation might think that it is actually easier to pick up the telephone and talk to someone. However, for reasons I am not able to completely understand, many younger people actually prefer texting to talking. My husband has resigned to texting in lieu of talking to our sons on a regular basis. With our younger son, who is in his late twenties, it is often the only way he communicates. If you can get him on the phone, he invariably says he doesn’t have time to talk, but he will send endless text messages on a variety of subjects. 

All of today’s cell phone have texting capabilities, although it is easier to text on a smart phone with a alphanumeric keypad than on a phone with a standard telephone keypad. On a standard keypad phone, each number key is also used to enter several letters, and you often need to press a key numerous times to get the letter you want. Of course, if you watch a young person texting, you will see both thumbs flying across the tiny cell phone keys without any hesitation. Texting is an "dish best served young".

Sending text messages does cost money. If your cell phone plan does not specifically includes text messages, you will be charged on a per-message fee, both for incoming and outgoing messages. However, if you do a lot of texting, most mobile phone carriers offer plans that include text messaging for a set fee. For example, AT&T has four choices for text messaging — 10 cents for each text message without a plan; $5 a month for 200 messages; $10 a month for 1,000 messages; $20 a month for unlimited text messages.

Which brings us to the concept of safe texting. Most authorities agree that it is not a good idea to talk on the phone while driving — but if you do use the phone, it is somewhat safer to use a hands-free device. In many states, it is against the law to use a cell phone while driving unless you are using a hands-free device. With that in mind, texting while driving is the even more dangerous than talking on the phone. I am sure you have probably passed a driver on the highway who appears distracted, maybe looking down at his lap with only one hand on the steering wheel. It is a strong possibility that the driver in question is texting and not paying full attention to the road. There isn’t very much we can do about this problem, except be aware that it is a problem, and to be constantly on the lookout for erratic drivers. 

 Until next week, when I will write about Tweeting and Social Media, GTGB.*

*Got to Go, Bye.