Ideas from Mark Stout

I was invited to be a Google Glass Explorer. Meaning, Google will let me buy a Google Glass before the general public. Apparently I just have to come up with $1500 and go to New York to pick them up. Hmm, how can I swing this?

I don't think anyone reading this blog would fall for this, but alert your less tech saavy family and friends that Microsoft will never call them to tell them there is a virus on their PC. There's a scam apparently that's been going around for a few years that could cost users money, control of their PC and time. The Family Tech for March 21, 2013 covers it.

I wrote here on March 23 about my delight the first time I made a Google Now voice note "Note to self:" and how Google Now prompted me to send it to Gmail or to Google Keep. Previously the only option was to send it to Gmail.  I have a Gmail filter to send any "Note to self" emails on to my Evernote account. Now a Lifehacker.com post by Whitson Gordon alerted me that now Evernote is included in that option. Evernote did not appear on my list options before when I made a note with Google Now.  I wonder if it is not a new capability added by Evernote when they released Version 5 for Android about that time. On my Android phone I went to Settings, Applications and brought up the record for Google Search (which is really Google Now). Then I scrolled down and touched the button Clear Defaults . Then I went into Google Now and made a voice "Note to Self".  This time the option box had three choices: Email, Keep and Evernote. I went ahead...

I find Google Now's voice capabilities useful on my Android phone.  I recently struggled to get it working on my Samsung Galaxy S3.  If you have an S3 do check out my post on the topic . One thing I often do while driving is touch the Call button on my Bluetooth earpiece to invoke Google Now and then say "Note to self" and then say an idea I've just had, or a task I want to remember to do. Until this week, Google Now would send that as an email to myself.  From there I would make use of that note when I got home, perhaps creating an event in my Google Calendar, or a task in Google Task or whatever. If it was just a note I wanted in Evernote, a filter I had created in Gmail automatically moves all emails with the subject containing "Note to self" to Evernote. Wednesday evening I installed the Android Keep app on my phone.  I guess I didn't make any Notes to Self on Thursday, but I did on Friday while driving home from work. At the next light,...

Two things I am most passionate about in computing is Evernote, and Google services. I've been a passionate user of Evernote since 2008.  I even wrote a book about it. And I've been a user of Gmail, Google Drive , Calendar, Tasks, and Voice.  Those all are in my default set of tabs that load in every time I start up, yes, Google Chrome. So it is with mixed feelings that I introduce Google Keep.  Keep is Google's new tools to store random bits of information. It was released just this past Wednesday as both a web app, and an Android app. I first wrote about it in three posts on my GetProductiveFast.com blog that supports my book.  There I wrote three posts of interest to Evernote users. The first post was a simple  announcement of Keep . Then remembering the recent closure of Google Reader, I wondered, and I found others were too, if we could trust Keep to stick around.  No point in putting all our information in it, only to see Keep d...

I am writing tonight about Google Keep over on my productivity blog .

Many cameras in the family, all taking photos of the same event.  How do you consolidate the photos? One method is discussed in this Family Tech column .

I save this blog for my geekiest posts and haven't been doing much geeky things lately; instead concentrating on more technology for the family issues in my column. Although I have started doing a bit more geeky things in the column, with How-To support on its blog, like the recent column on consolidating a families photos from their many camera phones, to one place. However, I just worked out something geeky, and wanted to document it here for others that might search for a solution in the future. When I first bought my Galaxy S III (I'll call it the Galaxy S3 here too for searching purposes), it did not have Google Now on it.  So I started using Samsung's own S Voice. When Jelly Bean made it to the S3, Google Voice became available. However, when I click the button on my Bluetooth earpiece, it was S Voice that came up. One night I decided to sit down and solve that problem, thinking it would be relatively easy. I did find some good resources, but som...

Your ISP may have started watching your downloads, and if they feel you are downloading copyrighted material, they might cut your internet speed down, yet charge you full price. This is the topic of Family Tech for March 7, 2013.  

Everyone knows Facebook.  What about other useful social sites? Family Tech for February 22, 2013 has been posted.

Are you so enamored of your phone or tablet, that you've ignored your PC? This week's Family Tech column discusses the need for anti-virus and backups.