Ideas from Mark Stout

Funny how tech priorities change. In the first 30 years I lived from one PC to another. Starting with a Radio Shack Model I, then an IBM PC, then a long, long succession of PC compatibles; each faster than the last with ever increasing hard drives. The change from one PC to a new one was a sea change. Each so much faster and smoother. Now, I've been content with a laptop built in 2013. It has an i7 processor and 12 gigabytes of memory, so performance wise it is fine. I admire my foresight then to go big.  I do not game play or do high end video processing. I rarely use it as a laptop. Its hooked to two monitors and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.  My sole tweak to my home setup when quarantine and working from home started in March was a docking station so I could switch easily from work laptop to personal laptop. If I covet anything, its more and larger monitors. You can't go too large, or too many. After the fever of wanting a new PC passed from a every two year event, to thre...

If you use your cell phone for business calls, you will want to set up a “filter” between your phone and your business contacts i.e. clients, customers, co-workers, supervisors. Google Voice is that filter.   How does Google Voice work? You receive a unique telephone number.  When someone calls that number, it seamlessly forwards to your cell phone.  When you place a call, your Google Voice number shows up on caller ID. Likewise, when someone sends a text to your GV number, it shows up on your phone. And when you text, it shows up as having come from your GV number. And the best thing:  it is free . What does Google Voice do? As mentioned above,when someone dials your GV number, it can ring your cell phone. It can also ring your landline too, if you have one. If your phone is lost or damaged, you can borrow someone else’s phone, or buy a cheap pay-as-you go phone and simply tell GV to forward calls to that phone until  you find or replace...

Have you planned on things going wrong in your tech life?  They will.  Better to plan on it now and be ready. And if you are sending a student away to school with a laptop, plan now on it breaking or getting stolen or some other catastrophe. In July we talked about backup options.  Have you started using one yet? Have you setup your student with an automatic, offsite backup system so they do not have to think about it? You will need it. That is almost a certainty. What about anti-virus, for the the PCs at home and those going to college?  Get them installed now, and if there is a subscription, make sure it is paid through the end of the school year. For the college students, check the school’s bookstore or website. Often schools have requirements for anti-virus software for all PCs that use their networks, and site licenses to provide it to students for free. Before you buy any software for students, check with the university. Besides site license...

A telemarketer called me on my cell phone the other day, and I chortled with delight.  Normally, even if you hang up on one immediately as I did, you know they are only going to call back repeatedly. Not this one--or any of them. I use  Google Voice , so I was able to go into my call history and block future calls from that number. From then on when they call, they get the annoying disconnected sound and so they think my phone number is no longer valid. And their call never rings my phone again. If I felt really mean, I could make them their own message talking about the nature of their marketing and perhaps questioning the caller’s life choices. I did not, but the thought that I could is enough to make me chortle on receiving a spam call. Google Voice is not a well-known Google service, but it is one of the most useful. You only need a free Google account. If you already have a Gmail account, you are set.  When you sign up for the actual Voice product, you are given a ph...

The telephone is often the bane of our existence, yet it is the necessary enabler of business and personal interactions. If you sell things online, have a home or family-run business, or if you are a single wanting to talk to someone you met online, you need the telephone.  Yet there are risks to giving out your own phone number you should avoid. For example, you sell a bicycle online. You don’t want to give the person your phone number to avoid the possibility of them calling you a year later telling you the bike has broken and they feel you sold them a defective item. Or you want your one- or two-person family-run business to look like a bigger company but don’t want to hire a receptionist, what can you do? There’s an app for the iPhone and Android called Burner that lets you purchase a phone number that is good for a time period you choose. That way, you can list that phone number in your online ad. Any calls coming into the app from that phone number, come into the app where yo...

The Google Voice/Project Fi/Hangouts team has announced improved voice mail transcriptions .

If you have an old Android or iPhone sitting around, you can set it up with free wireless service.  Sort of. This week's Family Tech column.

Andy Abramson blogged today on Pocketables his list of features he would like to see in Google Voice . I want the fax, MMS and recording, although the rest of his list would be nice too.

Boy, did I misunderstand this feature! The correct take is : Google Voice now lets you specify different rules for callers whose numbers are not in your contact list.  That's  a good thing. The original post is below so you can see what I thought it was.  By the way, it would not be bad if they had this feature too.  Don't you just love callers who want your attention, but respect you so little they block their caller id?  What a wonderful way of telling you that they know better then you how you should spend your time. It is of my pet peeves.  It happens most on my home phone, but now at least I can control it when someone calls my Google Voice number.  Almost no one has my real cell number.  The number I give out is my GV number. Now, if someone calls my GV number, GV lets me route that call direct to voice mail if I want.  I can even make a unique voice mail message for them.  Mine now says "Since you Call to me is anonymo...

I have been bad about posting these. About to get much better. Google Drive 4/30 Kickstarter   5/6 Linking Web Services      5/13  (Evernote users: More about this  in my book ) Google Voice 5/22

I have to realize that instead of just having only a computer anymore, as I did from 1979 to 2008 when I bought my first smart phone, I now have a computing ecosystem.  I use my phone, tablet and PC together.  Some are better then others for particular tasks, while each can step up and do most of the tasks of the others if need be. My Family Tech column for January 1, 2012 ( Facebook comments about column) is thoughts for the many people who received their first tablets on Christmas Day.  I promised a blog post talking about how you can use your tablet, and phone for that matter, to go beyond the basic tablet functionality of reading, watching videos and surfing the net. The same holds true for phones.  A smart phone is really just a small tablet, connected to the 3g network (while some tablets are too, mine is wifi only). Since April of 2010 I have used an iPad, since November of 2011, a Xoom Android tablet running Honeycomb. By add...