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You’ve Bought a New Smartphone, Now What?

27/05/2015 admin 86 Comments

By Chantal Bechervaise

It is exciting to get a new smartphone. I love the feeling of unboxing it and holding it in my hands for the first time. It can be overwhelming too, as there are always new features to get used to and learn and I just want to start playing with it right away.

Here are some tips and guidelines to help you set up and learn how to use your new smartphone, so you are up and running as quickly as possible.

Fully Charge Your Phone

This is the hardest part for me. I am impatient, so waiting a couples hours before being able to play with my new phone is torture. It is important to charge your phone first. Your new phone will more than likely have to update its operating system (OS) so it is better to have a full charge. Plus respecting your battery is the best way to prolong its life. I recommend never letting it drain completely and topping off the charge whenever you can. If you are out an about and need to prolong your battery life, try turning off the Wi-Fi and GPS locator.

Move Your Data

After installing all the updates, the next step is moving over prior contact lists and data to your new phone. If you are moving contacts from iOS to iOS or Android to Android, once you sign in with the same account information, all it should take is one sync to get you up and running. (If you are using iOS and you have backed up all your info to iTunes, then just plug your phone into your computer and sync it through the iTunes back up feature.) Another way to transfer contact information is through the SIM card. If you previously saved contact information to your SIM card and the SIM card fits your new phone, then you can save the contact information into your new phone.

Media, Photos and Songs

If you used a microSD card in your previous phone for your photos and videos, then you may be able to simply pop it into your new phone and have immediate access to them. I highly recommend using cloud storage to back up all of your photos and videos. That way if you lose your phone or if it gets damaged, you have not lost any of those important memories. Apple users can backup photos, videos and songs with iTunes or iCloud, Windows users can use OneDrive, and Android users can use Google Drive.

There are many other cloud storage apps and options that are available to use as well. Some of the most popular ones can be found here. Verizon also offers the Verizon Cloud storage service, which allows customers to sync and save important contacts, photos, videos, music, documents, and even text messages.

Watch the How-To Videos on Your Phone

Newer smartphones usually have How-To Videos, a Support Center, or Help app built in to the phone. Take the time to look through this feature (which can be found in the main menu) to learn the ins and outs of your phone. Even experienced smartphone users are bound to discover some new tips or tricks that they were not aware of.

Set Up Shortcuts and Personalise Your Phone

You have finished the initial set up and updating and now the fun begins – personalising your phone and making it your own. This is my favorite part of setting up a new phone. I always begin with selecting new wallpaper. You can usually find the place to set up and chose the wallpaper under the settings menu (it may be called appearance or personalization). Your phone will have some built-in options but you can also download wallpaper to match your personality through your phone’s respective app store.

Next, I start creating shortcuts for my most used apps and place them on my home screen with my favorite widgets. That way they are easy to find and quick to launch. I am an Android user and my widget of choice is the Google Now Launcher which provides me with traffic updates, weather, and updates to the sites I frequent the most.

Don’t be afraid to move apps around until you find a layout that works for you. Try out new apps that suit your lifestyle. There are so many to choose from: Best Apps for Pet Owners, News Junkies, Keeping Kids Entertained, Streaming Music and much, much more!

Using your smartphone should help to make your life easier and not be a burden.

Accessories

The last step in personalising your new phone is accessorizing it. I start with a phone case. Besides offering protection from bumps and drops, a case can add personality and style to your phone. Verizon offers many cases to choose from, including an option to create your own personalized photo case.

Accessories don’t stop at just the case; there are many more fun things to help improve the performance and use of your phone, from portable chargers to headphones and Bluetooth speakers. There are many options to turn your smartphone into a mobile entertainment system, and even a mobile office.

Do you have any tips to share about setting up a new phone and personalising it? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments below.

Chantal is located in Ottawa, Ontario. She is passionate about everything related to the World of Work: Leadership, HR, Social Media and Technology. You can read more from Chantal at her TakeItPersonelly blog or follow her on Twitter @CBechervaise.

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Amazon Offers Cloud Storage for All

30/03/2015 admin 49 Comments

By Tracey Dowdy

One of my favorite quotes from Anchorman is the line, “Boy, that escalated quickly.” That’s kind of how I feel about Amazon’s latest move in the cloud storage arena.

Last year they announced free, unlimited photo storage on Cloud Drive for members of Amazon Prime. That was a significant boost for Prime when coupled with membership perks like free two day shipping and unlimited streaming video. Yesterday, with their announcement of Unlimited Photos or Unlimited Everything for members and non-members alike, they’ve changed the landscape of cloud storage again.

Amazon certainly isn’t the first to offer cloud storage but they are the first to offer it to anyone, regardless of membership. Unlimited photo storage will still be free for Prime members, but for everyone else the service is offered at $11.99 for photos and $59.99 for all other media – video, documents, music – per year and when compared to other cloud storage providers, there’s a significant price difference.

Amazon has recognized one very important fact: the average consumer has accumulated a significant amount of media over the years from photos and video to documents, all scattered across multiple devices, and most of us really have no idea how much storage we need.

“Most people have a lifetime of birthdays, vacations, holidays, and everyday moments stored across numerous devices. And, they don’t know how many gigabytes of storage they need to back all of them up…With the two new plans we are introducing today, customers don’t need to worry about storage space–they now have an affordable, secure solution to store unlimited amounts of photos, videos, movies, music, and files in one convenient place.” Josh Petersen, Director of Amazon Cloud Drive

To make the deal even sweeter and lure potential users from other cloud services, Amazon is offering a free three month trial. They’re banking on both the sweetness of the deal and the fact that frankly, most of us are not going shift again in three months once we’ve taken the time and trouble to upload in the first place. Plus, once you’ve chosen to store everything on Cloud Drive, how much more likely are you to choose Prime membership to take advantage of that free, two day shipping? And since you’re already buying books, why wouldn’t you just buy your music…and your movies…and your groceries…

But before you jump from DropBox or iCloud, stop and consider what you need. A terabyte is a lot of storage and for most of us, more than sufficient. Plus, if you’ve already invested time and money uploading to other cloud services, moving everything over is daunting and may not be worth it. On the other hand, if you’ve been debating what to do and just need to get everything tucked away to sort through and manage at some point in the future, it’s hard to argue with Amazon’s price point. And as several commentators have pointed out, at the very least Amazon’s announcement may force other cloud storage providers to examine their prices and services in order to stay competitive.

Tracey Dowdy is a freelance writer based just outside Toronto, ON. After years working for non-profits and charities, she now freelances and researches on subjects from family and education to pop culture and trends in technology. Follow Tracey on Twitter.

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It’s Time to Embrace the Cloud

15/01/2015 admin 1 Comment

By Paul O’Reilly

While numerous large and medium-sized businesses have eagerly turned to the cloud for data backup and even handling day-to-day transactions, smaller businesses and individuals have been much more reticent. High profile security breaches involving household names such as Target and Home Depot have undermined what little trust many people had in the cloud, and confusion over privacy, reliability and costs have added to the uncertainty.

But however much we try to ignore it, the cloud is not going away. In fact, most of us are already using the cloud on a daily basis, often without realizing it. Whenever we check our Facebook accounts or read our Gmail, we are interacting with the cloud. When we buy something from Amazon, or stream a movie from Netflix, or seek out turn-by-turn directions on our smartphones, we are taking advantage of cloud services, transmitting various amounts of data each time we log on.

So rather than fight against a rising tide, it’s time to allay those fears and embrace everything the cloud has to offer. Here are a few reasons why:

Security

Despite the occasional headlines, cloud computing services have a growing reputation for reliability and security. Think about how much data is handled by cloud services and how few outages and other problems are reported. Even if you are not taking advantage of cloud-based applications like Google Docs, Office 365 or GoToMeeting, cloud storage solutions provide a safe way to make sure all your precious data is backed up and available when you need it. Compare this with your existing arrangements for backup and storage. (Exactly!)

Flexibility

The real benefit of cloud storage is that your data is available wherever and whenever you need it. No more waiting until you get home or back to the office before you can access a file. No more carrying a not-so-portable laptop with you wherever you go. Data stored in the cloud is available wherever there is access to the Internet, and with most people carrying personal hotspots in the form of their smartphones, that means virtually everywhere.

Affordability

The price for online storage is cheap and getting cheaper. With Google Drive, the first 15GB of online storage is free, which will almost certainly take care of most individual’s needs. If you are a small business owner or store a lot of movies or other large files, then 100GB costs just $1.99 a month. Even more impressively, a terabyte of storage (that’s 1000GB) costs just $9.99 a month. At these prices, you don’t really have to look anywhere else, but there are still dozens of options to choose from, including Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive. All of them offer a certain amount of free storage, with additional paid options if you need more.

Privacy

As Edward Snowden and certain Sony Entertainment executives will tell you, privacy is one of the biggest problems of the digital age. But again, stop and think about the personal data that we already store in the cloud, mostly because we put it there. Facebook and Instagram accounts, Gmail, banking apps, messaging, Apple Pay – the list of cloud-based computer programs and smartphone apps containing sensitive information is almost endless and each of them probably holds significantly more personal data than we store in the majority of our PC-based Word and Excel files.

That’s not to minimize the risk associated with uploading large amounts of personal data to the cloud but to emphasize that we have already passed the point of no return. The cloud is already a big part of our lives and to not acknowledge that fact is to close the door to myriad opportunities for improved security and efficiency.

Follow Paul on Twitter.

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Understanding Tech Specs

09/01/2015 admin 130 Comments

By Tracey Dowdy

It’s no secret that technology moves at the speed of light and in the time it takes to type this sentence there’s probably been four updates to iTunes.

Not only is it a matter of keeping up with trends, it’s important to have a basic knowledge of rudimentary tech terms. Without that foundation, it’s difficult to know what to look for when choosing new devices. How much RAM do you need? Should you store your images in the Cloud? What’s a pixel?

This handy glossary of basic tech terms should help.

App – An app (application) is basically another word for program. It’s simply software designed to perform a specific task and most commonly refers to programs or games on smartphones and tablets.

Bit – The smallest unit of measure on a computer. Eight bits = One byte

Cloud storage – Instead of locally – e.g. on your hard drive – data is stored, managed and backed up remotely and made available to users via a third-party network.

Driver – A program used by the operating system to run hardware like the sound or video cards. Drivers should be updated periodically to maintain peak performance.

Firmware – Permanent software embedded into read only memory (hardware) which runs programs on the device. Firmware also allows updates to be downloaded to the device.

Flash Drives are portable memory sticks that connect to computers via the USB port. They allow for easy transfer of files, images or videos between devices.

LTE (4G LTE) – LTE or Long Term Evolution is the process for transmitting high speed data for mobile technology. 4G simply refers to the fourth generation of LTE technology. The speed and performance of 4G LTE allows for faster downloads and performance when compared to previous versions.

Megapixel – Pixels (Picture Elements) are what comprise your computer image. They are tiny, square dots and the more pixels the better the image quality. A megapixel is one million pixels.

Near Field Communication (NFC) allows devices to communicate wirelessly when in close proximity to one another, often just a few centimeters away, or by tapping devices together.

Operating System – Commonly referred to as OS, the operating system allows a device’s software to communicate with its hardware. It manages tasks and resources, and executes programs. Common examples are Microsoft Windows or Mac’s iOS Yosemite.

Peer-to-peer (p2p) is a type of network that links computers directly to one another rather than to a server. Resources and bandwidth are shared which reduces the demand on individual participants. Most home networks are P2P.

Processor: The processor interprets and executes commands allowing a computer or mobile device to operate. Computers have multicore processors which allow them to run multiple programs simultaneously and independently. The more cores, the faster the speed of the computer. Processor speed is measured in megahertz – MHz.

RAM is the computer’s Random Access Memory comprised of tiny computer chips. When you open a program on your computer, it is loaded into RAM which allows it to run faster than if it was running form your hard drive. The more RAM the more data that can be loaded and accessed without slowing down computer performance. When you shut down your computer, the contents of the RAM are dumped. Adding RAM is often the most cost-effective way to upgrade a computer.

Resolution measures the detail of the image on your screen. Generally measured by the number of pixels in a specific area (DPI/dots per inch) or the number of pixels in the entire image (1024 x 768). Apple’s Retina display at roughly 330 dpi exceeds human vision making the display appear smooth and individual pixels disappear.

USB or (Universal Serial Bus) is a standard connection port allowing users to connect devices such as a flash drive, router, keyboard or mouse to a computer.

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Upgrading Your Digital Life

08/01/2015 admin 69 Comments

By Tracey Dowdy

Time to turn over a new leaf. There’s no time like the present. New year, new start. Had enough of clichés yet?

In truth, it is time to turn over a new leaf and there really is no time like the present. In fact, if you’ve been hitting “Remind me later” every time a software update appears on your screen or you have to scroll through dozens of spam emails before you get to what you actually need, you’re long overdue for an update. By following a few simple steps and with a little effort, it’s easy to streamline and get yourself back on track to an upgraded digital life.

Take the time to update your software. Not only will updated software make your computer run more smoothly, it will save you the aggravation of having to stop and install updates when you’re tasked with a project that requires the latest version. Remember – running outdated software is a security risk. Newer versions will have security patches to fill in the gaps and keep you protected.

While you’re updating and protecting your security, get a grip on your passwords. If you’re not doing so already, start using a password manager. Apps like LastPass will create strong passwords and then store them in an encrypted database.

Get rid of files, folders, pictures, videos, email, programs… anything that’s taking up space and cluttering up your computer. One option is to invest in an external hard drive to store your photos and videos or anything else you want to hang on to but don’t need access to on a regular basis. A second, more accessible option is to take advantage of cloud storage. Both Chrome (Download to Dropbox) and Firefox (Save Link to Folder) offer extensions that allow you to upload directly to Dropbox instead of downloading the program to your computer.

Did you know a cluttered desktop actually slows down your computer? Get rid of shortcuts you don’t use and organize files or images into folders. Similarly, when browsing online use an app like OneTab to condense all your open tabs into one list. When you need access, click on individual links or restore them all at once.

Clear out your inbox. My friend Brenda has 27,000 unread emails. Not going to lie – I died a little, cried a little, just typing that. The easiest way get your email organized is to archive messages you want to hang on to or delete messages you won’t need again. I recommend clearing out email in groups. I search my Gmail for sites like Pinterest and once the list is loaded, Select All and then Delete. Another great tip is to use Unroll.me to unsubscribe from multiple sites at once. Once you sign up you’ll see a list of all your subscription emails and you simply choose the ones you want to unsubscribe from. I had 137 lists I was subscribed to and got rid of an even 100 of them in about 2 minutes.

Cut the cord. Cord cutting is the trend of disconnecting from traditional cable and satellite packages and taking advantages of services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, Apple TV and Amazon Prime. The average cable bill is approximately $123 a month or $ 1,476 per year – that’s a lot of money. Depending on your viewing habits, dropping cable and taking advantage of online and streaming services may be a better – and cheaper – alternative. Check out this guide to see if cord cutting is an option for you.

Once you’ve got yourself organized and upgraded, keep it up. Once a week, once a month – whatever works for you – do a little housekeeping. It takes time and effort, but like anything worthwhile, you’ll be glad you did it. Remember: New year, new start.

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Celebrity Hacking Scandal Exposes the Risks of Online Backup

03/09/2014 admin 28 Comments

The current celebrity hacking scandal is a stark reminder of the dangers of posting risqué photos to the Internet, but some of the comments of the parties involved suggest that they might not have known the photos were actually online. How is this possible?

Welcome to the age of automatic backup and cloud storage. Originally regarded as a life-saver for compulsive smartphone photographers and on-the-go office workers, online backup services are now giving users pause for thought.

In the current scandal, both the victims and outside observers have been quick to point the finger at iCloud, Apple’s backup service for iOS devices. Introduced in 2011, iCloud now has over 300 million users, who take advantage of the service to store music, photos, apps, documents, contacts, and more.

But as mentioned earlier, not everyone is aware that they are using iCloud or what iCloud is backing up and storing on their behalf. There is also an iCloud sub-service called Photo Stream, which automatically pushes photos to all the other devices registered to an iCloud user. These include not only phones and tablets but laptops and computers and even Apple TV.

Of course, Apple is not alone in offering these kind of backup and cloud storage services. Google has Google Drive, Microsoft offers OneDrive, and there are a host of third-party services such as Dropbox, Amazon Cloud Drive, SafeSync, and more. Once activated, each of these services works quietly in the background, periodically scanning content folders on various devices and updating to the cloud.

Playing the blame game

But even if we backup photos and other content without realizing it, aren’t these services supposed to be secure? The answer is clearly ‘yes,’ but once content is uploaded to the Internet, it immediately becomes vulnerable to hackers and all kinds of security breaches.

In the case of the celebrity photos that are currently circulating the Internet, Apple was quick to release a statement claiming that there was no breach in any of its cloud services, including iCloud and Find My iPhone. Instead they alleged that the hackers targeted user names, passwords and security questions. To protect against this type of attack, Apple recommended using a strong password and what it referred to as “two-step verification.”

What does all this mean? Well, it means that most of us, including well-known celebrities, are still incredibly sloppy when it comes to password use. One of the biggest vulnerabilities is in the area of password recovery. If a hacker knows someone’s e-mail address, then it can be relatively easy to recover a password, as the answers to secondary security questions such as ‘What was the name of your first pet?’ or ‘What is your mother’s maiden name?’ can be easily obtained through social media or other public sources.

While effective, the two-step verification that Apple recommends can be time-consuming and awkward, as it involves sending a secondary password to a cell phone or other device every time you log in. Almost every cloud service offers this extra protection but only a tiny fraction of users have signed on.

How can you protect your personal information?

So how can a celebrity – or regular user – protect their personal information? First of all, avoid using easy-to-hack passwords. You should also consider using one-off e-mail addresses for each of your cloud services, so it’s harder for anyone to claim a lost password. Also, lie when you answer those security questions. If you actually have a dog called Fido, that’s the last name you should use when asked about your favorite pet!

Next, consider using two-step authentication, even if it means more of a hassle when you log on. Barring a data breach at the server level, this is the one move that can almost guarantee the security of your account.

Finally, if you want to make sure you don’t want someone to have access to your personal information, don’t put it online – period. To be honest, the idea that major box office celebrities and models would happily post nude pictures of themselves to the Internet is a bit of a head-scratcher, unless they didn’t realize they were posting online in the first place. Yes, there is an expectation of privacy, but that expectation is diminished with every new headline detailing the perils of the digital age.

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7 Ways to Reduce Your Data Usage

12/05/2014 admin 1 Comment

Smartphones are no longer just about voice, text and e-mail. They are work tools, entertainment devices, social media hubs, and mobile links to the web. But there is just one thing holding us back from freely enjoying all these activities: our data plans.

As unlimited plans go the way of the woolly mammoth, staying within prescribed data limits has become the key to an affordable phone bill. This is even more important as we continue to add devices and share data among various plan members.

Fortunately, phone manufacturers and wireless carriers are starting to add tools that can help us manage data consumption and avoid those costly overages. Here are a few suggestions on how to slow down your data usage and stay within those strict monthly limits:

Download (and upload) on Wi-Fi only

If you regularly download movies, songs, or any other large files, wait until you can use your home Wi-Fi or another alternative to your cellular network. The same applies to uploading all those photos and videos to Facebook and Twitter. Uploading or downloading 10 photos a day can use as much as 1GB of data a month. Most smartphones will now ask you whether you want to wait until Wi-Fi is available when you try to transfer files. Take the hint and get into the habit of saying “yes.”

Update apps on Wi-Fi only

Apps are constantly updating themselves and, if you have a lot of them, those updates can make a difference to your monthly data consumption. Most smartphones will allow you to select the option of only updating apps when a Wi-Fi network is available. On Android phones, visit Google Play and go to Settings. Make sure that the auto-update option is set to “Auto update apps over Wi-Fi only.”

Turn off auto-sync

Most smartphones are set to automatically sync with a number of different external services. These can be cloud storage services like iCloud, Google Drive and Dropbox, or individual apps like Google+, Calendar and Facebook. This auto-syncing can start to use up a lot of data, particularly if it involves syncing photos and other data-heavy files.

While turning off auto-syncing completely defeats the purpose of cloud storage and backup, temporarily disabling auto-sync when it’s not required can be a good data saving option. On Android phones, select Settings, Data Usage, Menu and then uncheck Auto-sync data.

Understand which apps use the most data

The key to managing your data usage is understanding which apps are doing all the data guzzling. Sometimes it will be obvious, like when your kids decided to watch a movie in the back of the car, but sometimes it can be less clear. All recent smartphone operating systems now offer a data usage summary, which details which apps are using the most data. If you are not a chronic movie-watcher, music-streamer, or Facebook updater, then it’s likely to be something as mundane as e-mail or web browsing. Whatever app turns out to be your #1 data guzzler, make a mental note to change how you use that app, either cutting down on overall use or, again, waiting until a Wi-Fi network is available.

Pre-load streaming apps

A number of data hungry apps now offer the ability to pre-load content, so you can download on Wi-Fi rather than stream via cellular network. Nokia Drive and Nokia Music are just two examples of these pre-loadable apps. With Nokia Drive, you can pre-load maps to save data during navigation, and with Nokia Music, you can download your favorite playlists to listen to along the way!

Set up data notifications

Another key to managing your monthly data is knowing how much you have used at any given moment. Most carriers now allow you to set up notifications when you have reached 50%, 75% or 90% of your monthly allowance. Even if you can’t cut back on your data, it gives you the opportunity to retroactively move to a higher data tier, which is a lot cheaper than paying overage charges.

Set data limits

If all else fails, setting strict data limits will make sure you never go over your agreed allowance. You can usually do this through the Settings option on your smartphone or by setting up a pre-paid account with your carrier. If you set data limits on your smartphone, make sure you are using the correct usage cycle, as it’s your carrier’s monthly usage cycle that’s important, not the calendar month or any other cycle assumed by your smartphone’s operating system.