Searching text on your mobile device

A lot of people are familiar with searching for a keyword in a text document on a desktop / laptop. You use Ctrl+F for (PC) or Command+F (Mac). This helps so much on long documents.

Did you know that you can do the same thing on a mobile device?

I am going to show you how on Chrome and Safari.

Step 1 Chrome
First tap the Menu button, it looks like three dots in the top right corner

Step 2

Tap on "Find in Page" now I found that many sites did not have this feature so I tapped "Request Desktop Site" (in green) and then it would allow me to select "Find in Page"

Then type in the box what you are looking for

Step 1 Safari
Tap on the Share button, it looks like a box with an arrow coming out of it

Step 2

Select the Magnifying Glass icon. You may have to slide the icons from right to left because it was further along on my version of the browser. 

Step 3

Type what you want to search

That's it, I'm thinking about talking about passwords next time. NIST (National Institure for Standards and Technology) just updated their recommendations plus there is a lot of advice that I used to give people when I taught technology classes.

Video Chat Apps

With the Holidays approaching many people will try to share their holiday with family and friends electronically. Today I will look at some options to video chat with friends or relatives and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.

Facebook Messenger

Strength: Easy to Use and Multi-platform (iOS, Android, and web browsers)

Weakness: One on One only UPDATE: 12/20 You can now chat with groups (see also: https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/19/messenger-group-video-chat/ ) Setting up a Facebook account if they don’t have one

FaceTime

Strength: Easy to Use

Weakness: Apple Devices Only and only one person at a time

Google Hangouts

Strength: Multiplatform (iOS, Android, Web browser plug-in) and up to nine people at a time

Weakness: Requires a Google Account (which may be a hurtle for less tech inclined relatives)

Skype

Strength: Multiplatform (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux),  up to 25 people at a time

Weakness: It can act wonky in my experience; users have to set-up an account; users receive spam

Personally, I use Google Hangouts with friends and my siblings but my older relatives and wife prefer FaceTime because they have Apple devices and it is as easy as answering the phone. If you wanted to share your holiday with all your friends, family, and acquaintances on Facebook you can use Facebook’s new Facebook Live feature that it has been advertising. It will also allow people to watch it after the event but it is more like broadcasting video than chatting and you might consider it too intrusive. 

Note / Productivity Apps

Disclaimer: I chose these apps / software families because they are able to be used on pretty much every device. I did not review or compare Apple's "Notes" due to the fact that it cannot be used on Android and has a sub par experience on Windows computers and mobile devices.

Evernote 

https://www.evernote.com 

I've used Evernote for 5 years. They have a family of apps that integrate so users can take notes, save pictures or audio, copy information from the Web (using a browser extension), draw or hand write notes (using the Penultimate app), and scan and then save documents (using the Scannable app). They also had a food and recipe app that they discontinued. This software family for a while was a favorite of tech users especially heavy users of "Productivity software". Recently they made changes limiting uploads to 60 megabytes per month, which is pretty low as storage goes, and they recently raised prices on premium plans. The paid versions of Evernote now cost $34.99, $69.99 and $120 per year, based on the amount of storage a user requires. Downloading notes is not difficult but the formats you have to choose from are not friendly (proprietary EXM or HTML) it would be better to copy and paste but that is time consuming. There are some nice word processing features on the web / desktop version that are not available in the app. Users can share their notes, collaborate (even chat with people in real time), make tags, create separate notebooks, insert items from Google Drive, save audio or photos, make audio notes, attach files, and create shortcuts. Evernote also integrates with IFTTT (If This Then That) and has helpful widgets for iOS messaging, iPhone, and Apple Watch.  I chose these apps / software families because they are able to be used on pretty much every device. I did not review or compare Apple's "Notes" due to the fact that it cannot be used on Android and has a subpar experience on Windows computers and mobile devices.

Google Keep 

https://keep.google.com 

Google Keep allows users to take and save pictures and record audio notes. What you save counts towards each Google account's allotment of data which is 17GB (this is for all of your Google Services, to learn more about items that count and those that don't read this: ) There is no monthly restrictions on file sizes. Users can add collaborators, share notes, change the color of a note which also changes the background color, make a copy, create reminders, pin a note so that it remains at the top of the list, create check boxes, and create labels. There is an archive feature for notes you are not using but want to store long-term storage. Some of the downsides I have read is that there is no undo button for mistakes, no revision control, and there is no easy way to download notes. I had trouble finding my notes in Google Drive, it should be easier in my opinion. There is not a way to do handwritten notes in Google Keep. Like Evernote there is a browser extension. 

OneNote 

https://onedrive.live.com 

Microsoft has their own productivity app that comes built into Windows 10. It is extremely handy when using a Surface product because when you click the stylus the OneNote app opens up. OneNote is available on any device with apps or a web browser. OneNote allows users 5GB of OneDrive storage (previously 30GB, there are some grandfathered users) but if you are an Office 365 user it is unlimited. Similar to other productivity apps it allows users to share, collaborate, make handwritten notes, save audio or photos, add file attachments, and has a browser extension to save web information. The online interface is very similar to other Microsoft Office products like Word. OneNote features that are not present in the other productivity offerings are: version control, changes by author, adding in tables, Office integration, and inserting symbols. I personally would have liked if OneNote allowed handwriting / document markup with your finger on PC, Mac, iOS, and Android like they do on Windows mobile devices.  

  

Ratings:  

  

Features: OneNote  

  

User Interface: Evernote  

  

Storage: Google Keep  

  

There are things to like about each of the productivity products. I guess I would suggest each user use the one that offers what they value most: features, interface, or storage. I'd also say that if a someone uses an Android they would probably prefer Google Keep, if Windows Mobile then OneNote, and if Apple then Evernote The pictures that accompany each review give you a glimpse at the 3D Touch features, user interface and workflow, and browser extensions for each, to help make your decision.

Scanning Apps

There are times when you want to save receipts, business cards, an article from a magazine, or someone wants a copy of a document sent to them as a PDF (portable document file format). Scanning apps can help you accomplish all of this and more. Allowing you to share documents or save them on your device or put them in cloud storage. Below are the four best:

Finescanner (Free) iOS and Android. - This app is easy to use and automatically finds the edges. You can save or send the image (JPG)  or document (PDF). The OCR (optical character recognition) allows you to search scanned items in 193 languages. It has a book mode that makes copying two pages at once easier.There are subscription premium features available for purchase (as seen in one of the pictures). http://www.finescanner.com/

Genius Scan (Free) iOS and Android. - I really like the simplicity and ease of use for this app. It automatically found the document and took the picture. Re-cropping and making corrections are very easy. It has multiple print options. Users can upload the item to cloud storage, a FTP server, other apps like Expensify, or e-mail it. Users can save or send as an image (JPG) or document (PDF). If you use their signing or faxing app you can easily transfer your item to either. There are premium add on features that you can purchase (shown in one of the pictures below. http://www.thegrizzlylabs.com/genius-scan/

Scannable by Evernote (Free) iOS only. - If you are a fan of the productivity app Evernote this may be the scanning app for you. The design of the beautiful and easy to use. I think this app works well, especially the auto capture and auto crop. It allows you to send multiple ways as an image (JPG) or document (PDF) or as a Scannable document in your Evernote account. They also have a scanning machine that you can use to automate the scanning of                                                               multiple items. https://evernote.com/products/scannable/

CamScanner Free (Free) iOS and Android - This is one of the first and one of the best scanning apps. I have longest and it was one of the first apps I ever downloaded. Users can easily scan, save, and share items as documents (PDF) or image (JPG). Use the OCR (optical character recognition) or tags to easily find items you've saved. There are premium features that you can subscribe to use and there is a premium version of the app for .99, but I have had the app for over three years and never needed those features. https://www.camscanner.com/

Messages versus Allo

Last week Apple came out with one of their biggest updates to their mobile operating system called iOS 10. This update added a lot of different functions but by far the most talked about was the changes to its Messages app.

I took a bunch of screenshots of a conversation I had and tried to show all of the different things you can now do.

You can add memes.

Add stickers to a conversation or a photo.

Draw on a photo.

Send message effects.

Send in Loud, Gentle, and what I thought was really cool… invisible ink.

You can play games in your messages.

There are Digital Touch options like sending your heart beat, a burst, drawings, and much more

Canvas, Evernote, and other productivity apps have Message features so you can share easily.

I could go on and on but this week Google came out with messaging app called Allo. It has some of the same functions that Apple’s messages.

Change font size.

Share location.

Send audio.

Stickers (but not really as good a selection as Messages)

Its artificial intelligence suggests responses based on your

What really makes it special is the Google Assistant. It can find restaurants, movies, and weather. 

You can have it pull up your travel data. It can play a game with you.

You can delete your conversations, block users, and more in your settings.

Talking with a friend that has an Android phone I found out that there are certain functions like sending files from Google Drive or Google Photos from within the app only available on Android. Allo is not available on desktop devices or older Android devices. Apple's Messages for iOS 10 only works on iPhone and iPad so all of the functions are not available to non-Apple users or at this time on the Mac.

One of the issues that some technology reporters have called “disappointing” and “concerning” is that Google is storing and tracking users’ conversation data. There is an “Incognito” mode where messages are encrypted end-to-end, meaning that it is private but you have to set that up for each conversation you begin. Many people feel that privacy should be by default. In contrast, Apple does not collect, store, or view conversation data.