Two Stories that Could Help you Out

I had an article I was working on to disable notifications for Chrome but I can't find it.

Here are two articles that I found helpful:

How to Backup your iOS device on Your PC or Mac
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/technology/personaltech/finding-your-ipad-backup-files.html

20 Cool Command Line Tricks
http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/20-cool-command-line-tricks-for-windows-and-macos-1797222311

Hopefully I will write something soon, just been super busy.

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.