More about Google Photos

If you know me at all, you know I love science and nature.  I love to take photos of the natural world and I have thousands.  My phone would not work well if all of the space was used up by photos so I always upload my photos to Google Photos.  That way I can delete the photos on my phone without losing all of the memories. 

Google Photos has so many wonderful features.  You can search for your photos by date, location, faces, or words. For example, when I search my google photos for the random word "bike", it brings up all of these pics which are either taken of bikes or show a bike in the distance or up-close, it doesn't matter.  This amazing search facility is just one of the wonderful things that Google does so well.

You can also identify and name people in your photos and then search for that name and it will bring up every image in your photos with that person.  Amazing facial recognition! 

You can use Google Photos on your phone and also on your home computer or laptop.  You can also share the photos easily with friends and family, making albums if you wish.  You can choose whether others can add photos to these albums as well so if you have had a family function, everyone can upload to the same album.

I made a video three years ago about using Google Photos on your phone or your laptop, which I am sharing with you here today. One thing has changed since I made the video and that is that your photos are no longer stored in your Google Drive.  You can access them directly in the cloud by signing in to your google with your gmail and searching for photos.google.com.

If you have any questions about google photos, send me an email, or post a comment below.

  

Clean up some space on your phone

Maintaining your smartphone is a priority if you want to be able to use it to its full potential.

There are two things that I think you should be doing regularly

1. Updating your operating system whenever you are notified of new updates.  This helps with the security of your phone, and makes it more efficient as bugs get fixed in updates.  Very occasionally this will mean that some apps do not work straight away because the app designer (usually 3rd party)  hasn't kept up to date but generally speaking, they will start to work again straight away.  I have met people who won't update their phone operating system for fear of losing some data on their phone.  This is commonly known as cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Believe me, I update my phone every time and I have not lost any data yet.  You can back up your data if you have space (for example in the iCloud) but really you shouldn't have that much data saved on your phone anyway.   You can choose which apps you back up data on.  On my iphone, you do that in the settings, under iCloud. Here is a screenshot of my phone data saved in the cloud. You can see that I back up less than 1GB of my phone data. Apple charges for more than 5GB so I personally don't go for that option, and that brings me to the second point. 
2. Keeping as much data in the cloud as possible. I only back up my contacts, calendars and a few other apps using iCloud and that takes a lot less room than 5GB.  I also try to use apps that work in "the cloud" anyway, so there is no need to save data on my phone.   For example
   
   "Scrabble" is a free app but there is also a premium version for which I paid a minimal amount.  I don't remember exactly what I paid for it as it is a while ago, but it is listed as $US9.99 in the app store now, and that is a small price to pay for the pleasure of playing scrabble with people all over the world.  The data is all stored in the cloud, linked to my facebook profile.  Whenever there is an update, the app collects the data from there when it links to my profile.The other thing that I advise all smartphone users to do is to store all of their photos in Google Photos.  Download the Google Photos App, now before you use up all of your space.  Google Photos backs-up to the cloud that is absolutely free and must be one of the best apps you have ever used.  Once you have connected to wifi it will back up all your photos (thus saving your phone's data plan) in the cloud and you can delete all the photos on your phone, or just keep a few thus maximising the space on your phone.  I love Google Photos because there are so many features and I have thousands and thousands of photos stored in the cloud for free. 

 Tomorrow I will share a little video with you to highlight some of the features of Google Photos.  Until then, install the app because it will take a while for your photos to back up if you have quite a few on your phone.  All you need is a gmail account to sign in with and wifi to back up with. Open the app and start backing up your photos now!  

Passwords - part 2 - saving passwords on Chrome

How did you get on with sorting out how to save all of your passwords on your laptop securely?  Today I've made you a little video to go through it, step-by-step on your computer.

Passwords - how to manage.

When I work with clients who are beginners or not confident with computers, the first barrier we need to overcome often seems to be passwords. Often an account has been set up for them on the computer and they have promptly forgotten the password, or relied on the automatic password retrieval on one computer and it doesn't work on another because it doesn't recognise the user. So here is my step by step advice for using Google on your computer or laptop to save your passwords. (iphone and android tips also at the bottom)

1. Get a Gmail account and choose a strong password (4 random words works best).

2. Remember that one password to your gmail account.

3. Use Chrome as a browser on your computer, and sign in to the browser

4. Enable Chrome to remember your passwords for all the different sites that you sign into - these instructions are good.

5. When you are using a different computer, always sign in to the Chrome browser first, using your Gmail account password - the only one you have to remember.

The next step is to enable 2 step verification on your Gmail account to add another layer to the security. Note: the only time I don't use 2-step verification is when I am travelling and use a different SIM card so my phone number is different, but otherwise I recommend it to everyone. When you travel overseas and get a different phone number, you could disable the 2-step verification temporarily, like I do.

On your phone, passwords are also easy to recall.  To save your passwords here is some further advice.

On iphones
Turn on your iPhone and open the Settings app
Scroll to Passwords and Accounts
Click on Autofill passwords
Slide the Names and Passwords slider to On to start saving passwords and usernames.

On Android phones:
On your Android phone or tablet, open your device's settings app Google Google Account.
At the top, scroll right and tap Security.
Scroll down to "Signing in to other sites" and tap Saved Passwords.
Turn 'Offer to save passwords' on or off.

"Elizabeth Leigh" is here!

We all know someone who could do with a little help with their technology.  Today is the day I am letting people know that I am available to help them with their computers, laptops, tablets and phones as I set up this little business.

This blog will put out a little news each day with a few resources to help you as you get to enjoy using digital technologies in a positive way.  Check out the first blog post on managing passwords.

The image to the left is a lily in my garden.  I am a keen gardener so you will also have to put up with photos of flowers and birds, if you decide to follow this blog.

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