Hello all
In these difficult times, two of my social groups have decided to have regular meetings on Zoom. I had my first Zoom meeting last night, and I was very impressed with the quality. We could see and hear each other clearly, with no glitches. David, it this something you would consider for our group?
Renée
Updating Browsers etc
Once a week I check to see if my Chrome and Firefox browsers are up to date, and occasionally they will install an update. Maybe that would happen automatically, I’m not sure, but it’s nice to know they are up to date. To do this I click on About Google Chrome or About Firefox, which are both in the Help menus. The Firefox menu is via a tab at the top of the page, the Chrome one is via the three dots on the top right.
This also applies to updating other programs, by the way.
Photos on Your Phone
Prompted by an article in the latest WebUser mag, I have installed Microsoft’s Your Phone app on my laptop. This allows me to see the last 25 photos I have taken with my Android phone on my laptop without going to Google Photos. I can also read and reply to text messages, and receive notifications, should I wish to. I already had the WhatsApp app installed, to read and reply to messages there.
On a related matter, I only recently discovered that my phone’s photos are stored in the My Files folder, and there are over 400 of them. I don’t see the need for that, so I will be doing some de-cluttering to reduce the memory used.
Microsoft PIN
I tried to log in to my Windows 10 laptop with a password as usual yesterday, but Microsoft insisted I had to choose a PIN instead. While I resented that at the time, it does in fact speed things up.
Update: Whatever happened when I was asked to choose a PIN, I do now have the option to go back to using a password, should I so wish.
Adding Whats App to a non SIM card Tablet / Pad
Equipment Required: Tablet, £1 Pay As You Go SIM card, Spare Mobile phone.
You probably have a Whats App account associated with your phone.
You may have a tablet and wish to use Whats App on that tablet. This method gives you a second Whats App account – separate from your original one, – Don`t confuse the two !
1 Obtain a £1 PAYG SIM card from any store
2 Insert the SIM card into the spare phone, there is no need to make any calls, or send texts & hence no requirement to “Top Up” the SIM card
3 Record this phone number and leave the phone turned on
4 On Your Tablet, Download Whats App from Google Play or Apple Store,Select a name you wish to be known as on this Tablet account (different from your normal Whats App account on your normal phone)
5 When the App requests the Tablet to provide a VERIFICATION phone number, enter the Phone Number of your PAYG SIM card from step 3
6 Whats App will send a verification Text to the phone, Confirm the Text if required
7 You are now up and running and can Whats App to and from the Tablet, you can now switch off and forget about the spare phone as it is no longer required.
Enjoy…..
Paul
WhatsApp location finder.
If you want to share your location with a friend eg if your delayed on a train – WhatsApp may come in useful.
- Open individual chat or group chat, in text box, tap the paper clip icon. Tap Location in the box that pops up, (ensure you’ve already allowed whatsApp access to your location)
- On next screen a google map of your exact position appears, and below this a list of nearby locations as well as the option to share live location.
- Tap Share Live Location & choose how long to share your location (can be between 15 min -1 hour & 8 hours)
- You can also add comment here eg train running late.
- Tap the Send arrow, you’ll then see your location on the app map & an option to Stop Sharing – which can be used any time
Android System Update
What a week! I was getting to the end of the extra data allowance I bought after the Windows update, when I noticed Android was doing an update to my phone. I managed to interrupt it, hopefully before the allowance had been used up completely. I’ve now been able to let it finish.
It might be something for some of the group to keep an eye out for.
Another Windows 10 Update / Internet Explorer
This update apparently was because I’m using an old version of Windows 10 (?!), which won’t be supported after November (?! again). Once again I had a hint one was on the way, because a few times last week I lost control of the cursor, presumably as the update was being downloaded. It was finally installed this morning, taking about an hour.
On another matter, a member of the Photography Group had some trouble logging in to some sites, and finally took her laptop in to the shop she bought it from. It turns out she was still using Internet Explorer as her browser, which is now past its ‘use by’ date. She is now using Firefox, (but as we know, other browsers are available). Does that help anybody?
PDF / WORD converter
Does anyone know a free reliable Pdf to Word converter?
I am also looking for software for electronic signatures.
Thanks.
Windows 10 Updates
Just to say that I couldn’t go into town for lunch yesterday, because my laptop insisted on installing two updates when I tried to shut it down. Each one took about an hour, and since then there have been a couple of smaller ones.
I had a clue that something was up when I was prevented from finishing an email for about twenty minutes, presumably due to an update downloading. Something for you to watch out for.
Looking at Windows Update in ‘settings’, I see that there are some more, which I can install when I am ready. That won’t be for a couple of days though, when a new data download month begins for me.