The holiday gift shopping and giving season is here again…how did that happen? We often participate in gift exchanges, sometimes called Yankee swaps, with family and friends. One never knows who will end up with which mystery gift, so we’re always on the lookout for fun, interesting, and inexpensive gifts appropriate for whomever might end up with it at the end of the whole process. Here’s a list of 6 techie Yankee swap items that we at BoomerTECH Adventures wouldn’t mind ending up with at the end of the exchange. It is getting chilly outside. How about a way to stay warm and enjoy your... Continue Reading
Posts Tagged With ‘ Apple devices ’
Our iPhone cameras are pretty amazing. The newer the phone, the more things you can do! Here are three features to try out before the holiday season. 1. Portrait Mode You can choose among natural light, contour light, studio light, stage light, stage light mono, and high-key light mono. You have to play around with the options to find the ones you like best. I think the stage light mono is the most dramatic. Here’s a hint for when you use stage light. A round circle will appear around the subject. Wait for the circle to turn yellow before you tap the shutter. 2. Check out these options! In... Continue Reading
Here are some age-related statistics related to our vision: 1 in 10 people over 50 have an early form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). 3 in 10 folks over 80 have an early form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Glaucoma affects over 3,000,000 Americans. By 2030, it is estimated over 4,000,000 American will suffer from glaucoma symptoms. Older adults (over 60) are six times as likely to have glaucoma. 24,400,000 folks over 40 have cataracts. By age 75, 50% of Americans will have cataracts. Sources: https://ece.hsdm.harvard.edu/news/glaucoma-awareness-essential-health-aging-population Prevalence... Continue Reading
There I was…on a bus, halfway to Boston’s Logan Airport when I discovered I didn’t have my phone. Panic! I was going to be gone for two weeks and needed to communicate with people. Fortunately, Concord Trailways busses have Wifi and I had my iPad. I opened the the app Find My and immediately located my iPhone. There it is was back home in Lisbon Falls, and there was me on I-95 approaching the Massachusetts border. Fortunately, a quick text to a friend and my phone was in the mail for two-day delivery. As you can see from the image above, the Find My app tells me where my current devices... Continue Reading
Did you receive an email from Apple telling you that My Photo Stream will shut down July 26? The second part of the message said to use iCloud Photos from now on. Many of our clients did and wondered about the implications. Here are several FAQ and answers. What is My Photo Stream? My Photo Stream is a feature on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac that stores images you take with your devices. If I took photos with my iPhone, they naturally showed up in my iPhone Photos app. When my iPhone was on the same WiFi network as my iPad and Mac, they would also appear in the Photos apps on those devices. As of... Continue Reading
I was ready to hit the road home. The rains had stopped, and it looked like smooth sailing across New Hampshire and Maine. Until…I punched in my destination on my Maps app. Four out of five possible routes had flood warnings. Deciding not to chance being turned back half way home, I took the one that was clear. I saw parts of New Hampshire I had never seen. Luckily it’s a beautiful state so the extra time quickly passed as I wound around lakes and hills. Warning the driver of potential hazards ahead is just one of the many cool features of the Maps App. Here are seven more. Multiple... Continue Reading
Sometimes my devices do the most bizarre things; it’s almost as if they have a mind of their own. Is artificial intelligence at work or simply an unintended tap or click? Who knows? But, invariably I learn something new. Here are several recent conundrums that vexed me and made me chuckle out loud. My pooch Sammy suffers from a food fixation and often whines persistently for treats or a meal. I was trying to cajole him into stopping his high-pitched nagging by saying, “I love you.” My Apple Watch through Siri responded, ” That’s so sweet.” What? How did that happen? I still have no... Continue Reading
I am always discovering new features on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac computer. Sometimes it’s because I’ve been asked a question or there is a new option with a system update or I just don’t know how to do a particular process. This week was a banner one because I learned something new about each of my devices: iPhone: Why does the screen go dark during a phone call? iPad: There’s a new feature called Stage Manager. Mac Computer: How to alphabetize folders on my desktop (It’s changed from what I had always done! iPhone A friend asked me why her iPhone’s screen went black while she was... Continue Reading
My iPhone goes black in the middle of a call! I’m tired of phone calls from marketers! It is so difficult to read the websites on my iPhone! How do we solve these three very irritating problems on our iPhones!?! Fortunately a trip to Settings will quickly resolve these issues. Question: My iPhone screen goes black all of the time. Why does it do that? Answer: Your iPhone will require you put in passcode after a certain amount of time. You may be talking, but you are not typing or viewing a video so the phone’s software sees no activity; it essentially goes to sleep even though you... Continue Reading
Why do I update my iPhone on a regular basis? It’s all about the camera app. Each upgrade provides a new feature that makes taking pictures more fun and offers the potential for exploring creative ways to edit and use the images. For example, the picture at the top of this blog was originally just a quick shot of the pooch. Then I opened it in the Clips2Comic app and turned it into a cartoon-type of image. Here’s another example of a fun transformation of a picture using Clips2Comic; you may recognize my BoomerTECH Adventures colleague Chris. Clip2Comic is a free app that you can use with... Continue Reading