Gmail Quick Fix

 Emails should be straightforward to use. Sometimes there are simple things that can be annoying. They are not a major catastrophe but thinking that it is so simple but can't do anything about it can be super irritating. 

1. The Left Sidebar is Collapsed.

How? I did not know what happened. What I remember is I was replying to an email and clicked compose, then the uncalled action of the site unfurled the menu. 

Solution: 

Click the 'three-lines' before the gmail logo and it will restore the left sidebar to its original state.

2. Archive problem. 

 

I personally don't know the use of 'archive' and I usually mistake this as a 'move to folder' function. Both have similar looks, the only difference is the arrow sign in each icon.

When this happens, I no longer know where the archived email goes. A search on google says, it is in the 'All Mails' folder at the left side bar. 

Looking for the 'All Mails' folder is a pain, it is not there at the left sidebar  straight away. You need to scroll further down until you reach 'more' (arrow down sign). The 'All Mail' folder will show when you click the sign.

3. Archive or Move To?

When tidying up emails, I'd rather use 'Move To' than 'Archive'.  Why?

It is easier to access when it is just 'Moved To' a folder than 'Archive'. In 'Move To', it goes straight away in a folder you create. Just click the corresponding folder when you want to access it.

In 'Archive', to access it, make the 'All Mail' appear, click on the archived email to open it, then click 'Move To' button to move it to the Inbox (the 'Move to Button' is set to Inbox already whilst in the 'All Mail' mode). More complicated!

The Digital Companion

Click to get 40% Off on Echodot

When the kids all grown up and flown out of the nest, it is eerie to miss their unending questioning, their untidied beds, loud music and unwashed plates in the sink. When everything seems faultless but lifeless atmosphere inside the house, that's the time that you realise that noise is better than silence. It doesn't matter if you'll hear the same questions and complaints over and over again, as long as somebody will answer back when you talk.

Not more expensive than your children's perks, an artificial intelligence gadget can fill the gap between silence and being socially alive. 

A smart speaker can be fun and can deliver a verbal companionship of a thousand geniuses. It knows the answer to almost all of your questions and can play your favourite music. It can also play the music of your children if you know their title or just say it clearly, "music for teenagers in the 90's." Though it can't help you to wash the dishes, it can order a dishwasher for you, or any dish you like from your favourite takeaway. If only Alexa can help you to fold the laundry, but it can play folding the clothes music for you. You'll be surprised there's a music for clothes' chores. It can do many digital things to keep you busy and not to get bored. 

I just wish that there is an adjustment of intelligence of its artificial brain to mimic a 3 year old or an unbearably dumb personality to make life more challenging! 

The Cloud and the Chromebook

See popular
Chromebook products

It looks like everything is going to the 'cloud'. Mails, CD's, DVD's, programs, apps and money are all successfully converted into their virtual existence. Their physical reality is already optional. Who wants real money anyway, when it can be lost or stolen by physical means? I still do, but the transactions surrounding real money can be a pain with counterfeits and human error. The digital form of things brings convenience and eliminates human mistakes. Or is it just an excuse to justify man's impunity?

Cloud computing has been around for years. It drove prices down like laptops. Programs, applications and security are now in one place. There's no more need for physical discs and disc drives or the need of configuring if it is compatible with your device. It reduced the size and weight of the device and also improved the performance of the supplied batteries. Devices can now last for 8 hours or more, as there are less components to spend power to. It's all looking up at this point.

The highway that brought us to the cloud is the high speed wireless internet connection. Combined with its broader road capacity that can contain and deliver megabytes of data per second. This makes the modest device capable of doing more than it used to using physical drives and applications stored locally. With this, the companies can make devices that are fast, secure and cheaper than ever. Good for the consumers.

Chromebook, an all cloud computing solution is gaining ground where Windows and iOS are kings. Although it is still a David compared to the two Goliaths, its popularity grew among the students and to  those who are on a budget. Its low cost should not grow a doubt on its performance and robustness. It is less stressful to the users as they no longer need to buy this application and to add that security. As the apps are in the cloud, once they are updated, the Chromebook uses the updated version straight away. Unless the apps are from third parties or they are downloaded and installed as an app or as an extension in the Chrome browser that may need manual updates.

As google owns Chrome OS and also owns Android OS there might come to a point that the two operating systems unify and take further foothold to the laptop sector. Big names in computing are also making premium versions ready to compete with the big brands.

Watch how to use Chromebook for the first time.

How to Reduce Image File Size in Chromebook

 I use free blogging flat forms so this means I have restricted data storage. I need to chop every file into its smallest possible size. Not to mention that I use Chromebook, limited on storage and application resources, unless you do not have a limited pocket to buy cloud storage or other physical memory drive.

I use the Chromebooks' native application "gallery" to reduce a picture file size. Just click on the photo you intend to reduce in size and it should be loaded automatically to the application. 

In this example, I am going to reduce the file size of "walking with a stick" with 2.5MB size into a manageable chunk for my blog.

At the "gallery" click the "re-scale" button to show the width and the height.

Make sure that the height and width ratio is locked before you change the numeral values. When finished, use "save as" if you want to keep the original photo on your computer, otherwise just "save" the image.

From 2.5MB, the image is reduced to 288kb. The image is easier to upload and it makes my blogs' limited storage to accept more files.

How to Save Google Docs in Your Chromebooks' Drive

It's so easy in Microsoft Word. Once you finish your work, just 'save' it, or 'save as' to define the directory in your computer. The work is done. No sweat.

In Google Docs and using Chromebook, I find it hard to do this. It defaults to save in Google Drive, in the cloud storage, imagine??? Anyone with a link can access the file or appear in a google search.

To save it to your Chromebooks' physical drive, at the file menu, select 'download', specify what kind of file you are saving, in this case docx.

Then navigate to the location under My Files (notice Google Drive is below), name your file then save.

You need to download a gmail document because it is created virtually in the 'cloud' as it is using an application located in the cloud. Maybe you can get round to it if you set the document to be available offline? I do not know yet but I might experiment some other time.

Improving Chromebook's DIsplay

I am beginning to like Chromebook. It is fast and has not given me any major disappointment so far. Anyway I only use it for going online and watching movies on Netflix. Though the monitor has a limited viewing angle and the pictures seem washed out. I cannot do much with this below £ 150 device. I did a little tweaking.

I clicked the settings, device then display. I turned the display size slider to the left at 85% to reduce the size of the magnification. In return it makes the screen accept more pixels. 

I also turned on the nightlight and moved the slider to the right (warmer). 

The result is a more decent picture.

Is there anything more I can do? Please write it down the comment window when you have another tip.

Chromebook Can't Go Online

This is the first time that I have a Chromebook. Out of the box, I plugged in the charger, and the unit turned on without pressing any button. As it needs the internet to work, I tried to connect it to my phone's hotspot. The connection is established without any problem. When I click the Chrome browser, it says I'm not connected to the internet. So I clicked the diagnose  button. It is saying that the device is connected to the hotspot but also says that it is not connected to the internet.

 

 

A window popped open and said use the Chromebook as a guest. I clicked it and the chrome browser is connected to the internet.

The problem with the guest account is it can't download and save anything.

 

I noticed that I have not made any proper account yet so I turned it off and on again. When it is turned on, the window is asking me to log in to my google account. I guess this is the process of setting up an administrator account. After entering my gmail and password, the device is ready and can go online.

What I cannot understand is, how did it make me log in as it is not yet connected to the internet?

 

Or did I forget I did it already?  Anyone who can enlighten me?

Minding the Pennies

 In this climate, when the price of everything is up, we need to mind every penny that goes out of our pocket. A penny saved for everything we buy may not look like a big thing at first, but man, they can become heavy in the long run. 

You might say, there are already store cards when we buy our groceries, win vouchers when we buy our electricals, discounts when we buy on a certain day, so what else are we missing in saving more pennies?

Cashbacks. 

Cashback companies give us cash when we buy from the online stores they are affiliated with. For example, this cashback company is affiliated with the grocery store we have a loyalty card with. When we buy from this store, not only that we get the loyalty points from the store but also cash from the cashback company. It's that simple. You get the usual perk plus the cash. 

How much cash are we talking about?

It depends upon the product we buy and the company we use. Below are some of the examples of what we can get when we complete a purchase.

There are more companies that reward our buying habits like mobile phone providers, bidding sites like ebay, supermarkets, flights, pizza take aways, etc. 

To check all companies that can give us extra cash as we buy their products, click here!

Measuring Distance in Google Maps

Now that I use Google maps often every time I want to go somewhere, there are functions that I accidentally discover. These are ordinary functions that can be useful especially when you want to walk towards your destination.

One is to measure the distance between two points. Interesting observation is the ‘measure distance’ menu does not show up when the device is online so go off Wi-Fi or data mobile whilst doing this. 

So, here is how.

Whilst the map is open, enlarge the map for a better accuracy. Then drop a pin to where you want to start measuring. Just tap the screen lightly to activate the red location pin. 

Notice the ‘measure distance’ menu appear when offline. When online, the menu is not available.

Tap the ‘measure distance’ to anchor the dropped pin to the starting point.

You can go back online at this point or you can remain offline. 

Drag the map to the direction of your target destination and let the movable target circle hover over the destination. You can see the distance between the two points at the left lower corner which reads 0.383 mi. 

This is the distance when travelled in straight line but it would be different in real situation when you follow the road or use different roads. 

Here’s how to road map it. 

Whilst dragging the map, place the first turn to the road you choose then tap the ‘plus button’ to anchor the first turning point. 

Continue doing that every time you encounter a turn or a bend, until you reach the destination. If you make a mistake, just tap the ‘back’ arrow button at the top.

The measurement is expectedly increased to 0.522 mi as the road map follows one of the roads rather than a straight line. The more presses of the ‘plus’ sign makes the measurement more accurate.

If you know how to initiate ‘measure distance’ whilst online, please share it at the comments box. Thanks.

Bus Blues

I can no longer afford to own a car. It’s been many years that I have not driven one. So I let the driving to my chauffeur, the bus driver.

The beauty of having someone to drive you around town is you can do anything; enjoy the view, read magazine, play games, talk on the phone or doze off. This is without worry of getting a fine or worst, waking up in A&E. It is still better than not to wake up at all, though!

Public transport saves you time and money on parking fees and reduces the occurrence of forehead-crease inducing stress of finding one.

Thanks to Google maps and data providers for making it easier to find which bus to take and the connections to get to your destination. Everywhere is just a tap away.

I see people doing just that. They do it whilst at the bus station, inside the bus and they’re tapping away whilst on the move. Dangerous, when their concentration is all but the perilous movements around them. I did exactly like that, gathering near misses and ‘I’m sorries.’

I decided to end this up and adopt a better way of doing things. Waking the phone, keying the passcode, finding the way on the internet takes time and needs total concentration.

Recording this on the phone using screenshot is a quick way of accessing the same information and easy way of reassuring the progress of the journey.

With this technique, I still need to wake up the phone, key in the passcode and browse through my screenshots. So I did an ‘old school’ technique.

I use Google maps to get the details of my destination. To tailor the data I need, I set the search to just include the bus, which is cheaper than most mode of transport. 

On default, it shows all of the available types of transport. Just tap on the service to exclude it from the search.

I choose ‘arrive by’ in the query which I find it a better option.

With a sticky note, I wrote down the relevant information like station name, bus number and time of arrival from the station and to the connecting station. I included the stop IDs as well until the final destination is reached.

Then I stick it at the back of my phone inside the protective transparent cover. 

So every time I need to review my destination, I just flip it around to see my progress. 

Old school can look cool when you’re just flipping your phone to see your route whilst others are still waking up their phones, keying their passcodes, checking their photos or going to the internet to find the route information.

Being Practical

Is it right to replace our mobile phones into the newest piece of technology as soon as there's a new one available? I can sense those who have the means are nodding their heads right now. There’s nothing wrong about that. but ios it ethical?

The saying goes, ‘don’t try to fix it if it’s not faulty’. So why replace it, or in marketing terms, upgrade it? 

People are drawn into new things. Just a few tweaks of the camera setting and additional feature in a new phone can make people form a long queue to get hold of the new variant. Adding power words like XL, HD, 5G, or vegan friendly resonates to the already conditioned consumer thinking.

 I remember many years ago, there was a concept of a modular phone. The individual components like camera, Bluetooth, nfc, etc. can be added like a piece of Lego. The idea is, if there is a new camera, just remove the camera block and replace it with the new one. If there’s a new feature, just find an empty block and fit it in. That was the way when computers were primarily tower computers. 

Why this idea did not took off? Although a good thought, it can be a fiddle. Consumers don’t like complicated things. They like to buy, then open and use.

There’s not much incentive in keeping your old phone aside from the obvious, saving some dough for something else. Sad thing is the operating system providers stop supporting old versions. Compatibility issues to new technology arise after more or less than 4 years. 

I can only think of the mobile and data providers to set up a ‘decreasing tariff’ to those who continue to hold on to their old mobile phones to reduce electronic waste. It can be bad thing for the company, but can also be a positive choice for the consumers. So why not use providers that offer second hand units which usually have lower rentals, the likes of music magpie, envirofone, giffgaff, voxi refurbished phones and so on. 

It may not be appealing to everybody but this little thing that we can do can save us some money and is friendlier to the planet. Phones are primarily made for ringing, anyway.