December 2014 - Computer Operators of Marysville and Port Huron
Contents
1. HRISTMAS PARTY at The Dorsey House 6008 Beard Road Clyde MI Wednesday December 3rd 2014 6pm Cocktails 6 30pm order dinner Dorsey House 6008 Beard Road Clyde Twp MI 48049 Font Gratiot Se Charter Fownehip e j p Krat Rd Zoch e Oak om Woodrow Bes ji Wees Be Woodrowe Oak Acres 3 sie Woodland h i eg e Sab cant gt d as S ji Se Executive Committee 2014 2015 Jane Wheatly President jwheatly1187 comcast net Raffles Mail Judy Callender Treasurer Secretary Newsletter callenderj2 qmail com Editor Membership Librarian O Reilly and Peachpit books Coordinator APCUG Coordinator Pam Raisanen Web Page Editor phraisanen qmail com Club Website www bwcomp org Club Mailing C O M P Address c o Jane Wheatly 1952 Harvey Road Kimball MI 48074 Want to learn even more about computers Don t forget the COMP Club and SCUG Sarnia Computer User s Group have a reciprocal relationship COMP Club members are welcome to attend their meetings and vice versa Their General Meetings are held on the last Wednesday of each month except for July August and December at the Grace United Church 990 Cathcart Blvd Sarnia corner of Cathcart and Indian roads Their meetings start at 7 00pm but everyone is welcome to come in 1 2 hour early to mingle For more information go to http scug ca 3 By Carol Picard2. Windows 8 tablets are certainly late to the party but once they are available at reasonable prices and the Apps store gets a good bit larger they just might be a really good tablet choice A New Android Tablet Now What By Phil Sorrentino Staff Writer The Computer Club Inc Sun City Center FL May 2014 issue The Journal www scccomputerclub org philsorr at yahoo com You just got a new Android tablet Isn t the look of a brand new tablet wonderful it is so shiny and lacking finger prints But fingerprints are a good thing since they are a byproduct of using the touch enabled screen so the more finger prints the more use If the fingerprints eventually become annoying you can always clean them with a soft micro fiber cloth Now if the tablet is brand new when you turn it on it will probably take you through a few set up steps These steps are usually also explained in a brief Quick Start Guide that is included in the package For more detailed information and I nstruction go to the manufacturer s website and look for a Support or Documents page for your specific tablet model and download the User Manual if there is one If the tablet is not brand new maybe a hand me up from one of your kids or grandchildren you may also want to get a User Manual and change some of these general settings Typically the first things to set up are very basic such as Language and Time Zone After these the most imp
3. User Interface s were very different from the well known Windows File Explorer Apps really make the tablet useful And in this area the lack of Windows 8 Apps is probably the biggest detractor Currently in the battle for the largest number of Apps both Apple and Google boast over 1 Million Microsoft on the other hand can list only about 100 000 so they are really way behind in this area However some tasks like moving your camera pictures to your home computer that require an Apple or Android App to accomplish can be accomplished with Windows Explorer which is an integral part of Windows 8 Many of what I ll call basic Apps are available There are multiple Apps for email news finance weather cloud storage maps calendars search picture and video viewing music playing social interaction reading and internet browsing But when I looked for my favorite picture viewer it wasn t available however the Photo Viewer that comes with the tablet works quite well Although many of the basic Apps are available there is certainly nowhere near the selection that is available with Apple and Android So if a large number of Apps is important to your decision then the Windows 8 tablets are probably not ready for prime time But if taking advantage of the storehouse of knowledge that you have acquired using Windows 8 and previous Windows Operating systems is important to you then a Windows 8 tablet might be the right choice
4. see the network you are currently using and others if you have used them in the past Under Device among others there is Sound and Display Tap Sound and you can change the Sound Profiles and or the Sound levels depending on your version of Android Tap Display and you can change the Brightness of the display Just tap Brightness and then set the slider to the brightness level of your choice This is also the place to change the Font size if it is too small Font size Large seems to be a good choice The Sleep setting sets the time of inactivity allowed before the screen goes off A short time like 1 minute is good if you are actively using the tablet but a longer time maybe 5 minutes is nice to have when you are learning and it takes some time to determine your next step The longer time keeps the display from turning off just when you are about to take your next step Under System tap About tablet which shows a lot of technical information but the one important item here is the version of the Android Operating System Android version gives you the currently loaded Android version such as 4 2 2 Don t worry about the third digit Versions 4 1 4 2 and 4 3 are commonly called Jelly Bean Version 4 4 is the latest and goes by the name Kit Kat Under System you can also set the Date and Time or let the tablet Use network provided time Once you have found out
5. the Android version and possibly made some changes to the Sound Display Date amp Time or Wi Fi you can go back to the home screen by tapping the Back button That s the arrow at the bottom of the screen that starts off to the right and turns back on itself to go to the left Now you can go to the Google Play Store and get all the Apps you think you will want to try out and or use The Play Store icon looks like a Shopping Bag with a triangle in the middle of blue and red Continued on next page Continued from previous page Google Play Store Icon This icon is typically on the home screen which is probably a good place for it This way it will always be available when you want to shop the Play Store To go to the Play Store tap the icon and you will be transported to the Google Store This is the place to get all those popular Apps like Facebook Pandora Netflix Skype Angry Birds Candy Crush Yahoo Mail Solitaire Kindle reader Words with Friends Google Earth Tetris Google Translate Barcode Scanner Hulu Flashlight Chrome YouTube IMDB Google Drive ColorNote Evernote Firefox Sound Hound and many many more Over 1 million many of which may be the subject of future articles One last thing to do is change the way the tablet can be accessed Out of the box the tablet only needs a Swipe to enable it To make it more secure go to Settings and then Personal and then change the Screen lock to P
6. would have also been considered a few years ago but they seem to have been eclipsed by the other three but that might change in the future Tablets of all types are great devices for consuming data They are not the best choice for creating data though they can be used to create short documents and review most any document Can you imagine writing your memoirs on a tablet I wouldn t even want to write this article on a tablet Tablets are very good at checking your email checking on your stocks sharing pictures and videos listening to music social interactions finding a nearby restaurant getting driving directions keeping a calendar accessing your cloud storage and many more very specific activities But they are not so good for writing lengthy documents writing and sending lengthy emails with attachments managing your stock portfolio managing a large picture or document database ripping your CD music editing pictures creating elaborate spreadsheets and many more generally complex computing activities The latest addition to my tablet collection is an 8 Dell Windows 8 tablet Those of us who are familiar with Windows 8 will feel right at home in front of this tablet Yes there are differences in the User Interface between Windows 8 on a non touchscreen computer and on a tablet because you don t use a mouse you use only your fingers But all the Windows 8 functionality is right there in front of you Although on a
7. Newsletter Editor amp Webmaster Midland Computer Club MI mcc apcug org webbyte at yahoo com Id been using a Samsung Galaxy Player 4 for music player and also for a few apps e g calendar contacts shopping list It had wifi capability and access to Google Play Store Recently i the battery started discharging completely every couple of days Fo tunately it didnt lose data but did lose all settings Replacing the battery didn t help A basic mp3 player wouldn t give me the capabilities I wanted I could have used my cell phone but not ready to put all of my information and music on one device Samsung no longer markets the Galaxy Player at least not in the U S and I didn t want to pay hundreds of dollars for a replacement device My criteria were 4 screen 8Gb storage microSD card slot 1Gb memory wifi and Google Play Store My search led me to no contract phones Unfortunately the specs are not generally listed on the packaging so I needed to do research before going to the store Since I had a pretty well defined list of apps and didn t anticipate adding a lot of new apps I decided a device with 4Gb storage would probably be okay I purchased a no contract phone for about 80 Make model of phone I chose isn t important as any device that meets your criteria and has decent reviews should work Since I was not going to activate the phone capability I wasn t concerned about which service provider the phone work
8. age I researched some of the music apps available in the Google Play Store and settled on Rocket Player The free version doesn t play wma files but after testing Rocket Player functionality with some mp3 files decided it would work and paid 3 99 for the Pro version which does play wma Rocket Player admits it doesn t have a good solution for managing album art I tried a couple of 3 party apps but they didn t work well either If having album art is important and depending on how you ripped the music to your computer the music folders on your computer may contain three different album art jpg files have to view hidden files and protected operating system files to see them I copied the AlbumArtSmall jpg file from the computer to the corresponding album folder on the SD card and renamed it to AlbumArt jpg which appears to be the Rocket Player default After disconnecting the device and viewing in Rocket Player the album art was displayed If you have hundreds of albums that may not be a workable solution The only other app I ve added is a flashlight app I ve been using the no contract phone with my select set of apps and for playing music for a couple months and it has proven to be a good option at a reasonable price User Group Book Programs O REILLY GROUP DISCOUNT SAVE 35 ENTER CODE DSUG O Reilly s TED OTEM receive the User Group 35 d all titles enter the code DSUG Peachpit offers a 35 dis
9. and Large sizes are useful Tiles that don t reveal any data can be relegated to Small or Medium size leaving more screen room for information Tiles can be grouped and the groups can be named With a group of only a few tiles you can get a really good idea of what is happening in the world at a glance Live Tiles for Email News Finance Weather and a Calendar will give you a pretty good summary When you want more detailed information just touch the appropriate tile One nice thing about a Windows 8 tablet is that it is a full network participant showing up in the Network folder in Windows Explorer with ease Yes you have to set it up just like any other computer you want on your network but once that is done it can share files folders and printers just like any other network participant You can easily watch movies that reside on one of your other networked computers on the tablet You can play music that resides on another networked computer on the tablet You can access any information that has been shared on your network easily and efficiently Everything you know about networking applies to the tablet Anything you do on the network can be done on your tablet Most of these things can also be done with Android tablets but in my experience it was much more difficult with the Android Apps that I used And when things did work you had an entirely different User Interface with which to become familiar Most of the App provided
10. attern or PIN or Password your choice Make sure you don t forget the Pattern or PIN or password after it is set With these few changes to your out of the box tablet I m sure you will begin to enjoy your shiny new tablet we ee te ee COMP is a member of the WW Buy 5 DOOKS gel 6th free Association of Personal 4 Told Tales Computer User Groups New amp Used Books 290 Wellington St Sarnia On Canada 519 336 3307 TUES FRI 10 5 SAT 10 4 Avon amp Regal gverdon cogeco ca Representative There will be no COMP Club meeting in January 2015 The next COMP Club meeting will be February 4th 2015 Advanced Computers Computers Sales amp Service service service 71 N Howard Ave o Croswell MI 48422 810 679 4144 wm crosiwellcomputers com Computer Printers Upgrades Computer Training Internet Pro vider Hours Monday Friday 8 7 Saturday 9 5 984 3488 918 Pine Grove Ave Port Huron MI Custom Built Vacuum Cleaner Computers sales and Computer Repair Service
11. count At checkout right before entering a credit card number enter the user group coupon code UE 23AA PEUF case sensitive You can get a free book if you are willing to write a review To reguest a book for review or for book review guidelines contact Pam Raisanen at phraisanen gmail com Photography Photo Restoration Instruction by Paul Cannon Individual training provided by Appointment Contact Paul at 586 291 9764 Email to paucan comcast net http www paulcannonstudio com Windows 8 Tablet A tablet for all reasons By Phil Sorrentino Staff Writer The Computer Club Inc Sun City Center FL www scccomputerclub org philsorr at yahoo com Well maybe not all reasons but it certainly has some very good points in its favor I have used an iPad an Android tablet and now finally a Windows 8 tablet And let me tell you they are all great tablets and any one would be a good addition to ones computing inventory But as similar as they are they are all very different in the details and in my opinion that is where the ownership decision lies I must admit that most of my experience has been with Android tablets and smartphones so my tendency has been towards the Android ecosystem Yes the literature considers these different varieties ecosystems and right now there are three major ecosystems out there Apple s iOS Google s Android and Microsoft s Windows 8 Blackberry
12. ed with The phone I chose has Bluetooth which I had not included in my search criteria but allows me to connect to a Bluetooth speaker It also has a rear facing camera with flash A front facing camera would have been nice for Skype but I forgot to check for that I was able to back up data from the apps on the Samsung Galaxy Player to a computer and was quickly able to get the new device set up with my favorite apps and data I turned the Airplane Mode on to disable the 3G service but can still turn wifi on off as needed The device only has about 2Gb user accessible storage so I decided to add a microSD card for music pictures etc I had a small microSD card in the Samsung Player and could have used that but decided to purchase a 32Gb microSD card which was the highest capacity for the device I probably could have copied music from the smaller to the larger card but decided this was a good opportunity to re select music The phone was connected to a computer via USB cable to synch music from Windows Media Player While all the selected music was synched to the microSD card the Google Play Music app only displayed songs that were in mp3 format and most of my music is in wma format Windows Media Player used to convert from wma to mp3 when synching but apparently that isn t available in Windows Media Player 12 and I didn t want to run all the music through a 3 party converter Continued on next page Continued from previous p
13. ll Apps collection The All Apps collection is accessed by an icon typically at the top of the screen that looks like a small rectangular collection of smaller squares possibly four or six or nine Continued on next page Continued from previous page All Apps Icon Tap this icon and an alphabetical listing of all the Apps on your tablet will be shown The Settings icon typically looks like a square with three lines and dots within the Square or a gear There are probably multiple screens of Apps so you may have to flick the screen to the left to uncover all the Apps When you find the Settings icon tap and hold the icon and it will be selected When you release it it will then be placed on a screen Now you can access the Settings by tapping the Settings icon whenever you want to review or change a setting 4 Settings Icons Buy the way tablets have multiple screens usually an odd number with the middle screen being the home screen If you have 5 screens then screen number 3 is the home screen There may be an indicator on each of the screens typically on the bottom that indicates which screen is currently being shown Now that the Settings icon is available tap it and it will allow you to make changes to the tablet s settings The settings are organized in groups such as Wireless amp Networks Device Personal Accounts and System Under Wireless amp Networks tap Wi Fi and you will
14. n 8 screen some of the buttons are very small and may be difficult to actuate with a large finger Windows 8 as any user will tell you has two distinct modes of operation Desktop like Windows 7 and Tiles on the Start Screen Those who are only familiar with Windows 7 may look at the Tile mode as unnecessary and maybe even unusual but it is my feeling that the Tile mode really shines on a tablet So why didn t Microsoft develop two different Operating Systems each optimized for the specific target hardware computer or tablet The answer to that is way above my pay grade but maybe having to maintain multiple OSs in synchronism is more difficult than combining the functionality into one OS Only the gurus at Microsoft know the reasons and only time will tell if it was a good decision but I m betting that it will be a winner The reason being simply Microsoft enjoys a strong corporate presence The Tile mode seems to be a good default for a tablet even if it is not a good starting point for a Laptop For a laptop it would probably make more sense for it to start in the Desktop mode The tiles in Windows 8 are like the icons on an Android or Apple tablet Continued on next page 6 Continued from previous page The Tiles are rectangular and re sizeable The sizes for many Tiles are Small Medium Wide and Large Because many of the Tiles are live meaning that changing data is being displayed on the tile the Wide
15. ortant thing to do is to get the tablet onto the internet All tablets have Wi Fi circuitry so if you have Wi Fi at home you are set If you don t have Wi Fi at home the tablet will still be useful for watching videos showing pictures playing games and listening to music And you can always use one of the many free public Wi Fi hot spots at locations like a Library or Starbucks Once you are in a Wi Fi area all you need to do is key in the password or passphrase for the network if it is protected Hopefully that makes sense to you because you have protected your home network with WEP WPA2 or WPA2 security Once you have connected to Wi Fi you will be able to go to the Google Play Store where you can download all those useful Apps and games If your tablet is new it will probably instruct you to either setup a Google account or it will ask you to log in to your Google account Having a Google account allows you to synchronize files and certain Apps so that you have the same information available to your tablet and your home computer After your Google account is set up there are a few operational things that you might like to modify None of these are absolutely necessary but I find setting them to my preferences is helpful Most of these things will be found in Settings so the first thing is to find the Settings icon and place it on a Home Screen if it is not there already The Settings icon may be found in the A
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