RVers Trending to Tablets

Last year it was eReaders.  It seems that RVers couldn't get enough of Kindles and Nooks.  Rvers, especially the retired ones, are avid readers and can't get enough books.  Although, I have been teaching how to use computers, I spent a great deal more time, then previously, talking about reading technology.  I remember after one of the classes a majority of the attendees went out and purchased Kindles and asked that I teach the same class again the next week.

It seems now though that using technology for just reading is not enough. RVers want to surf the web, get email and access Facebook.  Reading is still a big part of what they want though.  At the last couple of outings of our Ontario Trillium Traveller (OTT), people took advantage of the low price at Costco and sprung for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.  

I spent part of our outing helping set up the tablets and teaching folks how to use it.  The funny thing is that the first thing they wanted to do was get books on to their tablet but what they spent most of the time doing was reading and responding to their email and surfing the web.  

After reading, getting email, and browsing the web the most popular uses were Games (Solitaire, Sudoku, Crosswards), Skype for communicating with loved ones and weather apps.  Music and Movies were also high on the list.  

We ended the instruction session browsing apps on the Google Play Store and everyone seemed very excited and wanted to spend time exploring new horizons.  

Shaw no longer broadcasting in the US

As many of you already know,  I have had to discontinue my Bell ExpressVu account because Bell stopped broadcasting Canadian content in the US.  They actually changed the satellite footprint and now you cannot get their satellite signal south of the boarder.
Many of you have been able to acceess Shaw Direct in  Florida last year.  Encouraged by the confidence that everyone had that this would continue, I called Shaw to confirm that they would continue to broadcast in Florida.  I talked to Ben in Shaw customer service looking to sign up.  According to him, about a week ago the FCC complained to the CRTC and the CRTC now have forced Shaw to shutdown US broadcasts as well. So, if you have Shaw now and are expecting to see a full season of hockey you might want to call Shaw customer support and check it out.

Bettyann and I have been running Windows Classes here in Florida once a week for most of the winter season.  The most popular classes have been the two "Back to the Very Basics.", and the Windows 8 class.  We have, however, also run classes on:

- Digital Photography, in which we show "Windows Live Photo Gallery"

- Managing your music with iTunes and Windows Media Player

- Making Movies from your photos.

- eReaders

- and lots more

 

This is the first year we have attempted to work with Tablets.  I found it to  be quite difficult to find a topic that everyone wanted to know about. Most people, no matter what tablet, already have their main applications, email and a Browser already running. We were able to have one class on an app called AllStays. After the first couple of classes we ended up sitting around a table and had people ask questions and talk about things they wanted to know. This seemed most effective.

 

The iPad is much easier than Android tablets - everyone has the same version of IOS.  Android is much more difficult.  More people have them but they come in many forms (e.g.Nook, Kindle HD) and the OS versions vary from Gingerbread to Jelly Bean.  It wasn't long before we lost the Nook and Kindle folks.  Again, with the Android folks we managed to get some apps like Skype installed and working.

 

The Windows Classes were, by far, better attended.

Bettyann's Move to Windows 8

Bettyann has finally moved to Windows 8.  Although, we kept her Windows 7 hard drive, she is in Windows 8 to stay.  She has never been back.  She is really liking it.  She adapted much faster than I did.  Originally apprehensive, the reason she sites for the move is that she wanted to be able to help others with Windows 8 but she says she is never going back.

The first thing she did was make the desktop and sign on screen look comfortable and familiar, using her own photos.  Then took on the monumental task of cleaning up her desktop by putting ALL the programs she accessed frequently on the task bar.  She developed the realization that the Windows 8 tiles were a different look for the Start Menu.
After downloading some games from the Microsoft Store she is now royally hooked.

Windows 8 Help

I thought I'd post this YouTube video for those who are trying to deal with the conversion to Windows 8 Pro.  This will help you to better understand if you have just converted from a previous version of Windows.

Here is the Link:  Windows 8 in 3 Minutes

iPad for RVers

I had a one hour meeting today with about 12 iPad users, here in the park.  I held the meeting to determine if we need to have iPad Classes and if so, what are people interested in learning.  I had a great response and lots of suggestions. 

Among the suggestions:  iTunes for transferring Music, Videos and Books.  Applications such as Allstays, iBooks, Kindle etc.  Getting data items from a laptop to the iPad via "the Cloud".   Many wanted to edit photos and Email them to family and friends.  There were many more.  The problem now is when to do each one.

The first class will be using iTunes.  We should have both Windows and MAC laptops in the room.

Disk Space on Windows 8

Since it was announced, I have planned to purchase a Microsoft Surface Pro.  I was intrigued by the concept of having a tablet that will run all the programs I had on my Windows 7 Laptop. Although I haven't yet seen an announcement from Microsoft, I expect that it will be available for purchase by the end of January.  Could I use the Surface Tablet as my main computer?

My Windows 7 laptop had a 500GB hard drive and it was pretty close to being full.  The most expensive model of the surface was $999  and only had 128GB SSD.  That was a big downgrade from my working environment.  Was it even possible to replace my Lenovo Windows 7 laptop with the Surface?

Windows 8 Pro was available on October 26, 2012 and, on that day, I downloaded it from the Microsoft Store on my journey to find out if it was even possible to get to 128GB from 500GB.  I started by purchasing a 256GB Crucial SSD, installed it in my Lenovo.  I calculated how much disk space I actually needed.   Now less than 60GB - Wow!

Libraries	Current Space (GBs) Windows 7	Required (GBs) Windows 8
Contacts	< 1.0	<1.0
Documents	13.1	1.0
Downloads	8.6	2.0
eBook Libraries	28.1	4.8
Favorites	<1.0	<1.0
Music	108.0	14.1
Pictures	21.0	3.0
Presentations	<1.0	<1.0
Videos	110.0	30.0
Tablet Files	19.6	0
Total Disk Space	311.4	57.9

I then installed all my Windows 7 programs including Microsoft Office, Quicken, Turbo Tax, Microsoft Streets and Trips etc. and copied my 57.9GBs of data.

I have been using Windows 8 Pro for 3 months now and it looks as if a replacing my Windows 7 laptop might actually be possible; from a disk space perspective at least.  I am only using 106GB for everything.