Google Keep has been around for a while but not everyone knows about it. If you like Google apps and use them a lot it is worth making use of this in the suite of apps available from Google since it means you don’t have to go and find anything else. It can sync across devices and run alongside Gmail and so is quite handy.
It is like Evernote and that is an app many people would be familiar with. Basically , it’s an app for curating information and ideas as you work and interact with your devices. For study and working at home it is a handy way of storing your information. One of its advantages is that it can reproduce text saved from, say, a newspaper clipping. It can save the images too. There are plenty of YouTube clips about Google Keep. I have just selected one to get you started.
You can find out more about it on the Google Keep site. makeuseof also has a good comparison between Google Keep and Evernote so you can see the difference if you are used to Evernote.
Vogue broke new ground and put itself out there by creating an AI bot interview with American singer/songwriter Billie Eilish. It’s more of an oral questionnaire because there is very little conversation. Ms. Eilish is 18 years old and totally comfortable with this AI medium for an interview. She is calm, thoughtful and discusses the ideas provoked by the questions in a detailed way. She genuinely responds to them . Would everyone? Is it an age group thing or would the novelty of it encourage others to be more open? It does show that AI doesn’t dominate or manipulate the interview in any way. The person in the interview is centre stage and it is all about them. One of the points which Ms. Eilish makes is that AI is non judgemental. People who are interviewed probably appreciate impartiality. The AI Bot has created a Dada version of her lyrics and she quite likes it .
It is different. Is it the future? Would we do more of this ? If it is someone you want to hear then it is a good way to allow them to share their ideas. It is more like a performance than an interaction but not in any way lacking in humanity.
Google Apps, aka G-Suite , hasn’t been free for a while but it takes time for things like this to percolate into the system. It doesn’t help there are two names for it. That just adds to misunderstandings and confusions. It is a widely held belief that Google things are free. Chrome is free. G-Mail is free. Google search engine is free. Google Apps were free but have now gone down the path of being paid. We live in a world where you can become dependent on a free version of something and then you are brought up short. Many things still continue to run limited free versions of something but that may well pass. We are caught up in a perception which was built as we increasingly got to use the internet. Times have changed.
G-Suite is designed for teams and business and Google Apps for Business can be very helpful to small business. It is something Google has addressed now. It was supporting individuals and companies but now there is something for the small organisation or business. Google also has become very competitive on the cloud computing market and it has to in order to survive. Lifehacker looks at the situation to help you think out the work arounds and whether there are implications which will affect you.
As an individual the priced apps won’t affect you since you have to register as a business or organisation with your own domain name. Lifewire explains the changes and how they may or may not affect you so that you can continue to make good decisions as to which aspects of Google you wish to use.
There are still people who are worried about technology and find it intimidating. There are still people who can do what they do but then worry when they have to do something new with technology. Basically, it’s what Kerwin Rae says – it’s simple, easy and fun! That has to be your attitude.
1. Be clear about what you want to achieve.
What so you want to do with technology? What can’t you do that you want to do? What do you want to do better? How do you want things to look and sound?
2. Use technology.
Stating the obvious. You can be apprehensive about doing something. You might think you will mess things up and you might think you will get it wrong. That is all negative self talk.
Be confident. Do what you want to do and ask about the bits you can’t quite get. There is a lot to learn with progressive disclosure which hides information until it thinks you need it but that might stop you from realising how things work. There is a lot to learn with swiping and gesturing. Do it a bit at a time but just use your devices. Use them to look and learn, use them to create images and videos. Use them to make sound recordings, shopping lists, plans, record ideas. Using technology means you will become more familar with how it works. Once in a while doesn’t get those learning patterns in place.
3. Share and get help.
If you know how to do something, share it. If you don’t know how to do something – ask. Look it up online. Just google it. If you have worked out how to do something , share it. Tell others, tell Facebook, tell Twitter, use a blog to share your discoveries, make a quick video .The internet works well because everyone is sharing what they have discovered and learned. You can look just about anything up on a search engine or YouTube and get help .
4. Look upon it as a challenge.
When it is not going according to plan, leave the device and go and do something else. Nothing will change and nothing will break. You need processing time. You might need to talk to someone and get help or you might need thinking time. Pushing yourself through on a device when you are unclear as to your own procedures will not help you. Figuring it out for yourself is a challenge because you can do it. You might just think you cannot and then you’ll just give up and do something you already know how to do. Learning is a challenge. It is also having confidence in yourself to know you can work it out.
5. Think .
Technology is about using your brain differently and you have to be fluid in your thoughts. You have to think and do and then process ahead and be aware there are next steps. You have to look at the whole screen. You have to examine all the menus and options. Sometimes you have to translate the text instructions to your own way of saying things. “DONE” on a button doesn’t always mean to someone that they need to click that to finish a procedure. They don’t know what it means. Labelling can be very tricky because it is designed for an age group and a certain linguistic level of expression. When if has click or tap to finish then everyone understands that. Ditto tabs in browsers. Some people have no idea there are tabs. They can see x’s along the top and think that means they should’t touch it. To some people x means stop it does not mean close.
It is becoming popular to do voice overs on shared videos. It probably indicates that , on the whole, we want to improve how we sound in our video clips. There is a constant improvement model in lots of ways on the internet now and that’s good. Videos are still being produced with poor sound quality and a search on this blog will give you some easy tips for improving that. What about your voice itself , though? Around this time in 2016 I put up a post about getting over the sound of your voice. Just do it. Make the clip. Record your voice. Don’t worry about it. If the sound quality is good , people are probably not going to worry too much about how you sound. They worry whether they can hear you and understand you. If you want to improve the sound of your voice then do it without a fuss. Listen to the tips of experts. Try things out. Work on incremental improvements through practice. Don’t criticise yourself . Listen to what you can do to improve. Ask trusted people for feedback. It’s threatening to have feedback from just anyone. You might take it to heart. Get general tips and look for people who will work with you. You are not in a competition. We all have different voices and we all sound different on video. It’s a habit and practice thing. Have faith in that.
E-WOT 