Wednesday 8th April 2020
(Video call via Google Hangouts)
I think we managed to get the Hangouts technology to work! It seems to work well using the app on an iPad. If using a browser, Chrome is the best bet as both Hangouts and Chrome are Google products.
Covid-19 Helplines
First, I highlighted some helplines that are available relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. Please pass on this information if you feel it could help friends or relatives.
Age
UK Cheshire has launched a Covid-19 helpline:-
01606
881 660
For
more details go to:-
Cheshire
West and Chester Council also has launched a Covid-19 helpline:-
0300
123 7031
The
line will be open 7 days a week from 8am to 7pm and will provide advice and
support and, where necessary, make arrangements for food, medicines, etc to be
supplied. There is advice online at:-
Cheshire
East Council also have web page offering advice on Covid-19:-
This page links to their Coronavirus Advice Booklet which includes
their helpline number:-
0300
123 5034
Coronavirus Statistics
In
the 11th March blog, I mentioned this site which shows the current
world-wide statistics on the Covid-19 Coronavirus:-
Scroll
down the page to see the stats for the UK and other countries. Click on the UK link (or any other underlined country) to see more details.
Also,
the Microsoft Bing team have produced a coronavirus map. You can zoom in on the
map and click on the red dots to get more information. You can find this at:-
Coronavirus
Tracing App
A
contact tracing app could form part of the Government’s ‘exit strategy’ from
the current lock-down. Using GPS,
Bluetooth to nearby phones and scanning QR codes in some buildings, the app
would know where you have been and who else has been there. If you become
infected, the app could instantly notify anyone you have been near in the last
several days so that they could all isolate. In effect, this achieves contact-tracing in an instant, rather than it taking days or weeks. Other features may be added to
make the app more attractive, such as indicating how busy local supermarkets
are at any time. This BBC article from 31st March explains more:-
To be effective, it would need wide-spread adoption and would probably need to be combined with other things such as more coronavirus testing and the discovery of drugs which could mitigate the worst symptoms of Covid-19.
Google 'Your Timeline'
Just following on from the above item, I mentioned that many of us are already being tracked by Google Maps if you have that app on your phone. We did discuss this back at the Computer Club on 12th Sept 2018 - you can look back at the blog if you wish. The app has been redesigned slightly since then. Now, to access Your Timeline, you need to launch Google Maps and tap the circle (top right) with your picture or initial, then select Your Timeline. If you select Day (at the top) you can scroll right (on the bottom half of the screen) to go back in time, or tap the date at the top to select a particular date in the past to see where you where at that time. You can also select Places, Cities or World to find things by category, town or country. It's interesting to look back where you have been as we sit here unable to go anywhere!
WhatsApp on PC
Some
communities are setting up a WhatApp Group with their neighbours so they can
keep in touch in these difficult times.
If
you want help to this on Android, go here:-
If
you want help to do this on an iPhone, go here:-
Although
WhatsApp works via you mobile phone number, you can link your phone to your PC
so that you can read and create message using a bigger keyboard and screen. To
do this, go to:-
Tap the 3-dot symbol or Settings cog symbol on the
WhatsApp app on your mobile device and select WhatsApp Web. Use your
mobile device to scan the QR code on your computer.
Many other technologies exist to allow groups to communicate including Facebook, FaceTime, Zoom and Hangouts which we used for this Club meeting. Although these and other technologies can be a great benefit to people, especially at this time, to keep in contact with friends, relatives and neighbours, some people may find the technology or the cost challenging. We had some discussion around this point.
Increasingly, there are smart speakers available, some with video, such as the Amazon Echo, Google Home/Nest and Facebook Portal. Once set up, these offer ways to connect to the Internet and communicate with just voice commands.
Increasingly, there are smart speakers available, some with video, such as the Amazon Echo, Google Home/Nest and Facebook Portal. Once set up, these offer ways to connect to the Internet and communicate with just voice commands.
Learn More About Social Media, etc
If you want to learn more about any technical topic, have a look at my
document Learning More About IT:-
One
source this document refers to is GCFLearnFree.org. Click on Topics to see a huge list. If, for example, you then click on Social Media under the Internet Skills heading, you will find tutorials on WhatsApp, Facebook, etc
YouTube is, of course, another source of information, although it can be tricky sorting the good stuff from the rubbish. Here, for example if a video tutorial on Facebook:-
Scanning With a Mobile Device
If you have
an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier and a PC, you could use that to scan and
save to the PC, then launch your email software and attach the file, for example.
Alternatively, you might want to use a mobile device, such as a smartphone and
this might be easier if you only scan the odd thing occasionally. You can, of course, just take a photograph with your mobile device, but if you want to keep documents separately from photos and save them as a PDF rather than a JPG, you might like to consider the processes described here:-
Essentially,
on an iPad/iPhone you can use the Notes app and save the scan as note. On Android, use Google Drive to scan the
document which saves it to your Google cloud storage. In either case, the document could then be printed
or attached to an email.
BBC News Site - Forgetting Location
Brian had a problem with the BBC News site. If you visit bbc.co.uk/news you can click on Local News and then set your location. If you have allowed your browser to access your location, this would be offered as the default. You can subsequently change the location by clicking the Find a location link at the top right:-
This location setting should be remembered by your device in a cookie. Cookies are small files relating to a specific web site which are saved on your device by the browser. If you subsequently clear cookies, you would have to set things, such as this location choice, again. However, Brian's system did not seem to be remembering the location setting after he closed and re-opened the browser. This could be caused by having the browser set to clear cookies on exit, but this did not appear to the case with Brian's machine(s). So I am at a loss to understand why this is not working - any suggestion would be welcome.
Next Session
Wed 22nd April 2020 at 2pm via Google Hangouts.
Possible topics:-
Calling phone numbers from smart speaker devices.
Converting PDFs to an editable format.
Possible topics:-
Calling phone numbers from smart speaker devices.
Converting PDFs to an editable format.
