Updated 16/03/2024 - Fixed link in Digitising Slides/Negative section
Best Cloud Storage for Photos
We have talked about cloud storage a number of times. You can find a compilation of previous Computer Club blogs on the topic on my web site at:-
bit.ly/rogersdocs
Click on the Computer Club tab and look for the document on Cloud Storage.
The are a number of services you can use for photo storage. This extensive article on Tom’s Guide discusses a number of them:-
https://www.tomsguide.com/buying-guide/best-cloud-storage-for-photos
It includes:-
- iDrive Photos
- Google Photos
- Dropbox
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Flickr
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- pCloud
Most of them offer a free tier and then you can pay for additional storage capacity. Some can store RAW images, others only store compressed images. Adobe Creative Cloud is perhaps more suited to the professional photographer and offers integration with their Lightroom, Photoshop and Elements software.
Google Photos uses space on your Google Drive. Google Drive space is also occupied by Android device backups, Gmail and other files you may have uploaded. Similarly, iCloud is used for photo storage, device backups and you can upload other files too. You need to have enough capacity for all of these things.
Cherry mentioned storing photos on local hard drives or SSDs. This is an alternative, but remember that you need to have more than one copy. The minimum recommendation for photos is based on the 3-2-1 rules:-
- Have at least 3 copies.
- Used at least 2 different types of media, and
- 1 of the copies should be off-site.
We mentioned the use of "Albums" on online storage such as iCloud or Google Photos. This is a very useful way of sharing pictures with other people. Putting photos in an Album does NOT create an additional copy - it just adds a label to the photo.
Digitising Slides/Negatives
Cherry mentioned she had digitised a number of slides using this device from DigitNow:-
https://digitnow.com/en-uk/products/135-film-negative-scanner-high-resolution-slide-viewer-convert-35mm-film-slide
John recommended using a device with a resolution of at least 1200dpi (dots per inch) and maybe up to 4800dpi. The above device has a resolution of 1800dpi. Brian and John both suggested using a flat-bed scanner for scanning images - some have attachments for holding slides and negatives
VoLTE
LTE (Long Term Evolution) is another name for 4G in mobile communications. VoLTE means Voice over LTE, i.e. Voice over 4G.
Historically, voice and SMS on our mobile phones was carried over the 2G/3G network. Fast data services were introduced with 4G and then 5G technology. VoLTE is a technique for using the 4G data service to also carry voice calls and SMS. In general, it should provide a better quality service. Ultimately, as 2G and 3G networks are gradually phased out, VoLTE will be the only method of making voice calls and using SMS.
VoLTE has to be enabled on your phone and your carrier must support the technology, which most UK operators do. All iPhones from the iPhone 6 onward support VoLTE. Most modern Android phones also support the technology. In many cases, it is permanently enabled, so there is no setting to enable it. In some cases it can be enabled/disabled in the phone settings. This site has some information on how to do that:-
https://support.sasktel.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26186/~/managing-volte-settings-on-your-phone
This site explains more about VoLTE and shows which UK networks support it:-
https://www.4g.co.uk/what-is-volte/
After 3G and then 2G services have been turned off, VoLTE will be needed in order to make/receive voice calls and SMS. Also note that, if you travel to other countries who have already disabled their 2G/3G networks, you will require VoLTE for voice calls, including emergency calls.
If you have a 4G device that does not use VoLTE, it would have to switch to 2G/3G to make a voice call. This switching means the call connection time is longer and it takes more out of your battery.
Using VoLTE to carry voice over the digital 4G/LTE network is analogous to VoIP being used on fixed-line broadband to replace the old copper wires using the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).
Roaming Charges
If you take your phone outside of the UK, you will find that you are charged “roaming fees” to use it. When we were part of the EU, we benefitted from free-roaming rules that applied across Europe. Now, most operators will charge a fee in Europe as well as elsewhere in the world. However, O2 still offers free roaming in Europe.
“Roaming” refers to the situation where your phone connects to a mobile network in a different country. There has to be an arrangement in place between that foreign operator and your UK provider, so different charges apply. You should check with your network provider to find out exactly what these roaming charges will be before you travel.
This article from Money Saving Expert has more information and advice, including how to turn off roaming and how to set spending limits:-
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/cheap-roaming-calls/
Alternatively, if you have good access to wi-fi while abroad, you could just use that and make sure you use a data service such as WhatsApp for any voice/video calls or messages. It was pointed out that there are some potential risks in connecting to hotel or coffee shop wi-fi - this site discusses those risks:-
https://www.keepersecurity.com/blog/2023/01/10/is-it-safe-to-use-unsecured-wifi-in-hotels/#
As Brian pointed out, you can mitigate the security risk by using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service. There are many VPN services available, some offering a free tier. Going back to our first topic of Cloud Storage, if you subscribe to Google's 100GB storage (the subscription is called Google One), then Google VPN is included - see this Google Support page for details-
https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/7582172
AI Explained
My thanks to George for a link to this excellent 18-minute video by Henrik Kniberg which describes generative AI in a very engaging way:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IK3DFHRFfw
Sora - AI Generated Video
OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed company behind ChatGPT, has released a product called Sora. This can create sophisticated and realistic video clips up to about 1 minute long, based on a just a text prompt. Currently this is available to a limited audience for testing but it is another step in the rapid progress of generative AI. You can see sample videos at:-
https://openai.com/sora
AI PCs
You might start to see “AI PCs” and mobile devices which have something called an NPU – a Neural Processing Unit. “NPU” is likely to appear in the marketing descriptions for these new devices.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) requires a lot of processing power. At the moment, if you use AI-powered tools such as Gemini (formerly Bard) or Copilot, all the heavy processing is done back at the server end. However, it would ultimately be more efficient if some of this work could be done on your device, but this requires extra processing power. NPUs are processors specifically designed to run this sort of AI task. Until now, some of the more complex computations have been off-loaded from the CPU (Central Processing Unit) to one or more GPUs (Graphics Processing Units). However, as their name implies, GPUs are more suited to dealing with images, computing the positions of all the millions of pixels that form the constantly changing pictures on our screens, rather than AI tasks.
This recent Tech Radar article has more on NPUs:-
https://www.techradar.com/computing/cpu/what-is-an-npu
Next Session
Wed 10th April 2024 at 2pm by Zoom
