GMAIL – How to share your Gmail calendar with someone else

For many of us (whether you work, are semi-retired or retired) we often find ourselves busier than ever… Personally, I know it helps when both my husband Dan and I know what each other time commitments are before making other plans and with Gmail and our smartphones it is easier than ever to do this. 

For those of us with android smartphones, Gmail is commonly used – not just the email portion, but the contacts and my favorite –the calendar. 

and yes you can also use this between windows based & apple portable devices as well..

As soon as either of us make a commitment and enters it into our Gmail calendar (whether it’s to babysit for one of the grandkids, doctors or other appts, importing repeating dates such as birthdays & anniversaries or our busy work schedules) it appears on all devices that have the Gmail calendar on them (remember – the calendar is actually in the clouds and not on your device).   

We each have our own Gmail account, but we “share” my Gmail calendar and it’s wonderful-it has helped to eliminate any conflicts…. 

To share your Gmail calendar with specific people, just follow these easy steps when you are in your Gmail account on computer (so you have more viewing area): 

1.   Open you Gmail calendar and in the calendar list on the left side of the page, click the down-arrow button next to a calendar, then select Share this calendar. 

2.   Enter the email address of the person you want to share your calendar with.

3.   From the drop-down menu on the right side, select a level of permission, then click Add Person.

4.   Click Save.  

Once you click Save, the person you selected to share the calendar with will receive an email invitation to view your calendar. The person will need to click on the link contained in the email to add the calendar to his/her Other calendars list, the calendar will not be automatically added to the user’s Calendar account

Cloud Computing & Syncing

CLOUD COMPUTING – simply means an online (or off-site) storage location for those things we normally save on our computers: documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, photos, music, videos etc will now also be saved in the "clouds" so that we can access from anywhere in the world, anytime....

These are just a few of popular cloud computing services - almost all offer some FREE online storage as well as a variety of paid storage plans - Even as I am preparing this information, the amount of free storage is changing, as are the rates & programs for paid storage - so do your homework... 

• GoogleDrive
• SkyDrive - those with Hotmail/Live accounts get some storage free on Sky Drive 
• Apple iCloud
• Amazon Cloud
• DropBox 

When we use these services including MSN  (hotmail, live accounts) or Google (Gmail accounts) or iCloud (Apple) accounts one major advantage is that each time you're connected to the Internet and make changes to data, files, photos etc. you can choose to have your account "sync" to your multiple devices.  

"Syncing" can include documents, photo, music, apps, emails, contacts, calendars etc. changed on one device will now appear on all devices that are in "sync" (desktop, laptop, iPhone, Smartphone, tablet, iPad etc.. - Making life much easier and saving confusion, time and money (not having to buy books, music, movies, apps for each individual device)...

You want to be careful that information you are putting in the clouds is NOT COPYRIGHTED, because if they are, that could potentially be in breach of copyright laws and the files could get deleted or your account suspended because of this.  

I think many of us feel more comfortable storing Music files on an external or portable hard drive..but you can certainly upload them to any of the Clouds..

What is a "Read It Later" service?

Whether you use your computer, tablet, laptop, eReader or other mobile device - such as a Smartphone or iPhone to "surf the web" we all have the opportunity to read numerous articles, watch videos and other information from friends & family on Facebook, Twitter or maybe Pinterest; or you get News Feeds from your favorite media websites... BUT you don't have time to read or view them all now..  

That's how a "Read it later" service or app can help.  These "apps" saves the information - link - etc. so you can view the article, photo, video later at your convenience (yes-this is also cloud computing).  So with thee services, you establish an account, meaning you have to have a username & password and that allows you to access "your account" and whatever you've saved... 

Many of these services are free (including my 2 personal favorites) but some are not - but they all allow us to  manage articles and other media that we want to access later...  Apps for these services can be downloaded to your computer, tablet or other mobile device and they are very very easy to use..... 

If you have a Pinterest or Twitter account they also offer this service and Facebook will offer it very soon....

I've been playing with 2 different services and really like them both - and yes, both are free

Evernote is my personal top choice abs quite honestly the one I now use daily, because I can store anything I want to remember including quick reminder notes (my family and associates will tell you I'm a constant list maker so this is great for me), but I can save anything I want to view or read later.. www.evernote.com

Pocket (formerly known as Read it Later) is my 2nd favorite and worked wonderfully.... www.getpocket.com

Others you may want to check out...

Instapaper, website is:  www.instapaper.com - Free and paid versions

SnipIt, website is: www.snip.it/#welcome - Free 

Side note... For those of you with tablets and other "Android based devices" some of my students in Arizona are loving this new free app - called "CRACKLE" which is a totally legitimate app offering free streaming of TV shows and movies.  I found that it doesn't have all TV shows, but there are lots of old favorites and some of the new ones as well; same goes for movies...  But again, it's free so a great way to play with "streaming" before you move on to one of the paid services, such as Netflick or HBO... so you might want to give it a try... I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the picture... 

Update-heard from several "Apple/Mac" users and I was wrong - Crackle has been available for  "i" devices for quite a while now... so enjoy everyone.....

Check it out: www.crackle.com

Cloud Computing & Music

This is a note I received from Bob Donovan (a wonderful Instructor on our Team in Boston who loves his music) who applauds using Cloud Computing for all of his music...  

"My music is stored in iTunes on my computer. But I've also put it up in Amazon's music cloud (basically because of the Kindle that I own).  

Currently I have 50,595 songs in the cloud. On my computer these songs take up 224 GB. I'm paying Amazon $24.99 per year for this storage. So far, I'm really pleased with it. It's not as simple or beautiful as iTunes, but it works great and I don't think there's any limit.

Naturally, I normally have to use the search function to find an artist or song or album and that seems to work fine online.  

I also downloaded Amazon's picture storage app, but haven't tried to use it yet-will keep you posted"  

Once you pay for an "app" you can download that app to multiple devices, such as your smartphone - kindle - tablet - etc...How does it know, because Amazon (like other companies) stores the information in your Amazon Account. 

To check these "apps" out, or all that Amazon offers, here is the link to the Amazon App Store for Androids...(or you can just go to www.Amazon.com)  

http://www.amazon.com/mobile-apps/b?ie=UTF8&node=2350149011

Cloud Computing - Continued Discussion

Several times earlier this year (in Feb. & May) we discussed Cloud Computing, but things are changing and there are more and more companies offering us the ability to store on their clouds (which means on their servers) So- the discussion continues...

There is no doubt that cloud computing is here to stay.  Many of us have been using "cloud computing" for years without realizing it - If you use a hotmail, yahoo, AOL or Gmail account" for your emails, you go to the specific company's website, via the internet, enter your user name & password (from any computer in the world) and your email messages appear. You can then write/compose new emails - all the while the computer you are sitting at, is simply a vehicle allowing us to see and type - but all of our emails are actually being stored and/or written on/from their computers....hence "cloud computing"

Today many of these same email vendors are providing us with additional free space, so that in addition to our emails we can also store our documents, photos, movies & music in another part of our "email account" - like having an additional file cabinet...  Why would we do that?

Well, like your emails, you can access any of these items stored on their "cloud" when you are away from your computer (home or work) because remember it's stored on their computer - in their cloud...

If you have multiple devices - you may want to "sync" them, so that when you enter information on one device, it appears on all your devices...   

For example:

You have a Windows based computer, a Smartphone & a tablet - if you have a Gmail account and use the Google Drive Cloud - whatever is entered in these on one computer shows up on the rest

Or You have an iPhone, iPad and MacBook - by simply having an iCloud ID and password (and the iCloud ID can be your existing email address w/hotmail, Gmail, etc..) you can select in the settings of your iCloud what you want to share among your devices-Photos, emails, contacts, calendars, etc..

Or maybe you have a Windows PC, an Android Smartphone and a MacBook - you could simply choose to have the Apple iCloud on all your devices to share your music, data & moves...

And the combination goes on and one..

If you have been using hotmail/live/msn accounts - you have "SkyDrive" which is their free cloud computing for us to store data and photos - but anyone can go to SkyDrive.com and download the app and receive a certain amount of storage for FREE - Gmail users have the free Picasa Web Albums and Google Drive cloud; and again anyone can use this or Apple/MAC's iCloud or any of the other hundreds of companies... most allow some free storage - others charge an annual or monthly fee - some based on the amount of storage, some are by computer - it varies..

Shop around and remember you can use multiple "cloud services"; I know some people who store all their music in iTunes synced with the iCloud; and use their SkyDrive for their documents; maybe DropBox for their data from work; Google Drive w/Picasa Web Albums for their photos and Carbonite, so everything is backed up every time they are on the computer (no limit) but this service doesn't allow you to use a syncing feature (yet)!

The list of companies offering cloud computing is growing every day.  Each has their own features, it depends on what you are looking for... I always think it's better to begin with the FREE services while you learn, and once you've mastered that and understand what it is you are using, then you can always switch to or add another service if needed...Here is the link to an article recently published about some of the popular "cloud computing companies" -

http://www.consumer-rankings.com/online-backup

What is “Google Drive” ?

What is “Google Drive” ?  

Continued on from Thursday May 10th & Monday May 14th..

Like, Dropbox, Google Drive is “a cloud computing service” from Google, to compete with DropBox, Microsoft's SkyDrive, Apple's iCloud and Evernote – some of the largest..

During many classes we’ve talked about “Google Docs” - Basically “Google Drive” is a super version of this, allowing us to store documents, photos, music, videos, etc. all in one place. And a great feature, is that it syncs with your mobile devices and your computer, so if you make a change from one gadget, it will automatically show up if you were to access it elsewhere.  Just like those of use who are now syncing your “gmail emails, contacts & calendars” with your computer and mobile devices…

What’s nice, is that Google Drive can also track changes and edits we make to documents – so when we hit save, we can look back at all revisions from the past 30 days.

Like DropBox and the others there are various levels of services, currently they offer up to 5GB of space for free – but if that’s not enough you can upgrade to other plans, such as $2.49/month for 25GB, $4.99/month for 100GB, and $49.99 a month for a whopping 1TB. If you move to a premium account it also automatically expands your Gmail storage to 25G

For those of you with iPads, iPhones etc remember that the Apple's iCloud can only be used by Mac users using the “i” operating System; but Google drive is now open to all Operating Systems – Windows, Mac, Androids, etc so it can be used on computers, tablets, iPad and the iPhone (though only through a web browser at the moment).. So anyone can download this drive for your Mac or PC

What is DropBox?

Dropbox, which started just 5 years ago in 2007 by 2 MIT Graduates who continually forgot to bring their flash drives to class, has a free service (as well as other monthly & annual fee programs) and their software works with Windows, Mac’s, Android and other operating systems…  Yes – this is a “cloud computer” service, similar to what emails users who have hotmail, live or msn with SkyDrive or what gmail users use with Google Drive to save their photos, documents and other files to share or access from anywhere they are..…

Check them out at www.dropbox.com

How to use DropBox:

Go to www.dropbox.com and download their free software to your computer or smartphone (or any other mobile device).

• Select a location on your hard drive to place the "Dropbox Folder."

• Drag and drop files you want to upload to Dropbox into the new Dropbox folder on your computer. You can also upload files directly to your Dropbox account using their website upload tools.

• You can now access your Dropbox files from any computer using Dropbox website or installing the software on that specific computer.

• Access your files on an iPhone or Android device using the mobile Dropbox application.

• Any adjustments made to Dropbox files will synchronize automatically.

If you need more help using this, visit www.dropbox.com which has an easy to follow tutorial on their website, or visit our two favorite websites for learning just about anything:

www.ehow.com or www.youtube.com

As of October 2011, Dropbox had more than 50 million users and recently announced (in April 2012) a new feature that allows users to automatically upload photos and videos from their cameras, tablets, SD cards and smartphones.  We’ve also heard that they are going to be giving users up to 3 GB of additional storage space for free, which some feel is to encourage users to use them, vs. Hotmails SkyDrive or Googles Drive for docs & photos… 

What does “cloud” computing mean?

No the angels in heaven aren’t going to help store your work and photos when you use "cloud computing"..

Cloud computing simply means that whatever task you are performing is happening on the internet, instead of on your own PC.. So for anyone who uses many of the free email accounts, such as hotmail – yahoo – gmail, well they’ve been using “cloud” computing, because when they went to that companies website, and signed in with their user name & password, they were working on that companies computer, not their own… If you use Walgreens.com to store your photos for prints, and projects – such as a photo book or mug, then you were using “cloud” computing..

Cloud computing isn't new - far from it - it's been around since the early 1960's..50 years!!!

Some sources say cloud computing began with the beginning of the IT (Information Technology) Outsourcing industry by using idle/excess compute power (processing, storage, and connectivity) of one entity, to carry out the work of another. It's possible the first such use was when Mr. Ross Perot started the IT Outsourcing industry in 1962, and then rented idle computing power from one company (Southwestern Life) to carry out the processing needs of another (Collins Radio).

Google Docs - Part 2 of 2

For anyone who is using Google Doc's - Google has a great new software plug-in “Cloud Connect” that easily will move any and all of our Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint files to Google Docs.

Cloud Connect, was released by Google on Thursday Feb 24^th, 2011 and it will allow users to save our files to save their files to "the cloud," which in this case is on Googles servers.

That means that once our files are saved in Google Docs, we can then edit files in Microsoft Office and sync them up to the clouds. This will also mean that it will be much easier if and when we want to collaborate on documents and will eliminate the confusion as to which version of a document is the most recent one.

"For example, you can edit a Word document's Opening Page of Grandma’s Life Story from Lake Havasu, AZ, while your sister in Quincy, MA is adding the family tree and your brother in Weymouth, MA is making other revisions.. This way, instead of having to send emails with tons of attachments, your whole family or group can work together."

And the great news is that Google will save every revision of any document users of Cloud Connect make, whether those edits take place in Office or Google Docs. And files can be shared in a view-only form via Google Docs as well with each document getting a unique Web address (just in case you don’t want someone make changes).

Cloud Connect is free and works with Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 on Windows PCs. Cloud Connect, however, won't work with Mac versions of Office. Sorry – it’s not available for Mac Users yet, but Google indicates it’s working on it, so no doubt it will be in the near future….

Check it out for yourself…

http://tools.google.com/dlpage/cloudconnect