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Category: family

March 11, 2018

Take these 6 Steps to Protect Your Tech from the Next Snowstorm

You can’t capture cool pictures of winter if your camera battery isn’t charged up. But if the power goes out, that may be the least of your tech problems…

A looming winter nor’easter will create plenty of heartache that you can’t control. Fortunately, you can usually take action to protect your precious tech. Just think about how unstable power caused by these windy snowstorms will affect your gear.

Here’s my checklist of 6 ways to prevent ‘techtastrophy’ before your lights start to flicker and after the power goes out…

#1
Avoid Direct Connections to Wall Outlets
First off, just don’t plug your electronics directly into the wall. If you expect the power might fluctuate, that can also include a power surge. Why take the chance of frying your gear? You should always plug your power supplies and chargers for your delicate tech (smartphones, laptops) into surge protector power strips.
(Remember, they’re not just designed to give you more outlets.)

If you happen to have a whole-house surge protection system, then good for you. Otherwise, invest in a few power strips with some surge protection.

#2
Get a UPS for Your Computer
A power strip isn’t going to cut it if you’re using a desktop computer that requires a constant flow of electricity. Any irregular (dirty) power is bad, but when a blackout hits, you don’t want to be working at your computer and unprepared. So, you’ll need a more advanced solution…

Your desktop should always be plugged into an uninterruptable power supply. A ‘UPS’ is essentially a battery backup unit with surge protection and automatic voltage regulation. So, during bad weather, you can type away in relative peace.

I bought a great UPS for my iMac.
It’s made by CyberPower (model CP 1350PFCLCD) and goes for
$189.95 on Amazon.

#3
Turn Off Your Desktop During Stormy Overnights
Even with a UPS in place, I’d still recommend you turn off your desktop overnight during a big storm instead of just putting your computer into sleep mode.
(Why take any chances?)

#4
Activate Your Portable Power Generator
A battery-powered UPS can only handle your computer for a short while… enough time to finish up what you’re doing and then safely shut down. If you need a more powerful solution, then you’ll have to invest in a portable power generator for your house that can run for hours or days (depending on your fuel reserves).

I own a Generac LP5500 liquid propane portable generator.
No, I don’t have it just to power my iMac. I bought it to keep the actual essentials at home going during a blackout… like our heating system.
But you get the idea…

#5
Juice the Backup for Your Smartphone
If you don’t have any beefy power creation solutions in place, then at least invest twenty bucks on a pocket-sized battery power bank. It will give your smartphone an extra charge or two while the rest of your home waits in the dark.

I carry around the Anker Astro E1 Portable Charger.
($19.99 on Amazon)

But a little power stick can’t come to your rescue if it’s not charged! So, make sure it’s juiced up before the snow hits.
(And it wouldn’t hurt to top off your smartphone either)

#6
Keep Your Smartphone Warm
Your particular smartphone model might be water resistant, but its battery is still sensitive to winter. It will drain down faster when exposed to frigid temperatures.
(And that’s why you shouldn’t keep your AA batteries in the refrigerator)

So, if you’re out and about after a storm, try to keep your smartphone as warm as possible. Otherwise, you may find it suddenly needs a recharge.
(Then, please see tip #5!)

Power Up!
Sure, it’s hard to function in the dark. But it’s easier if your critical tech isn’t down for the count. Here’s hoping you successfully weather the next ‘Snowmageddon’ along with your gear!

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March 4, 2018

How to Tell Your Story with a Photo Playlist

Music playlists are everywhere. But what about photo playlists? Not sure what I’m talking about? Great! This is really how you can put your digital photos to work. And it involves using digital photo frames…

I’m a fan of digital photo frames for how they unlock the countless pictures you’d otherwise not be sharing with your family and friends. Sure, you can post your pics to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and online family photo folders, but those are one-offs, individual images that describe a moment in your life. And you’ve got to hope that nobody misses any of your photos as they fly through their social feeds.

That’s not at all the same as a larger grouping of photos you can control on a digital photo frame that you’ve given out. These always-available images rotate through to tell a larger and every-changing story about your family and its ongoing adventures.

And if you think that digital photo frames are a pain to update, you’re behind the times. Many models can pull their pics from the cloud via WiFi, and you can update your displayed images anytime from any location in the world.

The Photo Playlist of Your Life
But I think the opportunity to maintain an ever-changing photographic ‘playlist’ is the big “aha moment” that lots of folks still haven’t discovered. Do you want to rotate through photos from your past vacation? Maybe your last few weeks of weekend fun? How about some family archival photos? It’s all as easy as a few clicks away…

Whatever the topic, photo playlists give you the opportunity to display a much richer story.

Everyone makes photo books, right? But these books often just sit on a shelf. Why not use those same images to add to your life’s photo playlist that’s always rotating through on a digital photo frame?
(If you’re twitching about the idea of ‘always,’ don’t worry… These frames have sleep modes.)

Loving Nixplay’s Dynamic Playlist Feature
I’ve been using Nixplay digital photo frames for the past few years. Originally, I uploaded my pics to Nixplay’s cloud and then synced the photos to my frames from there. Truthfully, it was a bit cumbersome. So, when Nixplay began linking to cloud services like Instagram, Flickr and Dropbox, that was the upgrade that made moving my photo files to my Nixplay frames almost effortless.

Here’s why…

I simply created a Dropbox photo folder on my iMac’s desktop. I linked that folder to my Nixplay online account and digital frame. Then, I simply drop my photo files into the folder to add to the frame’s playlist.

Just as importantly, I regularly delete older photos in the folder to keep the frame’s content fresh. This is how I maintain my “dynamic playlist.”
(You can have as many playlists or dynamic playlists as you want.)

I know I’ve said this before, but you absolutely don’t want to keep older pictures hanging around when you’ve got fresh content to share. There will be exceptions, but I find this rule generally holds.

How Illuminating is Skylight?
If you’re in the market to pick up one of these visual portals to your recent past, congratulations! Is Nixplay the only choice out there? Not at all…

In fact, a friend asked me the other day about digital photo frames made by Skylight. I did some research, and here’s what I found…

Skylight’s big trick is you can upload photos its frames it via email. No cloud storage. And no extra steps to slow you down. Operationally, viewers manage all of the photos locally on the frame and delete them when they want.

That may sound easy, but consider this… If you give out Skylight frames to relatives, you can’t manage the photo playlist from your own computer once you email the pics out.

For me, that’s a deal breaker.
(I need more control.)

That said, Skylight’s one really cool feature is its touch screen. Your viewers can swipe through your photos and ‘heart’ them much like they would on a smartphone.
(And you get an email informing you of the ‘heart’)

The Skylight frame even displays a “New Photos Have Arrived” button. That can be especially useful to give your viewers a heads-up.

The only model is the Skylight 10″ Plus frame, and it costs $159.00, which is in line with the competition.

I appreciate that Skylight originated from a Kickstarter campaign through the Harvard Innovation Lab, but the design doesn’t give me the kind of control I’m looking for to maintain my playlists.

So, I recommend you check out Nixplay…

Sticking with Nixplay
My ongoing relationship with my Nixplay frames hasn’t exactly been perfect. I’ve occasionally had delayed syncing problems, but Nixplay has ultimately come through for me.

  • Again, I really love Nixplay’s dynamic playlist feature through Dropbox. Nixplay also gives you 10 GB of free online storage. (You can pay for more.)
  • And the Nixplay ecosystem keeps getting better. Now there’s a mobile app, which give you on-the-go control of your frames. Plus, you can snap a photo with your smartphone and almost instantly add it to your photo frames. (Sorry, Skylight.)

There are a variety of Nixplay digital photo frames and sizes to choose from:

Nixplay Seeds are WiFi-only frames, which is just fine with me. But if you also want the old-school ability to upload pictures via SD cards, there’s the Nixplay Edge model.

Use this Visual Storytelling Strategy
I’ve talked previously about ways to maintain your public brand online.

But you also have a personal brand to feed that’s uniquely positioned for your family and friends.

And with distance often challenging the continuity of extended family units, displaying your photo playlists on WiFi digital photo frames is a wonderful way to communicate your family’s ongoing story.

#ShareYourPhotosNow

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February 25, 2018

Don’t Fall into this DPI Rabbit Hole when Printing Your Photos

iCloud Photo Library makes it easy to sync and print your photos (like this New York City moment). But if you’re worried about maintaining image quality and DPI settings, it’s time to review a few facts…

One of my in-laws emailed me the other day and asked this: When iPhones sync their photos through iCloud Photo Library and then to the ‘Photos’ Mac app… is the resolution maintained? The big concern was whether Apple’s automatic digital file copying to iCloud wasn’t somehow cheating by transferring lower resolution copies.

Because when it comes time to print your photos, you’d want to be sure to have access to the full-resolution versions, right?

The answer is yes. Full resolution, baby!
Apple explains it right here.

Does DPI make a Difference when Exporting a Photo File?
As it turns out, I usually transfer pictures off of my iPhone to do photo management without the iCloud Photo Library ecosystem. I take them directly to Adobe Lightroom via USB along with the pics from my Panasonic Lumix LX10.

So I decided to do a little experiment with iCloud…

I have iCloud Photo Library activated on my iPhone as something of a default. So, I clicked on one of my iPhone’s synced photos on my iMac using the Photos app. Then, I exported the pic to check out its specs.

Yep… it had the same pixel dimensions as its duplicate that I also exported from Lightroom.

Case closed.
But…

I noticed that there was one difference between the two photo files when I compared the specs via ‘Inspector’…

The picture from the Photos app had a 72 Image DPI value, while the sister file from Lightroom displayed a 300 Image DPI value.

Huh?
So, were these two photo files the same or not?

The Fine Print on DPI
DPI stands for dots per inch and is relevant when you’re printing out a photo. It’s a piece of information that tells a printer how high a quality to print at.

I’ve typically exported my photo files from Lightroom at 72 PPI (pixels per inch) for web use and 300 PPI for a full resolution copy when I want to print it.
(PPI and DPI are related, and many use 300 DPI as a printing standard.)

And while you always should print your photos at 300 DPI (if you can) to maintain its printed quality, the fact that your photo file has 300 DPI in its metadata has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the photo file itself.

What’s important is the pixel dimensions of the photo. The more pixels the better!
(Newer iPhone pics are 4,032 x 3,024 pixels.)

So, when the Photos app inserts 72 DPI into the metadata of its exported photo files, that’s actually meaningless to the quality of the digital photo files.

But will the 72 DPI setting affect the quality of a printed photo?

DPI ABCs
This is the center of some ongoing controversy out there. I found this blog post by Dara Skolnick, who did a really nice job explaining the facts and misperceptions about DPI.

But to cut to the chase… the simple answer is no.
If you’re only trying to print out a 4×6, 5×7 or even an 8×10 photo using the photo file’s original pixel count, it shouldn’t matter what the DPI is set to. Your computer and printer will still jam all of the megapixels into your photo, ensuring its quality.

But things will get trickier if you want to create a wicked-large print. That’s when the DPI issue comes into play. If you want to maintain a 300 DPI print quality, there will be a limit to the size of the photo you can print. (Remember, your photo file has a finite number of pixels.)

Yes, at lower DPI numbers, you’ll be able to print larger… but you’ll also begin to sacrifice image quality.

Another important detail to remember is you don’t have to print at the DPI number embedded in the file. Many folks out there say it’s just a meaningless piece of metadata. You can always change the DPI setting when printing…

The bottom line is there’s nothing wrong with simply exporting a file at 300 DPI. But there’s also no real difference when the same photo shows up with a 72 DPI setting.
(As long as the pixel dimensions are the same)

When DPI Does Matter
If you’re planning on sending your files to a professional photo shop to print out huge prints, then DPI can become an important factor.

Otherwise, if you’re like me printing out a few family pics on the home printer, I think you can pretty much forget about DPI.

72 DPI and the Web
And is 72 DPI the right setting for web photos?
Apparently that’s also irrelevant. That number is more of a holdover from the old days.

Let’s move on…

It’s Safe to Print
So, do yourself a favor and don’t fall down the DPI rabbit hole like I just did while researching the facts for this post.

Feel free to print out as many standard-sized photos from your iCloud Photo Library as you like without worrying about DPI and maintaining image quality…

Your photos will look great!

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