At Home with Tech

Unlock the power of all your technology and learn how to master your photography, computers and smartphone.

Tag: tech tips

December 31, 2023

My Biggest Discoveries I Blogged About over the Past Year

Here’s my At Home with Tech year in review. Below are the links to my key learnings and tech discoveries.

So yes, these next few weeks can all be about looking forward. The fresh start. The resolutions. The turning over a new leaf. But I like to think of this time of year as the next chapter that builds on the past. It’s not so much ‘the new’… as ‘the next.’

I try to carry it forward. That way, I can greet these annual cycles with the perspective of my past years’ experiences. Said another way, it’s important to look back as you look forward. Otherwise, a lot can get lost across the years.

That’s why I think it’s critical to package up the story of your past year in an organized photo collection (digital or book) or perhaps an edited video-clips overview.

You might also want to perform a mental review and acknowledgement of your other notable actions and learnings.

Take it in. Then lock it in, or let it go if need be.

At Home with Tech Year in Review

As you know, I document my thoughts on technology and family life each week. So, I’ll follow my own advice and offer this summary of my blog posts that reflect my big learnings across the past year. Please check out the links below that most interest you!

My Growth as a Parent

Working in our Post-Pandemic World

My Journey as the Family Photographer

My Role as the Family Archivist

How a tiny film-to-digital converter brought new life to my father’s old analog slides
How to quickly turn a scanned negative into a positive image on a Mac
How to use SmugMug as a family photo archiving tool
How to prevent your family’s identity from being washed away by time

Maximizing your Family Video Clips

My Family Vacation Tips

Best Practices for your iPhone

My Evolving Understanding of Apple Computers

Here’s to a Prosperous 2024
As always, thank you for reading my blog. I’m looking forward to sharing more with you in the year to come.

Happy New Year!

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October 23, 2022

9 Tricks to Eject Unwelcome Ghosts in the Machine

Do you sometimes get spooked by your tech’s unexpected glitches? Here are a few of the ways I chase away the unwanted ghosts in my gear.

A good day is when all of your tech behaves and operates properly. While it’s sometimes fun to get a little scared during the Halloween season, that feeling should never kick in, simply because your gear starts glitching out on you.

Here are my 9 tricks to help your tech treat you right.

#1
Remove the Pocket Lint from your Smartphone’s Port
Is your smartphone misbehaving and not charging when you plug it in? Or do you have to wiggle the connection until the juice starts flowing? The culprit is likely a fuzzy pocket-lint mass that’s collected inside the phone’s port. Here’s the fix.

#2
Adjust your Camera’s Internal Clock
If maintaining the chronological sequence of your vacation photos is important, and you’re using a second camera on top of your smartphone’s camera, both clocks had better be synced. Otherwise your vacation photos will end up being displayed out of order.

#3
Turn off Portrait Orientation Lock on your iPhone
If you’re trying to watch a video, and your iPhone won’t play it full screen when you rotate it horizontally, the problem is likely the Portrait Orientation Lock. Here’s how to turn it off.

#4
Delete Downloaded Podcasts You’ve Already Listened to
Is your smartphone almost out of storage? Of course it is. Here’s one big way I like to free up badly-needed memory on my iPhone.

#5
Back Up All of your iPad’s Data
Last year, I lost a lot of my son’s photos and videos on our family iPad when we took it to an Apple Store for maintenance. I was devastated by my rookie mistake of not setting up the iPad’s iCloud backup properly.

My son was annoyed, but he quickly moved on and simply took more photos. (And I’m still writing about it.)

#6
Stop your Email Program from Suggesting Old Addresses
Wouldn’t it be nice if everybody had one email address assigned at birth, and that was it for life? How simple would that be? Then, you could easily keep track of all your contacts. No more old email addresses that don’t work.

Until that happens, here’s an easy way to clear out old email addresses from ‘Auto-Complete.’

#7
Do your Software Updates
Keeping all of your digital gear current with software updates is an endless process that requires a fair amount of effort and organization. And following an auto-update strategy can sometimes lead to updates that aren’t ready for prime time. I think it’s best to have your tech remind you about the updates, and then you can manually install them.

#8
Reorganize the Apps on your Smartphone
If you’ve been having difficulty finding certain apps on your smartphone or they’re not where you thought you left them, it’s time to take a few minutes and do a little reorganizing. That can include placing some of your apps into topic folders and perhaps pruning others you haven’t used for a while. (You can always reload them!)

Losing a few long-forgotten apps will also free up memory on your device.

#9
Make Sure You have Enough Wi-Fi Bandwidth at Home
When you’re presenting during a Zoom meeting from your home office, the last thing you want is for someone to interrupt and report that you’ve frozen up. While there’s no bulletproof way to prevent that, you can certainly upgrade your internet plan to improve your odds.

Going old-school and hardwiring your computer to your router may also result in faster streaming speeds.

Boo!
Hopefully these tricks will help prevent your tech from acting naughty and spooking you out!

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May 29, 2022

Why I Continue to Blog Weekly after 10 Years

Posting fresh content to this blog every week has not been easy. Here’s why I continue to challenge myself to maintain my writing pace.

I started blogging At Home with Tech over 10 years ago as a way to channel some of my creative energies. At the time, home tech was a simpler product category and yet simultaneously confusing for so many people. Many of the basics weren’t well understood. I thought I could help readers by sharing my own experiences as I tried to figure out my own finicky technology.

I was the tech nerd who supposedly knew what he was doing, and even I had my gear challenges. That was the set up. So I invited my readers to join me on my journeys of discovery.

My topics broadened over time to other related areas… my photography, video time lapses, movie reviews, science fiction, goofy poetry, family mishaps with technology and well… just about anything that was on my mind. I know that’s hardly a strategic content strategy to build an audience.

But..

Building my Personal Brand
Beyond my tech-challenge-of-the-week structure, these 500 plus blog posts have provided insight into who I am and what I’ve been up to over these years. There’s often a story that leads off each post. And I’ve been mindful to ensure every post supports my individual brand.

Yes, of course I pay attention to marketing myself to the greater universe. While my posts are usually focused on my personal life as a husband and father, the topics are aligned with my professional brand as a video storyteller and leader of creative teams.

If you should Google my name, my blog shows up under my LinkedIn and other social media profiles. So, if you want to learn more about me, it’s there for you.

That’s not a terrible marketing plan.

My Organic Reach
That said, my organic distribution strategy does have limitations in finding a large audience. I track my metrics. They’re stable though not especially impressive. It’s fair to say my weekly blog maintains something of a niche audience.

Yes, some of my ‘how to’ topics have caught on and maintain a healthy number of clicks over months and sometimes years.

And yes, a number of my social media connections do click on my posts after I share them.

So I do maintain a readership.

But blogging weekly takes a fair amount of effort. And I recognize that blogs in general certainly aren’t as cooI as they once were. I could certainly redirect the time to other creative pursuits. So, what brings me back to the keyboard to push out a new post every Sunday at 8pm?

The Benefits of Blogging
First off, At Home with Tech has made me a better writer. While my style here is a bit loose, I know my weekly exercise serves me well.

Second, I must admit I get something of an endorphin hit each time I’m finished with a blog post and press that final ‘click’ to schedule it. Sharing my weekly thoughts with the world is like that first taste of your favorite birthday cake. I know I’m feeding my creative self.

Third, as I mentioned earlier, I intentionally use the topics in my blog to build my brand.

But perhaps most of all, I thrive on the feedback I receive. It’s so great to hear from strangers who’ve been impacted by my words. And it’s really nice when family and friends pop up in the feed.

Then, there are the ‘lost’ connections from my past who occasionally reach out to ‘like’ or make a comment on one of my posts.

In some ways, it’s this feedback I treasure most. I see that I haven’t entirely lost touch with these individuals. I’ve done a terrible job staying in contact with parts of my past… with people who used to be my friends and close colleagues. I regret that and often think about how to repair these lost connections.

And when I see that my blog is actually an instrument of connection to this group, and that they’ve read something I’ve written and then commented back… I’m absolutely blown away with gratitude.

Who knew that his blog could help me stay connected with people I thought I’ve entirely lost touch with?

I’ve not forgotten them, and my blog shows me that I am not forgotten either.

I am Here!
And then there’s the unknowable. Could my blog also be reaching others from my past who choose not to comment on a post? I’d like to think so.

In a sense, my blog is a beacon. So, of course I’d want to keep it lit.

Sometimes I feel a bit like one of those residents of Who-ville calling out in Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears a Who.”

“I am here. I am here. I am here. I am here…!”

Isn’t that exactly what many of us want to yell out from time to time?

Yes, At Home with Tech helps me do that.

Another 10 Years?
My blog is my therapy. My blog is my podium. My blog is my teacher.

It is both a time machine that helps me reach back and a totem that centers me in my present.

All of this is why I continue to write my blog.

Thank you for being a reader of At Home with Tech. I really do appreciate it.

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