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Sunday, June 28, 2015

ICYMI: Cloud Storage, Mobile Photo Editor, NASA Images, Blocking Calls, "Unsend" from Gmail, Group Chat

Did you catch all of the cool tips this week?

We covered a wide range of cool topics including the best cloud storage, the best photo editor for your smart phone, a new NASA image gallery, how to block annoying calls to your mobile phone, Gmail's new "Undo" feature and finally the best group chat app that works across difference devices and platforms.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

One Chat App to Rule Them All

Are all of your family and friends on the same group chat application?

The answer is probably no.

Even before AOL's Instant Messenger service, chat applications have been fragmented with various services and device reluctant to communicate with one another gather a large enough userbase to be useful.

Perhaps today's worse offender is Apple's iOS iMessage app which works with other Apple devices and thus all other mobile devices only via cellular text messaging. That leaves Android phones and tablets out of the conversation.

So what's the answer?

There are a number of apps trying to solve this problem. Snapchat, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Skype, and Google Hangouts are just a few of the apps trying to be "the next big thing" in group chat.

But Facebook Messenger is the clear winner. At least for now.

It has a large built-in user base, great features and can be accessed from multiple platforms:

Mobile - Available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
PC - Available from within the Facebook website
PC - Available from the www.messenger.com stand alone website

Some of the key features include:

Make audio and video calls to other Messenger users
Know when people see your text
Make High Def phone calls to other users worldwide
Snap photos and shoot video
Record voice messages
Chat with your favorite groups of other users

Facebook announced this week that Messenger will no longer require a Facebook account to use.

That helps adoption by users who may not want to have a Facebook account.

Group chat is a rapidly growing market for the mobile world. Facebook has with a winning chat strategy for both mobile and desktop users.

Enjoy!

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#chat #facebook #messenger #Android #iPhone #Windowsphone

Friday, June 26, 2015

You Can Now "Unsend" an Email from Gmail

Did you just send an email in anger?
Did you just send the wrong message to your boss?
Did you get your girlfriend and your wife's email mixed up? Only kidding.

Google can help you solve these modern first-world problems with a new feature available to all users in Google's Gmail service.

Google announced this week that an "Undo Send" option has become part of the official product. It had been in testing as part of Gmail's Lab options.

When enabled, you have between 5-30 seconds to "unsend" the message.

Here's how to enable this feature and use it in Gmail:

Log into your Gmail account.
Click the "gear" Setting icon in the upper right-hand corner.
Select "Settings".
Select "general" tab if not already.
About half-way down, look for the "Undo Send" option.
Click the check box to "Enable Undo Send".
Click the dropdown box to choose 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds.
Scroll tot he bottom of the page and click the "Save Changes" button.

When you next send an email, a message will appear that says "Your message has been sent. Undo.". Click the Undo option to unsend the message. Your message will not be sent. You can edit or close the message and return it to your draft folder.

That's it! Save yourself some grief by turn this new feature on.

Enjoy!

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#email #gmail #google #unsend

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Blocking Calls on Your Smart Phone

A major annoyance to almost everyone is unwanted telemarketing calls. Sometimes they are for alarm systems, vacation property or home repairs. Other times they are from legitimate charities seeking donations. But they always seem to come at the wrong time. Is there ever really a good time?

There are a couple of options to minimizing unwanted calls:

Register your phone number with the national Do Not Call Registry from the FCC - Federal Communications Commission (https://www.donotcall.gov/). Legitimate marketers will cease calling your number usually 31 days after registration.
Check if your state also has a Do Not Call registry. For example, Missouri residents can register phone numbers with the state of Missouri at https://ago.mo.gov/divisions/consumer/no-call To find out if your state has a list too, Google your state name and Do Not Call registry.
Create a Contact - For callers you know but may not want to answer, for example, a fundraising call from a local charity you support. Once you have received a call from their number, add a contact entry in your phone's contact list. That way, when the call comes in, you'll see the call listed by the name and can decide if you want to answer the call,

To block a specific number from ringing on your smart phone, use these following instructions.

iPhone

To block specific phone numbers, you can do it two ways:

If you've a received a call from a telemarketer, select the Phone app and then select the Recent call list. To the right of the phone number you want to block, select the i within a circle icon that is to the right of the number. Scroll up if needed and there'll be an option to "Block this Caller". That number will now be blocked on this phone.
If the number you want belongs to a contact on your phone, go to Settings > Phone > Blocked. Scroll to the bottom if needed and choose "Add New" to select the contact you wish to block.

Android

To block specific phone numbers, you can do it two ways:

From the call log, select the number you want to block by selecting the 3-dot menu in the upper right-hand corner and select "Add to reject list". This will block future calls from this number.
For a specific number, go to Phone app > Call Rejection > Auto Reject List. Enter the exact number to block.

Note: Android devices can be inconsistent on this feature and it may not be as simple as these instructions.

If you should inadvertently answer a telemarketing call, remember to be nice. It's someone's mother or brother trying to make a living. But be firm and request they remove you from their call list. And need be, you can block their number.

Enjoy!

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#iphone #android #iOS #block #DoNotCall

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Visit One Cool Tip.com on Facebook

One Cool Tip.com is now on Facebook.

Be sure to "Like" the page and get your cool tips from within Facebook.

All of your favorite tips on Google, iPhone, Android, Microsoft, mobile apps and more are available from the new Facebook site.

Be sure to share your favorite One Cool Tips with your Facebook friends!

Of course, the main website will still be available at http://www.onecooltip.com

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Daily Tips for a Cooler Life!

NASA Launches New Image Gallery

NASA has launched a new searchable gallery of images available HERE. It's really out of this world!

The new site is a collection of over 138,000 images from 70 galleries and allows for improved searching capabilities. And all of this is, of course, free.

This treasure trove of photos spans years of NASA photos.

Collections include the Ames Image Gallery, Goddard Image gallery, NASA Human Space Flight Collection, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Collection, NASA Image of the Day Gallery and multiple Space Shuttle Flight Collections.

The new search capabilities bring iconic photos to users within seconds.

This new site is in addition to NASA's main image gallery available HERE

NASA sound and ringtone files are also available. I've reviewed this popular resource here at OneCoolTip. Learn more HERE.

Enjoy!

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#NASA #images #space

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Snapseed - Google's Best Photo App You Don't Know About

With the rapid use of smart phones, millions of people around the world now take photos every day. With newer phones capable of greater quality photos, users can take near-professional photos on their phone cameras. Many professionals even take their professional photos on mobile devices. But not every photo is picture-quality and ready to share.

So how can you make edits to you photos without exporting them to a PC? Fortunately, most phones offer some built-in editing capabilities, like cropping and auto-tune. And there are dozens of great photo editing apps in the iTunes and Google Play stores.

But which one is best?

Google has a hidden gem of a photo editor you probably haven't heard about. Acquired during the acquisition of Nik, Google released an update to its Snapseed mobile photo editing software this year.

This app should be your main photo editor on your phone. It's easy to learn, easy to use and has great editing features.

When you load and edit a photo, you can choose from two main editing toolsets: Tools and Filters.

Tools offers several editing choices: Tune, Crop, Transform, Select, Vignette, Details, Rotate, Brush and Spot Repair.

Filters includes Lens Blur, Tonal Contrasts, Drama, Grainy Film, Retrolux, Glamorous Glow, HDR Scape, Grunge, Vintage and Noir.

Unlike most editing apps, Snapseed puts each edit in its own layer. This allows you to go back and change an edit even if you've made other edits. So you can stack your edits and change each one before you finalize all of your changes on a final photo.

My favorite filter for scenic photos is the HDR (High Dynamic Range).

Here is a standard photo I took recent of a church in Puerto Vallarta, Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Puerto Vallarta Jalisco Mexico

HDR Photo - Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Puerto Vallarta Jalisco Mexico

Used in conjunction with Google Photos that I've previously shared with you, you can get great photo editing software and photo storage available from your mobile device.

You can download Snapseed from the iTunes Store HERE and from Google Play store HERE.

Enjoy!

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#snapseed #google #photoeditor #photos #iphone #android #mobile #app