Holidays!

Because I’ve been absent from this blog for so long (all’s well, thanks for the inquiries 🙂 )… I’ve missed posting Holiday things! So I’ll correct that now, by adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

There are so many Christmas apps! One favorite type, going strong for the last couple of years, can be summed up as: “Catch-Santa-in-your-Living-Room-to-prove-to-your-kids-that-he-is-real.” (Thanks to Kerry for reminding me of this one)

There are several of these available, and they are kind of fun. You just take a picture of your own tree, or fireplace or some other known-to-your-kids spot. Then use the app to place Santa right there. Through the magic of filters, it looks incredibly real.

One of these apps is: Snap Santa. It’s free, and the photos look quite good, but you’ll have to work your way around the ads. Just press the ‘x’ in the game ad to close it, and away you go. You’ll be presented with one Santa when you start, but you can scroll your way through quite a few others (also for free).

***

I know that many of you enjoy Simon’s Cat as much as I do. Happily we have a new one for Christmas this year. It’s called “Little Box.” Enjoy!

***

And, since this is a tech blog, I’ll include another video featuring the “Simon’s Cat” artist, Simon Tofield. You’ll catch a glimpse of the artist’s studio and watch as he sketches and colors in a Christmas picture using his computer. A little “behind the scenes” look at Simon’s … uhhh… Tech. Yes. Simon’s Tech. 🙂

***

And for all my friends who celebrate Hanukkah, this is a great video. I guarantee your feet will be tapping! (Thanks to Trudi for sharing this)

To all my friends in the Blog-o-sphere, Best wishes for a wonderful Holiday season and a most happy and healthy New Year! See you in 2017!

The Person Behind the Voice of the Iconic “You’ve Got Mail”

This is fun!! We’ve ALL heard those words, “you’ve got mail”

Although it is not heard nearly as much today, many of the readers of this blog have used (or still use) AOL, the place where these voice commands originated.

This short video introduces you to the voice behind this phrase …. Enjoy!

3D Printer Rescues Tortoise

What a wonderful story!!

This poor tortoise lost its shell to a fire. But happily for him, 3D printing is exploding with all kinds of practical uses, and so scientists applied this technology to this situation, and gave the tortoise a brand new shell!

Amazon releases the Newest Kindle: Oasis

This morning Amazon went “live” with it’s newest Kindle, available now to pre-order.

Improvements seem to be mostly the hardware: It’s thinner and lighter. It’s shaped differently, giving you a wider side on one edge to hold it. It comes WITH a cover, and that cover acts as an additional charging source for the Kindle, giving it the battery power of months (yes…months).

It’s pricey, and so it will be interesting to see if this model flies off the shelves ….

I’ve been reading on the Kindle Voyage, and it hasn’t been my happiest experience. The improvements on the new Oasis seem to have addressed the shortcomings of the Voyage. The price tag gives me pause, but I’m such a new-tech-stuff nerd ………. I just might……. (and if I do, I’ll be sure to let you know. 🙂 )

Reviews are coming out, and they are looking good.

This short video, made by my favorite Kindle podcaster, Len Edgerly, examines the new Oasis.

Amazon Prime on SALE for the Weekend

Amazon Prime usually costs $99 for the year. For the cost of your membership, you get free two day shipping on all prime-eligible items on Amazon. You also get oodles (and I do mean OODLES i.e. thousands) of movies to stream with Amazon Prime. Also TV shows. And Music. LOTS of unlimited, ad-free music. And ….. Unlimited Photo storage.

(With the Amazon Video app, you can instantly stream all your Amazon Prime movies/tv shows right to your iPad.)

For this weekend, Prime will cost only $73 dollars for NEW members. Starting 9 PM Pacific Time on Friday night, and ending at 11:59 PM Pacific time on Sunday night.

Why $73? (Seems like such a random number…… ?) It is in honor of the 73rd annual Golden Globes at which an original Amazon series, Mozart in the Jungle, won two awards last week.

I’ve been a member for years, so I can’t take advantage of this offer. But if you’ve been considering giving Amazon Prime a try, this weekend would be a thrifty time to jump on the bandwagon.

Weekend Distraction: The Living Room Candidate

Politics. Sigh.

The US Election for President is OVER A YEAR away and already we have 24/7 coverage of the candidates.

Good grief. Does anyone else think that’s crazy?
But I digress…….

Even if politics is not your ‘thing’, it’s quite interesting to look back through the years, all the way to 1952, to see the Presidential Campaign Commercials. There are many commercials available to watch for EVERY candidate, winners and losers.

The early ones are especially fun to watch. So very VERY different from today.

Enjoy! The Living Room Candidate – Commercials.

Amazon Prime on SALE for ONE DAY only September 25

Amazon Prime Membership usually costs $99 a year, but this Friday, September 25, it will be on sale for new customers for just $67 for the year.

Amazon Prime gives you free two-day shipping on the Prime products you purchase on Amazon. There is also a boatload of free music available to Prime members, and free videos, as well. Although their video library is not as deep as Netflix, it is substantial, and most recently they added the “download and watch later” option (which is wonderful for travelers).

Access to a Kindle lending library is also part of an Amazon Prime membership. (This is limited to only certain books, and just one borrowed book per month.)

Another benefit of Prime membership is one I haven’t used yet…. but I plan to give it a try shortly. Unlimited Photo Cloud storage. (This is exciting to me. I have far too many photos on my devices!)

Two day shipping, free music, free videos, free photo cloud storage and a kindle lending library.

$67 instead of $99! If you’ve been considering Amazon Prime, this is a great opportunity to give it a whirl.

Very Weird: Ants Respond to Cell Phone Ringing

This is WEIRD. When the video starts, you see the ants running randomly in every direction.

Then … the phone starts ringing.

And then the ants start circling the phone. All together. In the same direction. Weird!!!! …..and, uh … why????

If you were to ask me before I watched it, I would have thought the ringing might make the ants scatter. Certainly not this?

(Update: I continued to look into this, and I’ve seen reports on the internet from those who claim that this video is a hoax, and others who “scientifically” suggest that the ants are responding to the vibration and point to ant studies of similar behavior. So far, the jury is out …. real or hoax? to be continued…..)

How to View Movies on your iPad or iPhone OFFLINE, with Amazon Prime, for FREE

Anyone who travels has faced the situation. You want to load up your device with some content to watch while you are offline (not streaming). Anticipation of a long airplane ride will send most people to iTunes or Amazon with the intention of grabbing some movies or tv shows to help pass those long hours in flight.

Until now, your best option was to rent a movie (or tv show).

But recently Amazon has announced a new feature for its Amazon Prime members: Free offline watching of (some) videos. This is great news for travelers who subscribe to Amazon Prime. This feature had previously only been available for Amazon’s own Fire tablets, but now this is a new expansion to include iPhones and iPads. Yay!

Although Amazon has made it clear that this feature is not available for everything in their Prime library (I’m sure they have to pay for the right to do this) …… they claim that “thousands” of videos are available for off-line viewing.

So, I decided to give it a try, since “easy” is not always easy for us un-techy folks. (Remember, you must be a Prime member to take advantage of this feature.)

Your first step will be to download Amazon’s free video app to your iPhone or iPad.

What follows here are several screen shots from my iPad as I downloaded a video to watch off-line.

After downloading the app, I was greeted with this screen, informing me of this new off-line watching feature.

Opening the app, I tapped on several programs that were available free for Prime members. The first one I found that also offered the download option was “Curb your Enthusiasm”. Notice the download icon next to each episode.

I tapped the download icon and the program started downloading immediately.

After the file downloaded, I closed the app, and went off-line, putting my iPad into airport mode.

I went back to the app to see if I could watch the program. I wasn’t sure how to access it, but sometimes the ‘easiest’ way is the one that works. I simply went to the same screen where I did the downloading, and tapped on “play.”

Instantly, the show began, and played flawlessly, while my iPad was offline. Hurray!

Your movie or tv show will not stay on your device forever, it will “expire”. In this case, you can see that I was told that the program would be available offline for me for 48 hours.

I Want to Shop at this Store!!!

Wouldn’t it be fun to shop at this store? (It’s in Germany, though… a little far for me….)

Enjoy!!!

I guarantee it will make you smile!!

Have a Wonderful Holiday, everyone. Wishing only the best for you and your families.