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 On the iTandCoffee Facebook page just a few days ago I posted an article that is so topical in this time of lockdown and social isolation: The best video conference and chat apps for self-isolation, compared.
Hot on the heals of all the news about these video conference and chat apps has been news of online meetings and gatherings being invaded by uninvited people - who cause a nuisance and, in some cases, take over the screens of others with pornographic content. After posting the article yesterday about 'How to prevent your Zoom meeting from being Zoombomed', I was asked today about the House Party app and how you can prevent similar 'invader' incidents in that app. Below is the answer I gave to the person who asked this question, for anyone else who is wondering the same.
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22/2/2020 3 Comments How can I stop my child re-downloading TikTok after I remove it from his device (since he doesn't have to 'Ask to Buy') ?
Many of you will have read about the concerns around the Chinese social media app, TikTok - an app that is very popular teens and younger children.
TikTok was previously the Music.ly app that so many kids used to record and share short videos of themselves lip-sync'ing to songs. Here is an article that we wrote several years ago about the dangers of Music.ly. Even though the age rating is 12+, children using this app are often much younger. Here is the ABC News report that all parents should read, describing concerns around data being collected by China and the threat to user privacy. 
Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay
Client Meg B has been trying to fill out a PDF form on her iPad, and has been finding the Markup tool provided by Apple to be quite difficult to use when trying to add typed text.
(Here are a couple of our past articles about Markup:
I agree with her that, while the Markup tool makes it really easy to add a signature and annotate a PDF, the way in which you have to add any typed words is pretty 'clunky'. A better alternative is offered by a free app that can be downloaded to ANY mobile device - Apple or Android. 14/1/2020 3 Comments How your kids can by-pass the 'Ask to Buy' requirement of iCloud Family Sharing While assisting a client to set up Parental Controls on her 12yo child's new iPhone this week, discussion turned to the topic of the 'Ask to Buy' setting in the Family Sharing setup of iCloud.
This setting allows a parent to remotely authorise (or not) a request from a child who is a member of their iCloud Family, to purchase/download content (even free apps). In this particular client's case, her child was very keen to get onto the social media platforms that her friends were already on. This mum was considering allowing her child on Instagram (as a Private account of course), so we installed it and set up the app so that it is a Private account. She was happy that she had control over what other social media Apps her child could download, through the Ask to Buy setting. But there is a catch to this setting that meant her child could have downloaded Apps or other content without having to ask for permission. All parents need to be aware of this 'back door'. 16/10/2019 0 Comments Apps for budgeting and invoicing Client Julie M has asked the following question:
"I am wanting to download two financial apps, a simple one to keep track of the household budget and another that provides more options such as recording income and expenditure along with invoices and payments. Do you have any recommendations for either or both?" Here are some suggestions ...
If you ever need to set up a time to talk to someone in a different country, looking at your own availability and then working out the equivalent time in that other location can be a challenge.
The World Clock in the standard Clock app is great for working out the current time at other locations around the world. But it doesn't give the option of putting in a future time and seeing the equivalent time at other locations. The good news is that, as is usually the case, there is an app for that. 
Now that winter has hit, it gets harder to get out and take a walk - especially on a showery day.
Just recently I installed a handy app that will pop up a message to let you know in advance if rain is about to hit, when it is expected and how long it is expected to last for.
(The below article was original posted in May 2018. If figured it was worth re-posting 12 months later, as it is now the #1 productivity app!) My 'twin' tech-lady in Los Angelos, Tech Wizard Judi Jacobs, sent a lovely email this week with thoughts about using the iPhone or iPad to improve your mental and physical well-being. One of the apps she mentioned really took my fancy, and is especially topical at the moment because I am running a series of sessions for parents at various schools in Melbourne, about kids on technology. The topic of how to get kids off technology nearly always comes up at these sessions.
The app is called Forest. Here's what Judi said about this app: "You "plant" a tree and can't use your phone until the tree is fully grown. You can decide the limits in set up. If you try to use your phone the app asks you "do you really want to kill this tree?" which is a ridiculously effective motivator to get through the time you are forcing yourself to unplug. (If there is an actual need to use your phone you merely click the home button.) Planting enough trees earns coins. With 2500 coins you can plant up to 5 real trees with the tree-planting organization Trees for the Future." As someone who is forever attached to their technology, this might be a good one for me to try! 5/4/2019 4 Comments Managing your Outlook Tasks from your iPhone or iPad - and a couple of apps that help If you are a user of the Outlook app on your Windows computer or Mac, you may also be a user of the Tasks aspect of Microsoft's Outlook app.
Outlook's Tasks functionality allows you to manage your 'to do' list, set reminders, flags, priorities and more. I must say that, even on my Mac, I do prefer to use Outlook's Tasks instead of Apple's Reminders app for managing my 'to do list'. There are just so many more options for sorting, filtering and editing. Another big advantage of Outlook's Tasks, as discussed in this separate article from iTandCoffee, is that you can quickly create a task that includes the full content of an email - making management of email follow-ups so much easier.  If, like me, you operate a business in which you clock up quite a few business km's, it is important to be able to track those kms's - so that you can claim them from your business or through your tax return. With a reimbursement of .68c/km, it is well worth ensuring that you keep a log of these k's.
Maintaining a manual log book, however, is an absolute pain. But there is an easier way! As with so many things, there is an app for that. |
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