|
5/4/2025 0 Comments Do I have to use the Outlook app for my outlook.com email, and the GMAIL app for my gmail.com email? This question was posed recently by an iTandCoffee Club member.
We had been talking about using the Outlook app on her computer for managing her Microsoft email account. She had assumed that, given it was an outlook.com email address, she had to use the Outlook app on all devices, including her iPhone and iPad. Similary for her other email account, which was a GMAIL account, did she have to use the GMAIL app on her iPhone and iPad? And what about on her computer, where she didn't seem to have such an app available. This is a common misunderstanding when it comes to Outlook and GMAIL accounts and the apps by the same names.
0 Comments
 One the of the most popular class topics run by iTandCoffee is the Ditch that Scanner class - where we look at all sorts of options for ditching your printer’s scanner and using a mobile devices to scan your documents and photos.
Of recent times, I have been using the built-in features of the iPhone and iPad to do my day-to-day document scanning, rather than relying on any third-party scanner. I scan all sort of things direct into Notes and use it to keep records of receipts, bills, and all sorts of other things. I also use something called a Shortcut to scan a document straight into my iCloud Drive (so that it syncs across to my Mac and can be accessed almost immediately from Finder on my Mac). Let's take a look these scanning options.  A client that I saw this week was having problems with her 10 year old printer’s scanner. It had stopped working after a recent macOS update, and she could not scan documents to her Mac’s desktop using that scanner.
We tried updating the printer’s drivers, but this did not help. Rather than continuing to try to resolve this issue (or look at options for a new printer/scanner), I showed her how she could achieve that same scanning using her Mac and her iPhone - requiring less steps and effort. 2/4/2025 0 Comments Here's why I ask my questions of Copilot instead Apple's enhanced Siri (for now) In the last newsletter, I featured an article that discussed some reasons why you might choose to use Copilot if you have the feature available to you as part of your Microsoft 365 account. (Here's that article.)
Since writing that article, I have been using the Copilot app a lot more.  In a separate article, I talk about Microsoft's large price increase for its Personal Microsoft 365 accounts - justified by Microsoft by highlighting the addition of (amongst other things) AI-powered tools like Co-Pilot.
As I mentioned in that article, I did pay increased subscription back in Dec 2024, not seeing any obvious option for 'opting out' of the new AI features. While I have now downgraded my subscription, this will not take effect until Dec 2025 when the subscription is next renewed. In the meantime, I may as well make use of Copilot for the next few months - seeing as I am paying about $4/month to have it! Here's what I found when I had a play with it.  Recently, I have been importing some old family movies from the 90's and early 00's, which were stored on CDs, onto my current computer. I wanted to be able to share them with my kids via OneDrive, so they could download their own copies of the movies.
Last week, we had a family birthday gathering and I wanted to queue up some of these videos to play on the TV - i.e. create a 'playlist' of the movies that were stored on my computers hard drive. Here's how I did this. 6/3/2025 0 Comments More news on changes to Microsoft 365 Subscriptions - discontinuation of one of its apps In a separate article, the increase in Microsoft 365 subscriptions is discussed - including how to 'downgrade' your subscription to avoid the price hike.
Immediately after finishing writing that article, I received an email from Microsoft advising me that my Microsoft 365 subscription would, from next year, no longer include an app that many people have used for years. As shown in the above image, the email advises that, from 1/10/26, Microsoft Publisher will no longer be part of Microsoft 365. This is because Microsoft Publisher is being officially discontinued by Microsoft, and will be no longer supported from that date. It has reached the end of its life. So what can you use once Publisher has been discontinued?  When we recently travelled with friends, one of the challenges was keeping track of all the expenses and 'who owes who what'!
Our strategy for shared costs while we travelled was to load up a Travel Card with the required overseas currenCY, each couple contributing an agreed amount in the leadup to the trip. Then, when there were group outings, tours and dinners, we used that Travel Card to pay. It worked quite well, but there was also lots of transferring of money between different group members to cover tours and accommodation purchased on behalf of the group before the trip. And there was also the need for a tally of where members of the group had paid for shared food/drink with their own credit card - so that we could 'balance the books' at the end. I recently heard of an App that sounds like it would have been so fantastic for managing the trip finances for our group - and that I look forward to trying out in future.  In the past few months, those of us with Microsoft 365 subscriptions (for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Onedrive etc.) were told our subscription cost would increase by a huge $40 per year - from $139/year to $179/year for a Family subscription, and $109/year to $159/year for a Personal subscription.
Microsoft justified this massive increase as necessary to provide us with AI capabilities that we never asked for. Most people I deal with who have Microsoft 365 subscriptions for personal their use have little or no interest in the AI capabilities delivered by Microsoft's Copilot, and certainly don't want to pay this extra cost for this in their subscription. Here's how to avoid this increase.  I have had several iTandCoffee clients, family and friends contact me since Sunday morning, asking about a message that popped up on their devices in the past 2 days - a message like that shown in the image above.
My husband and I also got that message first thing on Sunday morning on our Apple mobile devices. I ignored it at the time, as I was busy - but then received the message again on Monday when I started work. I could not receive my business emails until I re-provided sign-in details and re-authenticated. Is this message a scam, or is it a legitimate sign-in request. Why is it appearing? And what should you do if you receive it? |
What's on at iTandCoffee ?Below is our list of videos, classes and other events that are coming up soon.
Videos shown are offered for eligible members of the iTandCoffee Club. If you have questions, why not join fun and informative 'user group' meetings, held once a month. All iTandCoffee classes are run as online classes (using Zoom), which means you can attend from anywhere. |
RSS Feed
27 Sycamore St, Camberwell, Victoria Australia
(also located in Daylesford)
(also located in Daylesford)
Call +61 444 532 161 or 1300 885 420
to book an appointment or class, or to enquire about our services and products
|
SENIORS CARD WELCOME HERE:
Seniors Card holders qualify for a 10%* discount on eligible classes booked and paid for online. To activate the discount at the time of booking, select Redeem Coupon or Gift Certificate and enter 10OFFSEN before selecting Pay Now Seniors can also save $5** on the first full hour of appointments booked online. Enter Coupon Code of BASEN5 when booking to receive this discount. * Some heavily discounted classes are excluded from the 10% class discount offer. ** Where more than one type of discount is available, only one type of discount can be used. |
© 2012-2025 iTandCoffee Pty Ltd. All rights reserved ACN: 606 340 434