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148Apps 2013 wrAPP-Up - How My Grandmother Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Going Mobile

Posted by Mike Deneen on December 31st, 2013

I'm the kind of person who my entire family comes to with any tech or game related question. For my soon-to-be career in the IT world, I've probably already heard every silly computer related question I can think of; such as my parent's worrying I deleted all of their email in their Yahoo! email account when I reformatted their computer to my uncle calling me to tell me how this site he saw on an infomercial cleaned up his PC. Every facepalm, of course to those in the know, was from lack of knowledge of computers and technology.

So when it came to my grandmother - who is old, fragile, and not in the greatest of health - needing an upgrade from her ancient Mac Book this year, I candidly suggested she go to an iPad instead of a new computer. "Why?" my family asked, "How can a tablet replace a computer?" To which I gave them a brief summary of all the reasons I could come up with to justify the purchase of a $500 tablet versus a $1200 MacBook. The iPad's size, weight, cost, and usability were all crucial to my argument for the iPad versus another laptop.

Me with my grandmother at my wedding in 2010.

Eventually I won out in this discussion, thus beginning a sort of experiment to see if my dad's mother could adopt to a mobile touch screen device. To many in our age group, the idea that someone may have trouble with an iPad sounds almost absurd. But keep in mind this was part of a family that I had to verbally instruct over the phone as to how to launch Skype on their MacBook.

The first baby steps of this experiment were to introduce her to popular apps, such as the iPad email interface, Safari, and Facebook. Facebook took great strides in 2013 to make their mobile app to have nearly all the functionality of the browser based version. I was even able to help her figure out how to hide the posts from a distant relative who'd post quite frequently about Justin Bieber and how much she'd spent on clothes. My grandma is cool like that.

Next up was showing her various forms of entertainment on the device. Now again, this amazing lady still owns two SD TV's, so an iPad with it's Retina display is by far the best visually striking screen in her house. I showed her various video apps; such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and even lesser known ones such as VUDU. Because I also deal with iOS games on a consistent basis, I introduced some simple but really fun games I thought she might be interested in trying. Two of them, which appeared to catch on with her, were games I considered to be some of the best but most overlooked games of 2013: 4 Thrones and FlowDoku.

There have been a couple of challenges in this adventure however, as anyone going from the familiar to the unknown can be a little daunted. My grandmother had issues figuring out her email, having been used to browser based clients. However, I was able to introduce her to the wide array of Google apps available on iOS, merging the Google and Apple worlds into one. She found the Google Mail client pretty useful for her needs, as well as Google Drive, so I could send her stuff such as wedding photos from the event that occurred some 3 years ago. Additionally, I was able to set her up with Skype on iOS so she could watch my sister's wedding, as well as the TED Talks app so she could see the various topics discussed.

There was also a little trouble getting my elderly grandmother adept at using the on-screen keyboard. Luckily the keyboard on an iPad is relatively big with easy to read buttons, especially in comparison to any Android device. It also responds perfectly to touch, with little to no issues responding appropriately. Once she learned to adapt to using a touch screen to not only replace the mouse but the physical keyboard as well, things seemed to go much easier.

The farm I spent a lot of time on as a kid at my grand parents.

My grandmother means the world to me, and it's absolutely devastating knowing she is nearing her final days on this Earth. But the notion that I could help simplify her life a little bit makes me feel a tad better. From helping her get a device that her frail body will be able to manage to setting her up with and showing her how to use some apps that were similar to what she was using on a MacBook, I feel as though my grandma has a great computing device, an awesome means of communicating with the outside world, and something that will help improve her life overall; regardless of how long or short that may be. Technology has many uses beyond business, entertainment, or whatever else. Sometimes it's just as simple as using it to aid the ones you love.

Quickoffice Becomes Free, Google Drive Offers 10GB of Extra Space for Quickoffice Users

Posted by Andrew Stevens on September 20th, 2013
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Quickoffice is now available for free for those with a Google account, allowing users to edit their Microsoft Office documents on all of their iOS devices at no cost. The app integrates with Google Drive so that users can safely store and access files while being away from home. Also, to make things even better, an additional 10GB of storage will be added to all of those who sign in to their Google account through Quickoffice by September 26th.

Stop reading and login to grab your 10 extra GB of free space!

The Google Drive App Has Been Redesigned and Updated with Even More Useful Features

Posted by Rob Rich on September 6th, 2013
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Rejoice, Google Drive users! Google recently updated their file management app with a short but sweet list of goodies.

First and perhaps most immediately noticeable is the new design - most likely in preparation of iOS 7. Of course there have also been a few enhancements that make using the app a lot easier, too. Photos and other files now sport thumbnail previews, users can toggle between two different views (list and grid) to make perusing files less of a bother, and the new Get Link option - by far the handiest, in my opinion - lets you instantly grab the link for any given file.

How To: Transfer Files to and From Your iOS Device

Posted by Carter Dotson on May 28th, 2013

An iOS device, just by itself, is capable of many things but file handling is not one of them. Thankfully, there are ways to get files from one’s computer to an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch with or without a cable. Here are two of the best ways to transfer files to and from your iOS device.

Dropbox

The great thing about Dropbox is that it syncs up very easily with multiple devices. Apps are available for every major platform, but the most convenient thing is that it’s possible to set it up on a computer where Dropbox folders work just like local storage. This way, files can be saved to Dropbox folders and made available easily wherever Dropbox access is available. There’s also access for uploading and downloading files through the web browser for those who just need quick access or can’t install the app for computers.

Don’t worry, files in Dropbox aren’t just stuck in Dropbox’s app. It’s possible to open files in compatible apps. Just tap the arrow in the upper-right corner, tap Open In… and choose the appropriate app. This way, PDFs can be signed in DocuSign Ink, or text files opened in Byword, for example.

Those who prefer a Google bent to their cloud storage might want to check out Google Drive - it provides much of the same functionality.

GoodReaderfor iPad and iPhone

The beauty of GoodReader is that when it comes to storing and handling local files, no app beats it. Most any file can be opened up in it at least for storage, if not viewing and using in some fashion. Of course, if the app just existed by itself, it’d be useless. Thankfully, getting files to and from GoodReader is a breeze. You can link up a cloud storage service like Dropbox, add in an FTP server, or even SMB/AFP servers for getting files to and from computers with shared folders.

As well, tap the wifi icon in the app to enable wifi transfer mode, where connecting to the given URL through a web browser will allow you to download and upload files. As well, the app supports transferring files through iTunes’ file sharing.

Sadly, just using one’s iOS device as a USB storage device is difficult without the use of outside programs like i-FunBox installed on every computer, which of course kind of beats the point of having a USB storage device. It may be possible through jailbreak utilities, but jailbreaking is more trouble than it’s worth. Have any other useful ways for transferring files? Let us know in the comments.

Get Landscape Doc Editing And More With New Google Drive Update

Posted by Andrew Stevens on April 8th, 2013
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Google Drive received an update allowing your Google documents to load faster and have quicker editing support. Also, you now get to use landscape for editing of your documents and spreadsheets on your iPhone.

Get All your iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive Stuff In One Pace With Documents.me

Posted by Rob LeFebvre on January 16th, 2013
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Got a slew of documents and other media across all those different cloud systems, like Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, and even email? Documents.me hopes to alleviate the stress of remembering which system the file you want is stored in by aggregating it all into one app, available for iOS devices as well as Mac and PC.

Documents.Me increases productivity by allowing users to search for a file or browse all of their files or file content from public or private clouds right from their mobile device. It also offers offline access to users’ files and folders as well as downloaded files. Additionally, Documents.Me employs strict security and control measures to keep personal and company documents safe. Documents.Me works on WIFI, 3G and 4G networks.


Google Announces Drive and Chrome for iOS

Posted by Rob LeFebvre on June 28th, 2012

Today at Google's own developer conference, vice president of the Chrome division at Google, Brian Rakowski, announced Chrome for the iPhone and iPad. The app will apparently work on iOS devices that have iOS 4.3 and up. It is scheduled to be available later today.

The exciting part of this announcement is that it will support Chrome Sync, Google's bookmark and history synchronization system that allows users of Chrome browser on the desktop have their own stuff on any computer they use Chrome on. Imagine opening your iPad or iPhone browser and being able to access the sites you were browsing and bookmarking on the desktop. Simply brilliant.

In addition, Google announced that their Drive system will also be available for iOS. Google Drive is the updated Google Documents, but competing directly with services like Dropbox - users install Google Drive on their desktop computer, and a folder appears with all their documents and files in it. This new app will bring Drive to the iPhone and iPad for a seamless cloud experience for Drive users.

Google also announced that Drive would now be available to Chrome OS users as well, which makes a lot of sense considering that Google created that specific OS.

With Drive on all major platforms, now, will it give Dropbox a run for its money? Will Google allow Dropbox on Chrome OS? Only time will tell.



Via: The Verge