Category Archives: senior lifestyle

Forget Your Troubles, Come On Get Happy 

Posted on by
Reply

Thank you, Judy Garland. 

“Forget your troubles, come on get happy. You better chase all your cares away. Shout Hallelujah, come on get happy.”

This should make you smile. 

I’m always scouting for fun stuff to do that will take my mind away from the things that bother me. Here is a true digital solution. It’s an app called Colorfy,  coloring therapy for adults. 

  
The app description says,”The secret against anxiety. Let the colors fill your mind in a relaxing painting experience. Time flies by and problems fade away while you chill out and have fun.”

– Color beautiful florals, animals, mandalas, and more

– Choose your favorite color combinations

– Easy! Simply tap to paint and pinch to zoom

– Share your creations with all your friends 

  

 

Below is my first attempt. I’m doing this on my iPhone. I’m sure it’s better on a tablet.

  
    
 

Be sure to watch the videos I posted. Have fun coloring away.

Tips For Taking Incredible iPhone Shots

Posted on by
2

All of the photos below were taken by Emil Pakarklis on his iPhone. 

  
    
    
 

I don’t know Emil Pakarklis very well, but he has been offering very interesting  tips for taking incredible iPhone photos for quite some time on the Internet. 

If you want to take photos like this on your iPhone click here. I made it easy for you to access his video. 

Pakarklis says “Don’t get caught up in buying the latest and greatest photography  equipment. That’s how the photography industry makes billions of dollars. Nothing will make a bigger impact on your photos than learning how to take full advantage of the camera that you already have.

“And if you’re anything like me, your iPhone is probably the only camera that you have with you at all times. That’s why I created a free video revealing how you can take better photos with your iPhone than most people can take with a big camera.”

I watched the video earlier today and will be practicing some of these techniques tomorrow. Stay tuned. 

  

 

All About Eve 

Posted on by
1

   
 
I wish there was an Elgato Eve air room monitor when my daughter Whitney was growing up.  I often put her to sleep and checked back every few minutes because I thought her bedroom smelled of smoke or of whatever the upstairs neighbor was cooking for dinner. 

I’m not the only nut. Friends now admit they did the same thing because they were concerned about the possibility of  mold and contaminated air from their own renovation projects. 

We all laughed at each other’s neuroses over the years, but most of us would have paid a few hundred dollars just to get an accurate reading on air qualities.

The Elgato Eve Room air monitor sells for $80 on the company website, Amazon, and Best Buy.

The Elgato Eve Room is Bluetooth enabled, so you can get the readings on your smartphone. 

Click here for CNET’s story on Eve.

 

  

Spell Check

Posted on by
2

   

(Thank you Frayne Rosenfield for sharing)

MESSAGE: 
Hi Bill,

This is Alan next door. I’m sorry buddy, but I have a confession to make to you. I’ve been riddled with guilt these past few months and have been trying to get up the courage to tell you this to your face. I couldn’t, so now I’m telling you all in a text. I can’t live with myself a moment longer without you knowing. 

The truth is, I have been sharing your wife, day and night, when you’re not around. In fact, probably more than you. I haven’t been getting it at home recently, but that’s no excuse I know. The temptation was just too much… I can no longer live with the guilt and I hope you will accept my sincerest apologies and forgive me. I promise that it won’t happen again. Please come up with a fee for usage, and I’ll pay you.

Regards,

Alan.

THE ACTION:
Bill, feeling insulted and betrayed, grabbed his gun, and shot his neighbor dead. He returned home where he poured himself a stiff drink and sat down on the sofa. He took out his phone where he saw he has a subsequent message from his neighbor.

THE SECOND MESSAGE:

Hi Bill, 

This is Alan next door again. Sorry about the slight typo on my last text. I know you probably figured it out already. I’m sure you noticed that my auto correct changed ‘WiFi’ To ‘Wife’. 

Technology hey !?!  Hope you saw the funny side of that.

Regards,

Alan

A Message To Seniors From Author Amy Tan  

  
 

A Reminder From My Friend JC 

   

   

Open Camera Roll 

Posted on by
1

  

The world of privacy just got less private. There is a new app called “Shorts” that allows the contents of your camera roll to be shared with others.

Scary? Maybe, but this may become a new popular trend. You get to choose which photos you want to share and who you want to share them with.

When you open Shorts, you get to see the latest camera roll updates from friends and family who gave you permission. The big appeal is that people are going to get closer to each other than ever before. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, you get to see many more photos because you are looking at an album rather than what someone chooses to post. It’s instant access into someone else’s life.

A word to the wise. Be careful what photos you take and keep in your camera roll. Even if you get to pick which photos you want to share, there is now more of a chance to make mistakes. Your life is now an open camera roll.

I searched tech sites for a more in-depth explanation of Shorts. Click here to read the Mashable post.

I Now Pronounce You A Wine Expert 

Posted on by
1

    
 
  

This is good news for people like me who don’t know a thing about wine. We want to know more, but we don’t have the time for a classroom education.

Enter Delectable, a wine app that gives you all the information you would ever need to know about wines.

All you gave to do is take a photo of a wine label and you will instantly get ratings and descriptions. According to the Delectable app, you will now be able to:

1-Keep track of your favorite wines

2- Learn more about wine by following the world’s leading winemakers, sommeliers and wine critics. 

3-Buy wines you love.

4-Buy wine right from your phone and get it delivered to your doorstep

5-Add your own ratings and tasting notes to keep track of your favorites

6-Share recommendations with friends

Want to experience the latest version of Delectable before it gets released? Join the beta program by clicking here.

Windows That Transform Into Balconies  

Posted on by
5

  
   

 https://youtu.be/iwguRr6LuAY

This is one step I’m not going to take. There is no way I’m going to trust a window that transforms into a balcony to hold me up. I’m getting vertigo just thinking about out it.

We had better take this innovation seriously. According to the manufacturer, it’s just a matter of time until these type of Bloomframe windows appear on the new buildings in your neighborhood.

The French manufacturer Kawneer, global leader for aluminum facades, windows and doors, is responsible for the development.

Gmail Tricks 

Posted on by
4

  
I don’t know if this ever happened to you, but it certainly happened to me. I sent an email to the wrong person. Lucky for me, it was a harmless email. I fortunately didn’t disclose any private information or  give out any personal records.

I learned a valuable lesson. Don’t be so quick to click the “send” button. Check the name, the subject matter, and the content of the body copy. Focus, pause, then “send.”

That should do the trick. If it doesn’t, use Gmail. It will help safeguard you. Gmail has a feature to “unsend” an email. All you have to do is click the gear at the top right hand corner of your email page. Then go to Settings. There us an “Undo Send” option  under the “general”  tab. Click on it and then choose a cancellation period of 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds. 

From my experience, pick the longest option. It’s always better to go with the longest possible option. To find out some other really clever  Gmail tricks, click here. Techlicious, a popular tech site, covered the topic recently.

Remember When? 

Posted on by
4

   

 

Remember when you would come home after work, and the first thing you said to your family or roommate was, “Anyone call me?” 

Or if no one was home, the first thing you did after you entered your home was check the answering machine.

Those days are gone forever. The big news now is that smartphone voicemails may become obsolete over time.

Cell phone users in their teens, 20s and 30s, have already written off using leaving  voicemails. They only want to text. If you call them, they won’t even listen to your message. They may call you back if they see your number on their recent call list. Or they just may choose to ignore you. 

Your best bet is to text. You may not have a choice in the future. There’s a new app that many are talking about that’s called “No More Voicemail.” It actually deactivates your  voicemail on your cell. In the past, you had to contact your carrier in order to get this done. 

Now this app uses the “conditional call forwarding feature” right on your phone to send your unanswered calls to a virtual number that will just ring and ring. Once the caller realizes that you will never pick up, he or she will learn to use text. 

If you want to find out how the “No More Voicemail” works, read Tech Crunch. 

Not My Grandmother’s Forward 

Posted on by
1

I can still remember my Grandmother Elsie, reading The Forward, a Yiddish/English newspaper published in lower Manhattan. She would sit on a chair, by the window, whispering the Yiddish words she was reading to herself. 

Sixty-two years later, I find myself reading The Forward in English on my iPhone. In my estimation, The Forward has become a hip, pop-cultured, digital newspaper that offers a Jewish angle on every day events. 

You can’t find these kind of stories, one after another, in most newspapers and magazines. The fun part is that The Forward is now delivered in an electronic newsletter to my email feed everyday. 

That’s the way I receive most of my favorite publications–Vanity Fair, Vogue,  Variety, New York Times, New Yorker,  Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Huffington Post, etc.  All I do is visit their websites, look for the email newsletter subscription box, fill in my email, and then sit back and wait for the news and features to come to me.

This is a much better and more timely way to get information. Twitter also offers these stories in the form of tweets. Either way, you are getting the news in a constant and easy-to-digest format. Sitting down to read an entire newspaper, in one session, is just a thing of the past.

To tell you the truth, I never thought I would be reading The Forward. The current day editors got very smart. They write edgy news and then distribute it in a modern day, delivery package.

A gliklekhe rayze!