Episode 88: UnPlugged

 

The Topic

This week we are unplugged in so many ways, was we answer your questions, and cover a wide array of topics.

Joining the Discussion:

Peppermint Granberg
Katie Nelson

Steph
From the Mail:

  • Check out the new Flickr
  • How to pronounce GIF
  • Keeping Things In Perspective
  • Scrapping 12×12 But Printing 8×8

 

Picks of the Week

Katie: Top Ten Time Saving Tech Saving Tips
Peppermint: Google Play Music All Access
Steph: Beautiful Mess iPhone app

Sponsors:

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For the best deal in digital scrapbooking, become a member at TheDailyDigi.com.

 

This entry was posted in Katie, Peppermint, Show Post, Steph. Bookmark the permalink.

38 Responses to Episode 88: UnPlugged

  1. geezee says:

    Steph, I found that I had lost some images from an SD card and used Pandora file recovery. It worked since I had not taken more pictures on top of the space they had been on the SD card. I found the link in case you want it. I was very leery and I am glad that it was not a bad experience.

  2. mrshobbes says:

    I’m in the middle of downloading this episode, but wanted to share a possible Pick I just found yesterday: the Heads Up app, developed by Ellen DeGeneres:

    Blog post about it: http://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/02/new-party-game-heads-up-featured-on-the-ellen-show/ (she also demonstrates how to play it)

    I did a search in the Google store and found this VERY similar app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.headsup.friends&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5oZWFkc3VwLmZyaWVuZHMiXQ..

    The concept is simple: guess the word flashing on your phone from the clues your friends/family will give you. And to BEST introduce this app to friends and family, have them give you the clues by acting it out (or I suggest using the Act It Out category). Because the hilarious twist is once you finish a game, you can play back a video capture of your friends/family giving you the clues! A friend of mine did this to me and I couldn’t stop laughing at how silly I apparently am when the timer runs out and I’m trying to describe “Rosa Parks.” LOL I thought this would be an awesome idea especially since most people in the US are enjoying summer. You can also buy additional categories (I’m eyeing the 90s one) for $0.99 :)

  3. Melissa says:

    With Flickr, I feel like I have to stand back from the computer as everything is soooo big! :) I’m not a fan of the new layout.

    I automatically upload ALL my photos as private/family photo using EyeFi – if people are interested I posted about it over at BPC.
    http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/blog/never-download-photos-again.html#.UahRc0Ci18E

    I am pretty sure the 200 photo limit on the free account was turning people away, especially as the new mobile app is designed to be an Instagram killer (though I doubt it will work)

    I’m using 0.013TB of Unlimited :)

    Love this episode, no doubt I’ll be back with more comments

  4. carrie a. says:

    While I know that changes take some getting used to, I’m not doing well with it because it’s so reminds me how bad my visual impairments really are and how dyslexic I am. Firstly, black backgrounds and white text does not work for me at all. They might as well be shining a flashlight in my eyes. This means Flickr hompage creates and huge and uncomfortable disconnect for me. The photos are just so big! I’d rather see several photos– like in my photostream — than one giant one on white background (I have trouble with lightbox views). I want a homepage to be a summary of what’s going and not be accosted by one photo. I just want to get away from the homepage as soon as I get there.

    My other complaint is that I’m not seeing the image titles in my photo stream thumbnails. In my work flow, I always start by uploading to Flickr. I have the file name (cause I can never remember and seeing thumbnails when choosing a file to open is hard for me which is why I love drag and drop uploads) and credits readily available that way so I can find it easily when uploading to other places then copy and paste. It also took me awhile to figure out where that info was hiding.

    I do like the storage space and the other perks, it’s just the interface that makes it difficult to use for me. Difficult to the point that I may have to stop using it because I can’t read anything and just don’t find any page easy to see.

  5. Penny says:

    I’m not done with the show yet, but have to comment on GIF. I’m with Peppermint on the pronunciation…the G stands for Graphics, so in my mind it’s a ‘dah’ thing. Unless the new Graphics is now Jraphics :)

    • carrie a. says:

      Jraphics. LOL

      Like my dad always says, “language is a living thing”. It may have started off pronounced “jif” but it’s “gif” now as far as I’m concerned.

  6. Penny says:

    Peppermint, can you share which Android keyboard App you were referring to at the end of the show. Thanks.

    • Peppermint says:

      I assume that it was the one that I use – which is SwiftKey. I use it on both my tablet and my phone and like it WAY more than stock Android. The predictive text becomes freakishly accurate over time.

      • Courtney says:

        I love love love SwiftKey. And so does my spouse. It is freaky how accurate it gets. And fun to randomly follow the prediction when it’s not accurate.

      • Penny says:

        Thanks. I want to give that one a try.

  7. Crystal (Lukasmummy) says:

    This was an interesting read about the Flickr changes – http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=5f7f69f0-25c3-47e9-8343-c5419647b087 Thanks for another great show ladies. Hugs Crystal xx

  8. Cheryl M says:

    I’m with Melissa on the whole Flickr thing. I too feel like it’s WAY too big in-your-face. Why fix something that’s not really broke? I miss the OLD Flickr. LOL

  9. carrie a. says:

    I ran across this really interesting article on Live Science about graphene sensors for cameras: http://www.livescience.com/37038-graphene-imagining-sensor-takes-clear-pictures.html?cmpid=514627

    Apparently, graphene sensors will allow cameras to take clearer photos, don’t require a flash to get a perfectly clear, well lit result, is inexpensive and easy for manufacturers to implement in current camera designs.

  10. Kathy28 says:

    I want to echo Steph guidance to print some Layouts very early in your digi scrapping. When I printed my first set of layouts, I found that my size perception was way off-especially for a 12×12. Huge buttons or staples, monster flowers and journaling that looks like a bill board ad. The ruler is your friend!

    • Heddy says:

      That was me too!

      Now I now that by viewing my 12×12 inch page in Photoshop at 25% on my screen, it approximates an 8×8 printed layout. This helps me keep the element proportions in check and font size readable.

  11. LeslieM says:

    Clean Color By Erin Cobb for Photoshop and Elements is being retired. Lightroom Clean Color is on sale. She plans to concentrate on her photography business rather than teaching. I really learned a lot from the LR Clean Color and highly recommend it.

    http://erincobb.com/ThePigBear/?p=9238

  12. L Squared says:

    I wish I would have signed up earlier for Flickr Pro – now I feel like I’m missing out on some of the features that are no longer available.

  13. L Squared says:

    Hello Ladies,
    I have two comments off topic from this show.

    First off I got an email last week from Adobe announcing student pricing for the creative cloud through June 25th students can same 60% on their subscription
    “US$49.99 US$19.99/mo. for the first 12 months”. I just graduated so it won’t work for me but it might be worth looking into for students or those who have students in their houses.

    Secondly, I’m trying to get a head start on my Christmas gift scrapping and I’m wondering if anyone has tips for scrapping other people’s stories. Last year I pulled a bunch of photos and captions from Facebook and Instagram for my brother’s family and then made some layouts which they seemed to really love. I find that the journaling often trips me up since I wasn’t there – any tips on scrapping for others?

  14. Megan W. (glumirk) says:

    When DH told me that Flickr changed, my first thought was “What will Katie say?” I’m excited to hear an updated opinion once she is more settled (good luck with the unpacking!)

    I totally agree that Jif is peanut butter, and so do they!

    Thanks for the fun shows!

    Ps I need to print! It’s been over a year and I have credits!

  15. Courtney says:

    I’m so confused. Steph said that the cards made by Heddy would be a bonus uploaded for May, but the email I received said June. I didn’t see it in the May files, so is June the correct month?

  16. Leslie says:

    You know how sometimes you kid each other because you each pronounce things differently (the jif vs. gif issue notwithstanding)?

    Here’s a little map that shows you which areas of the country pronounce words in different ways.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-in-america-2013-6

  17. Tiffany says:

    Steph, I loved reading your Project Life Staycation blog post over on Becky Higgins’ blog. What a great idea! It’s funny, something happened to me this month that made me realize that “my scrapbooking is not necessarily your scrapbooking…but it’s all good!” My 13 year old daughter has seen me paper & digi scrap all of her life, and I’ve bought her albums & paper supplies & showed her digi scrapping, but she was never really interested in doing her own pages. Then I heard about SmashBooks through the CapturingMagic podcast & thought I’d like to try it as a change from digi for this summer’s trips and activities. I bought one at Target, and my daughter saw it when she got home from school and said “What’s that???” I showed her the video that K&Company made to introduce Smashbooking, and she immediately said, “I want one too!” I was totally shocked, since she’s never wanted to scrapbook before! She picked her own out the next day & she’s been smashing stuff in it every day since! I told her, “But, you’ve never liked scrapbooking!” She says…”Mom, but you always have to have a *theme* with your scrapbooks.” I tried to protest but she insisted that she didn’t like it the way I did it, but she loves just putting random things & photos that she likes in her Smashbook. Who knew?? She’s even using Photoshop Elements to print digi-stuff to put in her book! I guess she just needed to find what made her heart sing! :)

    • steph says:

      I LOVE this story, Tiffany!!! Thank you so much for sharing it! Smashbooking was the first form of scrapbooking my teen age daughter liked too. She says she’ll do Project Life for events and vacations and use her Smashbook for day to day stuff.

  18. Tiffany says:

    I never really paid much attention to Flickr until they announced the 1T of space for free. Now I’m really interested in using it as an off-site photo backup. I’ve just started using the CameraSync iPhone app to automatically back up my iPhone photos to my Flickr account. I’ve been looking around for a Windows program which will do the same thing with my DSLR & point & shoot camera photos that I store on my computer. Does anyone have any recommendations?

    • Melissa Shanhun says:

      Hi Tiffany
      I use an EyeFi card to auto upad to Flickr. I don’t have a DSLR but I do have a 12mp point and shoot and its great! I found the video upload used to crash with Flickrs old restrictions (even with a pro account) but now it upload everything perfectly

      I’m a big fan! (Just in case you did not see the BPC article link above here it is again http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/blog/never-download-photos-again.html)

      If you use Lightroom for can use the JfFlickr plugin to do a similar thing, but you have to remember to run it (and its more tricky to set up)

      Have used both I think the $100 bucks for eyefi was well worth it, and if you are in the US eyefi is even cheaper :)

  19. Peggy says:

    I loved this show! I was especially interested in the discussion about Flickr. I have been a Flickr Pro user since 2010. I still feel confused a bit about how I can keep that Pro account (I am paid until Jan. 2014) without having to pay the $50 price next January. I didn’t see anyway to click on auto renewal that would keep my price at the $25.00. At least that is what I thought that Peppermint was saying.

  20. Terri says:

    Peppermint, I would love you to sell me on Google Music! I need to breathe some new life into my iTunes library.

    So let’s say I want to go running and I need a really good running mix. Would I be able to listen to my new running mix from my iPhone even though the songs aren’t in my iTunes library?

    Or what if I’m going on vacation and need some great reggae music for when I’m sipping hurricanes in Cancun? (A girl can dream, right?) Can I listen to a little Marley while lying on the beach, even though I don’t own a single Bob Marley CD? (shame on me!)

    Feedback, tutorial links most appreciated!

    • Peppermint says:

      You can create your new running mix in Google Music (on your phone or on the web) just like anything really, search for songs then add them to a playlist. Then you can choose “Make available offline” and you can access those songs/playlists from your phone’s memory – no WiFi, no data charges.

      When I’m on my phone I can just choose to show music available on my device via a dropdown. I’m not on an unlimited data plan, so I have mine set to download over WiFi only and I tend to do it by playlist so that any time I add a new song to a playlist it automatically makes it available offline on my phone. I don’t have to remember to do it each time.

      You can access any song in Google Music’s library, so if you want Bob Marley you can have Bob Marley for as long as you want it. Once you’re sick of Bob Marley just remove it from your library.

      You can listen to your music anywhere that you can log into Google – work, home, SmartTV, etc. and your library can be ever-evolving. My musical tastes tend to be pretty predictable, but what I like is that I can add some of Tom’s favorite artists when we’re going to be going on a daytrip, and I can add whatever Nick’s favorite “songs of the moment” are and play them in the car – but as soon as he’s sick of them I can get rid of ‘em!

      I find that I’m making more playlists that are purely in the moment. One night I got nostalgic for a bunch of songs my best friend and I used to listen to in High School and listened to it while I worked. I wouldn’t have paid money to download those two dozen tracks otherwise. And it learns from what I listen to and suggests new music to me, either by that artist or by similar artists.

      So it’s like creating your own commercial-free radio stations whenever you want for $8 a month.

  21. Katie (sakura-panda) says:

    Thanks for reading my comment; I’m always just far enough behind that I never expected to hear my words being read on the show! I enjoyed the discussion and I thought it was fantastic and insightful (although I might be a bit biased. LOL)

    Steph mentioned that I’m paper scrapbooker, but really I’m a digital scrapbooker that dabbles in paper. (If Basic Grey ever discontinues — or offers digital versions of — their page-of-the-month kits, I will cease to be a paper scrapbooker all together.)

    It is true that when I first assembled the photo book, I didn’t think of it as digital scrapbooking. I am a Super Slow Scrapbooker and the photo book was supposed to be an Album For Sharing Recent Photos That Won’t Appear In A Scrapbook Anytime Soon. I gave up on that idea when it became a seemingly never ending frustrating experience.

    I’m glad that I had the photo book experience — I would not have started digital scrapbooking if I hadn’t suffered through that setup and been motivated to try a better way.

    It seems obvious now, but until the discussion, I had not thought of photo books as a good way for a person to sample digital scrapbooking — discovering whether a photo book with templates and “quickpages” is just the right amount of effort for their style of memory keeping or if they *need* to have more control and make their own custom pages — before investing in the software and the time to learn how to use it.

      • Tammy says:

        Sue, I saw that this morning and thought of Katie (Sakura-Panda)! :)

        • Katie (sakura-panda) says:

          That is just so cool! Thanks! And on sale too — I’m definitely getting some of those.

          Through a scrapbook store, I’m subscribed to the Basic Grey Page of the Month. Every month I get a dozen or so papers and embellishments from one of their newest lines, along with step-by-step instructions for recreating a two page layout. I usually have enough supplies left over after making their layout to make three or four one page layouts on my own. They are so fun and the only paper scrapbooking I do anymore.

          I keep wishing that they would do something similar with digital supplies and templates, but in the meantime I keep subscribing to the paper kits.

  22. mizbizibee says:

    Well, better late than never. I’m the Vicki from Moore Oklahoma mentioned in this podcast. Just today, September 1, I’m listening to this podcast and what I surprise to hear my name mentioned. Yes, I’m a fan of online back up. I lost two computers in the storm the lost two new computers I bought after the storm. It’s been a bad summer for computers! While I think Carbonite could do a better job of making things a little easier to find, it’s there, safe and sound and that’s what’s important. All my documents, lessons, files and pictures are safe. I also had my pictures and layouts of Flickr too. Do an online backup! Do it now before something bad happens. Doubt you will have an F5 tornado plow through your home like me but floods and fires happen every day.

    Also big thanks to all that have sent prayers, words of encouragement and funds to Red Cross. We are so thankful!