May Update

Hmmm, since May is nearly gone, perhaps I should have titled this post “June Update” … oh well, it IS May and this is my latest Update, so May Update it is!

BoomerLife (dot) Live, my podcast, is gaining traction (albeit on a slippery slope). I have listeners “reminding” me that the interval between my last post and an update has been, ummmmm, too long. (I appreciate that feedback! It tells me that there ARE people listening! Thank you!!)

For those of you new here, BoomerLife.Live (this site) and BoomerLife (dot) Live, my podcast, offer useful information about technology specifically designed, developed or proven useful, for us Baby Boomers/Senior Citizens. Both this site and my podcast are based upon seminars I conduct (meetings I convene) with groups of my peers to explore the digital world around us. I call one of those meetings “TechTalk” and the other “Computers Made Easy” – combined, they convene five times each month.

TechTalk topics run the gamut of today’s technology: apps to laptops, tablets to smartphones, WiFi and mesh WiFi, keyboarding to voice input and so very much more! While Computers Made Easy attempts to stay close to topic: using a computer! (Some of the participants have computer “exposure” and less everyday experience.) My goal is to help them get comfortable using their device(s) in order to help them become more involved with today’s technology. It’s fun for me and extremely rewarding! When someone tells a story about a “new” experience they had using their computer (or other tech device), I feel a sense of pride!

My work with these groups is pro bono. One of the benefits of retirement: the time and ability to teach a subject about I am passionate!

There was a time I referred to the meeting as “Digital Literacy Group” – They weren’t very fond of that identification. It was tooooooo technical and nobody really wants to learn digital literacy. “How about some plain ol’ tech talk to bring us up to speed on what’s new?!”

That worked: TechTalk it became! If you want a brief sample, visit my podcast: BoomerLife (dot) Live and have a listen!

Stay healthy! Have fun! Enjoy your BoomerLife – Live!

More soon!

March Update

Happy St. Paddy’s Day! (You gotta’ know that, with a surname of “O’Keeffe”, I’d begin this blog post on March 17th with an Irish Greeting. You’re welcome!)

Have you listened to any of my podcasts yet? They’re geared for us baby boomers and topics focus upon technology. Specifically, the technology that can (and does) affect our daily lives. Critics rave: “interesting”, “informative”, “creative”, “succinct” (that means brief – episodes range from six to 15 minutes in duration). I’m posting new episodes weekly and soon, I’ll be publishing transcripts here (with links to the tech I discussed during the podcast – as requested by listeners!).

Let me think … what is “newsy” for March … hmm … California (where my wife and I live, is officially out of drought status. That’s to say it’s been raining for the past month and a half and we love it!! Weather folks refer to the systems we’ve experienced as “Pineapple Express” and ‘Atmospheric Rivers”. I simply refer to the as wet. Great news insofar as we’ve been dry for several years. Rain: good!

Oh, did I tell you bout my podcasts? (yeah, I’m pretty proud of getting them started). The link here is one method to find them, Also, I’m in Apple’s podcasts and on Google’s, too. Just look-up “Boomerlife.live”.

My most recent podcast was about apps and apps and apps … Did you know that we (‘boomers and seniors), ONLY utilize (roughly) 10% of the capability of our smart devices (smartphones and tablets). ONLY 10%!!! That’s wasting all of “horsepower”. During the podcast, I list numerous app categories and sub-categories in hopes of motivating listeners to add to their apps and increase that usage percentage to 11% or 12% or more! I’ve added some links to the end of this blog (the top 100 Apple apps and a the top 100 Google (Android) apps. Hope they help you find more useful, enjoyable, empowering, fun apps.

Lastly, I listed some “speed test” apps or websites so you can test the speed of your device.

Apps Categories and links to sources for apps:

The 6 Main Types of Mobile Apps

1. Lifestyle Mobile Apps

  •  Fitness
  • Dating
  • Food
  • Music
  • Travel
  • Spotify
  • Tripadvisor
  • Uber

2. Social Media Mobile Apps

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat

3. Utility Mobile Apps

  • Reminders
  • Calculator
  • Flashlight
  • Weather

4. Games/Entertainment Mobile Apps

  • Angry Birds
  • Clash of Clans
  • Subway Surfer

Fortnite

5. Productivity Mobile Apps

  • Docs
  • Sheets
  • Wallet/Pay
  • Evernote
  • Wunderlist

6. News/Information Outlets Mobile Apps

  • Buzzfeed
  • Smartnews
  • Google News & Weather
  • Feedly
  • Flipboard
  • Yahoo News Digest
  • Reddit
  • Linkedin Pulse

100 Top Apps (iOS)

https://goo.gl/WgTz2V

Popular SmartWatch apps:

100 Top (Android) Apps

https://goo.gl/6mKRbv

WiFi speed tests: a list of test services: goo.gl/i292em