Today's Technology for Baby Boomers & Beyond !

By Andy Livingston

Many Baby Boomers, Adults & Seniors are isolated from the every day lives of their family, friends & community. When you look around, you see people (including your own family) using devices to do everything from simply communicating to their children, to getting detailed reviews/directions to a restaurant. In many cases the "technology jungle" is too thick, "Today's Technology for Baby Boomers & beyond" is here to help and bridge that gap. This book will educate and inspire you on all of the different digital technology platforms, so you will be more engaged with your family, friends & community !

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andy Livingston
• Release date: Jan 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9780615594590

Andy Livingston

With more than twenty five years of management, business development, channel management, capture management and technology experience, Andy Livingston's hands-on computing experience has generated and authored marketing collateral and requirements definitions for customers around the world. Andy possesses a unique blend of exceptional technical/wireless skills, (hardware, software and 3rd party software solutions), combined with solid business management experience and the vision to integrate technologies with new market opportunities. He has a proven history of solving complex operational/sales challenges and business process engineering, and excellent interpersonal communication skills to generate world-wide company training to teams and partners. His hobbies include barbecue smoking, sports, anything digital, travel & family.

Book preview

Today’s Technology for Baby Boomers & Beyond

"Learning Technology to Live

a More Connected Life"

Today's Technology for Baby Boomers & Beyond

Copyright Andy Livingston 2012

Published at Smashwords

Today’s Technology for Baby Boomer’s & Beyond …

Introduction – How this book came to be

It all started at the Vienna Community Center in friendly Vienna, VA with my now friends, Cheryl Harlan and Brandy Wyatt. I pitched the course to help this segment of the population through the technology jungle we live in. After talking with my first group of students, the feedback received; there is all this great stuff going on around them, however they don’t know where to find it! People are living longer, average age is now 81, there is a tremendous feeling of isolation, people living alone, kids/grandkids too busy to answer their questions, they get the old eye roll when they ask What’s an app?

The Today’s Technology for Baby Boomers & beyond book & course curriculum bridges a gap. Baby Boomers & beyond have multiple questions about multiple platforms. It’s just not about computers and what they do. It’s about gps, Smartphone’s, websites, iTunes, social media and how to use them. The end result, bringing the Baby Boomers & beyond closer to family, friends and their community! Their confidence level & knowledge are up, the light bulb is on! The Boomers think if they touch something the wrong way, they’ll break it. My challenge to you, TRY and break something by touching a button the wrong way, LEARN, EXPLORE, TOUCH that keyboard or wireless device!!

In this book, I am not asking people to go out and spend a lot of money; most of the things in the book are FREE! So learn how to make a FREE Skype video call to your grand children. on a Sunday morning that will brighten your day, connect on your family Facebook page to engage yourself in your Family’s day-to-day world. Just remember, if you are not using the tools of today to communicate, then you WILL lead a lonely and isolated existence. Life is MUCH too short for that!

Yours in technology, Andy Livingston

Smashwords License Statement

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1- Cell phones/Smartphone’s, I-pod/ITunes, Mobile apps & much more!

Chapter 2 - Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, YOU tube & much more! Chapter 3 - Computers (Mac/pc), Wii, Skype, Netflix, Super cook, Flickr, webcam & much more!

Chapter 4 - GPS and Mapping, weather sites & other out/about resources

Chapter 5 - Gadgets\kindle\digital cameras & much more!

Chapter 6 - Microsoft Office/E-mail, Fun things to email your grandkids, Informative websites for seniors & much more!

Chapter 7 - Useful Internet Resources, 50 Best Websites 2010/11 & much more!

Chapter 8 - Today’s Teen Technology & the Grand/parental role

Chapter 1

Cell phones/Smartphone’s, I-pod/ITunes, Mobile apps & much more

The Basics:

The Carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile & Verizon, Virgin Mobile (These are the major vendors in the US)

Voice Plans (calls) – this service gives you the ability to make a phone call

Data Plans (Internet) – This service gives you the ability to use the Internet

e-mail on your phone

Text Messaging – This service allows you to type a message and sends; it’s not an e-mail!

Prepaid plans (Pay as you go) – for those who are budget conscious, great way to control your costs.

What is a Smartphone?

A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smart phones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a mobile phone or camera phone. Today's models also serve to combine the functions of portable media players, low-end compact digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation units. Modern Smartphone’s typically also include high-resolution touch screens, web browsers that can access and properly display standard web pages rather than just mobile-optimized sites, and high-speed data access via Wi-Fi and mobile broadband

Features and Things you can do with a Smartphone:

Caller ID:

Caller ID (caller identification, CID), also called calling line identification (CLID) or calling number identification (CNID) or Calling Line Identification Presentation (CLIP), is a telephone service, available in analog and digital phone systems and most Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications, that transmits a caller's number to the called party's telephone equipment during the ringing signal, or when the call is being set up but before the call is answered. Where available, caller ID can also provide a name associated with the calling telephone number. The information made available to the called party may be displayed on a telephone's display or on a separately attached device.

Caller ID may be used to display a caller's telephone number (and, in association with a database, name) on a called user's telephone

Phonebook:

Your work, personal and social networking contacts, all at the tip of your fingertips.

Photo Sharing:

Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with others (publicly or privately). This function is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images. The term can also be loosely applied to the use of online photo galleries that are set up and managed by individual users, including photo blogs. Sharing means that other users can view but not necessarily download the photos, users being able to select different copyright options

Widgets:

It's a small application that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user. Widgets often take the form of on-screen device (clocks, event countdowns, auction-tickers, stock market tickers, flight arrival information, daily weather etc.) A Mobile Web widget is a web widget that is made or designed for access on mobile device.

Customizable Home Screen:

Widgets can be moved and resized to further personalize your home screen panels.

Standby Time:

The amount of time you can leave your fully charged cellular portable or transportable phone turned on before the phone will completely discharge the batteries.

Talk time:

The length of time you can talk on your portable or transportable cellular phone without recharging the battery. The battery capacity of a cellular portable or transportable is usually expressed in terms of so many minutes of talk time or so many hours of standby time. When you're talking, the phone draws additional power from the battery

Camera:

The megapixel debate is a favorite topic of discussion in favor of this phone or that phone. Most phones have a 2-megapixel camera as the bare minimum or a 3.2-megapixel camera. The difference in image quality and details between the 2 and 3-megapixel camera is visible, but not much. Mid-to-high end phones settle between a 3- and 5-megapixel camera. Camera features like auto white balance, auto focus, and auto exposure improve image quality. Camera apps should geotag photos, recognize between portrait and landscape, and provide basic image (JPEG) and video (MOV/MP4/3GPP) compression settings. Many phone cameras shoot video, but this can also depend on the software support.

Multimedia Messaging:

Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones. It extends the core SMS (Short Message Service) capability that allowed exchange of text messages only up to 160 characters in length. The most popular use is to send photographs from camera-equipped handsets, although it is also popular as a method of delivering news and entertainment content including videos, pictures, text pages and ringtones.

GPS & Location based Services:

LBS include services to identify a location of a person or object, such as discovering the nearest banking cash machine or the whereabouts of a friend or employee. LBS include parcel tracking and vehicle tracking services. LBS can include mobile commerce when taking the form of coupons or advertising directed at customers based on their current location. They include personalized weather services and even location-based games.

Voicemail:

Voice mail (also known as voice-mail or voice message) is a computer based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products and services, using an ordinary telephone. The term is also used more broadly to denote any system of conveying a stored telecommunications voice messages, including using an answering machine. Most cell phone services offer voicemail as a basic feature.

Predictative text:

Predictive text is an input technology used where one key or button represents many letters, such as on mobile phones and in accessibility technologies. Each key press results in a prediction rather than repeatedly sequencing through the same group of letters it represents, in the same, invariable order. Predictive text could allow for an entire word to be input by single keypress. Predictive