The Digital Minute is here for you if you’ve any questions or issues with gadgets or technology. Email me your questions to colin@colinkelly.ne t and I’ll do my best to answer them. I get a lot of people asking about live streaming and how they can get better results. If you’re working from a PC or Mac and video streaming or streaming yourself playing video games, the graphics card is one of the most important pieces of equipment. Lots of newcomers to streaming focus on broadband speed which is ...
May 22, 2022•1 min
Gap is the latest retailer to set itself up inside the MetaVerse. The clothing chain has opened a virtual space inside Roblox although you won’t be able to buy anything. The experience is aimed at teenagers and let’s them hang out at a photo booth and juice bar, there’s also a Style Stage where they’ll be encouraged to show off their style. It seems the plan is to create a positive, fun space for young people in the hope they’ll feel an affinity to the brand and then buy something through the we...
May 20, 2022•1 min
Netflix makes almost all its revenue from subscription fees. And some of the big streaming giants are concerned that their service might be among the first cuts being make if they are trying to reduce their household outgoings. Of course the companies themselves are also having to pay more just to run their businesses as all of us try to deal with the cost of living crisis. Netflix has already put its prices up for many users but what if it introduced adverts between the shows. Research from Loo...
May 18, 2022•1 min
It always annoys me when I’m in a queue at a cafe or takeaway and a group of people in front of me, who’re together, all want to pay separately. Technology should make this a thing of the past. Check the app store for ‘bill splitter’ apps. There are dozens to choose from including KittySplit, Splitwise and Billzer. Some are best suited to situations where you’re out and about - there are others, such as CountCalculate which are aimed more at groups of people living together, paying a share of a ...
May 18, 2022•1 min
Good news for Chromebook users, Google announced last week that one of the most popular video editing software apps will soon be available on ChromeOS - LumaFusion is a real hit with iPhone and Android users but until now hasn’t run on Chromebook which have lacked a real serious video editing system, this would be a great step forward and make Chromebooks more useful for content creation and creative tasks. Google has also announced a new Pixel smartwatch coming later this year. The company owns...
May 17, 2022•1 min
His deal to buy the company hasn’t gone through yet but Elon Musk is already working to give users a better experience of Twitter. Over the weekend the billionaire Tesla founder Tweeted what he called very important information to fix your Twitter feed. Following his instructions changed what you see from a tailored, personalised feed based on what Twitter’s algorithm thinks you want, to something very different - consisting of a chronological feed from the people you follow. To try it, tap the ...
May 16, 2022•1 min
Friday the 13th seems like an appropriate day to tell you about some of the misinformation that flies around the internet…and in fact, it’s making some of us ill. Some people take pleasure in sharing fake news, or winding other people up..everything is amplified and there are even bots - machines, bits of software and code - that are designed to cause trouble online. The fact is that spending too much time online risks giving you a pretty warped view of reality. Things aren’t always as bad as on...
May 13, 2022•1 min
Many of us understand the importance of making responsible decisions about the food we consume. What if we were to apply that same thinking to the content we consume from the internet and social media channels? It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and now would be a good time to start taking control instead of passively scrolling through Instagram, Twitter and the like. These platforms open us up to all sorts of opinions, stories and sometimes trauma, from all over the world. And if we engage with ...
May 11, 2022•1 min
There’s a wealth of content on social media aimed at inspiring and motivating us to live better lives. A cottage industry of well-being podcasts has developed, with celebrities telling us how to be more mindful and sharing experiences of their own mental health journeys. Some if it is very good. My particular favourites include Sophie Ellis Bextor’s ‘Spinning Plates’ podcast, there’s also ‘Happy Place’ by Fearne Cotton. Dragon’s Den star Steven Bartlett has a podcast called Diary of a CEO which ...
May 11, 2022•1 min
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and I’m looking at some ways I think technology can improve our lives - rather than stressing us out. Smartphones are incredibly useful tools - for example - most of the time, they know almost exactly where you are. And this has led to a surge in popularity for a fairly new sport, called GeoCaching. Get some friends or family together, download the official GeoCaching app which is free, with a premium paid for upgrade - and it’ll take you on a trail - a bit like...
May 10, 2022•1 min
Something a bit different all this week on the Digital Minute as we mark Mental Health Awareness week and look at how ‘digital’ can help us live more fulfilling lives. Mental Health Awareness Week is brought to you by the Mental Health Foundation and there’s a wealth of good resources and information on their website at mental health.org.uk And I want to think a bit about these mobile devices so many of us carry around all day - what are they? Entertainment? Distraction? Comment and opinion? Or ...
May 08, 2022•2 min
It’s official - Zoom kills creativity. That’s the headline I saw on Linkedin today - this is based on a study published in the highly respected Nature journal. It involved more than 600 people and found that working in person generated more and fresher ideas. The group taking part in virtual meetings generated fewer ideas and researchers found participants tended to spend more time focussing on each other’s faces. The team behind the study believe working on a screen leads to a narrower cognitiv...
May 06, 2022•1 min
cameo.com is a website where celebrities will sell you personal video greetings of themselves. You’ll find everyone on there from former pro wrestlers to forgotten soap stars, musicians, reality TV stars and even some legitimate big names still enjoying successful careers. How much you pay generally varies according how bright the celebrity’s star is shining. Well now Cameo have cut a deal with Snapchat which means Snapchat advertisers would commission Cameo celebrities to make adverts for them....
May 04, 2022•1 min
It’s been another funny 24 hours on social media as Twitter users celebrated ‘Ed Balls Day’ Every April 28th, we remember the day Ed Balls, star of Strictly Come Dancing and former politician, sent a tweet containing simply his name. He’d been searching for news articles about himself and inadvertently typed his name into the ‘Tweet’ box and sent it. As we now know - if you make an embarrassing blunder, the internet never forgets. Have a look at hashtag EdBallsDay. Good news for Facebook - its u...
Apr 29, 2022•1 min
Lots of people have been asking me about podcasts recently. It’s easy to get started and some hosting providers - like Podbean have a basic free plan which allows you to get started. You don’t need much equipment - £20 or so will get you a couple of lavalier or clip-on microphones which you can connect to your phone and start recording. More advanced set ups could use portable multi track recorders, like the Zoom H4nPro or similar models from Tascam. If you’re based at home or in an office try t...
Apr 28, 2022•1 min
It’ll be months before we see the impact of Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter. The 34 billion pound takeover deal won’t go through until later this year and while the right and left argue about the merits of the much promised ‘free speech’ that Musk says is a priority for him, a far bigger issue is how exactly will he get any sort of return on the money he’s paying for the platform. It’s hardly made any money in its 18 year existence. I’d expect him to concentrate on striking deals with broadcast...
Apr 26, 2022•1 min
Artificial intelligence and the metaverse isn’t going to be some entirely ‘seperate’ world that you only access by wearing a special headset. Some of it might be like that, particularly if you’re playing games in a virtual reality world, but there will be another far more useful aspect which is already here. Certain products for sale on Amazon now feature ‘View In Your Room’. This opens your camera, scans your location and overlays the product in the actual room you are in right now. You can the...
Apr 26, 2022•1 min
Is Google planning its own range of watches? Tech commentators have spotted a change on the Google Store, which now displays a ‘Watches’ tab. Google doesn’t currently make watches although it bought FitBit a couple of years ago - until yesterday Fitbit products had their own category on the Google Store, now they sit underneath the ‘watches’ banner. Experts reckon a Google Pixel watch could be coming soon. I’ve been trying out a new drawing pad this week. It’s called the Wacom Intuous, it comes ...
Apr 21, 2022•1 min
Are you smart, opinionated and do you enjoy writing? Have you ever considered making money from blogging? Platforms such as medium.com let anyone sign up, start writing content and if what you say generates enough interest, you could end up getting paid. Blogging is free and easy to do and you can talk about absolutely whatever you want. The more specific and niche the topic - the better. Other blogging platforms include Wordpress and Blogger - they won’t pay you directly for content but it can ...
Apr 20, 2022•1 min
You can always rely on the internet to debate the burning issues of the day and over the last 24 hours one of the most trending topics was: what exactly is the filling of a Creme Egg? Cadbury say they produce around 500 million of the eggs every year but a surprising number of fans took to social media to join the discussion, with many having no idea the ‘goo’ is in fact fondant, which does include powdered egg white. Elon Musk is in for a fight if he’s serious about taking full control of Twitt...
Apr 19, 2022•1 min
Lots of football over the weekend and a clue of what might lie ahead from the college sports scene in America. The University of Centra Florida’s football team are starting their new season with QR codes instead of number’s on the player’s backs. Scanning them with a smartphone takes you to the player’s biography page on the team’s website. I could see this catching on in the UK - there are obvious sponsorship and revenue generating opportunities. At the start of the year, word puzzle Wordle was...
Apr 17, 2022•1 min
Etiquette is one of the most important elements of success on social media. Being able to ‘read the room’ and say things in an appropriate tone. Treating others the way you wish to be treated and respecting other people’s boundaries are all valuable things to learn - in life and on social media. One key attribute is being able and willing to let someone else have the last word. All too often discussions become arguments and arguments escalate into something even stronger because neither side can...
Apr 13, 2022•2 min
Online hactivist group Anonymous has released a video threatening Vladimir Putin with further cyber attacks against his regime - telling the Russian leader ‘your secrets are not safe’, until he stops attacking Ukraine. Anonymous claim to be ‘ethical hackers’ and have taken action in the past against governments and corporations. SocialMediaToday.com is highlighting some strong growth for a new social media app called ‘BeReal’. The idea is users share a photo from their real life, once a day at a...
Apr 12, 2022•1 min
Apr 09, 2022•1 min
If you’re an Android phone user - be careful about the apps you install onto your device. Google has been forced to take action after it emerged more than a dozen apps contained malicious code which has been harvesting people’s phone numbers, email addresses and even their locations. Among then was a widely used QR Code scanner which failed to meet its data protection policies. There’s no suggestion the app developers were actually using the information for anything other than legitimate purpose...
Apr 09, 2022•1 min
Twitter has confirmed it IS working on an edit button. The feature is one users have been requesting for years but it’s fraught with difficulties. What if someone Tweets something perfectly reasonable, you ReTweet it and they then edit it to something offensive? It’s been suggested some sort of ‘edit history’ might be included. I’m always looking at ways your tech can save you money. One of the most important things to do is to make sure you’re not paying for something you don’t need. So cancel ...
Apr 06, 2022•1 min
Elon Musk - the world’s richest man and co founder of Tesla, is now the biggest shareholder in Twitter. Musk bought 9.2% of the company and has previously expressed concerns about Twitter not doing enough to adhere to the principles of freedom of speech. On the 25th of March he even asked his followers if they thought a new platform was needed. There’s been a fierce debate about the role of social networks in spreading misinformation and whether they should allow vaccine sceptics, gender critica...
Apr 05, 2022•1 min
Are you sometimes asked to sign documents you’ve received online? You can print them out and physically sign the paper with a pen - but you then have to scan it back into your computer or take a picture of it with a phone. It can be time consuming and frustrating. Online e-signature software like ‘signature’ and ‘docusign’ are often used in a professional context but there might be an even easier way. If you turn the document into a PDF, visit ‘Tools’, then choose ‘Annotate’ and ‘Signature’, dep...
Apr 04, 2022•1 min
Google is encouraging businesses to make the most of a free opportunity to promote themselves online - by filling out their own ‘Google My Business’ profile. You can do it through the website or dedicated Google My Business mobile app. It’s entirely free and lets you start to manage how your business is displayed across Google products including the main search results as well as Google Maps. It also now has a new feature which lets businesses highlight their commitment to recycling. Check out t...
Apr 03, 2022•1 min
Watch out for those social media April fools. I won’t give anything away and spoil the fun but if you are browsing your favourite social media channels or seeing messages from friends or famous brands and news organisations and you’re thinking ‘that can’t be right!’ - then just remember what day it is! An incredible story breaking in the Washington Post with allegations that Facebook’s parent company hired a political campaigning group to run a campaign designed to highlight the dangers of TikTo...
Mar 31, 2022•1 min
