Colin White is this week’s guest blogger. As a teacher, he’s figured out some really cool ways to use technology in his classroom. The AirServer.app could also be used in business and other meeting-type settings. Colin is also a successful girls’ softball coach in the Oklahoma City area.

As an upper level high school math teacher, I am always searching for new ways to integrate technology into the daily flow of classroom activities. My most recent attempt in achieving this is with the use of AirServer.app.

What is AirServer.app?

AirServer brings some of the functionality of an Apple TV to your laptop or desktop. Its main feature is the ability to mirror the screen of your iOS device to your computer screen. The company’s main push is that this allows you to play your iOS games on the larger screen of your computer.

How to Get It

Download AirServer from www.airserverapp.com/en and install on your computer. Once installed and launched, AirServer will be running in the background ready to be utilized. To work, your computer and iOS device must be attached to the same network. To mirror your iOS device double tap the home button and swipe to the right (twice on the iPhone and iPod touch), and you should be presented with the following option.

tap the airplay icon

to reach the airplay menu.

Your computer will be listed just like an Apple TV. Select it and you will have the option to mirror your device.

Now everything that shows up on your device’s screen will also be on your computer screen.

How I use it in my classroom

I use AirServer in combination with the iPad app GoodNotes http://tinyurl.com/6prbkl8. GoodNotes is a note taking app that allows me to write on my iPad screen. I mirror my iPad screen to my Macbook Pro using AirServer, then run GoodNotes. Then anything I write on my iPad shows up on my computer screen which is projected to the class. This allows me to walk around the room as I teach and keep from obstructing a student’s view of the board. I also use Apple’s Podcast Capture to record my Macbook Pro screen and my voice to send to my website.

Other miscellaneous thoughts

I like to mirror my iPad screen and then launch the camera app. Now anything I see with my camera shows up on my projected screen. It is a convenient way to look at pictures or videos that you have captured with your device. AirServer runs on both in the Windows and Mac OS X environments. The AirServer preferences allow you to name your computer and password protect your AirServer to keep out unwanted users. Most recently, AirServer now has the ability to mirror two devices at the same time.

AirServer is priced at $14.99 for a standard license and $11.99 for a student/teacher license. AirServer does not offer all the functionality of Apple TV, but it is an inexpensive approach to get the mirroring functionality.

Privacy is a huge issue on the web. Today, we’ll talk about options you have to opt out of being tracked by advertisers and how to enable this feature on Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

First, you should know that even if you follow these steps to disable tracking, websites still have the option to track you – or not. It depends on the integrity of the company. Not surprisingly, Facebook doesn’t let anyone opt out of tracking. In fact, they can still track you when you’re logged out of Facebook. Twitter announced today (5-17-12), that they will honor Mozilla Firefox’s opt out. So if you use Twitter on Firefox and have the box checked, your wanderings on the web will not be tracked and you’ll not get the third-party cookies on your computer. Most likely, Twitter will also honor opt outs from Chrome and IE in the next few months.

How To Opt Out of Tracking

Chrome

There’s not a setting in the browser, instead go to the Chrome App Store and type in the search box, ‘Keep My Opt-Outs’ and install it by following the prompts. There’s another app called ‘Keep MORE Opt Outs’. I read a little about this app. I believe this one actually lets you know (via pop-up), who is trying to track you. I read how some really like it, some thinks it slows them down and some had problems with it working properly, so do some research.

Firefox

This was the easiest of the three. Simply go to Tools>Options>Privacy and check the box.

Internet Explorer 9

It seems that Microsoft makes things difficult compared to everyone else, and it’s no different here. It’s different in that there’s not just a click in the box or an app install. The steps are below. Don’t go to your browser ‘Tools’ drop down like I did, go way over to the right to the Tools icon and then…

When you get the tracking protection box pop-up (below), the right side will be blank because Microsoft makes you go through a list a choose different lists to be a part of. So you’ll want to click the ‘Get a Tracking Protection List online’.

Then you’re taken to a website where you can start scrolling through all the lists. I just clicked some randomly and was glad to see there’s a stop Google list. I think with this extra work we do to add these lists, maybe they are more effective – at least I hope so.

So, take a few minutes and update your favorite browser to the do not track settings. If you have any tips to add, please leave a comment.

So now everyone (or many of us), are wondering what all will happen with both the ‘live’ name as it relates to our email accounts. There are over 350 million live/hotmail users – with the live name going away and Microsoft 8’s new ‘Mail App’, what will happen with our @live.com mail addresses? You can read Microsoft’s Sinofsky article here.

So why is ‘Live’ going away? According to the article, the Windows Live Essentials family of free software wasn’t all they wanted it to be. It didn’t feel integrated and connected enough and they felt user’s weren’t getting the service and experience they wanted to deliver.

So what do they want to deliver? Apps! It’s more than that, of course, but with the popularity of the iPhone and the burgeoning App popularity, Microsoft has also gone to Apps, both with its Windows Phone and with Windows 8. So you can see from the chart below that email will be called ‘Mail App, our calendars will be a ‘Calendar App’, and so on. SkyDrive will become a big part of where everything will be stored, accessed and fetched, thus the recent upgrade of SkyDrive.

Not everything has been worked out yet and people still have a lot of questions about how our favorite Live Essential programs will function with Windows 8. I’ve been using most of them and wonder what’s ahead. Perhaps more information with be coming soon, but I anticipate many of the changes will happen when Windows 8 is released around October, 2012. Change is hard, but it’s here.

There’s a chart supplied that is a bit confusing (at least to me).

-published May 11, 2012

1. I can easily search for email, appointments, attachments and updates from each of my contacts when using the connector. If you’re like me and don’t get to LinkedIn and Facebook enough, you can catch up on clients’ updates from within email.

2. I’ve noticed that even if I’ve not connected with some of email contacts, sometimes their photo will pop in anyway. If their Facebook profile is public, then it should pop in (or so I’ve read). Conversely, if someone has mega privacy settings, then you may not see much of them. So having a face to put with a name is nice (but sometimes disturbing-haha).

3. If you live in your email all day, you’ll be more up to date with what’s happening with your clients. If you see an achievement, you can quickly send an email or go make a comment on their social media page.

4. It’s just a cool thing to have and really brightens up my email. You can adjust the size of your social connector to stretch the entire width of your screen and pull it up near the top of your screen to get a great view of what’s going on with people you care about.

Steps for Downloading, Installation & Use of Outlook Social Connector

Outlook Social Connector has been around for a couple of years, but there’s been a recent update (April, 2012), and if you don’t download and install it, some of your components will stop working effective May, 2012.

Outlook Social Connector – Separate Components

First, you’ll need the connector itself – find it here. If you don’t need to update, it won’t install.

Next, you’ll need to get the components or pieces of the social part you want. Below are the five currently available. (So glad they took MySpace off). All these components can be found here. There are separate downloads for each piece.

Have Outlook closed when installing – but it’s OK if it’s open, you’ll be prompted to restart upon installing the components.

Restart Outlook and get going

When you start Outlook, you’ll be presented with this pop-up where you can choose which components you want to use. The My Site is for people who use SharePoint.

You’ll be prompted to enter your username and password for each site you want to add, then you’ll see the checkmark when you’re connected – that’s it! Start scrolling through your emails and watch your email pop with photos and updates. If you’re connected to someone in multiple ways, you’ll see all the updates if you select ‘all’.

If you don’t get the above screen, you can get to it by going to ‘View’ then look over to the right where it says ‘People Pane’, open it and then you’ll get the accounts screen. Make sure you have the people pane ‘on’ or you won’t see it.

Below is an example of someone I’m connected with on LinkedIn & Facebook. You can see she’s active and uses social media a lot! The icons I’ve circled are very helpful because I can choose to show only emails I’ve received, or only appointments, only attachments or only updates. It saves time.

If you have questions or need some troubleshooting, here’s the FAQ on problems with social connector. Not everything works all the time, they still seem to be working bugs out. If you’re using it, how do you like it? If you’re not, do you think you’ll install it?

What the new SkyDrive Does

• instant access to your SkyDrive from your computer on windows explorer or you can go to SkyDrive in the cloud
• back-up and sync of your documents, pictures, videos, etc. across all your computers
• ability to access your files from anywhere – just log in with your Windows Live ID
• make a change on a document on one computer, save it and SkyDrive immediately syncs the document with the SkyDrive folder, making the updated document available
• apps are available for Windows, Mac, Android phones, iPhones and of course, Windows Phones
• SkyDrive icon rests out of the way in System Tray
• my SkyDrive icon is on the last row, last icon on the right. You can see my Dropbox icon in the third row, first one on the left.

Get SkyDrive for Windows

You’ll need to go here and get your Windows or Mac download.

Follow the steps – download

SkyDrive is being installed on your computer

You will need to sign in with your Windows Live ID. Do you have more than one ID? I do and I’m still working on some questions I have about that, but for now, having my data and pictures from my three computers in one place seems like a smart thing to do.

The install goes pretty fast, then you’ll need to start copying folders over to your SkyDrive through Windows Explorer. Make sure you copy folders – don’t move them.  I’m keeping the same folder structure on SkyDrive and in Windows Explorer – makes sense. The actual copying and syncing process can take awhile depending on how much data you have. There is a limit to the size that can be uploaded. Once it’s finished, you’ll see the green check mark, indicating it’s synced from your local machine to the SkyDrive in the cloud.

Upgrade to 25 GB free to loyal customers

To get this free upgrade, simply right-click on the SkyDrive icon in your system tray and select ‘Manage Storage’. You’ll be taken on-line where you can get your free upgrade to 25GB. I don’t know how long this will last.

Now you can see everything on all your connected computers

The view below is from SkyDrive. I clicked on Lynn-DellPC and instantly see everything on my computer. It’s like having it on a drive. To get to music, pictures, etc. just click and navigate to where you need to be.

This is So Cool

It took quite awhile, but I think I have everything I was longing for to make SkyDrive robust, usable and easy. These new features might make it possible for home computer users to utilize SkyDrive as their backup. You may not need to pay for a backup system any more – something to think about.

Be More Productive With Instant Actions

There are four instant action categories we’ll talk about that will save you time while working with your mail. As mentioned, it’s called Instant Actions and is available only while using Hotmail or Live mail on the web. Here’s how to get to it and what you can do with it:

To get there, be signed into your Windows Account, go to the upper right below your name and click on ‘Options’, then click on ‘more options’. You’ll get a screen full of choices. Look for the ‘Customizing Hotmail’ section on the right and then finally locate ‘Instant Actions’ and click on it.

Below you’ll see the instant actions box where you’ll configure what you want to do. Once you’ve configured/chosen or removed an action, then when you are going through all your mail you’ll have the choices you’ve configured ready to be implemented with a single click. For example, if you have ‘Delete’ as one of your instant actions, when you’re looking at email, the delete icon (the ‘x’) will appear when you hover your mouse over the message. Click the ‘x’ and it’s gone.

If you choose ‘Categorize’, you’ll select a color and then you’ll select a category from the drop down (you can’t make your own). For example, I made a category for ‘social updates’. I receive several reports from Facebook and HootSuite via email. Now I can categorize them while reading them and afterwards, I can click on the ‘social updates’ category at the top of my email and all of the emails I’ve categorized will appear.

‘Move to’ is another handy action. With this you can move a particular email instantly to a different folder. This saves time – no more dragging your messages over to a folder. You’ll specify which folder a message will go to during the set up.

‘Mark as Read/Unread’ – self explanatory.

Flag – this is always shown and one of the newer features. Flag something and it will stick to the top of your mailbox until you unflag it.

There’s a limit of four actions that can be set up (I’m not including the flag since that can’t be taken out). So choose wisely. For example, you could have four ‘Move to’ actions and none of the others if that suits your needs better. Perhaps there’s a limit of four because there’s not much real estate!

Get Back Deleted Messages

Did you delete something and wished you could get it back? Windows Live Mail has made it easy to do. Simply go to your deleted items and scroll way down to the end. You’ll see the following message:

Be warned that all your deleted messages will be restored to your deleted folder. I haven’t even wanted to try this out since I didn’t want to go through them again. However, this is a nice feature to have and they’ve made it very easy to get messages back. They don’t guarantee they can get all, but they do their best.

I hope you’ll try out some of these tips to make your work or personal mailbox a little more productive and easy to use. If you come across any time-saving tips, please post them in the comment section.

Microsoft has been quietly making SkyDrive easier to use. If you have a Windows Live ID, then you automatically get 25GB of free storage courtesy of Microsoft. If you don’t have a backup system on your computers, this is perfect for that. In addition to back-up, you can easily share documents, photos and videos with any one or group. You can instantly publish pictures or documents to your social media circles or on your website.

To get to your SkyDrive, simply sign in using your Live ID – go to http://skydrive.com and sign in.

Your documents are filed in alpha order and can be viewed all together, or you can click on ‘Photos’ or ‘Documents’ and they’ll be separated. A new feature is the ability to right-click on a folder or document and instantly share it with anyone – you’ll just need their email address. Your recipient doesn’t need to have a live account in order to retrieve and/or look at the document. Other actions you can do with a right-click are:

edit in your browser
open in Word/Excel, etc.
view version history
download it
move it
copy it
delete it
rename it

I’ve circled the other ways you can share. On the social side, you can share your photo or document to Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace. Your document or photo is instantly published. If you prefer, you can ‘get a link’ and put your link in an email that you send from your email program.

Do you want to make a document or photo available on your blog or website? That’s a new feature too. To do this, click on a folder, photo album or document and you’ll see the option to ‘Embed’ (see illustration below). Click on ‘Embed’ and then you’ll get the pop-up to generate the code. Then copy and paste the code into your blog or website. Cool!

SkyDrive is getting easier to use and navigate – faster too. If you haven’t checked it out, give it a try. What cool tricks have you discovered while using SkyDrive?

(Republished on 4-26-12)

To get to your SkyDrive, simply sign in using your Live ID – go to http://skydrive.com and sign in.

talk about

Right-click to share Office docs from SkyDrive

Share your Office docs on social networks

Share an Office doc with everyone

Embed your Office doc in your blog or website

http://blogs.office.com/b/officewebapps/archive/2011/11/29/new-skydrive-updates-make-sharing-office-docs-easier.aspx

there’s also a video here

This week, I’d like to welcome a guest writer – Eric Stauffer. He is a mobile payments expert and small business advocate. His firm reviews products like PayPal Here and GoPayment, and they help small business owners find the best payment solutions for their needs.

Last month, PayPal announced their entrance into the mobile credit card acceptance game when they introduced PayPal Here, a direct competitor of the already established Square and GoPayment platforms. By leveraging PayPal’s current feature rich payment systems, they promise to provide a wider array of services that will be beneficial to small business owners who need to capture payment across various channels.

The [Short] History of Mobile Credit Card Processing

Close to 18 months ago, the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, introduced a new product that promised to revolutionize the payments world. It was called Square, and it allowed an individual to process a credit card transaction right on their smartphone using a small attachment that plugged into the headphone jack. The original idea was geared towards individuals as a way to ‘square up’ with each other using credit cards, however, it quickly became apparent that the real benefactor of this new device was small businesses.

As Square began to take off in the business world, other companies took notice and quickly put together their own version. One of the most successful of these competitors was called GoPayment, a spin off from Intuit (the makers of Quicken and TurboTax). With large marketing dollars and cross-selling opportunities, Intuit was able to capture a lot of customers in a short period of time. They tailored their program to fit the needs of small businesses a little bit better than Square, and have become a favorite in this sector.

PayPal Here vs the Rest of the Field

At first glance, PayPal Here looks to be just another mobile processing product. But when you get down into the details of what it can offer over its competitors, it becomes clear that certain business owners can see a benefit of going with PayPal.

First, most transaction dollars will be available immediately in an attached PayPal account without any hold time. This is beneficial for merchants that already use PayPal for purchasing and expenses. Second, businesses can attach their funds to a debit card and receive a 1% cash back reward on all purchases. That effectively reduces the overall transaction cost below that of Square and Go Payment. Third, businesses that are already setup to accept PayPal through their website will be able to handle both types of expenses through one account.

Perhaps the biggest benefit business owners will see over Square and GoPayment is the ability to accept electronic checks as well as send or create digital invoices directly from the smartphone app. While these services are already available for many PayPal customers, it will tie these features together and present them under one roof on the mobile app and the web interface.

Which Service is Best?

While each of the three services are similar in nature, they do each have their own benefits that favor particular users.

Square – Individuals and businesses doing very limited transactions in small increments. On numerous occasions Square has placed holds on random large transactions and provide limited information as to when the funds will be ready. This does not bode well for businesses relying on transaction income for their operating costs.

GoPayment – Small to large businesses looking to transact on a frequent basis. GoPayment is much more forthcoming with their hold information and provide 800 support lines for business owners, something Square does not do.

PayPal Here – Since PayPal Here has not officially launched, it is difficult to know exactly who will benefit the most from their services. It is assumed that businesses already using PayPal and want to expand into mobile payments will probably see the biggest benefit, since it will all work together seamlessly.

Now there’s a ‘Send To Kindle App’ – only for Windows, but the Mac version is coming soon they say. It was a quick download and install. When it finished, there are some quick instructions right on the finish screen.

How To Send Documents to My Kindle

When in Windows Explorer, simply right click on one or more documents.To select more than one document, hold down the CTRL key and click all the documents you want. Then when finished, right-click and select the Send to Kindle option (see illustration below).

Allowed Documents

Microsoft Word (.DOC)
Microsoft Word (.DOCX)
TXT (.TXT)
RTF (.RTF)
JPEG (.JPEG, .JPG)
GIF (.GIF)
PNG (.PNG)
BMP (.BMP)
PDF (.PDF)

Then you’ll get this next screen –it confirms where it’s going, where it’ll be and what format it’ll be in. This was a pdf, so it didn’t need to be converted as the Kindle now renders PDFs in a nice, readable format. Click the ‘send’ button and it’s off!

Delivery is free if you’re on a Wi-Fi network and it says charges may apply if Whispernet is used. My device is Wi-Fi, so I haven’t investigated Whispernet. The first time you use it, you will need to log in to your Amazon account to verify your identity.

Email Documents to Your Kindle

Did you know you have a Kindle email address? Yes, you have one. Check it out in your on-line ‘Manage Your Kindle’ after you’ve logged into Amazon. After clicking on that, then click on ‘Manage My Devices’ over on the left. Then you’ll see a screen similar to the one below:

The email address given to you from Amazon can be easily changed to something unique and more memorable, if you prefer. It will have a kindle.com ending. Send documents via email to your Kindle. If you want them converted into the Kindle format, be sure to put the word ‘convert’ in the subject line – otherwise it’ll remain in the format sent.

Email Verification-Amazon Requirement

To stop spam (so they say), anyone emailing something to your Kindle must have their email address on your Amazon approved list. To add email addresses, click on ‘Personal Document Settings’, which is just down from where you clicked on the ‘Manage Your Devices’ earlier.

Then you’ll see the screen below. Here’s where you add the email addresses. Also note that you have a 5GB limit on all the content you send to your Kindle. You can delete things as your Kindle gets filled. To delete anything (not just documents), simply go to your Kindle Library and click on ‘All Items’. From here, you can choose to keep or delete the content on your Kindle.

So that’s it – easy enough. I have so many PDFs on my computer that I’ve never read because I don’t like reading FROM my computer. This will make things so much nicer. The next thing I want to figure out is getting RSS feeds on my Kindle. I think I may have found something with kindlefeeder.com. Anyone out there using this?