How to post GIFs made with Procreate on iPad to Social Media

How to post GIFs made with Procreate on iPad to social media

This is what I discovered through trial and error:


To post on Facebook and Instagram, go to Share under Actions in Procreate app. Choose to Share Animated MP4.


After choosing speed and exporting, click on Facebook or Instagram icon to add comment and share.

10-2021 Update: Instagram requires a minimum length of 3 seconds for animations, and I recently had trouble posting a 4 second animation. Add as much length as you can, without diluting the content, for success with Instagram.

To post on Twitter, I downloaded the Animated GIF to my iPhone from an email. You can also Airdrop the GIF to your iPhone.


Open the Twitter app, choose the tweet icon, and select the GIF from your photos.

Add comment and Share. 

The New Normal: Solving Technical Problems

Laptops Allow Work Outside

The New Normal: Solving Technical Problems

Technology has carried us along changing the way we move through our days. Some tech giving us mastery (easy photos and video on a smartphone) other tech is simply necessary to conduct our lives (direct deposits of income to financial accounts). On an individual basis, we can control how much or how little we automate our lives: mobile deposits to the bank or a physical visit to the bank, for example.



Access to email, social media, financial accounts, bill paying, and more has become necessary instead of optional. A certain amount of technical mastery is necessary to keep our world chugging along. New mobile phones are complicated, but we all rely on some level of phone service. Many people prefer communication by text which encourages others to increase their mobile phone competence.


Often technical problem-solving is as easy as finding a helpful video or instructions on the internet hence the term “google it.” Discussions with friends and coworkers can reveal tips and paths to solutions.

Social Media Interaction on a Smartphone

I think we can all agree that internet technology though frustrating at times, can provide entertainment and nurturing of interests as well as social connections. I enjoy sharing information and photos on birdwatching and gardening with people of similar interests on Twitter.



I recently spent a couple of weeks on a blog article about technical problem solving on a DVR. I know that I had saved the article multiple times. On my final proofreading the article COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED (!). We can all be humbled at times by technical snafus. Often there is nothing to be done about it, but to start over.

Mobile Phones Can Accomplish Multiple Tasks

Instead of rewriting the saga of successfully updating a stubborn DVR, I chose to write about the inevitability of technical problems. We are all dealing with technical challenges whether a senior in assisted living keeping up with family on Facebook, a baby boomer updating mobile phones, a millennial using a phone locator to find a misplaced phone, or a college student opening up a checking account online.



Put one foot in front of the other, keep on moving forward, and thank that person (if you have one) that always helps you untangle your technical difficulties.

Technology Can Require Problem-solving

Communication - It's not what it seems

While we were in church recently, my son received 3 emails from me. It was about 10:30 am on May 20. We thought the emails must have been delayed in an iPad outbox. The strange thing was these emails were dated May 16, May 4, and April 29. April 29th!

Actually they were not sent through iPad email. They were written and sent using the Gmail app on my iPad.

Gmail is the backbone of my communication system. I have all my business and personal emails organized in folders by subject. The idea that some emails are not delivered or delivered late is very unsettling.

Three weeks ago, my father left a voice mail on my phone. Because of the time of day, I knew it was him, and expected his message. Much to my surprise my iPhone showed not one, but 3 "new" voice messages. His message from that day (May 3rd), his  message from March, and a business message from April. Needless to say, I was mortified that I thought a business contact ignored my call and didn't return it. In fact, she did call and leave a message.

I have had some discussion with my mobile service provider to see if this can be avoided in the future.

Lastly, in April my brother sent me a text with order information. I didn't get it at all so after some back and forth, he resent it.

I have gone through all this just to point out that when you send an email, or text, or even leave a phone message, one cannot assume that communication was received. I have just shown serious examples of system failures.

What can we do to make sure important information is received? With emails, it is helpful if the receiver responds in some way. Just a "got it" will work. Same with a text. A smiley emoji or "thanks."  If a voice message goes unanswered, call again or send a follow-up email or text.

And if you see the person, "Hi! Did you get my email?"

Is an App Key to Learning Chinese Culture?

WeChat is a very popular all-purpose app

With 760 millions users, the WeChat app provides services found on other apps in a single platform. 90% of Chinese internet customers access with a mobile device, and a third of their time or more is on WeChat. It is super multi-purpose.

Connections and follows resemble FaceBook or LinkedIn. Payments can be made like PayPal.  Monetary gifts can be sent easily with a gambler's chance of giving a bonus. I won't bore you with a complete list of functions. Assume that if it's done on a mobile device, opening WeChat accesses a screen.

If you are planning a trip to China, review information on this app and consider downloading it. It could be used to display maps to a cab driver who was summoned using the app. Instead of exchanging business cards you may scan a QR code and generate a friend request. Pay for coffee. Set up meetings. WeChat users often prefer to chat using the app rather than answer their phone. Sound familiar?

More information on WeChat is available in the Global Tech issue (June 13, 2016) of Bloomberg Businessweek: The People's Republic of WeChat by D. Lawrence and L. Chen. 

Advertising on this blog supports my writing. By clicking an ad, you are under no obligation to buy. If you see an advertisement of interest, please click.

How to use Twitter as a Research Tool

Research Topics Using Twitter

Twitter provides current information through tweets promoting articles. There are several different ways to use Twitter for research.


Researching a Company, Topic, or Individual

Type the name in the search bar.

Example: Type #healthy eating in the search bar
                 Many tweets about healthy eating are listed; most have links to articles on that subject

Want to get more specific? Double up!
                 Type #healthy eating #diabetes
                  Now you have a list of tweets referring to information on both healthy eating and diabetes

Tweet Search Results

You can also use the drop-down options menu to filter your results:
Examples:
Filter out tweet source: everyone or people you know
Filter to look at video tweets only

Filter Results with Options Menu

Finding a tweet about a specific article

My policy is to only retweet articles that I have reviewed. I read an article and knew it was from an older tweet.  In order to retweet it, I wanted an easy way to find the original tweet. This is how I found it:

In the search bar, I typed the source of the tweet and the name or topic of the article.

Example: Type @launchandHustle Single best way to create content

Type in Search Bar

Retweet After Finding Tweet

Twitter can be very useful in information searches. How do you use Twitter for research? I would be interested in your answers.
P.S. Comments from anonymous are automatically deleted.

More information on Twitter can be found in my article, Twitter School: 7 Fun Facts.

Advertising on this blog supports my writing. By clicking an ad, you are under no obligation to buy. If you see an advertisement of interest, please click.

What is the Internet of Things?

What is the Internet of Things, and how does it affect you? Devices that communicate and share data on the internet are the Internet of Things (IoT). Our smart phones access all types of data through apps. The amount and type of data we access will increase as more and more devices are connected to the internet.

We can access more traffic information as street cameras network and commuter systems come online.  Sensors can detect heart rate and track our movement. This translates into health data we can access through mobile devices like smart phones or smart watches. As sensors are developed to detect even more health information, other data will be available through our devices. This information could prompt a visit to the doctor or give us the reassurance that a visit isn't necessary. We may exchange this data with our healthcare provider, and let her decide a course of action.

If you have 17 minutes, the following 2012 Tedx video by Dr. John Barrett offers a good explanation of the Internet of Things. Since its taping, more devices have become internet-compatible, and, as he predicts, there are even more things we can do with our smart phones because of the additional data on the internet.

I've written Managing the Quality of Internet-linked Products for ASQ Influential Voices. It can be found by clicking here.

Advertising on this blog supports my writing. By clicking an ad, you are under no obligation to buy. If you see an advertisement of interest, please click.

Photon App allows viewing of Adobe Flash Player Video on iPads

Photon Browser is an app for the iPad and iPhone that allows viewing of Flash Player video. Video inserted on blogs or websites is often placed in an Adobe Flash Player platform. IOS based mobile devices do not support Flash. Photon provides a solution.

The app is available at the Apple App store for $4.99. Once installed, type in the web address. To view the Flash-based video, click the lightning bolt icon. This enables viewing.

BEFORE
Video files on iPad using Safari - there are blank spaces where the video and slide show should appear:

AFTER
Video files on iPad using Photon - the video and slide show are ready to play:

There are settings to optimize viewing, although the default settings have worked fine for me. I can now see my complete blog posts and videos on my web portfolio with an iPad. This allows portable viewing while in meetings.

The 7-minute video below helped me decide to purchase Photon.

Shop Amazon - Off to College

Get an RSS Feed URL for your blog

I needed a URL for an RSS feed for my author's page. Luckily, there's an excellent video by Dave Saunders describing this process.

As described in the video, simply add /feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
to the end of your blog URL.

So the information I submitted to my author's page was: http://gardenladylovesbirds.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

and titles are visible that link to my latest Garden Lady posts. If you want more of each blog to show, that can be adjusted in Settings on your blog interface.

The only problem I had was when I tried to test the RSS URL using Chrome browser, I got a page full of code. I could see the actual website fine in Firefox. 

The RSS feed works in Chrome. It's just the test that showed code.

Self-publishing with Amazon

I am finishing my book, How to Cook Spaghetti Squash (And Grow It Too!). It will be offered in paperback and e-book formats at Amazon.com.

The whole process will give me many blog post topics related to self-publishing and e-publishing.

I will add a link to my book's Amazon page soon. Book Link: http://amzn.to/1fIftj8

Flipboard App for Mobile Devices

Flipboard allows you to collect articles of interest from the internet in your own magazines. You can view those magazines on your phone or iPad at your convenience. You can share those magazines with others.

Add a "flip it" bookmarklet to your regular computer and flip articles from there for later viewing.

So 3 devices.... your own magazines....3 ways to view them. 

So when you're at the doctor's office with some reading time, no need to peruse the old magazines. You can read articles of your own choosing right on your phone. 

I am using Flipboard on my Windows 7 laptop, my iPhone, and iPad mini. It is also available on Android, Kindle, Fire and NOOK platforms.

Check out my new Flipboard magazine called Web Tech .

The 2 minute video below describes the features of Flipboard on a Windows 8 device.

Adobe Media Encoder: Shorten a video and post on a blog

My camera takes videos and produces .avi files. These files can be uploaded and used as is, but what if you want to cut out the end or part of the beginning? This would produce a more concise, professional video.

I used Adobe Media Encoder that came with my Adobe Creative Suite CS5.5.

1. Open the Encoder program and load your video in the Queue by clicking on "+".

2.Click on the video name in the Queue table (make sure format is f4v), then edit, then export settings.

3. Under export settings on the right side, select web 320x240. I unchecked "export audio" because I don't want audio on this clip. Specify the name and location for the new encoded file by clicking on the output name.

4. On the left side, move the white triangles on the yellow timeline to set the beginning and end of your clip. Above the timeline, click the "set in point" triangle for the beginning and "set out point" triangle for the end of the clip. Click "ok" to return to the Queue.

5. Click the white arrow at the top right to start the encoding. When complete, there's an audio signal. You can look for your new file labeled "FC" in the location specified. That file is ready to be uploaded to your blog.

Video of Tobacco Hornworm on Tomato Plant

So, I've accomplished 2 things with the media encoding: 

1- I completed some basic editing of the video length

2- I converted the file to an .f4v type.

There are many options that make this program very powerful. I'll blog more as I discover additional uses.