Sync'ing Photos From Your Cell

If you are like me you probably have hundreds of photos and videos on your cell phone but would like a way to back them up.  In the past I used to use Dropbox as a method of backup.  I had my cell configured where I would take a picture and a copy would instantly be uploaded to Dropbox.  This method worked PERFECTLY for years, but April 1, 2018 there are some changes coming with Dropbox and Samsung which would alter the ease and effectiveness of this process.  If you want to read about this, click here.

So in looking for a method to backup my pictures in a way similar to Dropbox, I found a program called PhotoSync.  The program has several ways to back up your photos, but for me and this article it is solely about using it to backup to a computer.  There are two parts to the program, one you install on a computer where you want to save your pictures to and the other is an app installed on your cell or tablet - works on Android and iOS.




The install on the computer is pretty straight-forward.  Once installed click on the icon in the system tray and open Settings.  If it is not already checked click on the box to load PhotoSync on system startup.  Then click the "Receive" option in the left side menu.


On this screen you can configure the location where PhotoSync will save pictures and videos to.  In my example, I have a dedicated drive that I choose to have it save to.

On your phone or tablet, open the app and you are greeted with a screen showing your devices library of all the photos and videos stored on it.  If your device has an SD card installed and you store your videos and pictures there, they will show up as well!


Tap on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of your screen and then tap on Settings.  My screenshots are from an android device so it is possible your settings may vary if you are on an iOS device.


The PhotoSync Preferences box should appear.  When it does, tap on the Quick Transfer option and you can configure your computer by following the on-screen prompts.  Selecting your computer when it is found. 


If you purchase the program you can make use of the Autotransfer option where when you arrive home and your device connects to your home wifi it will automatically upload your new pictures and videos for you. 


At the time of this article, the program was less than $3 so I bought the program and have been extremely pleased with it.


If you prefer to use the free version, you will use the manual sync option.  To do so, tap on the red sync circle at the top right of the screen.  Again, my screenshots are from an android device so the location may or may not differ from your device if it is iOS.


If this is your first sync ever, tap on the "All" button and it will upload everything from your cell to the computer.  Otherwise you will mostly use the "New" button. 



Tap on it and then tap on "Computer" and then tap on your computer name from the list and the file transfer will begin.


You now have your own personal storage system for your devices photos and videos.  Storage space limited to your available drive space and if your computer can be expanded upon you can add additional hard drives to it.

How to Lock Down Your Childs Android Tablet

Android's version of Single-App Mode, known as Screen Pinning
(Android 5.0 Lollipop)

By using Screen Pinning, you can lock an app open so your child or any other person cannot exit or change without knowing a PIN number, which you set. 

To enable this feature:

• Open Settings on your tablet
• Open the Security options
• Scroll to the Advanced section and depending on your device choose "Pin windows" or "Screen pinning."
• Tap on the slider in the upper right of the screen to enable the feature.
• Open the app you want to "lock" open for your child to use.
• Tap on the designated button on your tablet that shows all the running/open apps, then slide the current app up until you see the "push pin" icon in the lower left of the screen.
• Tap on the push pin icon.
• A dialog box asking if you want to turn on Pin windows and how to disable it will appear. 
• Choose "No, thanks" to cancel or "Start" to use.

I would recommend enabling a PIN or use Fingerprint access for the ability to disable screen pinning, otherwise it will display on the screen how to get out of it.  If you don't have this option, it is most likely because you don't have a passcode of some sort which unlocks the device when the tablet is powered on or awaken from sleep.


Enable the Guest Account
(Android 5.0 Lollipop)
The guest account is an account that has very limited access and is completely disposable.  Unlike actually setting up another user for the tablet and restricting those settings, the guest account will

• Open Settings on the tablet
• Open the Users option
• Tap on Guest
• The tablet will immediately switch users, your work in progress and activities are not altered by this, process the mini-setup functions, 
• you can either sign-in a Google account when prompted or click Skip.
• type in a user name if you want
• Once the mini-setup is completed, the tablet will load to the home screen.

When you no longer need the Guest account, go back to the Users options in Settings and tap on "Delete guest profile."  This will delete the profile, along with all downloaded applications and data.  Once deleted, the data from the guest profile cannot be recovered.  The tablet will return control back to the primary user account.

Configuring a PLEX Media Server

As a follow-up to my blog, Cutting the Cable and Streaming Everything, this post will cover setting up your own Plex Media Server.

Plex is a powerful and east to use media server you can install on almost any computer to host and playback your media.  Whether it is music, photos, television series, or movies - Plex has you covered!!


THINGS YOU NEED...

To begin you need a computer that will act as your media server.  Plex can run on a Mac, Windows, or Linux computer.  For playback, you'll need the Plex App for whatever device you wish to play your media library back on.  If you won't be streaming anywhere, you could go as bare as connecting your media server to your television and using Plex's web interface.  Going this route, I would recommend getting an inexpensive Bluetooth keyboard, such as the Logitech K400r.  This keyboard comes with the Bluetooth transmitter so if your computer does not have Bluetooth built-in, it will with this keyboard AND it has a built-in two button mouse trackpad so no separate pointing device is needed!  There are also Plex apps for Android, Chromecast, iOS, PlayStation, Roku, Xbox, and several others - you'll have to decide how you want to play/stream your media! 

The minimum requirements for the media server as Plex recommends is this:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor 1.6 GHz or better
• At least 1GB RAM for Windows/Mac OS X
• At least 512MB RAM for Linux
• Windows: Vista SP2 or later
• OS X: Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or later (64-bit)
• Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux

The recommended requirements for the media server as Plex recommends is this:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor 2.4 GHz or better
• If transcoding for multiple devices, a faster CPU may be required
• At least 2GB RAM
• Windows: Vista SP2 or later
• OS X: Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or later (64-bit)
• Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux

From my own experience, I would not recommend the minimum requirements.  It will work alright with those settings but often I would run into 'buffering' issues.  Don't let that discourage you though, give it a try with the computer you want to use. My media server consists of this (and only has a Windows Experience Index of 1):

• Intel Pentium 4 processor 3.20 Ghz
• 2GB RAM
• 32-bit Windows 7 Professional
• 3 hard drives:
• 32GB primary drive - only Windows and the Plex server program are installed
• 2 storage drives for media only
• 2TB secondary drive
• 3TB tertiary drive

What I found made my media server perform the best wasn't more memory or processing power, it was an upgrade to my network router!  Refer back to an earlier post titled "Shopping for a Home Wireless Access Point or Router?" and scroll to the middle of the article to the Netgear R6300 if you want to read more about my router.  Upgrading my router made all the difference in the world, my buffering issue are rare now, video playback is near HD quality - I keep the streaming quality at 4 Mbps, 720p for local.  Remote and Web playback quality is set at 1.5Mbps, 480p.


WHAT YOU DO NEXT...

Next you need to get your media in order.  This process can take a relatively short amount of time or a long time just depends on how much you have at the moment!

I am going to assume your media is all stored on DVDs.  To get them off of your disc and on your computer as a file, you'll need a DVD ripping tool such as Freemake Video Converter.  When you open this program, click on the DVD button and for what you want to convert the media to I have found the FLV files playback better than MP4, AVI, or MKV.  Especially when streaming to devices over the Internet.

After you have your media converted you need to setup folders and sub-folders and file names in a certain way for the media server to be able to index it properly.  Plex has a rather well documented section for the best way to do this.  You can find this information by clicking this link.  An example of how this should be structured, check out the following example pictures for sections on movies, music and television:

For movies:

For music:

For television:

Overview of all of the structure of all the main folders:

 As you can see each section has is its own folder (see the overview image immediately above) and within those sections is first a folder titled what it is (either a movie with the year it was released in parenthesis, television series, or in the case of music is the artist - album name).  The folder inside the first is either the name of the movie again with the year of release, the season of the tv series, or the name of the song.  The third level, is for television series, the files there are named by the show title followed by a series number and episode number.  For help on naming you can also refer to the Online TV Database, there you can find the season and episode numbers if you need it.

I highly recommend taking your time and getting this set up before moving forward.  There is a lot of up front work but once you get this done, any media you add after this will be simple and easy!!  When I first configured my Plex server I didn't know about the proper naming rules and went my own way about it.  I ended up with one confused media server when it came to television series.  Movies I got it right, I didn't have the year of release and that messed up a small number of listings. 


PLEX MEDIA SERVER...

OK, so you have your computer ready and now go to www.plex.tv, click on the downloads link at the top of the screen.  Click the "Computer" button for the Plex Media Server to go to the screen to choose your operating system and download the software.  Once downloaded, begin the installation program and follow the default settings.

 If Plex does not automatically launch when completed,  right click on the Plex icon in the system tray (down by the clock) and select Media Manager.  Since this is your first time opening interface the Plex Setup Wizard will appear.

So the basic setup happens.  It asks for some simple information at the start.  It wants you to name the server, connect your server to Plex to be able to access it when not at home.  And asks if you want to send any anonymous data back to Plex for helping improve the program.  

After this you are greeted with a screen to add a library.  Go ahead and begin! 

1. Click the  Add Library button
2. Choose the appropriate Library Type
3. Name the Library if the default name doesn't suit you
4. Click Next
5. Click Add Folder
6. Browse for the folder to add
7. Choose Add once done
8. Add additional folders if required in the same way
9. If necessary, set the Advanced Options
10. Once done, click Add Library
11. The Library is created and the media found will be added to the database

If you need or want more information regarding Creating Libraries, click this link which will take you to a Plex article.

For now, skip Channels and continue with the setup wizard.  For more information on channels click this link.

Once the setup wizard has finished, the server will begin scanning your media and creating the Plex libraries.  Depending on how much media you have, this could take a matter of minutes or hours. 

 
Congratulations!!  You have a running media server with the capability to streaming to your cell phone, tablet, computer, from anywhere where you have an Internet connection.  For home use, I would recommend either getting a Roku box connected to your television.  See my article on Cutting the Cable and Streaming Everything to see how Plex is one of several things that can help you save money each month!

If you would like more detailed instructions, you can find that at Plex website by clicking this link. 

In the market for a... new cellphone

Are you shopping for a new cellphone?  Not sure which way to go with your phone, Android or iPhone?  Here I'll highlight some of the features and compare the two. Because Apple has only one cell phone and Android has several, I'll focus this article on the Nexus.  The Nexus is considered to be the Google flagship.  In case you are wondering, I own the Galaxy S3.

Nexus 6 (left) & iPhone 6 (right)

Size

Size often comes to play and each persons choice is different.  Some people want a small, easy to hold in one hand device, while others want a larger device with a bigger screen.  The choice is completely yours.


When the iPhone 6 was released, in late 2014, it grew up compared to its predecessors.  It is just under five and a half inches tall, little over two and half inches wide and it's thin, just a smidgeon over a quarter inch.  No wonder it bends in peoples back pockets!  The screen size is just under five inches at 4.7 inches.

Android phones come in different sizes, some are the smaller than the iPhone, roughly the same size as the iPhone and some are larger than the iPhone.  However, the Nexus 6, released late 2014 as well, is about six and a quarter inches tall, little over three and a quarter inches wide, and almost a half inch thick.  Screen size is a nice 6 inches.


Features
Both phones are capable of doing pretty much the same things.  

• They can both obviously take and make phone calls, 
• They can both do text messaging
• SMS
• iMessage
• Hangouts
• Voice
• and many others via downloadable apps
• Both have built-in front and rear facing cameras.  Remember the higher the megapixel the better the quality picture it takes.
• Rear facing camera
•  iPhone 6 has an 8 megapixel camera
• Nexus 6 has a 13 megapixel camera
• Front facing camera
•  iPhone 6 has a 1.2 megapixel camera
• Nexus 6 has a 2 megapixel camera
•  Battery life
• The Nexus 6 has a larger battery over the iPhone 6 and therefore has a slightly longer battery life.  Average talk times are greatly different between the two phones BUT what you do with your phone when you are not talking on it will cause the battery to not last long.  If you are into just texting and talking then your battery will last much longer before needing to be recharged compared to a person who is texting, checking social media, checking and sending emails, streaming music or video, etc.
• Nexus 6 has an average talk time of 24 hours
• iPhone 6 has an average talk time of 14 hours

 Apps
Both iOS (Apple) and Android devices have access to a LARGE collection of applications, or apps, some are free and some are paid.  The cost of an app can range from as low as 50 cents (Amazon sometimes has apps on "sale") up to several hundred dollars.  There is an iPad app that my employer uses in some special services classrooms that cost $199 for one copy!   

• The iPhone 6 has access to the Apple App Store with over 1.4 million apps, as of May 2015.
• Nexus 6 and all other Android cell phones have access to multiple app stores.  
• Google Play, the primary app store, has over 1.5 million apps, as of May 2015
• Amazon App Store, has been growing since it popped up in 2011 from 3,800 apps to over 290,000 as of January 2015.
• There are other app stores available to both iOS and Android, but they required rooting/jailbreaking your cell phone.  Rooting or jailbreaking your phone can unlock new features, give you access to apps that aren't available elsewhere (Cydia and XDA Developers are a couple options), allow you to customize the look of your phone beyond just changing a few colors here and there.  I would warn you though, if you go the direction of rooting or jailbreaking your cell phone (or tablet) you can void your warranty or worse if you don't follow the instructions carefully you run the risk of "bricking" your cellphone, in other words turning it into an expensive paper weight.  Yes, I have rooted my Samsung Galaxy S III but it was something I read about for a long period of time and I didn't do it until I felt I was certain what I was doing.

Summary
I know I posted a LOT of information about the two phones and their features.  Each phone is meant for a different "type of " person, in my opinion, and without the hassle of rooting and jailbreaking, my opinion when it comes to cell phones is this.

People who don't want to customize their cell phone and are happy with having a phone that is tightly controlled by its manufacturer would do well with an Apple iPhone.  Having said that, while Apple does make the phone their way or no way, it does hold up well against most abuse and they don't have many issues beyond battery life.  The display glass could be better, in my line of work I see a LOT of cracked/shattered displays and they do tend to crack easily. Overall, the iPhone does what you expect it to and the upcoming iOS 9 will bring the iPhone into recent Android comparability.

People who want to "do what they want" with their cell phones, even without rooting them, have more options with an Android phone.  More app options, features, and sizes.  The Nexus 6 display is made of gorilla glass and can still crack but it will take more of a beating.  It makes for a good direct competitor against the iPhone 6.  

If you were to ask me, which phone you should go with?  Most likely, I'll tell you to go with an Android phone.  I would also base my answer on whether or not you already own a tablet.  Why?  If you own an iPad you would be better with an iPhone because apps you acquire on the iPad you can also download and install on your iPhone (if it is compatible - some apps only work on specific devices).  Even paid apps!  The same is true with any Android tablet, including the Kindle Fire tablets.  The apps you get on the tablet will work fine on an Android cell, again as long as the app wasn't written solely for either the tablet or cellphone.