Month: June 2017

App of the Week: Everything you need to know about the new Files app on iOS 11

 


By Charlie Sorrell of CNET

Files is the new Finder app for iOS 11, and it’s already about a million times better than the basic file-picker it replaces — iCloud Drive. Files is a central place from which to access all the files on your iDevice, and in iCloud. You can find, organize, open, and delete all the files on your device, in iCloud, and on 3rd-party storage services like Dropbox. And because this is iOS 11, Files supports all the fancy new multitasking features like drag-and-drop.

So, lets take a look at what it can do:

 

Of all the new features in iOS 11, Files is still one of the most beta. It’s buggy, laggy, and is missing several of the features shown in the 2017 WWDC keynote. Right now, it doesn’t even have an entry in the Settings app. But despite this, its already more than useful.

FILES’ MAIN SCREEN

I call it the “main” screen, but it’s really Files’ only screen. down the left is a list of sources, and on the right you see the folders and files. Right now the available locations are On My iPad and iCloud Drive. You can also drag any folder to the Favorites section, and there’s another section for tags. These tags are the same ones that you may already use in the Finder on the Mac, and, like everything in iCloud, they sync between Mac and iOS. In the future, you will also be able to access Dropbox, Box, and other file storage services.

GETTING AROUND

Tapping on a source in the sidebar opens up that source. You can then tap on any folder to open that. There’s a persistent search bar at the top of this view, and while it doesn’t yet search within files themselves, it will find files inside subfolders. This lets you quickly find a file if you know its name.

Pulling down on the screen in this view reveals more options. You can create a new folder, sort by Name, Date, Size, or Tags, and toggle between and icon view and list view. At any time you can drag a file and drop it in another folder, or drag it onto a tag to apply that tag. You can also hit the home button and drag the files onto another app (or into an app open in Split View).


You can also drag multiple documents at one time, using multitouch. To do this, you start dragging one file, then tap any other file to add it to the pile under your other finger. This works across multiple locations, so you can keep dragging as you tap to visit many folders and tags, tapping files as you go, until you have everything you want. And once you

Be careful, though. There’s no way to quit an operation once you’ve started. You might find yourself dragging a fingerful of files and realize you’ve gotten the wrong files, or just changed your mind. Workaround include keeping a tag just for this, and dragging them onto it. Nothing will be moved, just tagged. Or you can tap the home button and drop the files on an open space in your home screen. Fortunately, files are copied, not moved, so you can safely delete the erroneously-copied files and leave the originals untouched.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH YOUR FILES?

File support is a little inconsistent so far. Some files can be viewed and even edited inside Files. Others will open in their parent app once tapped. Because there’s no way to tell whether you’ll see a preview, or if tapping will launch another app, its all a little frustrating. You can find out more about a file by long-pressing it to bring up a popover, similar to the ones that appear when you select text on iOS. Here the options are Copy, Rename, Move, Share, Tags, Info, and Delete.

Here’s a quick list of what I’ve found out about different file types

  • Images can be previewed, and marked up using the standard markup tools in iOS 11. To remove your graffiti, use the erase tool. A folder of images can be swiped through ands viewed.
  • Text files can be previewed, but only if their parent app isn’t installed. For instance, I tapped a text file created with Byword and it launched in Byword. After I deleted Byword, those files could be previewed in Files instead.
  • Movies can be previewed. I (almost)successfully watched an AVI and a MOV file, although they both stuttered and barely played.
  • GarageBand files open in GarageBand
  • Music Memos files, in the iCloud Drive, are played inside Files.
  • ZIP file contents can be previewed, as if they were in a folder. You cannot zip or unzip.

SHARING

There is a mysterious Sharing feature, which lets you share a file and edit it with other people. Right now it seems that you can invite people to share, but they can’t actually edit the document. I shared a text file with our own Luke Dormehl, and it was added to his iCloud Drive, but he was unable to edit it.

Still, the option to manage collaborations from Files is an interesting one.

Files is definitely a beta app, with a long way to go. Even on an iPad Pro it’s sluggish (although search is instant), and lacks a lot of basic features (there’s no way too sort by file kind, for example). But despite that it’s already pretty great. If nothing else, Files on iOS is an easy and reliable way to access the files in your Mac’s Desktop and Documents folders.

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How to: Link Your Calendar with Alexa

 

 

by DAN MOREN of Tom’s Guide

Having Alexa read you your upcoming appointments is one of the best uses of a virtual assistant. It saves you from having to go to your computer or pull out your phone to check what’s going on for the day or add a new event. Alexa supports Google Calendar, Apple Calendar,  and Microsoft calendars via Outlook.com and Office 365. Here’s how to link them.

1. Open the Alexa app on your phone.

 

2. Tap the Menu button in the top left corner.

 

3. Tap Settings.

 

4. Scroll down to find Calendar and select it.

 

5. Tap the calendar system you want to link; for this example, we’ll use Google Calendar.

 

6. On the following screen, which includes your name, tap “Link your Google calendar account.”

7. When prompted, choose the appropriate Google account. You may need to enter your username and password.

 

8. The following screen tells you what abilities you’re granting Alexa; in this case, managing your calendars. Tap Allow.

 

9. Tap Done.

 

10. Choose which calendars you want Alexa to have access to by tapping the checkbox beside their names. When you’re finished, tap the Back arrow in the top left.

 

11. In the middle of the screen, you can choose to which calendar new events will be added. Tap the name of the calendar that Alexa has chosen to change it.

 

12. You’re all set! Now, you can add a new event to your calendar by saying “Alexa, add dinner to my calendar for 6pm today” or, for a more interactive approach, “Alexa, add an event to my calendar.”

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T&T: This trick makes moving iPhone apps easier than ever!

 

by Patrick Holland of CNET

If you have lots of pages of apps on your iPhone, it can be a pain to move them around. But we have an easy solution.

 

Rearranging apps on your iPhone and iPad is pretty easy, but moving them across screens can be a little more frustrating. There’s an easy trick that solves this: use the dock.

Here’s how it works. If you have multiple pages of apps on your home screen, scroll all the way right to the last page. Once there, press and hold on any app to activate “jiggle mode” — be careful not to accidentally trigger 3D Touch if you’re on an iPhone 6S or later. “Jiggle mode” lets you rearrange apps on your iPhone.

Next, remove one of the apps from the dock and place it on that last page temporarily. This frees up a space the dock to shuttle apps back-and-forth to other pages on your home screen. To do this, drag the app you’re relocating down to the dock. Scroll to the spot you want to put it. Then, drag it to its new spot. Repeat if necessary.

When you’re all done, return the app you took off the dock back to its place and press the home button to lock everything down.

Now you can rest easy since all your apps are where you want them — or you could finally get around to cleaning the camera on the back.

Do you have a favorite trick for organizing your Apps? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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Weekly Round Up 6/9

 

Preach!
Michelle Obama to Silicon Valley: Make Room for Women in Tech


Thus replacing their old title of “State with the most missing teeth.”
Alabama city is America’s fastest-growing tech town

 

This is only the tip of the iceberg of what they need to learn.
What Silicon Valley can learn from Lebanon’s women in tech


This one hurts because it’s right in my own back yard.
Lowe’s lays off over 120 tech workers in Mooresville, will send jobs to India

This is the second most disappointing thing Tim Cook did this week.
Tech CEO’s Cook, Bezos, Cats said to attend Kushner-led summit.

For the gadget gals who love a good deal.

Life Hack: Here’s how you can get the best tech for less

We have to start somewhere, Ladies.

Melinda Gates: How Women Grads Can Succeed in Tech

That’s like asking, “Can the NRA do more to stop gun violence?”

Can Tech companies do more to stop terrorism?

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Tales from the Orchard – THE 8 BIGGEST ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM APPLE WWDC 2017

 

 

by Natt Garun of The Verge

Apple’s WWDC 2017 keynote just wrapped, where key executives Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller, and, of course, Tim Cook, took the stage to announce updates headed to iPhones, MacBooks, Apple TV, and more.

The rumors for this year’s WWDC came in the final hours leading up to the event, with hints of new hardware and, of course, software news for developers to help prep the release of consumer updates in the fall. We were also anticipating the company to finally take Siri up against the likes of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant on the hardware and smart home front — and it looks like it arrived in the form of the Apple HomePod.

Here are the highlights from today’s keynote.

 

APPLE ANNOUNCES HOMEPOD SPEAKER TO TAKE ON AMAZON ECHO AND SONOS

 

So let’s get the Siri speaker rumors out of the way: it turns out Apple wasn’t quite aiming its smart speaker to go against just Amazon Echo and Google Home, but also the Sonos home entertainment speakers. Called the HomePod, it uses spacial awareness to tune and better fill the room with sound based on the space it’s in. It also has a “Musicologist” feature that works with Apple Music to stream the music you ask the speaker’s built-in Siri to play. You can even ask more complex, music-related questions like “Who’s the drummer in this song?” or “What album came out on this day 20 years ago?”

“APPLE PRICED THE HOMEPOD AT $349”

The HomePod will be available in two colors — black or white — and will integrate Siri in an Amazon Echo / Google Home-like use case. You can ask it to control smart home devices and check the day’s weather and news briefings. Apple priced the HomePod at $349, with plans to ship it in December first to customers in the US, UK, and Australia. It will enter more international markets next year. Check out our hands-on with the HomePod for a first look.

IMAC PRO INTRODUCED, ALONGSIDE UPDATED DESKTOP SPECS

 

Apple’s introducing updated iMac desktops with improved Retina displays, graphics boosts, Kaby Lake processors, and USB-C. They will also support graphics for VR content creation. During the keynote, Apple demoed this by showing off a VR game featuring Darth Vader, a lightsaber, and TIE fighter.

There’s a new iMac Pro as well, with a 5K display with improved cooling capacity, and 8-core Xeon processor (upgradeable up to 18-core,) up to 4TB of SSD, up to 128GB of ECC memory, four Thunderbolt 3 ports, and built-in 10GB Ethernet.

 

The new iMac starts at $1,099 for the 21.5-inch model, and $1,299 for the 4K model. MacBooks will get upgraded, too; the MacBook Pro starting at $1,299, which includes the updated Kaby Lake processor. The iMac Pro starts at $4,999, and ships in December.

IOS 11 COMES WITH IMPROVED SIRI, AUTOMATIC DO NOT DISTURB DRIVING MODE, IMESSAGE FEATURES

The new version of iOS software has some pretty social updates, such as an update to Siri that has improved speech, the ability to help translate sentences into different languages, and on-device learnings that suggest actions based on what you do on your iPhone or iPad. iMessages now live in the iCloud, with synchronized conversations that you can delete from any device you own that are under the same account. You can also pay and receive payments from contacts through iMessage — so no more Venmo or Square Cash if you don’t want to download extra apps.

“SIRI NOW HAS IMPROVED SPEECH”

Photo capture is also improved, with better low-light performance, and the ability to edit Live Photos so you can change the key still image or trim the video. There’s a new control center as well, which relies a lot on 3D Touch and condenses most controls on the lower half of the screen without looking cluttered.

 

There’s also a new safety feature that recognizes when a user is driving and automatically turns on Do Not Disturb to prevent distractions. When you’re available to be more social, you can now head to Apple Music to see what your friends are listening to and check out shared playlists.

Lastly, the App Store has been redesigned for better discovery and a How To section for tips on how to use various popular apps. Apple’s also bringing back the “App of the Day” section to promote users to open the App Store more frequently.

IOS 11 FOR IPAD BRINGS WINDOWS-ESQUE MULTITASKING ABILITIES

On the iPad, iOS 11 improves multitasking that lets users pull up an app from the dock and drag it onto the screen to split the screen. Similar to what you can do on a MacBook, you can use touch to hold and drag folders, files, or photos and drop them in a different app such as Mail or iMessage. Handwritten text from an Apple Pencil will also be searchable from the Notes app. Apple claims it uses “deep learning” to recognize penmanship.

Apple also talked briefly about the Files app that leaked a few hours before the keynote kicked off, which is just a management system that you can use to sort files by size and date, similar to how you’d go through your files on a desktop or laptop.

APPLE LETS DEVELOPERS MAKE MORE IMMERSIVE APPS WITH AR KIT

 

Just as Lauren Goode predicted, Apple introduced a new ARKit to let developers build augmented reality apps for the iPhone. The kit can help find planes, track motion, and estimate scale and ambient lighting. Popular apps like Pokémon Go will also use ARKit for improved real-time renders.

Rather than requiring external hardware like Microsoft’s HoloLens, Apple seems to be betting on ARKit to provide impressive quality imaging through a device most people already own. We’ll know more on how the quality actually compares when we get to try it out ourselves.

 

10.5 INCH iPAD PRO INTRODUCED

The iPad Pro will now be available in three different sizes, with a new 10.5-inch model introduced today. There’s a 12-megapixel camera, just like the iPhone 7, with a 7MP selfie cam. It supports USB 3.0 and has 10 hours of battery life.

There’s a new feature called ProMotion which reduces the Apple Pencil’s latency to 20 milliseconds. It can automatically adjust the refresh rate based on what you’re watching (fast-moving video versus still image). ProMotion also doubles the refresh rate to up to 120Hz.

The 10.5-inch iPad Pro will be available starting with a 64GB configuration at $649; it’s available to order now and shipping next week.

 

THE NEW MACOS IS NAMED HIGH SIERRA. YEP.

The upcoming version of macOS will be called High Sierra, and it comes with updates to Safari that help block site trackers and autoplaying videos. Apple’s also added new photo-editing tools like curves (helpful for those who don’t have Adobe Photoshop), and it has better filtering tools to sort images by keywords or faces.
An updated file management system will be a part of the update as well, which speeds up directory cloning with native encryption. On the graphics end, there’s a second version of Metal, support for VR, and a Metal 2 developer kit that you can order with an AMD GPU to tune apps for external graphics.

WATCHOS 4 BRINGS NEW SIRI WATCHFACE, FITNESS COACHING, AND A NEW APP-BROWSING UI

An update for the Apple Watch is coming which introduces new faces that display different types of informations, such as Siri reminders or more visual ones that feature Toy Story characters a la Mickey Mouse. There’s also a fitness-focused update, which includes monthly challenges to encourage the wearer to get more active and NFC-enabled data sharing where the user can tap their Apple Watch on gym equipment to pair the two, sharing the most accurate calorie burn and activity information.

There’s also a new Music app to make finding and playing music via the Apple Watch more visual — you can now use a new dock layout to scroll through recently opened apps.

Catch up on the latest news from WWDC 2017 right here.

What’s your opinion on Apple’s Announcements? Tell us in the Comments below!

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Women In Tech: Lady Tech Charmers

 

By Holly Riley of The Blonde Byte.com

Ladies,

On a day where I like to focus on the strides women in the tech field are making, I’d like to introduce you to a few friends of mine. They are three solo-prenuers each specializing in certain areas of tech who got together and created a venue for all us technically minded women out there to have our voices heard. They are The Lady Tech Charmers and their podcast debuted this week on iTunes. In my opinion, they value the same things I do: Lifelong Learning, Open Mindedness, Continued Growth, Community Building, and Collaboration. To me, that’s why this podcast matters.

In their own words, they hope their podcast will:

“share stories, ideas, and resources to empower women globally.
Research has shown.… there are not enough women in technology or leadership worldwide and those that are there are not as visible as they should be. The Lady Tech Charmers podcast is shifting the conversation to create a movement in order to encourage women in tech and empower females to take leadership with their talents.”

I know and admire these women. Individually, they are bright, kind, passionate, and brilliant people. Together, they’re unstoppable.

I encourage you all to listen to their podcast whether you’re a woman or not, whether you’re a hard core tech geek or not, because, in the end, it’s not about the topics of each episode. It’s about the conversation. If we are to ever put a significant crack in the glass ceiling hovering over the Tech Industry, the conversation must keep going.

Bravo, Ladies!

Visit the Lady Tech Charmers site here.
Listen to their podcast here.

Do you have a favorite WIT Podcast? Tell us about in the comments below!

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App of the Week – Adobe launches free document scanning app for Android and iOS

 

By Blair Hanley Frank of VentureBeat.com

Adobe is getting into the mobile scanning game with a new free iOS and Android app aimed at providing users with high-quality images of physical content they want to capture digitally.

It’s called Adobe Scan, and it works similarly to a bunch of other apps already available. Users point their smartphone cameras at whatever document, white board, or presentation screen they want to capture, and the app automatically crops the image to just pick out a document.

The clearest difference between Scan and other apps, like Microsoft Lens, is that the app integrates with Adobe Document Cloud and automatically performs optical character recognition on the PDFs it generates. Users can then copy and paste text from those documents into other files.

But Adobe also put in a lot of work on building machine intelligence into Scan from the ground up, according to Akhil Chugh, a senior product manager for Document Cloud. The app uses a variety of machine learning and image processing algorithms to help deal with the myriad issues that arise with mobile scanning, like trying to differentiate a document from a similarly colored background and figuring out which areas of a document warrant optical character recognition.

“Our goal has been to create a digital document that’s as good as you would get from a flatbed scanner, or as good as the real document,” Chugh said.

Specifically, Adobe is using genetic algorithms (so named because they’re generated by simulating natural selection) to handle document boundary detection. For differentiating text from images, Adobe is using tree- and logistic regression-based classifiers. Those machine learning tools are a part of Sensei, Adobe’s name for its internal ML framework and features.

Adobe is counting on its document expertise and machine learning capabilities to boost Scan in a crowded market. The app is free for people to use, but it requires the creation of a Document Cloud account. Scanned files are stored in Document Cloud automatically but can also be saved to other services.

While it’s possible for Scan to capture images without a network connection, all of the OCR work is handled in Adobe’s cloud. That means text recognition requires sending images of the document over the internet, which may not be an appealing option for some sensitive content.

The launch of Scan is a significant milestone, but Adobe plans to further refine the app over time as part of its Document Cloud portfolio. The company has invested a great deal in handwriting and font recognition, for example, so it’s possible features like that could show up in Scan going forward.

On the machine learning front, the team is investigating how to best implement deep learning in Scan and across Document Cloud. It’s also looking into using generative adversarial networks, which are designed to help create content.

Download Adobe Scan for Android

Download Adobe Scan for iOS

Do you have a favorite scanner app for your phone? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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How to: quickly search settings in iOS

 

 

By Charlie Sorrel of Cult of Mac

 

The iOS Settings app is more like a chaotic junk drawer that a neatly-organized filing cabinet. Back when the iPhone launched, it was tidy, with only a few items, all methodically arranged. Then, as more and more features were added to iOS, their settings were tossed in there like you toss spare keys into that kitchen drawer with the rubber bands and spare fuses. Unlike a real junk drawer, though, which will slice your fingers with hidden tools and pieces of broken teacup if you rummage too hard, the Settings app has a way to ignore the detritus and get straight to the setting you want: Search settings. This feature is essential, but very few of the folks I asked about it this week even knew it existed. This how-to is for them, and for anyone else who hates changing settings.

 

 

To use Settings search, just launch the Settings app and swipe down. That’s it! The previously-hidden search field is now ready for your queries. Type in the name of the settings screen you want, or the feature you want to tweak, and when the correct result shows up in the list, just tap it to go right to that screen. This is a timesaver for oft-used settings, but is really most useful for those settings you change so seldom that you can’t remember where they were hidden. And if you tap the wrong search result, your search remains persistent. Just hit the back arrow at the top left of the screen until you arrive back at the main settings page, where you’ll find the search box still populated with whatever you typed in there.

IT WORKS FOR THIRD-PARTY APPS TOO

As you can see from my screenshots, Settings Search works not only for the built-in Apple settings, like iCloud, Mail, Accessibility and so on, but also for the settings that third-party apps put inside the Settings app. If your search includes results from apps you have installed your device, then they’ll show up in the list, and be directly accessible with a tap.

And you might be surprised by what you find. It used to be that many apps put their settings in the Settings app, but as nobody ever looks outside the app itself when they want to tweak setting, those settings went unset, as it were. But there are still quite a few hiding in here, so you might like to poke around, just to see if there’s a neat setting for your favorite app that you never knew about.

IT WORKS ON THE MAC TOO

Settings search works on the Mac too, but is more obvious thanks to the always-visible search field, and the fact that the text cursor is already right there in search box, so you can type as soon as you launch the macOS System Preferences app.

Speaking of keyboards, the iOS Settings app has zero keyboard shortcuts for folks with a hardware keyboard attached. Zero. Even pressing and holding the ⌘ key, which brings up an overlay showing what keyboard shortcuts are available even when you’re on the Home screen, doesn’t do anything. If you’re a user who likes to keep their hands on the keyboard, then, you’re out of luck. This seems particularly short-sighted, as keyboard users tend to also be power users, and therefore more likely to be regular tweakers of settings.

Search is everywhere on iOS these days, but still not unified. You don’t see your settings in the regular Spotlight search, for example, which would be an even quicker way of accessing settings. One day this may happen, but until then, this tip will keep us going.

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T&T: Everyone uses Gmail, but not everyone knows these awesome tips and tricks

 


By Tyler Lacoma by digital trends

Between Labs, extensions, and settings, there’s a plethora of ways that you can customize your Gmail experience and tweak how emails are handled. Below of some of our favorite methods for managing time and giving Gmail an extra boost when it comes to organization.

SEND AND ARCHIVE IN ONE STEP

 

Here’s a trick to save a lot of time. First, click the gear icon and choose Settings from the resulting drop-down menu. Find the Send and Archive section and check the box beside Show “Send & Archive” button in reply. This adds a new button when you’re replying to an email. Clicking it will allow you to send your response and automatically archive the email, thus removing it from your inbox. It’s a godsend for those who receive endless amounts of email, and one that keeps your inbox free of clutter.

ENABLE AND DISABLE TABS

Gmail has three tabs — Primary, Social, and Promotion — and organizes your emails for you automatically. But did you know you can customize these tabs? If you want to do so, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner and choose Configure inbox from the drop-down menu. This allows you to add new tabs, such as Updates and Forums, or remove any tabs that you don’t like or want. It’s a handy bit of auto-organization for when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

SEE MORE WITH THE COMPACT SETTING

When you click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of Gmail, one of the first things you’ll see in the resulting drop-down menu is an option to switch between Cozy, Comfortable, and Compact viewing modes. Switching to Compact eradicates a good deal of space, allowing you to see more email information on each line. It’s a good setting to go with if you want to maximize your efficiency and see as much information as possible in a single glance.

TAKE BACK AN UNFORTUNATE EMAIL

Whenever you send an email in Gmail, you’ll notice a yellow box that says the email was sent. If you catch it fast enough, however, you can actually cancel the email while it’s in the process of being sent. If it has already been sent, this option turns in Undo Send, which allows you to correct your mistake with a couple clicks. If you don’t see the feature, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Then, check the box beside Enable Undo Send in the Undo Send section. Here, you can also set a 5-, 10-, 20-, or 30-second cancellation period.

SEND MONEY INSTANTLY

Whenever you start to compose an email in Gmail, you can hit the dollar sign — or the pound sign, if you’re located in the United Kingdom — to use that email as a vehicle for sending money. It allows you to set an amount and input, or choose a payment method. When the recipient gets the email, they can “activate” the payment and the transaction will occur. Could you just use PayPal? Yes, but this option is just as useful when it comes to making quick, small payments.

USE SMART REPLY TO SAVE TIME ON RESPONSES

In the mobile version of Gmail, there is currently a feature called Smart Reply. It uses some of Google’s AI tech to automatically create a few quick responses (somewhat modeled after your email behavior) that you can immediately send. These range from a basic “thanks!” to more complex questions based on the email you are responding to. It doesn’t always work, but for simple responses, it can help you save a lot of time on your mobile device.

SAVE SPACE WITH DRIVE

If you can’t fit a file on an email or prefer not mess around with attachments, use Google Drive instead. Every Compose window comes equipped with a Drive icon, which allows you to quickly attach Drive files from within your browser. It’s also handy if you need to share files that aren’t stored on the device you’re using… as long as Drive is one of the common storage options.

SYNERGIZE WITH LINKEDIN

One of the great extensions to use in the business world is Rapportive, a Gmail extension that links the sender’s contact information with social media, specifically LinkedIn. Open an email from someone with a LinkedIn account and the tool will immediately show their profile information in a sidebar, along with links to their various social media accounts. It’s one of the best networking tools available if you regularly use Gmail.

USE CANNED RESPONSES TO SAVE EVEN MORE TIME

Gmail Labs are experimental extensions that you can enable for free. Labs don’t always stick around, but Canned Responses has been on the block for years, so we feel confident recommending it. Head over to the gear icon, choose Settings, and click the Labs tab. One of the labs should say Canned Responses. Enable it, and you can create email templates that you can immediately copy into an email and tweak as needed. It’s ideal for customer service or tracking down leads.

DELEGATE SOME OF YOUR EMAILS

Gmail offers a service that allows you to set up a series of delegates. These delegates have the ability to read and respond to your emails, and even manage your contacts, although they can’t chat or change your settings. Setting up delegates is useful if you are a busy professional and need an employee or team member to step in and check the latest responses when you simply don’t have enough time.

TRY IFTTT CONFIGURATIONS

IFTTT or “If This Then That” is a smart device platform that allows you to customize a variety of responses and scenes for your smart home. It also works with a lot of other things, including Gmail. Here are some examples of the IFTTT ideas already created by people and ready to be used. With the right recipe, you can save files directly to Drive, automatically sync Evernote and Todoist, trigger notifications, and carry out a bunch of other useful actions. Find the options that are best for your life, and you can transform your Gmail experience into something twice as useful.

Which email service do you prefer? Any cool hacks you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below!

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Weekly Round Up 6/2

 

Me too, Woz. Elon Musk is ‘the man’!
Apple Co-Founder Bets on Tesla for Next Tech Breakthrough

A strongly worded letter isn’t going to do it, guys. Drumpf only has a third grade reading level and the attention span of a gnat with a lobotomy.
Lab Report: Tech Leaders Fight for Paris Accord

Any progress in this fight is good. We need to up the survivor rate numbers for most gynecological cancers.
New tech promises easier cervical cancer screening

I don’t know if this country can survive another bubble bursting…
Another tech bubble in the making? Many signs say yes

I applaud any gadget that motivates us to get off binge watching butts and work out.
The Best Health Tech 2017: Gadgets That Make You Fit And Healthy

Please be true!Please be true!Please be true!Please be true!
This guy wants to use tech to create a “Wizarding pub” in London.

Did they make this so all the nerds living in their mom’s basement will have something to wear when meet their Sex-bots for the first time?
Fashion and tech collide in this VR-friendly connected shirt

Let’s see if Apple has any love for the Mac Pro and iMac users out there.
Apple WWDC 2017: What to Expect

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