Genealife in Lockdown - Empty Pages.

Genimate Alex Daw over at the Family Tree Frog blog has challenged fellow geneabloggers to write about their lockdown experiences in a series of blog posts on Sundays during National Family History Month in Australia.

See what Alex has to say about the challenge here: 

https://familytreefrog.blogspot.com/2021/07/genealife-in-lockdown-nfhm-blogging.html 

As someone who is always up for a challenge I will try to post on the topic Genealife on Lockdown each Sunday in August. Following is my second post of five.

Practice makes perfect (I hope)

As I may be blogging from my smartphone while in Salt Lake City for Rootstech  I thought I should practice with the Blogger Android app.

I was so proud when I added a photo, some tags and a couple of hyperlinks to the post and then uploaded it successfully. When I pulled up the GeniAus blog I could not find the post I was so proud of. I then remembered  that there is a little box at the top left of the app page where one needs to select the blog for which the post is intended.

Over I went to jillballau, the personal blog I use in fits and starts, and there was my post.

Lesson Learnt - I think I will now remember what to do when trying to post from Salt Lake City.

Getting Conference Ready - Directionless

I don't know what your sense of direction is like but mine is punk especially when in the Northern Hemisphere.

I am off to Salt Lake City soon for Rootstech, it's a place where the sun can shine brightly but sometimes it is dull and one can't see the sun.People often give directions using the points of the compass, North, South East and West. This can cause issues for disoriented people from the Southern Hemisphere like me.

At our Society Technology Group meeting lat week one of the members shared the Compass App on her iPhone. I was rather impressed so set off to find a similar app for my Android. I haven't decided which I will use but know that I will find my chosen one quite useful when trying to find my way around when on my travels.

Plenety of Apps to choose from in the Google Play Store

Attention all Geneacruisers - Do you have a favourite book?

There isn't much spare time in the program for  the Unlock the Past cruise but......

I am wondering if other geneacruisers might be interested in bringing along a favourite title from their genealibrary. We could perhaps organise an informal get together where we have a "Show and Tell" and share details of our favourite books.

As I don't need to catch an aeroplane I am not worried about luggage weight restrictions so will throw a couple of books in. I'll also have a few eBooks on my new Android tablet.

Will you join me??

Family History Through the Alphabet – A is for … Android

I am a notorious failure when it comes to ongoing Geneachallenges. Because of my travel habit I cannot keep up with these challenges because the themes are usually secret until posting week which may find me in a foreign country without internet access or time to compose a post.

This present challenge is perfect as I can plan and write my posts ahead of time and just paste the image in at posting time. Thanks, Alona, for organising this activity.

My second issue with this challenge is that I was inspiration challenged when it came to thinking of a theme for my posts - I wanted something to reflect my interests. Today I was talking (via Skype on my Android Tablet) to Alan Phillips from Gould Genealogy for quite a while about the topics I will be presenting at The Queensland Expo and the 3rd Unlock The Past Genealogy Cruise. After the 'phone call I was reflecting on my topics and realised that my theme for this alphabet series will be technology and its relationship to genealogy because that is what I love. During the course of the challenge I will highlight some Apps, Blogs, Connections, Devices, Etc that help me negotiate my genealogical journey.

A is for Android I have an ongoing love affair with my Android devices (Tablet and Phone) that allow me to do genealogy Anywhere Anytime. More than 50% of mobile phones sold in the US and the UK are Android devices yet many genealogists do not realise what little genealogical powerhouses they carry around in their pockets or purses.

In a presentation at Rootstech this year I talked about each of the following functions that a genealogist can carry out on an Android Device:


 Blogging    Browsing    Calendar/time management
 Education - Listening to podcasts   Emailing
 eReader    Genealogy News    GPS unit
 Notetaking    Personal Organiser    Photography
 Purchasing genealogy resources    Research Log
 Researching    Scanning    Social Networking
 Telephone    Voice recording

If you have an Android device you too can do one, two three or all of these of these things when you are out and about. To hear more about Android Genealogy please consider following my Android Genealogy Blog, http://androidgenealogy.blogspot.com , where I post links to news articles and advice for those who want to use the Android Devices for Genealogy.

[New App] ShoeBox Turns Your Android Device Into A Sophisticated Photo Scanning, Organization, And Sharing Machine

Heard about this on Googleplus. Thanks, Kathy Nemaric for the tip

[New App] ShoeBox Turns Your Android Device Into A Sophisticated Photo Scanning, Organization, And Sharing Machine:

'via Blog this'

I notice on her post today that my Genimate, Amy Coffin, has this to say:

"[Last November I had lunch with the kind folks at 1000memories. They asked for my input on their new ShoeBox app for the iPhone. I pulled my Android phone out of my pocket and set it on the table. They got the message.

I am pleased to share this press release with you today. I have downloaded the app and started playing with it. It is very easy to use. I'll let you know how it goes. In the mean time, read up on the latest developments with the 1000memories Shoebox app. ---A]

Thanks Tamura Jones

For alerting us to this new app that is available for download.
GedTree - Hallab

David Lifferth ready to present onAndroid devices

Thought I'dcome to this session to get another perspective on this subject before my presentation

Birth Announcement

BIRTHS

December 30, 2011 In Cyberspace to Jill Ball (aka Geniaus) a new blog - AndroidGenealogy. A comfortable home birth. Mother and Baby both well and looking forward to visitors at androidgenealogy.blogspot.com

Praying for a Shady Day

The Australian summer is here in full force, today we expect the mercury to reach about 37°C. As I learnt on Friday this weather is not suitable for tramping through cemeteries.

I was so excited after listening to a webinar (Virtual Chapter Presentations) hosted by the Utah Genealogical Association on BillionGraves and Familysearch that when the webinar concluded I popped into my little Bambino and headed for the nearest cemetery. Although we were advised in the webinar that shady weather provided the best environment for taking photos of headstones I just could not contain my enthusiasm.

Thanks to the Utah Genealogical Association who have opened their webinars (Virtual Chapter Presentations) to the public. Firstly moderator, Suzanne Curley welcomed each of us as we joined the session. I then enjoyed Tim Cross's presentation; he had a relaxed style using appropriate but not too many screenshots augmented by live demonstrations. Tim provided relevant answers to the questions posed by the 46 or so online participants.  The Society hosts one of these meetings on the third Thursday of each month except December. Details can be found on the society website. A perusal of the topics indicates that they are not UScentric but are relevant to an international audience. The timing of the webinar at 1 PM Sydney time is perfect for me and many other Australians.

I recognised a couple of other Rootstech Official Bloggers, Sue Maxwell and Renee Zamora, in the group, I also noticed Banai Feldstein and Roger Moffat asking questions of Tim, there were also participants from Canada and the Philippines.

I chose the Dural Uniting Church Cemetery for the first sortie as my husband has a direct ancestor and her daughter buried there. This cemetery has already been photographed with images available on Australian Cemeteries Index but I will photograph the headstones for BillionGraves as I believe having  GPS coordinates will benefit others who wish to visit and find graves and the affiliation with FamilySearch will, in the future, have exciting benefits for many genealogists.

It was an easy task to upload my photos to the BillionGraves site on my return home. I was a bit hard on myself and did not upload all the photos taken because, in the harsh sunlight, I had difficulty seeing on the screen of the tablet what I was photographing. Having a at other photos on the site I realise that I should not have deleted mine. Ashady day would provide better conditions for this task and more comfortable conditions for the photographer. A number of other tips for photography were given in webinar and are also available on the BillionGraves site.

We were told in the webinar that we could add transcriptions to our own photographs  but the time I worked out how to do this someone else had transcribed them. What was disappointing about this was that they had not all  been fully transcribed, the names and dates had been added but the additional information fields had been ignored. I wonder if this is because those transcribers are in the race to get their names on the leaderboard for the most transcriptions done. It was an easy task to open and edit the records to add the extra information. I have also transcribed a number of other images on the site, this is a simple task that can be done whenever one has a few spare minutes.

Another reason I had for going out and trying the Android BillionGraves app that was already installed on my tablet is that I want to discuss it in my presentation The Galaxy Girls at Rootstech 2012. I will now be able to discuss the app with some authority.

If it's cool in your neck of the woods and you have either an Android phone or tablet or an iPhone why not download the app and test it for yourself. You can help build the BillionGravaes database from the 310,000 images it is today to the projected 1 billion.

Genealogists - What's your Morning Tech Routine?

I read this post today on ReadWriteWeb where a number of techies responded to the question "What's your Morning Tech Routine?"


Blogger Joe Brockmeier said "Everybody has a morning routine, and most of us in the tech industry have a morning routine of getting in touch with the rest of the world."


The responses got me to wondering what other genealogists do. Do you leap out of bed and leave world and genealogy news until you have time? Do you have a special time of day allocated to catching up on the news? Is it on the commute to the office? Do you sit in bed with a coffee like I do and catch up before rising?  What do you check first - world or genealogy news? Where do you visit first - Twitter, Facebook, Google+, RSS feeds or your email?


As Australia is in a different timezone from most of the world lots of news arrives while I am sleeping. When I wake I grab my Android Tablet that sleeps beside my bed. I head straight for the big three social media sites: Twitter, Google+ and Facebook before I look at my RSS feeds. I don't seem to get as much email these days, moost of my messaages are email alerts,  so I might check this first. While I see news of the world via athese media most of the content I look at is related to genealogy and family history. If I see a bit of world news that I want to follow up I check out the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC News apps. This all takes quite a while as I like to collaborate by sharing and commenting on others posts. 


Once I am up and about I turn on the computer in the kitchen and periodically check in to each of these during the day. If I am going out for the day the tablet travels with me and, if I am not the driver, carry out my morning routine while on the move.


So What's your Morning Tech Routine? Do you have one?

Geniaus in Print

Inside History Issue 7

Travelling down the freeway to the South Coast a number of weeks ago I was having a chat online via my android tablet with Cassie Mercer from Inside History magazine. I mentioned to her that I wouldn't mind writing for the magazine. Within the week  I got a message from Cassie asking me if I could write an article within a few days. Of course I could; I immediately set to tapping out some notes on my keyboard. As much as I love my android I don't have a plug-in keyboard for typing up long articles on it so always turn to my laptop for long writing assignments. I edited my 1800 words down to just under the required 1200 and emailed it off.

During my career as a teacher, librarian and IT guy I wrote many articles for journals and newsletters and when I was president of my professional association I seemed to be always writing. This new assignment was my first foray into the world of genealogy writing so I was understandably nervous.

I so enjoyed working with Cassie who kept me in the loop at all stages of the publishing process, provided lots of positive reinforcement and lavished me with praise once my task was completed. Since I bumped into Cassie last week at State Records Open Day and she told me that the magazine had been delivered to her I have been anxiously waiting its arrival in my mailbox. On Tuesday and Wednesday others tweeted that they had received their copies and I received messages from Twitter Pals that they had read my article.

Snippet from My Article

The Inside History magazine was waiting for me when I got home this afternoon. I was thrilled to see my article in print and was delighted to be published in the same edition as Hazel Edwards who was one of my heroes with her "Hippopotamus books" when I was a children's librarian. I have heard Hazel speak on a number of occasions and particularly enjoyed her Antarctic stories. If you ever meet her ask about her parcel collection experience.

I love my Android tablet and will be talking about it at the Rootstech 2012 Conference in Salt Lake City. Fellow genies Shelley from Canberra and Tanya from the North Coast have generously helped me with material for that presentation.

If you are an Android user or would like to know more about my Android Adventure I'd love to hear from you. Meanwhile, might I suggest that you visit your local library or newsagent and grab a copy of the Inside History magazine that is brimful of great reading. Here's a sneak peek.

New Android Tablet - The Kindle Fire

Although Dick Eastman stated in a post today that: "The Amazon Kindle Fire does NOT run Android or iOS or any other established operating system. Instead, the entire operating system is developed by Amazon. That means there will be no genealogy applications available at launch. If the Kindle Fire becomes popular, I expect that genealogy apps and thousands of other apps will appear within a few months."

Snip from Eastman post on my RSS Feed

 From my reading of various technology blogs I am fairly sure that the Amazon Kindle Fire does run on an Android  system that has been adapted by Amazon.

See:
http://mashable.com/2011/09/29/amazon-kindle-fire-android-hijack/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/amazon-fire-tablet-unveiled-7-inch-display-199-price-tag/

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/amazon-kindle-tablet/

The Amazon App store that provides apps for the Kindle Fire has some genealogy apps available. Unfortunately one of my favourites Family Bee is not there. There are genealogy apps available for Kindle Fire users at launch.

Additionally there are many non-genealogy apps in The Amazon App store that genealogists will find useful for a range of genealogy activities.

Postscript: Since I snipped the paragraph above from Dick's blog it has disappeared from his post. Thanks, Dick, for making the correction. 

Wonderful surprise for the returning traveller

Mr and Mr Geniaus have been off globetrotting for the last few weeks.Although it was not a genealogy field trip I managed to visit a few institutions, see some distant cousins and collect a few new resources on our round the world journey.  Over the next few weeks I will blog about some of my experiences and finds.


After our 20 hour journey from New York I was feeling a little flat on my return home yesterday. In between loads of washing I managed to log into my email where I found a great surprise.There were two emails with the subject line "RootsTech Proposal Accepted".  My spirits immediately soared; I will be presenting in two sessions at Rootstech 2012 in Salt Lake City.


I was absolutely stoked to get this news but now have tummy butterflies. I don't think there will be many other Australian presenters at this international event so I feel a responsibility to do Australia proud. This will not be too difficult for the first session "Genealogy 2.0: international panelists discuss their use of social media to connect with cousins, collaborate on projects, discuss issues, market and promote genealogy services and perform acts of genealogical kindness" in which I will be joined by esteemed genealogists Amy Coffin (USA), Audrey Collins (UK) and Joan Miller (Canada). I was thrilled when these genealogists whom I met at Rootstech 2011 agreed to my proposal to form a panel to discuss Genealogy 2.0. We should have lots of fun collaborating with Web2.0 tools to prepare our presentation.


Although my second gig "The Galaxy Girls –three genealogists and their Android tablets" will be a solo performance I have the support of two Australian genealogists, Shelley from Twigs of Yore and Tanya Honey from My Genealogy Adventure who also purchased Samsung Galaxy Tablets not long after I did. Via email, blog posts and more recently through a Huddle on Google+ Shelley, Tanya and I have been discussing our tablet use. I am indebted to The Galaxy Girls for agreeing to allow me to report on their tablet experiences.


The generosity of the genealogy community is demonstrated by the willingness of these five genealogists to support my proposals for Rootstech 2012, I am most grateful to you.

Genealogists meet on Google+

In not quite two days I have developed a circle of  22 genealogists on Google+. That's certainly not up to the number I connect with on Facebook and Twitter but is encouraging.

I have organised the 43 people in my circles into a number of groups: Australian, Education, Family, Friends, Genealogy and Libraries as these reflect my interests. I had an IT circle but deleted that because everyone  in the circles shares an interest in technology and social media. Some people are in one circle, some in more and one is in four circles. ie Australian, Education, Genealogy and Libraries (I wonder who that is, Sharon?).

The major benefit this has over my one Twitter account is being able to target my communications to a particular group and not clog up their streams with too much irrelevant stuff. If something from one of my Education mates that will be of interest to my other mates appears in my stream then I can share it appropriately and so on; just as I did this morning with this video about Google+ circles.



I have tweaked my public profile so that people looking for contacts with similar interests should be able to find me. Just as with other Social Networks when someone adds me to one of their circles I take a look at who else they have added to seek new contacts.

I am pleased that a number of people I invited: Shelley from Twigs of Yore, Tanya Honey, Sharon Brennan, Pru Mitchell, Thomas MacEntee and  Amy Coffin accepted my invitations to join. I also found Drew Smith whom I had met at Rootstech 2011 and Tami Glatz whose Relatively Curious blog I follow. I follow Dusty Rhoades  and Andrew Kemp on Twitter and now on Google+. Australians Shauna Hicks and Stephen Phillips were members of Google+ before me. Of course, most important, is Banai Feldstein who made it possible for me to join. Members of my family have also joined; I wonder if they will enjoy the genealogy posts I send their way?

I have installed the Android Google+ app on my Galaxy tablet. Although I prefer the interface on the desktop  I am quite happy to use the tablet. The tablet does have one feature, Huddle, that does not appear to be in the desktop app. Shelley has set up a Huddle for The Galaxy Girls as a tool for us to discuss our tablets and apps. 

I am finding The Spark function  relatively useless at the moment. I have set up a spark for "genealogy" but it is not returning much valuable information. The results when I set up one for "genealogy Australia" were even worse - that returned an article on Miley Cirus and one on Masterchef!

One of the features I am finding refreshing is that, for the moment, this tool is focused towards people rather than institutions. I envisage that I will continue to use Twitter to follow organisations and commercial bodies, Facebook to follow friends and organisations who are not so into social networking and Google+ to follow my contacts from genealogy, educations and libraries with an interest in social media.

I hope that this venture is successful so, as I did with Google Wave, I am giving it a go. I do have a few invitations to hand out to genealogists who are committed to giving Google+ a  rigorous tryout.

More explorations around the Galaxy

I am suffering from a severe case of Appitis. Instead of becoming familiar with those apps I already have on my Galaxy Tab I continue to download and test new ones.

Since I last wrote on this topic I've read a post by Banai Feldstein, My gTablet -or- Adventures of a New Android OS User, on her experiences I hope that she continues to document them. I have also exchanged a couple of emails with the other Galaxy Girls, Shelley and Tanya, in which we touched on a few apps. I am now following both androidcentral and AndroidSocMedia social media on Twitter and, from their posts, have found a few other apps to try. I am finding that The Galaxy Tab blog  tells more about new hardware releases than  about how current owners get the most from their gadgets even though it states "We strive to deliver to Galaxy Tab fans insightful and resourceful posts". This blog is on my RSS hit list.

I have organised the pages on my tablet into some semblance of order. On the first page I have those things I want close at hand.: Battery Life widget (so I know when to plug in, Calendar, Camera, Contacts, Facebook, Gdocsnote, Gmail, Google+, Google Reader, Google SearchPhone, a couple of browsers (deciding which to keep),Settings, Tweetcaster (Twitter app) and Weather. I am still on the lookout for a better calendar app for this and guess that I'll have to pay to get one.

The second page has a number of handy tools that include: Alarm clock, Amazon Kindle app (no need for an ebook reader), Convert Units (temperatures, weights, measures etc), Currency Converter, Dropbox and Sugarsync, Juice Defender (helps prolong battery life), a barcode reader, a couple of GPS apps (don't know which to use yet), QR Droid, Skype, Voice Recorder and World Clock. I tried Skype out with my daughter the other day, we were sitting in the same room with our Galaxys and talking on Skype (no video for our OS), it amused the grandkids to see us playing with our gadgets.


Page three is for news and reference and has the apps for local and overseas newpapers and news services, Wikipedia, and telephone directories.


Genealogy and games are on page four. I only have two genealogy specific apps to date: BillionGraves that I am anxious to try at a local cemetery when the sun comes out (Shelley from Twigs of Yore tells me that I must let Billion Graves know the names of those cemeteries that I intend to vist a few days before I head off) and FamilyBee that I found useful at my local family history society on the weekend. As for other fun my daughter introduced me to the Wordz game last week and since then I have spent way too much time trying to beat my best score. From recommendations on Twitter I have also added Jewels, Red Stone and TicTacToe ready for my next trip on a plane.


I use page five to park those apps that I have yet to test as well as those that came with the gadget from Telstra and that I will never use.


The newest app I have is Google+. I prefer the desktop app to the one on Android but  I don't think I will have too much difficulty sharing with the people in my genealogy circles when I find them on Google+. The main issue at the moment is, that because there is a limited number of users, I don't have many people with whom I can collaborate.

I hope that the Skype app, that worked well at close quarters,  will function well in free wifi zones when I next travel overseas so that I can make cheap calls home to the family. 


My one failure this week was when trying to make a video on the device. I am a demon in that, I don't refer to instructions, I expect everything to be intuitive. I selected the camera, chose video mode and presses the button that I thought would record. Nothing happened. While I think of it I'll go and learn how to do that right now.


I'm hoping to hook up with more genealogists on Android - I'd love some comments from you.

Juice Defender

I was reminded this morning when reading a post from Richard Byrne that my mate Shelley from Twigs of Yore in her post, Life in the clouds and across the Galaxy, had suggested Juice Defender as a great app for an Android Galaxy Tab. I hadn't gotten around to installing it yet but will do so now.

Recommendations from two people whose opinions I respect are good enough for me. Shelley has " upgraded all the way to Ultimate", I'll hold on to my pennies for the minute and  try the free version in the first instance.

The opportunity this app provides to prolong the battery life of my Android device is rather appealing.

The Galaxy Girls

My experiences with my Android gadget, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, have been documented in a few blog posts:

Connecting with the Galaxy

The shiny new toy - Carnival of Genealogy

Genealogy True Confessions: I take the tablet to bed

 Addicted to the Tablet 

These posts only describe one person's experience. I have read and reread yesterday's posts by two of my Genimates, Shelley (Life in the clouds and across the Galaxy) and Tanya (Using a Samsung Galaxy Tablet for genealogy, and other things), who blogged about their experiences with the Tab. These posts demonstrate the benefits of collaboration through blogging. We three all have the same little gadget but have taken different approaches to customising our gadgets with apps and widgets.

I burnt the midnight oil last night investigating, downloading and playing with some of the apps that Tanya  had suggested. This morning I woke to Shelley's post and, having read that, have more things to explore.

As a cheapskate I had stuck with free apps and not yet purchased any but, on the recommendation of my GeniMates, I'll now buy Family Bee. Although I can access my tree on the web it will be handy to have all of my data available on the tab for times when I don't have a connection or simply in the interests of economy so I don't need to use my data plan to access the family info.

I selfishly look forward to following Shelley and Tanya's journeys with their Tabs so that I can learn more tricks to play with mine.

Addicted to the Tablet

When I got to the supermarket this morning I realised I hadn't taken my tablet with me - PANIC.

It wasn't that I had forgotten to take my medication that was troubling me, it was that I didn't have my Galaxy Tab in my handbag. If I had a sudden urge for information or needed to seek a solution to a problem I wouldn't have my tablet to help me and would have to resort to using the tiny screen and keyboard on my mobile 'phone.

It seems that each day I find a new use or discover a new app for my Tablet. Since it's nearly four weeks since my last post about the tab,  Genealogy True Confessions: I take the tablet to bed , I thought it time to report on it once more. I was also prompted by a comment on that last post this morning from Caroline Gurney.

I have found that notetaking at genealogy events on the Tab is quite easy. I can easily rest the tab in the palm of one hand and, using a one-finger method, type decent notes. I suspect that this would be difficult with a larger 10" tab, the 7' format of my smaller unit makes this possible. Early on I made a booboo and used the Tab's  Memo app for notetaking but, on returning home, found it difficult to transfer the notes to another format. It can be done but not with ease.  Next I tried using the Google Docs app to take notes and this worked well. I then hit a venue where the reception was patchy and I could not connect to open a new Google Doc.

In bed that evening I decided to go to the Android Marketplace to see what I could find. I downloaded a couple of note-taking apps but wasn't happy with them then I found GDocs Note, a simple app that can be used to record notes without an internet connection. When connected it syncs all notes to a single Google Docs folder. I have used this at two locations (where I did have a connection and was able to syc on the go),  it is simple, basic and perfect for my needs. The ability to sync when connected allows one to have a backed up file.

At a non-genealogy function the other day someone expressed an interest in one line on my family  tree. I was able to whip the Tab out of my handbag, connect to the family site and seek the desired information.  My camera was missing from my handbag when I wanted to snap a photo of Joyce Ryerson for a blog post. The photo I was able to take on the Tab in difficult light was quite acceptable for a blog post.

Some other savvy shoppers, Shelley from Twigs of Yore, Tanya Honey from My Genealogy Adventure and  one of my daughters have also become Galaxy Girls. I'm hoping these youngsters will teach me a few more tricks to do with my toy.

eBay has been a source of some super treasures for me. The eBay app that I have downloaded to the Tab allows me to find and bid on genealogy books and other bits wherever I am. If someone recommends a book in a meeting I can quickly see if there is one available on eBay. I can't say that Mr Geniaus is pleased that I now have even more ready access to more great buys.

If I am in a library or bookshop I can use the LibraryThing app to scan the barcode of a book I want to read or reference and add it straight to my LibraryThing Collection. When I am reading a document that quotes measurements in feet, inches and furlongs I use the ConvertUnits app to convert measurements to more meaningful metric.

I often come across a term, person or place I don't know. The Wikipedia app on my Tab gives me instant access to that 21st century reference tool.  If I don't get an answer there I can use the Firefox app to search the internet or the Gmail or Calendar app to write myself a reminder to chase up an answer.

Blogger, Hootsuite and AVG Antivirus are other apps that I have recently installed but  am yet to explore. I am a fan of the Tweetcaster app for tweeting. I like the free Voice Recorder app that I downloaded and may find it useful in an emergency. However if I use this at an event I will be preculded from notetaking so I will continue to use my digital voice recorder for this purpose.

I really can get by without my Tab but having it at hand makes life a whole lot easier.

Genealogy True Confessions: I take the tablet to bed

It's a few weeks since I took delivery of my Galaxy Tab or  shiny new toy and, as each day goes by, I am becoming  more proficient in its use and familiar with its capabilities.

I have been buoyed by two pieces of news today . Samsung is planning to offer an upgrade to Gingerbread  to owners of the original 7" Galaxy Tab so my bargain buy will be getting an upgraded operating system.  Secondly Ancestry.co.uk have announced on Twitter "For all those waiting for an Ancestry app for Android, we're building it currently and it will launch later this year :)".

Since I last wrote about my Tab I have purchased a $2 prepaid SIM card from Telstra and organised a data only service for the SIM, I spent $150 for 10gig of data that must be used within 12 months. This process required two trips to Telstra shops and a couple of phone calls to Telstra, in one of which I was transferred to four different people before being cut off. There is no way I would recommend the (lack of) customer service from Telstra but, as they appear to have the best network coverage in Australia, I have to use them.

I can now use my Tab to access the internet from anywhere on the Telstra 3G network in Australia. With this facility I can now visit my familysite and genealogy news sources in most places. I gave the connection a good workout in a car trip from Sydney to Newcastle and back last night when I used the Tab to keep track of genealogy news on Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader (I chose to be a passenger). I was also able to monitor my emails and use the browser to provide answers to some of the questions Mr Geniaus asks. He thinks that I know a lot (I don't) but I just know how to find information and the Tab gives me ready access to find answers for him on the road. Although I cannot make phone calls from this device without a phone plan I am able to take incoming calls but I haven't shared the number with anyone as of yet.

I read recently that a large percentage of people sleep with their mobile phones in close proximity to their beds. I have taken to taking the tablet to bed; it spends the night on the bedside table. I use it each morning to check on genealogy news, read emails, look at activity on my blogs and read the Sydney Morning Herald via its Android app.

My keyboarding skills on the tablet have progressed from woeful to barely passable but I am resisting purchase of an external keyboard for the moment. I did, however, purchase a protective case so that when I drop the gadget the damage should be minimal.


I have two-way calendar synching, via Google Calendar Sync, all organised from Outlook on my desktop to Google calendar so I can enter dates on the fly into the tablet calendar app. I have used the simple Alarm Clock app to wake me for those 4:00 am webinars from the US (I have ongoing issues with my clock/radio alarm).

Blogging from the tablet might be a challenge but I will give it a go before I next head off on a trip. I am considering using a Google or Excel spreadsheet as a genealogy research log as I find the research part of The Master Genealogy clunky and I cannot access this from my tablet. Using a spreadsheet will enable me to easily access and sort my data to find what I need. I believe that there is an Android research planner available but I have yet to find it.

Taking and sharing photos from the Galaxy Tab is a breeze. This will be a useful feature when a serendipitous photographic opportunity arises but I would stick to my digital camera for those pictures that I want to record for posterity.

Although I have downloaded a number of other apps I have not fully explored them. There are very few genealogy specific apps for Android available yet but I am not concerned as, even without these, the Galaxy Tab has enormous potential for genealogy research.

As I said in my last post "The uses of this tech toy for genealogy are only limited by one's imagination.".