An early morning zoom with Ancestry

From time to time the bods at Ancestry.com invite groups of genealogists along to online briefing sessions. As someone who doesn't like getting up at dawn I miss most of these events. 

Today's event was repeated - one session was at 2am my time and the other 7:30am. I signed up for the 7:30am session in case I was conscious by then. Fortunately I was awake before 7am so I grabbed my laptop and earbuds from my study and crawled back under the covers.

Rearranged genealogy apps and widget

On logging in I saw several familiar faces from Australia, New Zealand and the US. The session was hosted by Crista Cowan accompanied by a team of Ancestry tech guys. I was pleased that I attended because the session focused on the Ancestry mobile apps which I had installed as soon as they were released.

Pre-Covid I often used the Ancestry App and the AncestryDNA app on my Android phone but, while
homebound over the past 18 months, I have only used the desktop application to communicate, collaborate and research with Ancestry. I was impressed by the demos of all the new features in these apps. The functionality has improved heaps and many new features have been added, these apps now appear have most of the features of the desktop product. The tech guys online took note of the user comments in the chat and will consider points raised for further development.

I must have been sleeping under a rock because I was unaware of the Ancestry widgets (one available in Australia, one to come). I thought I'd log into my apps and follow along and install the widget while watching the presentation but I had been logged out of the apps and couldn't remember my password. 

My first job after the session ended was to grab my phone, locate my password and log in to my apps. As I wanted to install the Ancestry widget I had to move all the icons around on the screen that has my genealogy apps. With a two-three hour car ride ahead of me tomorrow I have another option to keep me amused.

Ancestry has recognised that many of us live on our mobile devices and has created a fabulous mobile option that will give us access to all our Ancestry data when we are on the move. I'm so pleased I joined in to learn about it this morning. 

A Blog Reader's Plea

I recently read Carmel Galvin's excellent post Untangle those Blogger Knots.  This set me thinking about a pet peeve of mine and a piece of advice  I wish geneabloggers would heed from me.

I travel a lot and try to keep up with blog reading on my smartphone when I have a spare moment. I find it most irritating when I am unable to read a blog post because it is not optimised for mobile devices.

GeniAus - At sea on a smartphone

When some blogs display on a mobile device the font is so small that is is nearly impossible to read. On others the font is in a pale colour that is also hard to read, I am a fan of pale gray but not as a font on a white background. (I am thinking of one blog in particular that uses a Wordpress theme but there are several I follow that are difficult to read).

In this 21st century many folk like me use their smartphones for a lot of their internet browsing. You may be missing out on potential readers if your blog is hard to read on these devices.

Have you taken a look at how your blog displays on a smartphone? Is the font tiny? Does the reader have to do a lot of scrolling from left to right to read each line? Is there plenty of contrast between the font and background colours to make reading easy?

I realise that some bloggers do not have smartphones and are therefore unable to see how their blogs look on these devices. Perhaps you could ask a friend to view your blog on their smartphone. If you don't have a smartphone toting friend feel free to send me your blogs' URLs and I'll take a look for you.

In Good Company at Rootstech

While at Rootstech earlier this year I was interviewed by The Family History Fanatics. They asked me a series of questions about my genealogy practices.

They must have asked similar questions of some of the other genealogists they interviewed. Four of us have been featured in this video posted on Youtube by The Family History Fanatics last week. I was chuffed to be included on the same video as these three prominent genies.

How would you answer the question "What genea-tech can you not live without?

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.

Just 13 friends

The Rootstech App

Every morning and evening I check the Rootstech app on my smartphone to scan the list of attendees for Rootstech 2015 and send out friend requests to people I know from the geneasphere. It doesn't take long because it's a very short list . So far I have just 13 friends  and have sent out requests for another five or more. Thanks to those who have accepted my friend requests and those who have extended the hand of friendship to me.

I know the Rootstech app has problems but it is a good (has the potential to be excellent) tool to have in your pocket or purse. The usefulness of any database/tool is dependent on the quality of the data it contains.

The Rootstech organisers are doing their bit by providing schedules, maps, exhibitor and speaker information and social media links. But those who are attending are not pulling their weight. If this was a gardening or golf conference I might understand the attendees' hesitation to use a smartphone app.

Rootstech is supposed to have a focus on technology so I would imagine that the majority of attendees would either be proficient in the use of technology or have a positive attitude towards technology and be willing to try out new apps and tools.

I would like to know in advance which of my genimates will be amongst the crowd that will be gathered at The Salt Palace. One of the highlights of such a gathering as Rootstech is the opportunity it creates for one to meet our online geneafriends in the flesh but we need to be able to locate them.

If we submit our details to the Rootstech app and make our profiles public then we will give others an opportunity to plan their meetups in advance. Once the madness that is Rootstech commences there will be little time to arrange meetings.

How about joining the Appy Crowd?

Bargain Hunter

As my regular readers know I am a sucker for a bargain and I love techie toys. On my shopping expedition today I netted both a bargain and a new tech toy.

The bargain will be useful when I go out on a geneajaunt. I went into The Reject Shop looking for a cheap cover for my new tech toy but came out with something else, it was marked $6 but there was a sign showing that it had been reduced to $4 but when I took it to the checkout I was only charged $2. It's a mesh organiser bag, that has two large compartments, one zippered and one open plus eight small pockets for holding bits and bobs. I have a large laptop pouch that I use for transporting the items in the image below, this ne purchase will help me better organise them for travel.

I am posting this because I thought some of my mates in Australia with $2 to invest might wish to wander down to The Reject Shop and check them out.

The new tech toy is presently on the charger getting a fill of energy for its first encounter with me later this evening. Mr GeniAus' mobile phone has been experiencing difficulties so I generously offered to purchase a new phone and give him my old model. 

Last year I decided that I wanted a Galaxy Note 3 32g because I needed more storage. I also wanted a larger screen so that when I am travelling I can leave my Galaxy 10.1 tablet at home and travel with just a netbook and the large screen phone or phablet. I will be testing this out when I head off overseas next week. I am hoping that the 5.7" screen size will be adequate for short typing tasks and reading some ebooks. 

I had been holding off buying the device bacause of the price but I got a good deal on an unlocked model (there must be a new model around the corner) and, because I am leaving the country, I will get a 10% tax rebate from The Tourist Refund Scheme.

I am wondering if any of my genimates are phablet users?

Media Convergence

I have retired my old Smartphone and am now the proud owner of a new HTC Touch Pro2 from which I can read the newspaper, access my mail, my genealogy data and a plethora of online information. I remember my first mobile phone in 1993 - it cost a fortune and was so heavy that I had difficulty carrying it in my handbag, I also carried one of the early PDAs and a camera that used film!!! Now I just carry the one little multifunction device.

This video about the convergence of media, although it has a US bias, makes me wonder what we Australian Genealogists will be carrying in another 15 years time.