TechyTommy

So today, I'm getting a phone! What phone am I going to get? The iPhone 13! So we went to Cellcom to get the phone! We had to wait a long time! But now I got it! This is my first phone! Now, when we went to the grocery store, I kept on sending videos to Philip while we were there, and when we were coming home! It did take a while, but it worked! I had one problem with it where text messages would take a while, but I no longer have that problem! Now, the iPhone 13 has a feature called Face ID! You can unlock just by looking at your phone! But the iPhone 13 supports a feature called Wi-Fi Calling! What is it like? While, it just feels like a normal phone call or text message! But I would rate my phone 10 out of 10! But I get the Premium Unlimited Medium during the summer, and Premium Unlimited Small during the school year! But let's look at Cellcom a little more! Now, phone quality! Cellcom has VoLTE (they call it "Advanced Calling"), which means phone calls and SMS/MMS

Before reading this blog post, I recommend reading " The Pros and Cons of Using a Chromebook ", which is figuring out the pros and cons based on my experience of using both! But now, I will look at it in more detail, and try to figure out what is best for most people, and find what computer is best for you based on what purpose you use it for! Please note that I can't choose one choice for everybody. So, first, let's look at home use. What if you just use your computer for watching TV shows and movies at night? Well, a Windows laptop would be overkill for what you are doing with your computer! If that's all you do, just buy a budget detachable Chromebook! Currently, your best option is a Lenovo Chromebook Duet with 64 gigabytes for $279 dollars! It unlaptops into a tablet, so you can always laptop it and do the occasional work-in-bed! Now, what if you play games a lot? Well, a Windows laptop is the best option, as Chromebook gaming isn't that popular with gam

So, my computer habits keep on changing! From Summer 2018 to Christmas 2019, I used an Asus Chromebook C223. I'm not completely sure about that, but I went to the now-hidden Shop section of the Chromebook website, chose Laptop as the device type and Asus as the brand, and that one looked the most like the one I have. Here is the exact model ! Then, for Christmas 2019, I got the Acer Chromebook R11. The first blog post made with it was " Bloxels is really Fun! ", and the last is " Back to School, Virtually ". This is most likely the shortest-used computer that I have owned! Nowadays, the computer belongs to Philip, my brother. He never uses it, however. He mostly uses his iPad for everything. But, back to the Acer Chromebook R11. I used it until October 2020 when I got the Acer Spin 3, and then I used that until November 3, 2021 when I got the Pixelbook Go that I am typing this on right now! So, now we get to the name of this blog post. "The Pros and Cons of

So, I've been blogging for 4 years! So, let's look back at my blogging history. First, Tommys6  (warning: ads) (stylized as tommys6 sometimes) was launched. And then "Tommy Blog" was published. Here's the blog post: Today Is Music Day Yes, that's the blog post. Here's a screenshot, as of 6/10/22: So, you know that I wasn't the best at UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) design back when I last updated it. And it kept on getting better and better! In 2018, I posted Topics, Camp Out, Meet Missy, Abbreviations in Email, PBS KIDS Pinkalicious and Peterific, Reading:Starting Your Own Blog, Protected: Letter (I'll show it later in this blog post), New Greeting, Movie Day!, Movie Day Movie and DVD, Class Helpers 2018, The School Story Web, If your computer screen go's sideways, Life's Little Lessons Keynote Live, Target Voteing Winer, Silly Words And Jokes And Rhymes, Earth Day Fun For Your Kids, A FUN Website For Your Kids (All Ages), SC

So, all the way back in October, I got a Kindle Paperwhite! And I've been using it frequently ever since! So, what does it look like? So, the Kindle is intended as a reading device. It can also handle audiobooks, but I don't have any to test. But the Kindle can do a lot more. It can go onto the store to buy and download books and audiobooks. But, there is Goodreads! But the best part is the web browser. But, the display technology makes it unusable for most tasks. And I ended up making my own Kindle unusable because of my own blog post . Don't click the link on a Kindle no matter what. However, there is an easier way to get websites onto a Kindle, of any kind. Send-To-Kindle! Just install Send-To-Kindle for Google Chrome, and you can send any sites to your Kindle, including my favorite blog post, "Google Meet vs Zoom: What Meeting Program is Better?". No images, but it feels like a magazine article now! So, the Kindle Paperwhite is a bad internet device because of

In sometime in 2021 or 2022, Google Hangouts, the chat service by Google, is going to be discontinued. If you have used it this year, you might have saw the warning. But what does Google want you to switch to? While, 2 apps! Google Meet and Google Chat. Most TechyTommy readers don't know what Google Chat is. Google Chat is the newest chat app by Google! Here is it in Gmail (these pictures are blurred out a lot): And here is just the Google Chat interface: Now, the weird thing is that back in 2017 or 2018, Google tried to replace Google Hangouts with not Meet and Chat, but some apps you probably not used. Those apps are called Google Allo and Google Duo. I still am on Google Duo, and Google Allo, I was never on Google Allo. That was a text messaging-instant messaging hybrid app that nobody used, except for the Google Assistant. Yes, really!  https://web.archive.org/web/20180208073539/https://allo.google.com/ . And they switched everybody to the worst app ever, MESSAGES for your Andr

  Yes, I know TVs are plug-and-play, but you are not getting the best experience from it. First, open your Display Settings, and drag your TV to the proper place. And then, select your monitor, and then click on Advanced display settings. Now, click on XX.XXXX Hz (where X is the numbers). Now instead of that, you should choose the highest non-interlaced option. And on your TV, turn on Game Mode. Now, exit this menu, and click on XXX% (X is still the numbers). Now, click on all of them until you find the one you want. And then your mouse should work better, your second monitor should be faster, and your second monitor will look better! My TV is to the right of my laptop, it uses 60Hz, and I use 125%.

  Ever wanted to learn Python? While, stay here! TechyTommy Programming is coming soon! All you need to do is go to TechyTommy (if you want, get TechyTommy through your email using TechyTommy Email ), and look for TechyTommy Programming! (And when you get to TechyTommy Email, click on Join Group.)

Now, you need to keep track of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of passwords! You can reuse the same password, but what if you want to have an even bigger password or be more secure? While, you can use a password manager! But, isn't that more insecure? You just have a big program/extension that you can open up, and it can be opened by anyone? While, if you don't have a computer password, set it now. But then, you can set up a password for your password manager! When you open it, it asks for a password. Once you type it in, your passwords are there! There are 2 ways that password managers can work. First, a password manager can type in passwords for you. The second way is filling them in. And a password manager can generate THIS good of a password! 7Au2bi7enA@'32=DHOv2em~Jp:#<AlhsMtcoc<,b//(C/6EhHtMYj~^:]0_cYL3+~6_B`GUL9G;]>JYGW86_Or1paU+HBvOr!Fdy So, should you use a password manager? While, how easy is it for you to track passwords? While, you can choose that. Bu

Now, I usually don't talk about meeting programs here. But, I was able to try out Google Meet and Zoom! Remember about NetMeeting from my virtual learning blog post? While, I was able to run the Windows XP version in a Windows XP virtual machine (not my real computer), but I could not test it. And here is a Google Meet picture! So, to the comparison. Now,  the interface of Google Meet looks a lot better! But, the virtual background is not very good. It cuts my hair off! But, when it comes to integration with the operating system, Zoom is better. And the closed captions feature is not the most accurate.  What I said: This is a test of the Google Meet closed captions. What it think I said: This isn't Just the Girl Meet closed captions. But a couple hours after I wrote this, I learned about a new meeting program. Google Duo! Now, Google Duo is more like a phone call except for video than a meeting program. But weirdly, Google Duo is more like Microsoft NetMeeting. In NetMeeting, y

  I have a new swimming blog called SwimmingTommy! Check it out at swimmingtommy3.blogspot.com .

So for my birthday, I got a new tablet. That tablet is the Fire Tablet! Specifically, the Fire Tablet 10 (2019). So, the Fire Tablet is an Android tablet with a custom version of Android installed called Fire OS. Fire OS is basically Android with a custom launcher and the Amazon App Store! So, because of that, you can install Google Play onto it! And I use it almost everyday to read. The Fire Tablet comes with the Kindle app built in, so all your Kindle books can be delivered over as soon as you are done setting it up. Plus, you can even install Epic onto your Fire Tablet! And you can get Kindle books from the library! Just install the Libby app and choose that you read books through Kindle, and then you can deliver library books from your Fire Tablet to your Fire Tablet! This also works on all Kindle devices (Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, iPad, your Windows laptop, MacBooks, and more). Now, I don't know how expensive the Fire Tablet is right now. But as a Fire Tablet and Android tab

Now, if you have read lots of blogs, you probably saw this icon at least once. And if you click that icon, you might have seen a website that starts with feedburner.com. First, that icon is for RSS. RSS is a format that contains all the posts from that blog. This is a snippet what my blog in RSS looks like.  ef =" http://feeds.feedburner.com/techytommy " /> <feedburner:info uri =" techytommy " /> <atom10:link xmlns:atom10 =" http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom " rel =" hub " href =" http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/ " /> <entry> <id> tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7878542713109000453.post-7479948654457705158 </id> <published> 2021-07-06T06:59:00.002-05:00 </published> <updated> 2021-07-06T07:11:56.342-05:00 </updated> <category scheme =" http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns# " term =" Coding " /> <category scheme =" http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns# " term ="

  Now, you may want to connect your devices to each other. Like your smart home to your email to get an email when it is turned on and off! So, before you build a new app, there is already an app for what you want to do. That app is called IFTTT! So, to get started, go to IFTTT and create an account. And then, create a new applet! Now, select what you want to trigger your applet. You could use an Alexa command, sending an email, or even creating a new Google Contact! Now, you need to choose what happens. You could send a notification to your iPad or Fire Tablet, create a new Google Contact, or even create a Google Calendar event! This is the example I will do. Now, before you can use some services (like Alexa and Contacts), you need to link your account. Just log in and allow IFTTT to access your account! After you are done choosing your options, click on Continue. You can receive notifications when it runs. After that, click on Finish. Your applet is now ready! Now, there are 2 kinds

  I recently got an alert saying that FeedBurner Email is discontinued because TechyTommy uses the Follow by Email widget. You may not get email notifications for new blog posts while I transfer everybody to an IFTTT solution.

  So recently I got a new computer. So what are the differences? While, this laptop is a Windows laptop, which is new for me. This computer is an Acer Spin convertible, specifically an Acer Spin 3. One thing that this laptop has compared to my previous Chromebooks is that it has a Caps Lock key. So what is in this laptop? This has an Intel Iris Plus graphics card paired with an Intel Core i5 10th Gen processor, along with 8 gigabytes of RAM (memory) and 512 gigabytes of storage. WAY more than I need. So should you get it? Yes. Now, when should you get it? Your choice. You can get it now, or get it when it is not an outside vendor. And I forgot to say, it comes with a stylus. So how many stars do I rate it? 5 stars. And there is also a backlit keyboard, but you can turn that on or off with the F8 key. And you will need to turn it on to turn it off. But overall, the Acer Spin 3 is a good laptop. I recommend this laptop to anyone who needs a good Windows laptop. To actually press a functi

  So, this year I am going back to school. But it's not any normal school year. This year we are doing school virtually! So, currently we are using Google Meet for meetings, and Buzz for our work. So, why not Zoom? While Zoom has more features (polls, whiteboard, virtual background, questions and answers), Zoom has more security risks. People try random Zoom meeting codes, and interrupt the meeting. This would be very annoying for a classroom. This is called Zoombombing (it happens so much that it gets a Wikipedia page. Check that out if you want to learn more ). But here is a poll about video conferencing. But, do not say Google Meet because you are familiar with it. So, yes you might want to use Zoom just because it has more features. And don't expect Microsoft to put the Microsoft NetMeeting servers back up, even if you commented on this. Now let's talk about Buzz. Buzz is like Seesaw, expect it has more features, built-in quizzes (you could use Google Classroom), and m

So, I am going to create my VERY first 2 Android apps.  If you want to see anything that I post about Android, go into the side menu, click on the "Labels" section, then "android". And, if you want to make YOUR very own Android apps, go to  https://developer.android.com/studio , then download Android Studio. (Note: You can not download Android Studio to an iPad, not even an Android device.) And, you do not need anything Android. They have an Android Emulator! I do not have Android Studio downloaded at the time I posted this blog post, but I will have it downloaded and installed when I publish the blog post called "My First Android App". And, if you need help installing Android Studio (you may not be able to on a school computer), go online to the "User Guide" section of the Android Studio/Developers website. The version of Android Studio when I posted this is 4.0, but it is not going to be 4.0 forever, and comment below if you have an app you wan

So, I just made a game on Bloxels. What is it called? The Turtle Game. When you click on the game (if you want, copy and paste this code into the Arcade to play it: 45871272), you should see this screen. If you click on play, tap the screen (or space bar) and play! So, you can play it also by searching "turtle".

So, I am having lots of fun on Bloxels. You can make your own video games, play videos games, and lot's more. I usually make video games, but sometimes I play them to get used to my keyboard (I play it on a Chromebook, not an iPad). This is what the Bloxels logo looks like. So, you have to pay $19.99 if you want it, but playing the video games are free. If you like Bloxels you can get a T-shirt! Now, as soon as I started, I had lots of fun! No matter if you have an iPad, iPhone, Android tablet, Chromebook, Chromebox, or even a Windows 10 computer, you can use Bloxels! According to my email, the time I started building on Bloxels is at April 4, 2020 at 10:16 AM (central time). You need an email to use to sign up, and most 2nd graders don't but most 2nd graders parents do! Your projects sync in the cloud (not up in the sky) and you can publish your video games! Need tutorials? There are plenty to watch!  But, you will need Wi-Fi! You have it if you're reading this right

So, you may want a template for something like a true or false game. In Google Slides, you can add a template. So let's open it. Then you can add a theme to add to. So let's add a name. Now what are we waiting for? Let's go to that Slide menu. Press "Edit master" to start making templates. Now, right click and choose "New layout". Now, rename it, and make the template. Edit it the same way you do. (If you want text to be editable, do "Body text placeholder". You can delete that title if you want to.) See my template here. When you're done editing, press the x to close.   Happy template making!