Yeah, Tablets Are That Good

We stopped by the home of a client we hadn’t seen in person for a while to pick up a couple of old Macs for disposal. They had been in the habit of bringing along a computer when traveling, but when I showed them my iPad with a mouse and keyboard, it started a whole new conversation.

As most of you know, we’ve been traveling a lot lately, and in addition to my phone and computer, I’ve brought along my DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera for fine photography. The computer has been a necessity for complex remote service for our clients’ tech problems and for downloading our photos as we go from place to place.

However, I’ve been able to add a keyboard and mouse to my iPad, and that’s mostly made my computer unnecessary. The display clarity on my iPad is nothing short of remarkable, and the screen is big enough to give me all the information I need for work and play. I can access clients’ computers remotely and see their screens as well as I can with a computer.

For a short time or maybe longer, you might find a tablet more to your liking than your laptop, especially if you travel a lot or are mostly mobile. Many of the apps we use, such as Microsoft 365 with Word, Excel and PowerPoint, have mobile apps for Apple and Android phones and tablets. You can also find mobile versions for apps like Photoshop or use the phot editing capabilities in iCloud or Google Photos. All of them take advantage of the cloud, and they work well on tablet screens.

And while we’re on the subject of phones, we’re increasingly inclined to leave our large cameras in our hotel rooms or ship cabins – or even at home – because the lenses in our phones’ cameras are getting better. We can tout the benefits of the latest iPhone Pro models. They’re small enough to put in our pocket but have the capabilities of any point-and-shoot camera and a wider angle lens on a DSLR. They are also very good in low-light environments. The only area where the DSLR and a high-quality lens are better is a long-distance closeup.

And, of course, when you upload your pictures to the cloud – from both your phone or your DSLR – you can see a large, crisp display of each photo on your tablet screen and make some quick edits, such as cropping and color/light adjustments.

Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to talk about finding more ways to use your tablet instead of your computer and to see what tablet may best suit your needs. And we might even be able to help you find a photography club, too.

Microsoft’s Annoyances

A lot of our clients are complaining about Microsoft’s annoying habit of making unannounced changes in features and in how we access what’s left and what we need. We can complain all we want, but this is one case where we just need to bite the bullet and work around various issues.

The biggest annoyances with Microsoft revolve around the New Outlook and the Classic (Old) Outlook. While New Outlook is faster and has some really good message management features, it doesn’t handle attachments as well as its “classic” version.

One of our clients receives .csv files as attachments from their bank. They can’t open them in New Outlook. The only solution is to toggle back to Classic Outlook to download the files and then toggle back. It’s an extra step I find having to use myself, and it doesn’t make me happy.

Other missing features cited in discussion groups and various articles are editing and writing features that used Word, especially for shortcuts; dozens of message handling options; calendar editing options, especially not having Word for editing; lack of print options in Mail view; using Outlook without a mouse; and PST file support.

Microsoft acknowledges that many features are missing and claims to be working on them, but our feeling is that they won’t do anything that will take a lot of time and money. My own feeling is that they don’t have engineers talking to people anymore. If you read responses to complaints, they seem like they were generated by bots; there’s little or no empathy for their customers.

Of course, Microsoft is not alone. Other tech companies seem to do what they want when they want, knowing that most of us have few or no alternatives. It seems that workarounds are the only solution to their shortcomings.

Workarounds are where we can help. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us and tell us what you’re trying to do with Outlook, Microsoft apps and apps from other software publishers. We’ll work with you to find workarounds that can make you more efficient.