Bob's Tech Talk
Q. How do I move my mobile phone voicemail messages to some kind of permanent storage?
A. Mobile phones have become the most personal computing device in our lives. That makes them a treasure box of cherished memories.
Precious voicemails are simple to keep—do not delete from the inbox. But that approach is fragile. If you switch carriers, they will almost certainly be lost.
Inboxes have limited space, and if you save too many messages, messages have to be deleted to allow future calls. Fixing “mailbox full” messages can lead to accidentally deleting a special voicemail. If a voicemail is special enough to linger in your inbox more than a week, it’s best to move it to someplace safe.
On an iPhone, tap on the voicemail entry, use the Share Square (the small square icon with an upward facing arrow), and send it to the Notes application by tapping on the Notes icon. Android phones depend on different controls, but the basic idea is the same. Open the specific message, tap on the “share” icon (which is usually a circle with three dots) and save it someplace other than the device, like Google Drive.
After you confirm the audio recording is preserved in cloud storage, it is safe to delete it.
Q. I can usually tell when an image was created with Artificial Intelligence, but I wonder if that will always be true? They seem to get better every year.
A. The future arrived this month. Meet Image Generation by Gemini, one of Google’s marquee features for its new Pixel 9 Pro phones. This AI tool has just gotten into the hands of reviewers, and the results are stunning, in every sense of the word.
There is no question that this new tool is going to allow more people than ever to fix their family snapshots, but it will also enable the creation of exceptionally deceptive images as well.
It is far too early to make firm opinions on this new development, but I feel it’s important for my readers to know about this new wave of digital manipulation now. The bottom line: for the foreseeable future the number of impossible or very hard to detect deceptive images will grow.
Q. I live across the country from an ailing relative. What tech recommendations do you have for me?
A. So much depends on the problem you wish to solve, but I do have one universal suggestion. This is partly personal, since I just experienced this situation myself.
My spouse’s sister lives 800 miles away and is recovering from a significant hospital stay. She lives alone and cannot drive during her recovery, and avoids driving at night in any case. And while this is hopefully a temporary situation for her, for many people restrictions like this can be a part of everyday life.
Recently she was suffering and needed over-the-counter medication at 9 p.m.
Here is where tech steps makes an appearance. I began using a service called DoorDash during the pandemic, and I still keep an account for those times when my spouse and I are unable to leave the house. For my sister-in-law, from my sofa hundreds of miles away, I was able to arrange a late night pharmacy-to-home delivery. This miracle happened because I was already familiar with DoorDash, and knew how to use it effectively in a less than obvious manner.
My tech-advice is to learn which services such as DoorDash, Uber and others provide almost real-time pickup and delivery in the areas that have people you care about.
Set up accounts now, while time is not of the essence. Learn how the apps work, and what the services can do. Make a few practice runs. Many can deliver hot meals from restaurants, grocery or pharmacy deliveries, and more. Most of the services have subscriptions, but they also offer pay-as-you-go pricing. So there is no charge to maintain an active account.
For someone not used to the cost of these services, you may experience sticker shock at first. However, the cost can be well worth the relief it provides during stressful situations.
Wander the Web
Here are my picks for worthwhile browsing this month:
Decorating with Color
Color is everywhere. Coolors.co comes in handy more than you might expect based on its name. Use it the next time you need to find the perfect color.
Political Cartoons
This venerable site has been around for decades, and has something for everyone.
https://politicalcartoons.com/
Pete the Irish Pilot
@petetheirishpilot delivers a hearty helping of witty musings about aviation as only an insider can. Also on YouTube. Search for “Pete the Irish Pilot” or go straight to it here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgYIQ5JlaVRSqBquMRY-KrA
Bob has been writing about technology for over three decades. He can be contacted at techtalk@bobdel.com.
