Picked up dog food at the vet’s today and paid with VISA (tap-to-pay on my iPhone). When I got home I began making an entry in the Calendar app on my iPhone. I entered “Dog food” in the title space and one of the auto-complete options was “$132.00″… the amount I charged at the vet’s. How did the Calendar app know that was the amount? GPT 4o offered this “likely explanation:”
GPT: That is a little uncanny, Steve — and you’re not imagining it. Continue reading
I was an early user of Google and many of the tools and apps they rolled out over the years. 149 posts going back to 2002. In no particular order:
Talk, Google+, Reminders, My Activity, Glass, Picassa, Gmail, Chrome, Goggles, Voice, Docs, Buzz, Tasks, Reader, Living Stories, Wave, Maps, Earth, Spreadsheets, News
Just finished adding captions to the 2,490 photos and 33 videos in the Photos app on my MacBook. I’ve been diligent when it comes to giving a title to each photo and have waxed and waned with keywords. But not so good about captions because I really didn’t understand their function in the Photos app.
In the MacOS Photos app there are three primary pieces of information. The title appears in the Photos app, but not on the iPhone. I used to go a little crazy with Keywords but started over with this update. Since I have every photo in at least one Album, Keywords are not as important. I’m still thinking about how I’ll use them.
The Caption (the red rectangle above) is probably the most useful metadata and what I omitted on most of my photos. I think of captions like those descriptions people used to write on the back of a photo or in the margin. “Uncle Ernie and Aunt Betty at the State Fair in Des Moines on their honeymoon in 1937.” Captions can be as long or as short as needed with each word or phrase searchable. Where there is a corresponding post here, I include a link in the photo caption.
When I tell friends what I’m doing most are quick to point out that the Photos app has enough intelligence to find all “trees” or “flowers” or “pickup trucks.” What they’re really telling you there is no way in hell they’re going to put captions on thousands of photos. And I don’t blame them. If you save every photo and are willing to endlessly scroll/search when you want to find one… okeydoke.
I am much more intentional with my photos. Having half a dozen nearly-identical photos is just clutter because someone was too lazy to select the best and delete the rest. Keeping a poorly composed or blurry photo makes no sense to me. Just delete it. Which is easy to do… unless you wait until there are hundreds (or thousands) and the task becomes too daunting.
Who, you might ask, is ever going to look at those photos 50 years from now? Or read these blog posts in the unlikely event it’s still here? My answer: ChatGPT or one of her decedent’s. For the same reason archeologists sift the ashes of Pompeii.
The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 comes with a feature called Glamour Effects. “This tool lets you fine-tune beauty settings ensuring you look your best. It’s especially handy for vlogs, portraits, and livestreams, giving you that polished look without the need for post-editing.”
I tried this feature but couldn’t see the effects (3 min video below), so either I didn’t have the proper setting or it was never intended to work for a 77-year-old geezer. The one exception was the “Teeth” tool. It made my teeth appear noticeably whiter.
I’ve never felt the need to look younger or “better” than I do, and have undisguised pity for anyone that needs hair plugs, cosmetic surgery, or that awful shoe polish-black dye that some men use. So we’ll just move the camera back a bit and dim the lighting for future videos.