Tech Talk: Cloud Cover

Tech Talk: Cloud Cover

- in Technology

Tech Talk
By Tak Sato

Many Boomers and seniors remember that even before the internet, personal computers (PC) proved their value when running software like word processors (Wordstar, WordPerfect, Word) and spreadsheets (Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, Excel), eventually replacing typewriters and calculators.

As the internet, also known as the digital world or the cloud, came onto the scene, email became the tried-and-true communication medium. Just like anything else, the nefarious weaponized email for their ill gains. I’ll cover internet street smarts in a later column: basically good habits to adapt to minimize your risk when using email.

What’s Up
Free email services like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail contributed to our accelerated use of personal email. We now have all-in-one devices that print, copy, scan and fax. Some smartphones and tablets do as much as an entry-level PC, yet they fit in the palm of your hand. A single app – instead of three – can message, video chat, and make telephone calls.

Google’s advertisement-sponsor-free email service upped the game by offering a portfolio of free services in the cloud (internet) to join Gmail, rebranding it as G Suite. G Suite includes a word processor (“Docs”), spreadsheets (“Sheets”),  digital picture management (“Photos”), and other free services. All can be used from any always-connected (to the internet) device through a web browser and/or apps.

Web browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge provide similar user experiences – from personal computers and Chromebooks to smartphones and tablets.

Many of us use our digital world devices to email, text, message, and talk with others while browsing the internet for information, entertainment, and shopping. PCs with traditional productivity software like Microsoft Office may not be needed for those tasks. Now, for example, when you need to write a document or manage your household budget, you can easily use Google Docs and Sheets, respectively, instead of maintaining a PC and office productivity software, saving you hundreds of dollars.

Documents, spreadsheets, and anything else you create is stored securely in the cloud and within the space allotted for you that only your credentials – your email address and password – can see. One word of caution: the world is not perfect and I recommend using discretion in the kind of information you save in Google Drive – otherwise known as your storage locker in the cloud – that is part of G Suite. That means don’t save personally identifiable information such as social security numbers, bank accounts, etc.

Finally, since G Suite service lives in the cloud, you can get to it securely at any time from any device, whether you own it or not. For example, you can use a borrowed PC at the public library to continue editing the document you started typing and saved to your Google Drive. That’s how I wrote this article while vacationing in Japan.

Tak Sato is the founder of the Cleveland-area nonprofit Center for Aging in the Digital World (empowerseniors.org).

About the author

Tak Sato, author of Boomer's Tech Talk column, is a founder of the Cleveland-area nonprofit, Center for Aging in the Digital World (empowerseniors.org). The organization teaches digital literacy to people 50+ through the free Discover Digital Literacy program.

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