As ‘tis the season of goodwill', this month I’m going to share one of our family traditions with you all.
 
On Christmas eve, we will be tracking Santa’s progress and he travels around the globe delivering all those gifts to children young and old. There are several apps out there to help – the oldest is the NORAD Santa tracker which is available on Apple and Android apps as well as on your desktop or laptop browser.

NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defense Command and they have been tracking Santa now since 1955 and telling children where Santa has been spotted on their radar. www.noradsanta.org
You might also want to try the Google version at https://santatracker.google.com/village.html
 
There are another couple of things you can do both with and for the little people in your family at Christmas that we have great fun with.
 
Try the Elf Yourself app (on iOS, Android and browser) and make some great elf animations into which you paste selfie face shots or photos of family members. This make excellent electronic greetings to send around your family as well as being good fun to make. You can include up to five family members – so go fish out a picture of all your kids and get creating.
https://www.elfyourself.com/
 
Last but not least, how about a video for your children sent direct from Santa in the North Pole? You can personalise a message so that Santa knows your child’s name and what they have asked for as gifts and so on. This is a great one for bedtime on Christmas eve to encourage your little ones to sleep…well, try at least! Do be aware that this has both free and premium (Paid) options. The free ones are terrific though.
https://www.portablenorthpole.com/en/home
 
Most of all, we wish you and yours the very best at Christmas and hope that Santa has you all on his ‘nice’ list and brings you everything you deserve.

A Merry Christmas to you and all your family.

Tis the Season of Good Will - written for File Genie by Freelance Writer Ruth Raymer @WritingWalking

Passwords – they keep our digital lives secure, and at the File Genie blog we have spoken about good Password creation on a few occasions, but how do you keep your passwords secure?
 
Do you trust to your memory? How many different passwords do you have to remember? If you count them all up, chances are there are far more than you might think.
 
What about writing them all down – keeping a special notebook for them? Well that’s risky. Most of all, will you remember to write each and every password down?
 
Password Managers are another way. In fact, they can be really helpful, taking the trial and error out of thinking up and recalling at will a new, complex password. For most of them, all you need to do is to remember one ‘Master’ password. Most are installed into your browser directly, then every time you need a new password the manager will generate one for you, then remember it. It will also pick up any existing passwords and store them securely. All this means you are less likely to need to reset passwords after forgetting them.
 
There are several FREE Password Managers on the market, and many you pay for. Paid solutions will usually have a few extra bells and whistles, but the best of the free options are very good too. Some of the premium options will offer a free trial period so you can try before you buy, which is a good idea, allowing you to make sure you are happy with the way they work.
 
A quick internet search will have you tumbling over dozens of them, but these are some we are happy to tell you about:

Dashlane
www.dashlane.com
 
LastPass Premium
www.lastpass.com
 
Sticky
www.stickypassword.com
 
Keeper
www.keepersecurity.com

Free and Paid for Password Managers - written for File Genie by Freelance Writer Ruth Raymer @WritingWalking

With more channels than ever before and Christmas movies, Sport and Kids TV coming out of our ears, it represents quite a challenge in a household where there are more people than TV sets and everyone wanting to watch something different.

But wait… did you know you might have the answer in front of you?



​Your device – phone, tablet, laptop or PC can provide you with the opportunity to watch streamed TV wherever you are (though some services require you to be using the same WiFI network as your TV provider – see below).
Whether you are an Android, iOS or Windows phone user, you will find apps in your app store for many of the UK TV providers – ITV hub, BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are now joined by Sky Go and Sky Q – for Sky TV subscribers, and Virgin, NOW TV, and others also have bespoke apps to view their content with your subscriber details. The same apps are of course available on your iPad or other tablet, the Microsoft Store or as websites to watch from your browser on any device.

There are also several apps available that bring together content from the main TV providers in one place. My favourite is TV Catch Up, though be aware that these may well have adverts interrupting your viewing, you are watching TV streamed with a few seconds delay from the real thing, so not truly live, but almost.
Most of these apps require you to register to use them, but most have opt-out options, so you don’t get bombarded with emails from them.

One thing to remember is that these apps and websites will be using your internet connection, so if your phone or tablet are using your mobile signal, they will eat your data allowance rather quickly. If you can connect through WiFi, you will not need to worry about extra data charges.
​
Finally, have a happy, peaceful holiday, whatever you are watching.

Are You Looking Forward To All The Offerings This Christmas? - written for File Genie by Freelance Writer Ruth Raymer @WritingWalking