It’s the end of 2023, and another ‘good riddance’ I say. That’s not really fair, as there were some great things in 2023. And there’s always good and bad to live with. That’s the real world, I suppose. I am fortunate enough to have a great deal to be thankful for, so I will amend my statement to, ‘so long 2023’.
 
For those of us lucky enough to live in Northern New Mexico, technology sometimes seems a fuzzy, distant thing on the horizon. It seems to come upon us more slowly here. It also sometimes sneaks in on us, without our noticing. Driving through Espanola, there are a lot of Wi-Fi devices and cameras mounted on the traffic lights. Subtle, in a way you might not notice.
 
I have a bunch of cameras at my house, mostly to watch the animals that show up, but also to see when the UPS driver snuck up so quietly and left several packages, so quietly my dog didn’t notice. The guy is a Ninja.
 
I was facetiming my daughter last night and it was dark on her end. She said something like ‘Hey Google, turn on the living room lights’ and the room lit up a second later. I forget that sort of thing is easy to do and commonplace elsewhere. I have a friend here in Abiquiu that controls his office lights with his iPhone. I guess it’s not so far off. I feel like a chump as I have to stand up and walk over to the lightswitch. Still, I can look at the feral cat that lives under our porch, from an app on my phone, so I’m not a total troglodyte.
 
All this is a lead-in to an article I read about some commonly used IoT, or Internet of Things. My refrigerator isn’t ordering groceries for me yet, but that tech is out there. My cousins are farmers in Illinois and their tractors map the planting using GPS, which is then used during the harvest. John Deere is definitely a leading edge company when it comes to using tech in agriculture.
 
We have a smart thermostat that is controlled from Carol’s phone. She can access the thermostat from anywhere she has an internet connection. Particularly useful when we’re coming home, let’s say, from a long day in Santa Fe and it’s gotten cold and we’d like to warm the house up for when we get there.
 
Medicine is getting into it with smart watches that can not only monitor your heart rate, but they can measure your oxygen, temperature and some are now doing blood pressure and blood glucose. I have a little pocket device that can do an EKG. I can see in the near future where you can have clothing with built in sensors that send info to your phone about your health.
 
Newer cars are connecting to the internet now as well, not only for navigation and music, but they can automatically sense an accident and send an ‘SOS’ for help. There is way more going on than what is obvious, and you can read about some of that HERE. Real-World Examples of IoT Software Development Success (msn.com)

I’ve written about this before, but it has come up again recently, so here goes.

I’m not a fan of Windstream. I’m not a fan of Elon Musk either, however, I probably wouldn’t care for a great many CEO’s of the companies I buy from. So I am a big fan of Starlink, and Amazon, for that matter. Starlink is relatively expensive. While it has been completely trouble free for the last year and a half, price matters, so it’s not for everyone.

I’ve written about hotspots before. I know some folks out by the lake that use ATT hotspots. And a person just down the road from me recently got a T-Mobile hotspot she is VERY happy with. The one I didn’t have any real knowledge of someone using was the Verizon hotspot, and now, I know someone on Hwy 84 that got one for their rental casita.

Generally, the speed you can get from a hotspot is very good. I’ve heard ranges from 40mbs to 200mbs. Streaming is certainly able to be done using them, and even multiple devices streaming, so the bandwidth is there. I was told that T-Mobile went through a bad period for quite a while earlier this year, while they were working on the tower over by the rural events buildings. That seems over with, it's back up and faster than before.

The only issue that you might have is data caps. Like some services, you buy your hotspot with a data limit. After you reach that limit, the service is throttled down so speeds decline. You will then have the option to buy some more data or wait out the period until your next billing cycle.
As a bit of background, these cell service Wi-Fi hotspots work by using the cell towers in our area. The cell tower is the communications hub for the Wi-Fi hotspot device. The hotspot device then broadcasts a Wi-Fi signal that your device (phone, tablet, computer, etc.) can use. Your Wi-Fi device talks with the hotspot, which translates the data to a cell signal the tower uses, and the tower routes that data to wherever it needs to go.

It’s similar to the DSL coming from Windstream into your house via the phone lines, or the Cox signal, over the coax line, or the satellite signal from Starlink. They're just different delivery systems of the same data, eventually being changed into something your device can talk with.
Ultimately, the available signal at your house can determine the brand of hotspot. I have a verizon phone, but not a Verizon signal at my house, so I use Wi-Fi calling at home. Since the building of the T-Mobile tower though, I have line of sight to that so I could get a T-Mobile hotspot and dump Starlink. It would probably be a money saver, but like I said, I’ve had zero issues with Starlink.

If you are not happy with Windstream, then you might check out a hotspot from one of the Big 3 phone providers. ATT works out by the lake, but not much most places around here. Verizon is good in our area, but not at my house. T-Mobile is newer, 5G, and may be a good choice, if you get their signal.
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Another thing to consider. Back in the day, we briefly had a Sprint hotspot. We could drive around in the car with it and get a WiFi signal via the Sprint network. I would guess that if you can power your hotspot, you could take it with you. Just a thought. And remember, for short term, you can likely use your phone or tablet as a Wi-Fi hotspot. If it has a cell card in it, then the option to set up a hotspot on the device is likely in the Settings App. 

I’ve written about how useful I think a smartwatch is, in tandem with a smartphone. The watch offers notifications, handsfree texting or calling, even navigation, without trying to get access to your phone. This is particularly useful when you’re driving and you shouldn’t be on your phone anyway. The smartwatch is far less invasive that way, though you shouldn’t be looking at your watch either, while you’re driving.

So I was looking for iWatch tips, and found 30, which I thought was too many. Looking thru them, it was. Then 16 tips. That was better, but still a few that did not seem plausible. Then 74 tips and I thought it was getting silly at that point. Finally, from Macrumors, a good grouping of tips. Read about them HERE. Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your New Apple Watch - MacRumors

Some things I particularly like are the sleep app which tells you how well you slept. My mom LOVED the app. It was like a game for her, to see how many times she woke up, how long a period of sleep she could get, the different types of sleep. I actually prefer the health type apps, that measure heart rate, blood oxygen, exercise. I keep waiting for blood pressure and blood glucose to be measured effectively. I know it’s coming.

I also like the safety aspect of the Apple watch. It has a fall detector which could be useful for folks like me, getting on in years. I fall all the time but I seem to have pretty good bones and have only broken a bone once. But the fall detector will alert you to a fall, in order for you to have the opportunity to say you’re fine or not, and if you don’t respond, it will call 911.

There are nice options about having your watch face come from your photo library, or making the watch text larger. How to use the find my phone app, and other useful tips. And also, if the  tips are useful to you, you can always Google iWatch tips and read the one that has 74.
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For you Android users out there, you know all the same stuff is available on Android. There are more choices in Android watch manufacturers of course, so there will be differences between some of them, but for a basic tip guide, this one seems good, HERE. Wear OS: Our top 11 tips and tricks for your new smartwatch (androidpolice.com)

While I am mainly going to write about Square, there are other companies that do the same thing. Since we use Square though, and others probably perform similarly, I’ll start there.
 
Last year at the Studio Tour, Windstream went down in our area for most of the day. We were using StarLink at the time, so the folks at our stop were able to continue using their card readers. I think everyone taking CC’s were using Square, partly because that’s what we know so that’s what we recommend. A link to their website is HERE.  
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Aside from the opportunity to bash Windstream, I want to add that the folks at our stop this year were using Square again. This time though, they didn’t need the Square reader which attaches to your smartphone, instead, they were able to use the phones NFC chip to read credit cards. It was very cool to see that. Basically, after ‘ringing up’ the charge, it prompts for the card and you slip it behind the phone and the Square software reads the card. It was impressive.
 
I’m sure there are alternatives to Square, feel free to read about some HERE. 
 
There are a million ways to easily transfer money, Western Union, PayPal, Google Pay, Zelle, and more. We use Zelle most often. Once you set it up, it’s pretty straightforward. Like everything else, there are nuances to get used to, but then it’s easy-peasy. Receiving the money takes some setup as well, but again, once that is done, it’s done and the money goes where it’s setup to go. Since there are various apps for that as well, I’m including some more informative reading HERE.
 
Deposit your checks without going to the bank. Yes, that’s right. Do you still drive somewhere to deposit a check someone gives you? You may not need to. Many banks these days have an option to deposit checks via a photo sent from your smartphone. Download your banks app for that, and follow the instructions. The software will guide you through the process and tell you when to take a pic of the front and back of the check. Assuming it’s a good pic and a good check, it will deposit the money into your account. Following is a link that helps explain the process further, HERE.