Tag Archives: tips

Back up your Instagram – or risk losing everything

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Instagram users have reported having their entire accounts suspended or deleted without warning, with no chance to save or back up their content first.

The issue was first highlighted by Hugo Baeta, a Portugese web designer living in San Francisco, who wrote a blog on his shock of having his account with over 900 photos in it deleted hours after posting five videos from a Janet Jackson concert.

What concerned him most was the speed of the action taken, with his account being completely deleted without a chance of defending himself or being  given the opportunity to remove them.

When he tried to respond to links in the emails sent about the videos, which had been the subject of copyright claims, presumably from Jackson’s legal team, he was unable to login and then directed to a help article that told him: “Your account has been deleted for not following our terms. You won’t be able to log into this account and no one else will be able to see it. We’re unable to restore accounts that are deleted for these types of violations.”

As he explained in his blog: “So, my Instagram account got deleted without them giving me any kind of actionable options to follow up. I can’t contest the take-down notice (which would be my legal right), because I can no longer log into my account. My account got deleted for posting 5 videos from a concert that I really loved – something I’ve done countless times with other artists I saw perform live.”

Getting to the crux of the matter, he added: “All of this made me quite introspective today. Something so tiny, in the grand scheme of things, actually has shaken me. I was looking back at all the photos I posted on Instagram over these 3 years (over 900 photos) and all the memories they are associated with. It’s a shame all the comments and reactions to them are lost now. But none of it was ever “mine” to begin with, right?  It’s a fine line for these social network companies… they need users to exist, yet users aren’t the client, we are the product they sell to advertisers.”

Of course, he’s wrong in one way – whatever the T&Cs of the various networks, content and information created by us or about us does fundamentally belong to us – but that’s of very little help in a situation like this where the platform holds all the power.

Occurrences like this show why it is critical that each and every one of us has all of our information, or at least a copy of it, in a place that we own and control – and it is this vital work which is a big driver in the continuing growth and development of our free app, which does just that.

Luckily for Hugo, he has a friend at Facebook (which owns Instagram), who helped him get his account reinstated. But it is clear from the blog comments that others in the same position were not so fortunate. And even Hugo himself is clear he will transition away from Instagram, his faith in it tarnished by this unpleasant experience.

Friday Fun: remembering university days

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This week hundreds of thousands of teenagers have found out if they have made the grade (quite literally) for places at university.

It’s been a stressful time for parents, as well as the students themselves, but with many now holding confirmed places, it’s a time to start celebrating and looking forward to new adventures as children (in many cases) prepare to fly the nest.

Changes on the horizon for one generation often herald a looking back to times past from the one above, so I thought today’s Friday Fun should take a stroll down university lane and find old student photos.

Given that social media and smartphones were very far from being a mass ‘thing’ for those of us who have children of our own, chances are your pictures (like mine) are blurry efforts in a funny shape, and that the only way to get them online is to take a picture of them with your beloved smartphone.

Regardless, I’ve included one of the few still knocking around of me – here I am with my fellow housemates, as well as our house cuddly toys, in 1995. I’m the one with red hair, by the way, very obviously dyed. Probably wearing Doc Martens and a baggy jumper as well, as that was the uniform back then.

Of course, our children will simply be able to look back through their digi.me library in the future – they really don’t know how lucky they are, do they?

So, anyone care to join me? Share your snaps of days gone past in the comments.

digi.me holiday disasters

Friday Fun: Holiday Disasters

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Given August is a bit of a wash-out so far, certainly in the UK, I thought I’d look on the bright side as things could always be worse.

I could be in a tent that has flooded, for example, or a caravan that has blown over a cliff.

A skiing holiday with no snow wouldn’t be a lot of fun at any time of year, while storms in paradise would be pretty annoying too.

While I’ve been bitten by a jellyfish and in a Russian tour group that had to pay off the Mafia to be able to leave the country (separate holidays, true stories), bar the odd illness I’ve never been really unfortunate in the holiday stakes.

But I know some have been unlucky, with friends and strangers alike sharing tales on social media that range from mildly awful to downright hilarious.

Have you got any you want to share? Falling in the sea fully clothed, horrific weather, comedy accidents? Take a look back through the pictures on your phone, or through your digi.me library to remind yourself of some examples of when life didn’t quite go as supposed to – and then share them with us!

We’d love to hear your stories – get in touch by commenting below.

5 Top Tech Tips for Festival Goers

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We know how much everyone loves a good festival and the festival season is now well underway.  You’ve got your wellies and waterproofs but you are after a few tips for how to handle your tech for the festival season. Do not fear, digi.me are here with some great tips for you!

  1. Batteries & Charging – You can’t rely on your phone battery surviving for an entire weekend of festival fun so let’s make sure you have plenty of juice whilst you are out and about. There are a few options but we love the external battery options as they are reliable and pain free. Alternatively you could choose to go solar! But be warned you may just be disappointed if it is wet and rainy!
  2. Rain Proofing – There are cheap options and fancy options… It really depends on how you use your phone. You could just put your phone in a sandwich bag and voila phone protected, or you could get a fancy waterproof case for it. There are a few around and they really aren’t that expensive and could save you a mishap or two!
  3. Photo’s & Videos – You are bound to take a few of these whilst you are out and about… but what happens if you lose your phone or worst case it gets stolen. (we hear it happens from time to time) Before you go back up your content from your phone, clear off any pics that don’t need to be on there and make sure you have enough storage space for those new pics and vids. Whilst you are out make sure you are backing up your images & videos to the cloud be that iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive or somewhere else.  Now you have less chance of losing those pics.
  4. Sharing & Saving – You want to share your favourite images & videos with your friends so make sure you have your favourite social media apps downloaded to your phone. Check if your festival has wifi, it’s quicker to upload that way than on the totally jammed mobile networks. If you do have to use your phone to upload try 4g but if that is jammed drop your phone down to use the 3g network. Most others won’t have thought to try that. 🙂
  5. Reliving Your Festival Moments – You’ve just got back from your festival and you want to relive those favourite festival moments. Start up digi.me and sync your social networks. See what pictures and videos you shared and review those fun moments that your friends have tagged you in. You can even save your festival highlights to PDF or upload them to Evernote!

If you have some top festival tips share them with us on Twitter and we will retweet the best of them over the course of the festival season!

Friday Fun: 3, 2, 1…

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This Friday we thought we would have some fun by sharing with you three features that our users really love!

3. PDF Export: Save all your social media content forever by exporting it into a PDF. You can print it, share it or just save it in case you need it one day.

2. Search: You can’t find a picture online but can’t remember if you shared it on Twitter, Facebook or Instergram but you know you shared it… try a quick search on digi.me and you’ll soon find what you were looking for!

1. Journal: People love the journal as a great way to look back over their content, filtering it by date or just looking back a year from now.

Bonus!

We have just added the ability for you to now export your social media data to Evernote as well! Next to that all important PDF icon is now the Evernote elephant logo. Click on it and try it out! Let us know what you think!

If you aren’t already using digi.me why not try it out for free!

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See our user survey results for more digi.me insights!

Friday Fun: Archiving… Really?

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Have I gone completely crazy I hear you say! How can archiving be fun… Why would I want to do that?  So lets go back to the beginning, you joined a social network to share moments and memories with friends.  You’ve now built up a few months or many years of memories online that have a lot of personal meaning to you and you don’t really want to lose them.  So how do you capture them and what will you do with them next?

Capturing those memories is relatively easy to do with digi.me you just download the app, connect it to your social networks and off it goes and archives your digital memories.  What you do with them from this moment onward is really up to your imagination.

The big question is how can we make that process more fun for you?  If we could make archiving into a fun thing to do what and how would we do that and make you smile at the same time?

Cute Kitty Pic Alert!!!
Cute Kitty Pic Alert!!!

We could show you some cats or other cute pictures… We could show you a few of those memories whilst they are being put on your computer… but what would make you go oooh and aaah!!!

Leave a comment or share your thoughts on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus with us! 

Useful Backup Tools

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You know that you need to backup your computer and your online content but what are the best tools for the job?  This article gives you some suggestions of tools that you can use to do just that.

PC Backup Tools

There are lots of options when it comes to backing up a PC and some of these are free or relatively cheap and some are paid for services.

Online vs Offline Backups… You have two options with your PC.  You can back your content up online or you can back it up to an offline device.  If you have poor internet access then we would suggest you go with doing offline backups to an external hard drive.  This would be your quickest and simplest answer however it is easy to forget to do it so set a reminder in your calendar to do it regularly.

If you have decent internet access then online backups are certainly a quick and painless approach if you don’t have loads of large files to back up. There are a range of services out there that offer this.

This article from PC Pro gives a good comprehensive list of cloud backup services for you to choose from.

Mac Backup Tools

Similarly to backing up a PC you can back up a mac to an external hard drive if you don’t have a good internet connection.

Cloud backup tools are also an option but remember with a mac you also have the option of backing up to iCloud.  You can find the instructions on how to do this here.

Mobile Backup Tools

Mobiles can be one of those things that you just completely forget to back up and yet they are one of the things that we use most and capture a lot of our memories with.  So how exactly can you back up your phone contacts, pictures and more?  If you have an iPhone the answer is easy. Just use iCloud and voila.

If you are on an Android or Windows phone then backup services such as OneDrive and GoogleDrive are great alternative options. This article on the 10 Best Android Backup Apps may come in handy for those looking for a tool to just do it all without any technical know how.  For Windows phone just follow these simple instructions to set where you want your data backed up to.

Social Media Backup Tools

When it comes to our online social media content we often don’t consider backing it up and yet we would be lost without it!  So how do you back up your content from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIN?  The answer here is simple. You can download digi.me for free and back up your four favourite social media accounts for free for a year this World Backup Day!

Make the most of the offer and tell your friends and family!

Guest Post: The Rise of Selfies [Infographic]

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Amy WilliamsAmy Williams is a journalist and former social worker based in Southern California.As a mother of two, she hopes to use her own experience as a parent to help other parents raise their children to be the best that they can be.

SelfieBoomAlmost everyone has mastered the technique of twisting their phone’s camera to capture the perfect photo.

In the halls of the local high school there are undoubtedly girls posing and snapping a selfie. It has become commonplace to walk by groups of people posing and preserving a moment in time.

The Selfie Phenomenon

The selfie fad has become ingrained in our hyper connected society. There are countless jokes on late night television and celebrities seek group photo ops. The term has even made it’s way into the Webster dictionary and inspired a song.

We often associate the term “selfie” with duck faces and provocatively posed teens. However, the selfie movement goes beyond self promotion. In fact, the first selfie documented wasn’t even taken in this decade, century, or millennia!

The first selfie has been traced back to a photo chemist, Robert Cornelius snapped during the year 1839. It can be fairly safe to say that Mr. Cornelius was ahead of his time and an unknowing trendsetter. The selfie was lost to the ages until 2005 when MySpace hit the scene and soon it was catapulted to epic proportions when new smartphones equipped with cameras became popular.

Selfies By The Numbers

Social Media was the perfect vehicle for this emerging subject matter and it quickly became a phenomenon. Here is a quick rundown of a few stats about the prevalence of the selfie revolution:

  • 91% of teens take or have taken a selfie
  • 52% of adult females have mastered the selfie
  • 50% of men admit to taking a selfie
  • Females might take more selfies than men. However, men over the age of 30 tend to share more selfies than women in the same age bracket.
  • Facebook appears to be the favorite site for sharing selfies
  • 70% of college-aged girls share selfies on Snapchat, a disappearing messaging app
  • Since 2013, the #selfie hashtag has grown 200%
  • Jim Krause, photographer, claims to have created the term “selfie” during 2005
  • Selfies constitute 30% of all photos taken by people aged 18 to 24 years

 10 Tips For Capturing The Perfect Selfie

 Selfies are often impromptu. However, they capture times spent with dear friends, highlights from a day out, or special occasions. Years later, these photos will be a wonderful collection of interests and events to look back on and enjoy in the future. Even if a selfie was clicked just to show off a good hair day- the image offers an authentic glimpse into your life.

 Here are 10 suggestions to help you take amazing selfies:

  •  Use an app to refine images. Look for filters, clarifiers, and hue adjustments.
  • Remove your phone’s protective covering. For some reason, a lot of covers can impact the clarity of a photo. Avoid mistakes and try snapping a pic without the cover.
  • If needed, use a “selfie” stick to avoid including your arm in the photos.
  • Avoid mirror and bathroom selfies.
  • Carefully examine backgrounds before posting. Make sure there are no embarrassing mistakes lurking behind you.
  • Keep your head at a 45 degree angle. This is the most flattering position.
  • Have great light. Lighting can make or break a photo.
  • Steady your camera. Blurry photos are a real bummer. Hold your phone steady and slowly release the button.
  • Capture your personality! This is the perfect medium for expressing yourself. Get creative and have fun.

Selfies For Prosperity

 Selfies might make good fodder for comedy, but they can be used to document memories and moments in time. The President, Pope, and celebrities are embracing the craze. In fact, selfies have went galactic with travelling astronauts.

 Selfies might seem unimportant, just a fun byproduct of our device driven society. These self images are wonderful tools to document a person’s life. By taking selfies and pictures, over time they are creating an evolving self portrait.  You can capture your timeline using Digi Me and save or share those moments forever!

 Selfies are not merely a fleeting fad, they are here to stay.

 

Digi Me Newsletter: Feb 2015 – Sharing

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Now that we are well on our way with our rebranding many of you who are already registered for our newsletter will find our latest news and content has just landed in your inbox.

Read the Newsletter Here

In case you missed it or would like to register for our newsletters just click here!

 

Sharing the Things You Love

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Often we talk about sharing in the context of social media but rarely do we attach emotion  to what we are doing.  What many people forget is that in order for social media to be effective emotion is what binds us to great content.

This weekend is Valentines weekend and we are all thinking about sharing something with the people we love the most. Capturing the moment is almost as important these days as sharing the moment in the first place.

Here are some top tips on how to capture those special moments in pictures so that you can share and save them online forever.

  • Instinct – Sometimes you just know that the moment you want to capture is coming up. Trust your instinct, get your camera/ phone out and snap away.
  • Trust – Build up a relationship with the person in front of the camera and you will get much better shots.  Get to know the person and what they feel comfortable with. Make them feel at ease by talking to them about things that they have a passion for.
  • Patience – Often especially with animals you need to be patient and just wait for the moment to spring up for you to capture it perfectly. You may take 50 pictures but the one you have waited for is often the very last one you capture.
  • Story Telling – Every picture tells a story.  Share the story by putting a series of images together.

When you have got that perfect picture you want to share it with your friends and family.  If you have an image story why not use the gallery options to show multiple images which tell your story!

To ensure you never lose the moments that you shared on social media download Digi Me and save those moments forever.