Posts from Online Tech Tips for 11/26/2019

In this issue: 5 Best Child Tracking Apps and Gadgets to Monitor Location - [View in browser]( Monday, November 25, 2019 5 Best Child Tracking Apps and Gadgets to Monitor Location by Saphia Lanier | [Online Tech Tips]( Allowing your children to go outside and play with friends makes you a great parent. If you have teens, you may even allow them to venture off miles away to hang out with their buddies. Now, what makes you a great parent is always knowing where they (really) are. You can’t just take their word for it either — the best way to ease your nerves is to locate your child in real-time. The following child tracking apps and gadgets will allow you to track your children wherever they may be. [Xplora 2]( – A Nice Gift In Disguise Whether you decide to tell your child you’re tracking them or not — you’ll find the Xplora 2 watch to be a great choice. Now, it may work better with younger children who aren’t fashion-conscious. This device doesn’t require a SIM and costs roughly $170. There are no monthly fees to worry about. As long as your child has this watch on, you’ll be able to track their real-time location. Plus, you can create alerts for when your child leaves an area (like the park or a friend’s house). What makes this device stand out is that it comes with Amazon Echo. So all you have to do is [ask Alexa]( your child’s whereabouts and it’ll answer. [FamiSafe]( – Track Your Child’s Online & Offline Activity Sometimes, it’s not enough just to know where your children are. With the FamiSafe GPS tracker app, you can verify where your kids are at all times. It also allows you to check [their location history]( because who can sit and follow a dot on the map all day? This child tracking app also allows you to create Geofences, so you’re alerted when your children step outside of the boundary (or when they arrive). Then to take it a step further, you can block dangerous apps so they can’t use them while they’re out. It comes with a monthly fee — you can choose between $4.99/month for annually, $9.99/monthly or $6.66/month quarterly. It’s available for both iOS and Android devices. [Jiobit]( – A Discreet GPS Tracker Maybe you don’t allow your children to have a smart device. Or possibly you want something as a backup, in case they lose or break their smartphone. In this case, you can use Jiobit — a small GPS tracker that can fit just about anywhere. It’s roughly 50mm and weighs 18 grams. There’s a loop on it that allows you to attach it to belt loops, shoelaces, straps, and so on. It also offers mobile fences, but it also does something unique. You can add a “Care Team” which are people you trust around your children. This is excellent if you have a babysitter, family member, or friend who picks up and watches your children when you’re at work. There’s a monthly fee of either $12.99/month or $8.99/month if you make a two-year commitment.  [Life360]( Monitoring For The Whole Family Here’s another app that comes with the main features you need — the ability to create perimeters, track your children in real-time, and receive alerts. You can also create a private circle with your family members. This is ideal if you want to be able to coordinate plans with your spouse and children. The location sharing also helps with ensuring everyone’s where they’re supposed to be. GPS Phone Tracker takes it a step further by allowing you to receive notifications about members who arrive and leave from your most frequented places. You can even get alerts when a family member’s battery is running low. This child tracking app is currently free but does offer in-app purchases. It’s available on both Android and iOS devices. [AngelSense]( – For Children With Special Needs Here’s another GPS tracking option that enables parents to keep an eye on their children. It comes with voice-monitoring features. This allows you to click a button to listen in on what’s happening. One mother using this feature heard her son getting bullied on the school bus. She pinpointed the location and was able to get there and save him from distress. You can also use this child tracking device to talk to your child anytime (like the old-school chirp button on Nextel phones). You can also get alerts letting you know when your child leaves school or another location they’re supposed to be in. It’ll even notify you of suspicious activities, such as your child being in an unknown place. This solution comes with a GPS device, a sleeve device, and a magnetic key. As for the cost, the kit is typically $229. You can then choose a plan — $33/month for annual, $39/month for monthly, or $52/month for month-to-month. Plus, you get a 30-day money-back guarantee. Keep Your Children Safe With GPS Tracking You shouldn’t have to worry whether or not your children are where they’re supposed to be. With these child tracking apps and gadgets, you can take control of the safety of your kids. There’s something for all parenting styles and budgets. So check these GPS trackers out and see which work best for your family. You may also like these other posts from OTT: [Facebook Marketplace: How To Find The Best Deals On Facebook]( [4 Amazing Desktop Environments For Android]( [How to Choose and Change Your Next Graphics Card]( [YouTube Music Review – A Nice Streamlined Way To Listen To Music Videos]( [How To Spot a Fake Website Or Phishing Attempt This Holiday Season]( How To Program NFC Tags Using Android - [View in browser]( Monday, November 25, 2019 How To Program NFC Tags Using Android by Mahesh Makvana | [Online Tech Tips]( NFC stands for Near Field Communication and it allows two devices held closely to [communicate with each other](. An NFC tag is a paper-like tag that can be programmed to do your tasks using the NFC technology. If you haven’t heard of this technology before, the above might sound a bit too technical to you, but it’s not. Once you’ve learned the basics of programming an NFC tag, you’ll find that you can use it to automate a number of your tasks that you may be doing manually every day. Getting an NFC tag and programming it doesn’t require any special skills. As long as you know how to use an app on your Android device, you can program an NFC tag to do your specified tasks. Also, these [NFC tags]( are inexpensive and available on all the major websites including Amazon. You can get a few of these for you so they can perform various tasks for you. Requirements For Programming An NFC Tag In order to program NFC tags, there are certain things, or requirements that you must meet. These are basic ones and as long as you use modern gadgets, you should be just fine. You must have: - An NFC tag which can be bought very cheaply on Amazon. - An Android device with NFC compatibility. [Check your phone’s specifications]( to confirm. - An app to program your tags. There’s a free app on the Play Store so you don’t need to worry about it. Once you’ve confirmed you meet the minimum requirements, head onto the following section to start writing data to your NFC tag. Writing Data To An NFC Tag Using Your Android Device Programming an NFC tag basically means writing the actions you want to perform to your tag. This is done using a free app from the Play Store that you can download and use on your device. - The first thing you’ll need to do is enable the NFC option on your device. To do it, open the Settings app, tap on Bluetooth & device connection, select Connection preferences, and finally turn the toggle for NFC to the ON position. If you don’t find the option in the exact menu shown above, you might want to look inside other menus to see if it’s there. The location of the option varies by the device you use. - When NFC is enabled, launch the Google Play Store on your device, search for the app named Trigger, and install the app on your device. - Launch the newly installed app. When it opens, you’ll need to first create a new trigger. This can be done by tapping on the + (plus) sign at the bottom-right corner. - On the following screen, you’ll find the options you can create triggers for. The option you need to tap on is called NFC as this is what allows you to perform an action when an NFC tag is tapped. - After tapping NFC, tap on Next on the following screen to continue to program your tag. - The screen that follows lets you add restrictions to your tag. Here you can define the conditions when your tag is allowed to run. Tap on Done when you’ve specified the options. - Your NFC trigger is now ready. You now need to add an action to it so that your tag performs your chosen action when it’s tapped. Tap on Next to do it. - You’ll find various actions you can add to your tag for it to perform. As an example, we’ll be using the Bluetooth toggle option so that Bluetooth is turned on/off when the tag is tapped. Hit Next when you’re done. - You can customize the action even further on the following screen. Since we want to toggle Bluetooth, we’ll choose Toggle from the dropdown menu and tap on Add to Task. - You can now see all the actions you’ve added to the list. If you want, you can more actions by tapping the + (plus) sign at the top. This’ll make your tag do more than one task at a time. Then tap on Next to continue. - Tap on Done on the following screen. - Here comes the main part where you actually write the data to your tag. Place your NFC tag near the NFC location (usually near the rear camera) and the app will automatically write your actions to your tag. - You’ll get a success message when the tag is successfully programmed. From now on, whenever you tap your phone to your NFC tag, it’ll perform the predefined actions on your device. In our case above, it’ll toggle the Bluetooth functionality on our phone. You can even stick these tags somewhere convenient and then all you need to do is tap your phone at them to run your tasks. How To Erase An NFC Tag On Android If you want to use your tag for any other task, you can do so by [erasing the existing data on it](. You can program NFC tags as many times as you want and it’s pretty easy to get them formatted if you wish to do it. - Enable the NFC option on your device and launch the Trigger app. - Tap on the three horizontal-lines at the top-left corner and select Other NFC Actions. - On the following screen, you’ll find an option that says Erase tag. Tap on it to select it. - Place your NFC tag on your phone like you did when you were programming it. You’ll get a notification when your tag is erased. It’s instant in most cases. Uses Of a Programmable NFC Tag If this is your first time using NFC tags, we know you’ll appreciate some suggestions as to what to use them for - Create a WiFi NFC tag that lets your guests automatically connect to your WiFi. - Create an NFC tag for an alarm so you don’t need to mess with the alarm app. - Make a tag for your conference room that puts people’s devices in silent mode. - Program a tag to call someone specific in your contacts You may also like these other posts from OTT: [Facebook Marketplace: How To Find The Best Deals On Facebook]( [4 Amazing Desktop Environments For Android]( [How to Choose and Change Your Next Graphics Card]( [YouTube Music Review – A Nice Streamlined Way To Listen To Music Videos]( [How To Spot a Fake Website Or Phishing Attempt This Holiday Season]( Check out more posts from our publishing family: Help Desk Geek Posts [How to Hide Other WiFi Networks When Connecting with Your Computer]( Nov 25, 2019 by Aseem Kishore If there are multiple WiFi networks in your area, you’ll see all of them when you try connecting to your own. 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With more people switching to mobile computing, and more tablets being used […] [READ MORE]( [How To Print In Black & White On Mac]( Nov 22, 2019 by Mahesh Makvana Printing something in black and white on a Mac sounds simple but if you’ve ever tried to do it yourself, you know that it’s not as easy as it sounds. There are certain things that need to be modified before your printer prints your documents without any colors. By default, most printers are set up […] [READ MORE]( ABOUT ONLINE TECH TIPS Welcome to Online Tech Tips – A blog that provide readers with daily computer tutorials, technology news, software reviews, and personal computing tips. My name is Aseem Kishore and I am a full-time professional blogger. I graduated from Emory University with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. Copyright © 2019 Online-Tech-Tips.com, LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you joined our newsletter on our website, www.Online-Tech-Tips.com. 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