My kids 5 & 1 1/2 are always grabbing for my phone, using it, dropping it (yikes). I am a klutz and been know to drop my phone several times, not sure why but this is a habit of mine, I kill cell phones. I’d LOVE to have Smart Phone encased in a rugged kid-proof case, but yet those don’t exist. At one time I almost bought one of those heavy duty Nextel phones they use on construction job sites because I was so rough with my phone.
The problem isn’t that I am a cell phone killer, the real problem is that I take a lot of mobile photos, mainly of my kids and when my phone bites the dust so do my photos. The first time I lost my mobile phone photos I was so sad, cute pictures of my 1st kid were gone. This was before I was on Facebook so the photos hadn’t been uploaded anywhere. I learned my lesson and figured out how to set up my photos to automatically save on my external storage card, wheew. Now when my phone is trashed at least I have the photos on a storage card.
How does Google+ factor into all this talk about mobile photos? It’s simple, they have a featured called ‘Instant Upload’ where you can set up your Google+ mobile app to automatically upload your mobile photos to Google+. The nice thing is that the photos aren’t automatically shared on Google+, they just remain in your account and saved there for you. If you ever need the photo saved on your hard drive you can just right click “Save Image As”. Another nice feature of the Google+ photos is that you can edit the photos by making it black and white or adjusting the contrast.
Here is a screen shot of the Google+ Photos, and yes that is my 1 1/2 year old standing ON her rocking horse.
If you are a member of Google+ then the next step to really ensure that your images are backedup is to join Picasa, which is a Google product. The reason for this is that there are Picasa Web Albums which automatically sync your Google+ albums to Picasa. Ok, so what is the big deal with that? Now that your photos are in Picasa you can edit, share and order prints from Snapfish, Walgreens, Shutter Fly, Ritzpix, LifePics, Printed Art and FotoFlot (which is like Fracture Me)
Here is the same photo from my mobile phone, saved in my Picasa Web Album and now in my Shopping Cart at Walgreens Photos. This one will go up in my grandmother’s room at her nursing home because she will get a kick out it that my daughter is standing ON her rocking horse.
As you can see, being on Google+ has benefits for someone like me, who takes a lot of mobile photos and is a busy mom of two girls and always on the go. If being a part of Google+ sounds interesting to you and you don’t yet have an account just send me an email (dawn{at}SunriseRiseVirtualServices.com) and I can send you an invite. Also, to learn more about what else Google+ can offer you I highly suggest reading Mari Smith’s blog post about it here – http://www.marismith.com/whats-so-exciting-about-google-plus-overview/
You can view my Google+ profile here - gplus.to/DawnCullo and add me to your circle.
If you are already on Google+ what other features or benefits have you found useful?
This blog post is part of a 7-Day Blogging Challenge hosted by Brandy Mychals. You can participate in the challenge too by going to http://brandymychals.com/mb/7-day-blogging-challenge/
About Dawn Cullo
