We had hoped to have better Internet connections so we could do our weekly “What Does This Button Do?” show while in Europe, but that didn’t happen.

Surprisingly, the best Wi-Fi we’ve had so far was in the apartment in Vinkovci, Croatia, so we did a little Facebook live session.

By Gail West

A Canadian who is now an ex-pat in Panama, Bill McKibbon has been an “early adopter” of technology and has used it in some very interesting ways since the late 1970’s.  Below is my interview with him which reveals aspects of his adventurous life, his reasons for moving to Panama, and the ways he has used technology and benefited from his membership with the Geeks on Tour.

In packing for our month in Europe, I reluctantly left my Canon Digital Rebel T3i behind. See our video where we talked about what we packed to take with us.

I love my Canon, it takes great photos, but, so does my iPhone 7+ and the iPhone is a lot smaller! Besides, I’ve always believed that what makes the most difference in the quality of a photo is a few seconds spent with good editing tools after the photo is taken. I believed that back with Picasa, and I believe it now with Google Photos and Snapseed. I have no ambition to be a professional photographer, that’s a completely different story. I just want to capture my memories and make them nice to look at.

We’ve been using Internet while traveling for 14 years. Most of that has been traveling by RV in the U.S., but this past month we had some new experiences while traveling in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and Germany.

Whether we need to find a campground in Arkansas, or rent a kayak in Venice, an Internet connection makes it possible!

Internet connectivity has improved dramatically since we started. In 2004, the only way to have connectivity while we traveled in our RV was with a $6,000 2-way satellite on the roof (Datastorm) and $115/mo service. Now, there is free Wi-Fi everywhere you go, and cellular Internet service from the likes of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile can be carried around in your pocket. Cellular costs range from pay-as-you-go $15/mo minimal service from Tracfone, to $80 (+taxes/fees = $100+) per month for Verizon Unlimited. 

Yes! Google Photos can help, but pay attention to your iCloud Photo Library settings

iCloud Photo Library is Apple’s solution for Backup and Sync for all your photos. It works differently than Google Photos Backup and Sync. Using them both will use up more iPhone storage space, and it will get complicated because of the way they handle deletions. With one exception,  I recommend using Google Photos and not iCloud Photo Library. The one exception is if it is important to you that the photos taken with your iPhone get automatically copied to your Mac’s hard drive, then you’ll want to stick with iCloud. With Google Photos, you can view your photos from your Mac (or any computer) by browsing to Photos.Google.com. They are not stored on your computer’s hard drive.