SEND TEXT MESSAGES THROUGH SKYPE
Microsoft is testing a feature in Skype that lets you send and receive text messages on your phone (Android only). Called ‘SMS Connect’, it’s currently available only to users signed up to the Skype Insider Program ( www. skype.com/en/insider), which releases new tools for trial before they’re officially launched. Microsoft will respond to feedback from users before adding the tool to the full version of Skype.
Older and disabled people will be taught how to perform “life-changing skills” online as part of the £400,000 Digital Inclusion Fund launched by the Government.
Projects will include booking GP appointments online, talking with friends and family through apps, and using search engines.
The scheme was welcomed by Citizens Online, a charity that works to ensure everyone benefits from the internet.
Chief executive John Fisher said: “It’s increasingly important that everybody in our society has the skills and confidence to be online; yet disabled people are four times more likely to lack essential digital skills than the general population and 28 per cent of those over 60 are offline”.
He added: “We’re delighted that this fund will test new ways of offering support to these marginalised groups”.
On its blog the charity gives examples of how older people have benefitted from its work, including 88-year-old Sylvie from Brighton who now uses an ipad to watch knitting videos on Youtube (read more at www.snipca.com/28957).
Figures from the Office of National Statistics in May showed that 56 per cent of over-75s haven’t used the internet recently, while 20 per cent of disabled adults have never been online - although this shrinks to just two per cent for 16 to 24-year-olds.
As well as the Digital Inclusion Fund, the Government is spending £1 million to help “underrepresented groups” gain the skills they need to work in the digital industry.
The Digital Skills Innovation Fund aims to get more “women, disabled people, people from minority backgrounds or those living in lower socioeconomic areas” working in roles such as programming, cyber-security and software development.