Tag Archives: QQ Instant Messaging

QQ Instant Messaging, Qzone Photo Album

Add Photos to Your Qzone

July 26, 2012 Computers Made Simple Leave a comment

Last time, we showed you how to open up your Qzone. This time, we’ll show you how to add photos to it. Here we go:

First, open your Qzone.

Qzone photo — **Your Qzone. No photos yet.**

Hover at the top to bring down the list of icons.

Click on the second icon to start the album upload process.

Here’s where you can name your album, describe it and select different permission settings.

Ignore the next menu. Click the X to close it.

Clicking the blue button brings up a typical Windows file choice menu.

Once you choose the photos and click the OK button in Windows, you get a thumbnail pic of whichever ones you’ve chosen. Click the upload button to finish the process.

At this point you can describe the photos as a group or, one by one. If you’ve taken a trip, for instance, you can describe them all saying something such as ‘Summer Trip 2012’.

You’re done! If you use Google Chrome, the whole process is somewhat easier since Chrome will translate most menus for you. For the ones it doesn’t translate, copy and paste the text into Google Translate.

Other than photos, you can add blog posts to your zone, ask questions and interact with your friends in many ways. We’ll show you how to add blog entries in a future post.

Thanks for reading!

Chinese Social Media, QQ Instant Messaging, Qzone Privacy

Lock Your Qzone – update

July 2, 2012 Computers Made Simple 5 Comments

Our post on locking your Qzone was correct but one reader couldn’t duplicate one of the menus so here we are again. We’ll post another path to your security settings in case you can’t get to them as per the previous blog entry. Here we go:

1. Open your Qzone. Your main page will look like this but you can get to the security menu from any page:

Photo of basic Qzone menu — This is the area that you want to find at the top of the page.

2. Hover your cursor (mouse) over the third set of symbols to bring up this menu:

Hover over the third set of symbols, underlined above, then click the circled symbol.

3. On the next page, look for the set of symbols on the right. Here they are:

Photo of Qzone menu — Look for the set of symbols that we’ve circled and click on them.

4. Once you click the circled symbols, this page will come up. What you are doing here is finding your profile settings and editing them, just as you do in Facebook or any other social networking site:

Photo of Qzone security page — Under the padlock icon, click the first set of symbols.

5. Clicking on the circled set of symbols will bring up the same menu as shown in our post about locking your profile. That article is here: Locking your Qzone

This is the menu:

Photo of Qzone security settings menu — Hovering over the circled set of symbols will bring out the menu just below it. This is where you can lock your zone.

TIP: As we said earlier, these settings are no different than the ones on Facebook or your MSN zone, basically the same as any other social networking site. The difference is that these settings are all in Chinese. If you use Google Chrome, the job is a bit easier. Part of the fun of all of this is getting to know some Chinese symbols and working out these settings on your own. It’s a mystery, right? Everyone loves a mystery. We hope this helped you. Let us know if it didn’t.

Thanks for reading!

Privacy, QQ Instant Messaging, Qzone Privacy

Protect Your Qzone from Strangers

June 28, 2012 Computers Made Simple 11 Comments

QQ is a chat application from China, created by Tencent Inc. Whole most users are Chinese, QQ is slowly spreading around the world. Many Westerners, including some of us here at Computers Made Simple, have used it for years.

QQ is free, of course, and with every account comes a few gigabytes of space to share photos, stories, etc. with your friends. By default, your zone is open to everyone but it’s probably a wise move to keep your Qzone somewhat private. You can lock your photo albums but if you want to lock your whole Qzone to strangers, here is how you do it.

1. Head to your Qzone. If you are using the International (English) version, the chat interface will be in English but your Qzone will be in Chinese. With the latest version, you have to add the Qzone app first, then you can go to your zone.

2. On the main page, look for the gear up on the top, just to the right of your profile pic:

Photo of the gear to change your Qzone settings — The gear is where you can set your privacy limits.

3. Hover your cursor (mouse) over the gear to bring up this menu:

Photo showing dropdown menu — The one you want is the third choice, highlighted here.

4. Choose the third group of symbols. This will bring up this page:

Photo of Qzone privacy menu — All the settings you need are here.

5. At this point, this zone is open only to friends. The choice on the left will make it open to everyone, the right one means it’s locked to everyone except the user and the middle one has its own internal settings.

TIP: If you use QQ for a while, you’ll receive many requests to be friends. Some users are looking for partners, some are looking for English speakers and some are just looking for friends. Before you can use the next set of privacy limits, create a new group in your friend list. Name it Strangers or whatever you want, but put all new requests that you accept in this group until you know more about the person you care chatting with. Don’t worry, there is substantially more spam and fake ‘hot girls’ on Yahoo than there are on QQ.

6. If you have made sub-groups inside your list of Friends, this is where you can choose which groups have access to your zone. Hover over the light brown string of symbols, in this case they are just to the right of the 0/6. This menu will come up:

Photo showing which groups can see your Qzone. — Every group selected here will be able to enter your zone.

7. What you’re doing in this menu is selecting the groups that can enter your zone. Each group that you select by clicking in the box beside the name, will be able to enter your Qzone. In this example none of the groups can enter this person’s Qzone.

8. Once you have finalized your group selection, make sure you click the Save button at the bottom, the one that looks like this:

Photo showing the Chinese symbols for 'save changes' — Look for the button that looks like this. Click it to save your changes.

9. Once you click this button, your choices will be saved for you. That’s it! Your Qzone is now private.

Thanks for reading!

QQ Instant Messaging

QQ International – the perfect chat app for everyone

June 7, 2012 Computers Made Simple 7 Comments

Tencent (Tencent, Inc. available at tencent.com) have several different free products that are worth looking at, even if you aren’t Chinese. As the Chinese Internet boom keeps booming, almost half a billion Internet users at this point, Tencent continues to offer innovative and interesting communication software. We have written about Weixin or WeChat in previous posts. Here are the links: Weixin 1 and WeChat Shake . Right now, we will give you a few details on QQ International, the incredibly efficient and fun chat app for everyone.

QQ has been around for quite a while. We’ve been using it for over four years now and it keeps getting better. We aren’t affiliated with Tencent in any way but we do admire their products. Since they are all free, we feel we should give praise where it’s due. Free is good and simple, that’s what we’re all about here, right? If you are Chinese, you already know about QQ and its many features. If you aren’t, now is the time to download it and start opening up your world.

QQ International simplifies the seemingly overwhelming job of accessing modern China. Where do you start? How can you discover the unique world that is modern day China? Well, an easy and fast and free way is to head over here: http://www.imqq.com/ and download QQ International, currently on version 1.3. Install the software and signup for an account using your current email address. QQ includes an email account but you need a third party email account to sign up. Everything is in English up to this point so don’t stress.

Once you have completed the sign-up, simply log in using your username and password and you’re off to the races….probably a completely different race than you’re ever experienced. Hundreds of millions of Chinese use QQ but more and more non-Chinese are using it everyday. While QQ International opens up the door to chatting with friends in China, there is no reason why you can’t chat and interact with users all over the world. If you are a trendsetter, convince your friends to download QQ and together you can start to enjoy a feature-rich chat experience unlike anything you’ve ever used before. MSN and Yahoo Messenger pale in comparison.

What features does QQ International have? To begin with, QQ will translate messages from Chinese to English almost instantly, allowing you to chat with someone whose English isn’t perfect PLUS QQ translates your English into Chinese just as instantly. Highlight the other person’s message and choose the translate button,then type your words in English and use the Alt/e key combo to translate your message back to them. Of course the translation is literal. Don’t expect the nuances of either language to come through and do expect a bit of confusion but don’t worry about it. If you aren’t familiar with China or its residents, you’ll find them very eager to chat with a native English speaker and equally as eager to share their knowledge of China and its customs.

QQ International also offers superb webcam support as well as crystal clear audio chat. Want to share a video you shot? Click the ‘Share video’ button and you’re off. Need some help with your computer? QQ offers an excellent remote assistance setup as well.

You can share files, of course, but you can also video chat with up to twenty other users. This feature is new with Version 1.3 but previous versions allowed multiple users the ability to chat with each other using their microphones. Many Chinese are extremely keen to learn English and have set up groups of people with similar interests. Using QQ, the group can trade pronunciation tips and stories with each other.

Each QQ account comes with a free Qzone. The Qzone is similar to MySpace in that you can post your photos, your stories, your music or whatever else you want to share with your friends. Here is where you might run into a problem. The Qzone is in Chinese. Unless you are using Google Chrome you will be lost trying to set yours up. Start to use Chrome and you’ll be off on your way to the excitement of discovering a new world.

There are many other features that come for free with QQ. We’ve outlined the main ones, you’ll have to discover the others on your own. If you need help, ask us or, better yet, make a new friend and ask them.

With WeChat, QQ, renren and Weibo, to name a few, China is offering up a solid set of communication tools which are just as good, sometimes better, than anything you’ll find on this side of the globe. Just because you live in North America or Europe, don’t assume you’ve got the best of the best. Give QQ International a try and you’ll see what we mean.

Thanks for reading!

QQ Instant Messaging

QQ

January 19, 2012 Computers Made Simple 2 Comments

Interested in exploring how the other half lives? Why not check out QQ? I’ve been using it for over four years and I love it. What is it? Read on.

QQ is the most popular instant messaging application in the world. At this moment, when it’s 1:30 AM in China, there are over 80 million users online. At other times, holidays and festivals usually, I’ve seen the number as high as 120 million or more. Seeing as how there are over 500 million Internet users in China, it’s easy to see that a good portion of them use QQ.

Besides being popular, QQ offers many features and benefits that make MSN and Yahoo pale in comparison. Instant translation, for instance, is a very useful feature for me. I can carry on rudimentary conversations with anyone in China that has an interest in chatting with me. I can share photos,videos and files instantaneously. I can stream videos in my chat window and my chat partner and I can share the experience in real time.

If you’re interested in Karaoke, QQ offers QMusic for free. There is a search feature included. Just search for a song, any song, it doesn’t have to be in Chinese, and QQ Music will play it. If someone has uploaded the lyrics to this song, they will scroll across the bottom of your screen. If the words don’t sync with the music, you can slow them down or speed them up to match the tune. I use it all the time.

If you are single, there are literally millions of possible matches out there for you. Each QQ profile has a Qzone which allows you to upload photos, maintain a log (blog) and decorate your space as you see fit. Other users can search for you and check you out, depending on your privacy settings. While Chinese people might be conservative, they are not shy. Complete strangers will add you, sometimes just for the thrill of talking to a foreigner.

Knowledge of Chinese is not required to use QQ. If you download the QQ International version from here: http://download.imqq.com/download.shtml and set up an account, you’ll see the translation settings on the left side of the text entry pane. Using the ‘Search Contacts’ link at the bottom of the main window, you can choose the ‘advanced’ setting and find users who match your desired demographics. It makes a difference if you try to translate your words for other users. Don’t insist on English or you won’t get anywhere.

China has an ancient and very interesting culture. Don’t head into this with any preconceptions that Chinese people are less important or less significant than you are. While Europeans were living in huts, the Chinese were building multi-story skyscrapers. The Chinese culture is fascinating to study and thrilling to be a part of. Some of their festivals are thousands of years old, with their origins lost in the mists of time, part fact and part myth. When you consider the fact that no culture has survived as long as that of China’s, and some have lasted a long time, you’ll perhaps understand why it’s important to get to know about China and its people.

QQ is a good jumping off point, in my opinion. Don’t download QQ from anywhere else but the official QQ site. I have both versions, the Chinese and the International version, simply because the Chinese edition offers a few more features than the International one.

Your knowledge of English will help you find new friends. I started out by helping my QQ friends with their English and many have accepted me into their lives. There is no age limit to QQ and you’ll find grandmothers and grandfathers keeping track of their relatives who might be spread all over the world. While many users access the Internet with cell phones, the chat speed isn’t affected and many of the new phones accept video feed from webcams. If you thought China was behind the times, you’re in for a big surprise.

Thanks for reading! Comments are welcome.

a little bit of hi-tech, a little bit of common sense and a lot of fun