Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
On The Go / Travel
Are You A Text-a-holic? Yeah, I’m Talking To YOU.
Sep 17th
A friend just sent me a link to a parody video and said I was the first person to cross the mind while watching it.
Are you one of those people that have the phone handset glued to your palm? You can’t put down because you’re doing one of a couple of things, over and over and over again, even if it’s not for texting alone:
- Checking your email since the last time you pressed check email 1 second ago
- Browsing your Facebook app
- Trying to take photos and tweet them to the world that isn’t really listening since you have only have 12 followers
- Checking your email in between tasks
- Texting a friend 2 C wuzup?
- Downloading totally useless apps and playing them whenever you get a chance.
- Checking your email just in case you missed an email that might have just came in.
IS THIS YOU?
Here’s the funny video — check it out for yourself:
What do you think?
It’s funny alright. . .
But is it true?!
Blogging On My iPad with Blogsy App
Jun 12th
One of the biggest challenges in becoming a successful blog author and publisher is to figure out ways of integrating that actual sitting down and writing a blog post into your daily workflow.
And usually, producing posts take longer than your really think it will take, at least when you’re first starting out – mostly for the little things that add up like formatting, making sure you have appropriate graphics or photos accompanying each posts, etc.
This is why with my coaching clients, we spend a lot of time upfront trying to reduce the friction in getting things out of the blogger’s head and into the computer. If you can solve that ongoing battle for your time and attention’ you are in a for a great blogging experience. The question is just how can you do that?
So I was very happy to hear about the Blogsy app for iPad the other week. The developer was kind enough to let me take the app for a spin for this review and so far I’m impressed.
This just might do the trick for my writing praxis while I am out and about with my iPad.
Out of the gate, there are a couple of things I really appreciate about the Blogsy app. Here are 3 of them:
- You can easily search for video/images on Flickr, Picassa, YouTube, or even search on the web for images — all right from inside the app. This is a huge time saver since on the iPad, you would normally have to jump out of the app, launch a new one, find the image or video, copy paste the copy for it and then go back to the writing application. You don’t understand the convenience until you do it yourself with Blogsy.
I do wish Blogsy supports Vimeo soon. It seems like it is on the to-do list to add for new capabilities by the developer. But at least you can use the in-app browser to go to vimeo.com and grab the HTML embed code.
- You can manipulate any inline embeded image and video size via pinch and zoom. Again, one less hassle which actually takes advantage of the iPad platform touch screen controls.
- Multiple blogs support. Anyone that is a serious bloger is more likely to have multiple blogs. Having access to all of them from one app is a treat. . .especially when I am on a trip, I won’t have to consider bringing my laptop or not. This makes my iPad just that more productive while I am traveling or out of the office for extended periods of time.
Blogsy just got updated to version 2.0 this week, and I have seen a couple of crashes, but I assume these will be addressed in the coming weeks by the developer.
I have written a couple of drafts already in Blogsy, but this is my first live blog posting by the actual Blogsy app itself.
I will be blogging more about Blogsy 2.0 and beyond as I continue to use it, especially on an upcoming international trip where I will certainly ditch my laptop for the iPad (actually, with TeamViewer, I will be able to use my laptop on my iPad remotely just in case, but that is another blog post).
Are you a blogger with an iPad? How do you write and publish blog posts on your iPad? Please leave a comment below!
Frrrrrring Fring! Frrring FRING! Video Calls over 3G
Dec 31st
2010 might be remembered as the race to the face.
Why?
Because, Apple first introduced Facetime video calling over WiFi for all iPhone 4 owners.
Next, it launched Facetime for Macs.
Now, we’re seeing 3rd parties come into the game like Skype with Video Calling over 3G and the iPhone.
Here’s the latest entry into the video calling over 3G game: Fring.
I have Fring on my iPhone already, and now the app’s been updated to add a 3rd way to connect: IM, Calling, and now — Video.
Fring’s advantage is like Skype in that you can call more than just other iPhone 4 users.
And you can do it over 3G as well as WiFi networks. Since Fring is also available on other platforms like Android, you’ll be able to connect with even more people video calls now.
Talk about zany promos for these 3g video calling services. Fring’s guy seems goofier than the Skype video commercial. Check it out and let me know what you think about the Fring guy here:
But don’t worry, they have a slick corporate promo video for the new video calling feature as well:
If you don’t have it yet, go grab FRING for iPhone now. We’ll wait.
QUESTION: Have you ever made a video call to someone else on a mobile phone?
Skype 3G and WiFi Calling on the iPhone for Regular & Video Calls
Dec 31st
I personally haven’t been pressed to figure out ways to get free calling on my iPhone 4. Largely since I’ve been slowly working away at an AT&T Wireless Rollover balance of over 3,500 minutes I currently have.
Plus, when you call anyone else with an iPhone, you’re basically going to get a free call since they are covered under the mobile-to-mobile free minutes part of the cell plan. (Although with the iPhone rolling out with Verizon this year, you won’t be as confident of your free minutes.)
So for free audio calls, Skype for iPhone just hasn’t been of interest to me thus far. I know others that are big Skypers on the pc too, so it makes sense for them to download and use it with their pre-existing Skype user network. But for me – for regular audio calling, I’d just as soon use my cell plan minutes.
Video calling is a different story — Apple’s Facetime has been a huge hit with me.
It is a great way to connect with the kids when we are away from each other. I’ve even most recently Facetimed home when I was in our local ShopRite grocery picking up some milk since there’s free WiFi in many parts of town. The novelty is still there for video calling with friends and family, even though I regularly video conference for business and with my social media network of associates.
But now, it looks like you don’t have to be connected to wifi at all. 3G video calling is a reality now, thanks to Skype. The only snag here is similar to Facetime – the other party needs the same thing on their phone or PC. Of course the network effect is in play here as more people within your network use Skype, the more useful and utilized it will become.
Overall, Skype is probably going to be a game changer, unless Apple begins to allow 3rd party apps to Facetime on devices other than the iPhone/iPod Touch and on Macs.
Check out the cheeky promo video that Skype just put out to announce their Skype Video Calling on the iPhone:
BTW, there *IS* a difference between Facetime and Skype Video on the iPhone/iPod Touch. You can see in this video comparison of the two, that Facetime is much clearer, less jumpy in video and overall a better experience. But Skype does two things that might let it become the default choice for many people — 1) It works over 3G, where Facetime requires WiFi on both sides. 2) You can make Skype video and audio calls with PC users in addition to Mac users. Facetime is Mac only at this point.
Go get Skype for iPhone now — and let me know what you think about the new video calling feature. Leave a comment below!
Mail Photos As Postcards To Anyone From Your Cellphone For $0.99
Dec 29th
Recently, we reviewed the camera capabilities of the latest and greatest cell phones on the market. Whether you have the 5 megapixel camera onboard the Apple iPhone4 or the slick 12 megapixel cam on the Nokia N8, most people carrying current smartphones can snap photos in a flash at decent quality.
Most of the time, we email the photos right from the phone to friends. But there are times when the photos come out so nice or the event was extra special — so an emailed photo doesn’t really do justice to the memory captured with the cell phone camera.
I’m testing out a new service from CellPhonePostcards.com which creates photo postcards on the fly and mails them via snail mail to anyone in your address book online. Now, I should be able to send a physical postcard to anyone I take a photo with on the spot and they’ll get it within a couple of days — all without licking any stamps.
The service is actually pretty ingenious. You take the photo, and then send the photo via text messaging (MMS) to the service at 77468 (it spells “PRINT” on the phone keypad) and include the hashtag shortcut of the person in your addressbook online, say #KENNY.
The service identifies you via your caller ID and then looks up the person’s address based on the hashtag name you sent. They’ll print the text message message as the postcard message on the back and mail out the photo postcard to your recipient.
All this costs $0.99 per postcard. Given the postage cost of the actual postcard stamp and the going rate for printing out regular photos at the local drugstore like CVS, that means the service costs less than 50 cents for each time you use it. Totally reasonable in my book. The only catch is that you have to pre-pay for bundles of cellphone postcard credits as a 10-pack or more. So $9.90 for 10 postcards at a time. Still, not a bad deal!
Here’s a video that explains the service and how to send a cellphone photo postcard:
UPDATE: Right now, if you sign-up for a new account, they’ll give you 10 free postcard credits – including postage – to try out the service. If you’re going to sign-up, please share a comment below about what you’re expecting or what you find useful or convenient about the service.
Nook Color e-reader Playing Catch AND LeapFrog With Kindle
Dec 28th
I was in a Barnes & Noble bookstore today, sipping a wannabe Starbucks drink in their cafe — It’s a Starbucks coffee, but not really. They don’t brew the same coffee as Starbucks stores (no Pike Peak, etc). They don’t take Starbucks cards. They don’t . . . enough of that already.
Well anyway, B&N is now jumping on the eReader bandwagon as they go full-force and push their own device – the Nook. The original Nook was/is horribly S…l……….o………..w. The user experience is dismal. The responsiveness is so slow you might fall asleep, not by reading, but by simply waiting each time you try for any action on the device. This of course is the Kindle-wannabe solution. It’s a little cheaper than the Kindle. And it’s a lot slower than the Kindle. (BTW, the web experience on the Nook is unbearable too).
Now they’ve come out with the NOOKcolor (the official way they are trying brand it — which in itself is lacking. If they have the “Kc” sound in the middle, why don’t they combine it and make it NOOKolor” or NOOColor” or something else. Everyone else calls it the Color Nook. If you’re going to force something unnatural, you might as well go all the way, but that’s a completely different story) to try and leapfrog over the Kindle experience.
Or are they trying to be a big-time iPad wannabe? If so, they’ve failed again. Just look at the browser (based on Android) — You’ll see how this website, www.essistme.com, is rendered completely distorted with menus and other elements overlapping each other – ugly:
And at $249, it about $100 more expensive than a Kindle. That’s expensive for an eReader that doesn’t work as smoothly and perfectly. It’s also too cheap to be anything close to an iPad-type epxerience. If you’re going to want to surf, access email, etc, you might as well invest another $250 and get an iPad or one of the other tab computing devices coming out like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. So we’re confused — Just what are you trying to be Color Nookie?
You’ve Read This Far. . .
If you’re still here reading this post, you must be interested in this “ultimate [wannabe] reading experience”. So here’s an unboxing video for you so you can know exactly what’s in the box:
A Snapshot of the Top 5 Snapshot Cell Phones Today
Nov 10th
The photographic capabilities of mobile phones are increasing with each new batch of handsets and now it is almost impossible to find a high end smartphone which does not offer high definition video capture along with a high megapixel count for still shots.
Here are five of the best. . .
iPhone 4
With a five megapixel camera and LED flash the iPhone 4 is the best in Apple`s range when it comes to taking pictures. It also has the ability to shoot 720p video clips at a smooth 30 fps and has extra features such as touch to focus and various effects to apply. A forward-facing VGA camera supplements its rear-facing snapper for video calling and with 16GB or 32GB of storage space on board you can capture hours of footage and thousands of photos without filling it up.
Nokia N8
The N8 is intended to be a serious camera phone, so it is no surprise to see its 12 megapixel camera outclassing every other handset in this list. With a Xenon flash it is also the most capable when it comes to illuminating dark spaces. Digital zoom of up to 30x magnification is on offer when you are taking stills or recording video in 720p HD and like the iPhone it has a forward-facing secondary camera for video calls. Geotagging is applied to both videos and photos so you can find out the location later and there is 16GB of onboard storage space expandable by an extra 32GB if you buy a separate microSD memory card, which should be more than enough for all of your media.
HTC Desire HD
With an eight megapixel camera and dual LED flash the Desire HD is able to handle solid still photographs and can also shoot video in high definition at the same 720p resolution as its rivals. You can enable the LED flashes to act as a light for videoing in dark situations and you can tweak the settings from sharpness to exposure using simple on-screen sliders which are touch sensitive and intuitive. The autofocus is fairly competent although unlike other phones you do not get a dedicated macro mode for close-up shooting, which might be a problem for some users.
Samsung Galaxy S
Like the Desire HD this is an Android smartphone and it packs fairly similar five megapixel camera which matches up with the iPhone 4`s unit. Thanks to the 1GHz processor onboard it is responsive and easy to capture images or shoot video at 720p. You can find Galaxy S variants with 16GB or 8GB of onboard storage, which should give you enough room to work with as long as you upload images from time to time. Sadly the lack of any kind of flash, LED or otherwise, means that when the light is dim the Galaxy S is less than perfect.
BlackBerry Torch
Another five megapixel camera is affixed to the Torch, showing that this is the de facto image capture resolution for a high end mobile phone. An LED flash is also present although it is not as bright as the dual-LED solution of the Desire HD or the Xenon flash found on the Nokia N8. You can alternate between different shooting modes depending on the situation, but a lack of HD video capture lets it down.
I love tech, gadgets and the web. Hope you pick-up a useful tip or two here today that helps you use technology to your advantage! Better yet, why not share your own expertise in a comment on a post today to help the other readers that land here for answers!