(1) Email 'n Walk: The screen displays whatever you're pointing the phone at, so you can walk and email at the same time. Pretty sweet.
(2) Frames: You can put frames around photos or make silly ones such as these:
(3) FML: A guilty pleasure, but it's like a more mature version of the "Most Embarrassing Moments"-type section of teen magazines.
(4) NY Times: I am completely addicted to this app and keeping up with the latest articles.
(5) Pandora: My favorite stations right now are Lily Allen, Men in Black, and "Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop" by Landon Pigg. (Pandora creates playlists based off of artists or song titles). Then I plug my phone into one of those connectors that works in the tape deck of my car for great music on the road!
Tonight I tested my Iphone with tricky directions and I'm sad to report...the Iphone was not up to the challenge.
I am directionally challenged. That's a well -documented fact. But that's 1 reason I bought the Iphone. And I trusted the Iphone. Tonight the Iphone broke that trust.
Well, to be fair, I made the 1st mistake, but the next 2 were the phone. And a 15-minute drive turned into an hour plus.
The lesson here? You can love your Iphone but just don't LOVE your Iphone.
Have you visited urbandictionary.com? People submit new terms and definitions (not always family-friendly) to keep up with our ever-shifting vocabulary. Here are a few of the latest texting terms:
(1) Textrovert: one who feels an increased sense of bravery over texting, as opposed to in person (2) Designated Texter: A passenger who reads and replies to any and all text messages received on the driver's phone, thus allowing the driver to focus on the road and not hit anything or get pulled over for reckless driving. (3) Textpectation: The anticipation one feels when waiting for a text message. (4) Thumb strength: The energy required to write a text. (Example: "Forget it. I don't have the thumb strength to text. I'll just call.") (5) Thumb lashing: To be reprimanded via SMS (text) messages on a mobile phone
Most of what I'm learning about blogging is through trial and error. Sometimes I wish I had a blog adviser, because there is just so much to learn! I envy the graphic designers/web savvy/techies who can make their web sites do whatever they want with apparent ease.
One of my web savvy friends recently introduced me to the world of Google Page Rank. It is an algorithmic equation that ranks your web page on a scale of 1-10 based on its "importance" according to Google. Your ranking is based on what wikipedia terms a "link analysis," which looks at how many incoming links you have and the page rank of the pages that link to you.
My favorite blog, Dooce, ranks as a 6 on the scale, which for a blog is amazing. Even Apple and Facebook fall short of the perfect 10, weighing in at 9. Google, no surprise here, is a 10.To find out your page rank, click here.
I'm currently at a 4 and rather than start back at a 0 page ranking, I am going to keep my website address as iruninheels.typepad.com. Sorry to flip flop on this, but I'm learning as I go. The primary reason is that I hope more people will continue to stop by as a result. Thanks for your patience!
My computer crashed last year, taking all my files with it. (Insert
collective gasp here). I know, I know...I should've gotten an external
hard drive or backed up everything on disks, but sadly I did not.
Yesterday, I was looking for an Old Navy Halloween CD I got in the
pre-Ipod days and came across a disk labeled "Personal Files." I was
elated to find tons of the files I thought had been lost forever to the
black hole of cyberspace. Woohoo! So, in honor of discovering this
unexpected treasure, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. Yes,
they are embarrassing, but that just makes for a great read for you,
right? This is how I entertain myself when I'm bored...
Folder: Music, Rhymes, Quotes
"Limerick 2" (written in honor of my cousin Kirsten)
There
once lived a lovely girl named
Kiki
Who earned a degree in psychology
But now she's
determined
To take care of your skin
So
instead of heads, it's pores she's shrinking.
"TAR Songs" (Songs written when I wanted my sister to try out with my for "The Amazing Race"...this one's to the tune of "Patty Duke Show" theme song)
A few of my friends bought the iphone right when it came out. I
remember watching them slide their fingers across the screen to
determine everything from L.A. traffic patterns to the latest sports
scores. It seemed pretty sweet, but not for me. I like my phones cheap
and simple.
The months went by and I started relying on my
iphone friends more and more (How do you get to Ontario airport? Am I
going to hit any traffic that way? Who is John Mayer dating?) I think
my family appreciated the break from my frequent calls (Mom, can you
look up directions for ...?)
This summer in Poland I used an
old school prepaid cell phone that looked like it came from the
earliest generation of cell phones. The only downside was the
predictive text feature was in Polish so that made things a little
tricky. When I got back to the states, my cell phone here had
apparently decided to make a run for it but only got as far as between
the driver's seat and the console. Upon its discovery, the phone staged
an all-out protest to its usage by intermittently shutting down in the
middle of phone calls (even with a fully-charged battery). Oh
technology, how you like to toy with me.
I finally reached
my breaking point when I lost the phone again and I went out to get a
new cell phone. I picked out a shiny green cell phone with a camera.
One hour later, I found the phone that I'd lost. I returned the new
one, but I couldn't stop admiring my sister's new iphone. And somehow I
found myself making my way into the Apple store and buying own of my
own.
My dad's reaction: "Well, that will be a fun phone for you," sounding unconvinced. Me: "I didn't get it to have a fun phone! It has GPS and you can get directions and traffic patterns wherever you are and a calendar function to keep me organized and email and..." I think I had him at GPS.
My mom's reaction upon receiving an email from the phone with the automatic message "sent from my iphone": "And if you tell me one more time this message is from your la ti da I-Phone I'm going to pop you in the 'eye.'"
I have to admit, I really do love the phone. There are tons of free features you can download. My favorites so far are Shazam (which lets you hold up your phone when any song is playing and gives you the info on the song), a crossword puzzle one, and facebook. Technology, you're back on my good side.
