Category: Tech

Awesome iPhone Apps

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One of the many things I love about the iPhone is all the apps that speak to my obsessive need to keep track of the stuff I do, would like to do, am doing, or own. Below are some of my recent discoveries:

Home Library – It’s not just for books, and in fact I use it for everything except books since I don’t own enough to care tracking them. It’s pretty good at scanning items in; much more so than other apps I’ve tried that do the same thing. The interface is simple, and you can log into the website and download your media collection to Excel or PDF. It’s also great because it estimates the value of your media collection if you ever lose it. I spent about two days obsessively scanning all my DVDs, games, and CDs into the app and it turns out right now I own 388 CDs, 190 DVDs, and 82 games estimated to be worth about $10,000. It seems like a lot, but when I look around, it doesn’t look like much because everything is confined to a relatively small area. POther features of the app include being able to search your collection, keeping track of loans, maintaining a wish-list, and tracking what you’ve borrowed from others. Things I’d like to see added to the app – better sorting capabilities as well as a field to define the gaming platform for the games, otherwise you don’t know unless you are looking at the cover art which is not part of the downloaded PDF or Excel file and is only shown in the app or on the website.

Time Flies – There are tons of apps that remind you to do things in the future, but this simple little app lets you track the last time you did something and a history of how many times you’ve done it (provided you remember to log it). It’s very handy for tracking the last time I changed my contact lenses or got my hair cut, or even took my vitamin D. I would like to have it remind me to do these things at preset intervals and hopefully that will be an enhancement to the app in the future.

Goodreads – I just discovered this one yesterday right before I was going to opt to buy a subscription to LibraryThing. I thought I should see what other book tracking services were available and found the website where I learned there was a free iPhone app to compliment it. Score! It took about an hour messing around with the export file from LibraryThing to get GoodReads to recognize certain fields correctly. Goodreads claims the export file from LibraryThing is automatically supported but I found that it really only used the ISBN number and discarded most of the other information including the date I read the book and my rating – only THE two most important pieces of data, IMHO. They show a sample import file, though, so I manipulated the file I exported from LibraryThing a few times to match the column headings and data formatting and after a few tries was able to successfully port all my information over to the new system. Now I can track the books I’ve read on my iPhone easily which is great because I’ve read 14 books since getting my Kindle which is way more than I was reading last year. I prefer Goodreads’ interface to LibraryThing as well. The app is a bit buggy when it comes to sorting the books by date read, but it’s tolerable and still a heck of a lot better than going to LibraryThing’s non-mobile supported site to add new books.

I’ve become quite spoiled since buying my iPhone – I expect most websites to support it. In addition, any site that claims to offer functionality that will make my life better best have an app in the appstore or I’m not interested. Maybe I’m becoming one of those dreadful Apple fangirls or something, I don’t know.

Other iPhone apps I highly recommend, and use on a daily basis:

Dropbox – To the cloud!
Evernote – To your other cloud!
FeeddlerRSS – Best free Google RSS reader I could find
Firefox Home – Your bookmarks everywhere you go
Momento – Simple diary app for those non-blog-worthy thoughts/feelings
ToDo – Get it done!

HTC Inspire

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Wednesday evening we found ourselves at the mall to take care of a couple of errands – Joe had an appointment at Sears Optical, and I wanted to take my new bracelet to the jewelery store where it was purchased to see whether they could remove a link so it wouldn’t be quite so loose around my wrist. They said they could, for $30, which I think is ridiculous. I’m going to wear it a few more times and if it bugs me too much I might just return it instead. I’m more of a necklace person myself. Speaking of which, the chain broke on my new necklace the second time I wore it so I have to go back there and ask them to replace it. I have another chain just like it from the same store which came with my pretty blue sapphire pendent and that one never broke so I think it was just a fluke.

Directly next door to the jewelry place is a new AT&T store. They used to just have a kiosk but the store is much nicer. We went inside to browse because Joe has been itching to join the 21st century and get a smartphone and he’s eligible for an upgrade in mid-March. He made a beeline right for the new HTC Inspire which I had told him about a few weeks ago before it was released. An employee approached us to help and suggested Joe call AT&T Customer Service to see if they’d allow him to upgrade a little earlier without penalty. Apparently sometimes if you’re within a month they are lenient about it.

Joe called AT&T and they said no problem. Before getting off the phone Joe confirmed, “so you are waiving the $200 early upgrade fee, correct?” and the guy said yes. We walked back into the store and the employee pulled up his account to see they notated the $18 activation fee was waived instead. Seriously? Are people retarded? Joe called back and spent ten minutes on the phone with them before they would notate the account correctly, but eventually everything was worked out and he bought the HTC Inspire for $100, and we also got a package of screen protectors and had the employee put one on since they do such a good job. You should have seen how excited Joe was walking out of the store with his first ever smartphone!



Initially I was jealous because the 4.3″ screen puts the 3.5″ iPhone one to shame, plus I was having new gadget envy because his phone responds faster than mine does to commands, but I think I’m still in love with my iPhone enough that I will wait for the iPhone 5 before I upgrade. I’m sure the faster processor, retina display, and improved battery life will be awesome. There are a few things Apple could learn from Android, however, and one of the big ones is notifications. The iPhone notification system just sucks, but so many people have pointed this out and complained about it that I’d be very surprised if Apple wasn’t already working on it for the next iOS release. They might be slow adding some features but they tend to design them well once they do. I’d also like more personalization options for the phone, the ability to create home screen widgets like the Android offers, and a larger screen too. Someone please tell Steven Jobs to get right on that.

Skins & Cases

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Earlier in the week I received the Kindle case I ordered off Etsy. I had bought an ugly boring case at Borders the week before but I started feeling like it didn’t do my cool device any justice, so I took it back and ordered this awesome case instead. It’s really beautiful, well-made, and the perfect size, plus it cost only slightly more than the case from Borders.

Kindle Case

Why do companies use finishes on their devices that show fingerprints so easily? The front of the Kindle is great, but the back leaves much to be desired. Luckily Joe bought a skin I wanted for my birthday, from DecalGirl, so it’s not as bad, although it does still show some fingerprints, but they are easier to wipe off the skin. I only used the back skin because I’m not sure I’d like the feel or look of one on the front. And you have to be very careful applying the back skin because if you’re just a little off it affects how the page buttons react when pushed.

Kindle Skin - Back

Apple has always been a big offender when it comes to fingerprints on the back of their devices, so I always keep my iPhone in a case. I’ve been using the iFrogz Luxe Original cases (I have them in three different color schemes – magenta/black, neon green/black, and purple/black), but lately I’ve been using the Big Bang Theory case Joe got me from ThinkGeek for Christmas. The nice thing about it is there’s a bit of wrap-around onto the front of the device whereas the iFrogz cases don’t feature that, plus it’s easy to grip. The negative is it can be tougher to put in and out of the Golla carrying case I use because it’s so rubbery.

iPhone 3GS Case - Back Golla Case

I’ve been using the same Belkin carrying case for my iPod Classic since I got it three years ago (and the device is still going strong with no issues despite daily use), but about a year ago I bought a skin for it from GelaSkins. I like it because it has a Cure-like look to it.

iPod Classic Skin - Front iPod Classic Skin - Back

iPod Classic Case

One thing I’ll note – I never use a screen protector on any of my devices, with the exception of my Canon Powershot SD870. I just don’t like them, and I’m careful to keep them face-up or in their respective carrying cases when not in use, so it’s never been a problem. I hope I don’t jinx myself by bragging about the lack of scratches on their screens!

Annoyed by my DVR

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Comcast recently updated their DVR software and I really hate, nay, loathe, the new auto correction feature. It drives me even more crazy every time I use it. So much so, that I e-mailed Comcast about it. I figured I’d also complain about the new history feature too while I was at it.

First, here’s how two of the new features are described in the documentation I found on their website:

Second, here’s the e-mail I sent. I was much nicer than I was feeling considering my husband works for them. I wonder if I’ll hear back, other than some silly form letter.

Please allow users to disable the new DVR Auto-Correction “feature” because it is annoying! I don’t appreciate my DVR assuming it knows where I really wanted to stop when rewinding/fast-forwarding. I want it to stop when I click play. End of story.

Now instead of fast-forwarding once, I have to do it several times while my DVR tries to second guess me and put me at a spot I didn’t want. I really do not appreciate that. Some of us have good reflexes and can stop the DVR where we actually want it to stop. Now it’s a game trying to anticipate where it will rewind to so I can over fast forward to get the desired result. It is frustrating, and not a good user experience. The fact that you forced it on people instead of making it optional is what makes it even worse!

Trying to rewind is even more frustrating. If I am rewinding, why does the DVR fast forward a bit when I press play? It doesn’t make sense to me at all.

Also, the DVR History option is nice, but a bit of a tease. Why can’t it allow you to un-delete something that was deleted in error? Maybe within a given time limit since the data might be overwritten.

Please consider these changes. Oh, and next time a message warning people of the upcoming changes and then after the changes are made would be nice. You send messages for everything else but not something useful like this. I’m sure it would cut down on customer calls too, particularly if you directed users to the document explaining the changes in detail.

Dude, I’m getting another Dell!

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I’m getting a new computer!

I know, what has it been, two years since I got my last machine? But I really want Windows 7 and after discussing it with Joe, he felt it made more sense to get a new machine so E can have my old one instead of paying over $100 to upgrade my operating system. E could use a faster machine anyway.

I’ve been dragging my feet on the whole thing, because I love to do that sort of thing when ordering electronics. I’ve been putting computers in my shopping cart and configuring them, but never placing an order. Then when I was finally ready to do it on Monday, the computer had disappeared from my cart! I chatted online with Dell support, but instead of admitting the deal expired, they tried to be sneaky and sell me a different configuration. I told them to forget it. But as these things work, the very next day they had a deal that was even better than my original one, so I ordered my new PC this morning.

The highlights –

Inspiron 560 Mini-Tower, Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 (2.93GHz, 3MB)
8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz – 4X2GB
23.0″ Dell ST2310 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500
1TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive 7200RPM
Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader
1394a High Speed AV Port
16X DVD+/-RW Drive

Yea, I’m actually going to try a wide-screen monitor. I figure if it’s tall enough, I won’t lose any vertical space like I did with the other monitor that came with my last PC. Also, I plan to get a better graphics card, possibly, after seeing how the integrated one performs.

I’m pretty excited, though! New computers are always fun.