photo friday

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Photos from my week, at home, wandering the neighborhood on errands. The more I take photos the more I notice my surroundings. And love my new iPhone4s with the really great camera. I was once in a camera shop trying to research my next camera. And I wanted it all. For me that is all the bells and whistles, small size. After going on and on I asked the guy helping me what his opinion was. He very simply said - the best camera is the one you have with you. That caused me to buy a tiny Sony camera even smaller than my iPhone. It became my purse camera and I started to take more pictures and get better at it. Funny how everything in life is the journey.... not necessarily the destination.

Here is a great article (thanks Matt)  from the New York Times Is the iPhone the Only Camera You Need. Great reading if you want some good iPhone camera app ideas. I think I may start shooting in one app each week and review them.

action movie app

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here is a fun way to amuse yourself. Action Movie app is free. Shoot a few second of video and choose your special effect. You get 3 free and can upgrade for more effects. Car chase, fire bomb and my favorite the big ball crashing into things. See mine below.

 

(Thanks Phil!)

handy knit and crochet apps

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a collaboration between expert knitter Ann Budd and Interweave brings you these handy little apps. I have the knitting one. I don't crochet but I assume it would work much the same way. I love having this on my phone so I can do some basic math on the fly in a store when trying to figure out how much yarn to buy. It will help me not over buy... (I have tons of aqua chenille that I have never used) or worse yet under buy. At least I will be making some kind of educated guess.

The Knit Handy app delivers the yardage requirements for eight of the most popular knitted items: sweaters, vests, mittens, gloves, socks, scarves, tams, and hats. The Crochet Handy app provides yardage requirements for basic caps, scarves, bags, afghans, ponchos, baby sweaters, skirts, and tops. Both apps show all sizes ranging from baby or toddler to large adult, using five standard yarn weights—from fingering to bulky.

Knit Handy and Crochet Handy apps can be used to quickly show measurement units in imperial (inches and yards) or in metric (centimeters and meters), and to determine the yarn needed when a knitter or crocheter changes their gauge in a pattern.

Both apps are an easy-to-use portable tool that calculates how much yarn is needed for whatever someone wants to knit or crochet. All it takes is three easy steps:

1. Select the measurement units in imperial (inches and yards) or in metric (centimeters and meters);

  1. Select a project type, then choose gauge (ranging from 3 to 9 stitches per inch) and size;
  2. The yarn amount is calculated.

For sale in the app store for iPhone, iPod, and iPad.

i love siri

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Yes I do... who is Siri you ask? Siri lives in my new iPhone4s. She is the intelligent personal assistant that talks to me. By voice I can send messages, schedule meetings, make phone calls, etc. Rae: When it is going to snow? Siri: Probably no snow today through this Wednesday (and a graphic for 6 days show up with high and low temps)

Rae: Where am I? Siri: Here is your current location. (and instantly pops up a map showing where I am. I am lost a lot. OK, I can hear some of you laughing.)

Rae: Siri, what are you wearing? Siri: Aluminosilicate glass and stainless steel. Nice, huh?

Rae: Thank you Siri. Siri: I live to serve.

Yesterday when I thanked her she responded, Your wish is my command. I love that. I've been trying to get John to say that for years.

She also uses data on my phone to answer my questions. John wondered when the Packer's played this weekend. Siri responded that she could not find this in my music. And on my iPhone there would no Packer info. Siri is in beta so she will get smarter with time.

Grocery G

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Quite a robust grocery store list app. I've had it for quite a while and have not really used it until my stepson Matt told me that he and Jen use it and they both have the app on each of their iPhones, they both make additions to one list that shows up on both phones. Well that sold me. After some digging into the app I find that I can have separate lists which I am treating as separate stores. The main grocery store, the Italian grocery store, the meat market, the co op and Trader Joe's. I also have one for the office supply store too. The more I use this app the more I like it.

You can get this in the iTunes app store.

verizon iphones and a happy ending!

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bliss. That sums up how I feel about my new iPhone 4s. I love Siri, my 8 mp camera, iCloud... I could go on and on and on. I like the girlie white phone too. John has a black one.

Best of all the switch from AT&T to Verizon was the right decision. We have found that we did get dropped calls with Verizon too. On both their map and AT&T's it shows that we are receiving good reception. Instead of arguing with us they have give us 3 fixes that helped and I will share them with you. What was happening to us was that some but not all calls would not ring and would go to directly into voice mail. The following 3 things fixed this. And they were helpful and nice.

1. Turn on Roaming on your iPhone. It does not cost any more and it improved things some.

2. PRL update (whatever that is). Dial STAR 228. Select Option 2. Do this from the location that you are having problems receiving your calls. In our case we needed to come home, be in the condo and do this. It somehow syncs our phone to the nearest cell tower.

3. There is another roaming feature but you have to go to the Verizon store and ask them to do this for you. Through their computer system they set your iPhone up to roam on other cell towers besides theirs. This is at no extra charge. It takes 24 hours to go into effect.

So far so good. Seems like all is well. Plus I sold my AT&T Microcell on ebay for $90. Microcells seem to be a hot ebay item.

All is well that ends well.