Browsing Tag: iphone

    Miscellany

    Adventures in Texting

    April 23, 2010

    A few nights ago, I was watching the Mariners game on FSN Northwest. Former Mariner Jay Buhner was a guest commentator on the broadcast. I loved Jay as a player, but he’s not so good in the booth. At one point, his explanation of a poor umpire call was, “They’re human beings, too.” And describing the secret to Ichiro’s success, Buhner revealed that “he just knows how to hit.”

    I had my iPhone with me when they put up a trivia question on the screen and invited viewers to send guesses/answers via text. The correct answer was “B”, so I decided to play along. And that’s when the adventure began. Here’s a screenshot so you can watch along as it happened.

    text

    The moral of the story: If you text the word “stop,” you could cancel stuff that you haven’t even signed up for. Oh, and there’s no human being on the other end of some text conversations. Now you know.

    Miscellany

    Lose It? I lost it: 21 pounds in 52 days

    February 27, 2010

    Is it okay to brag for a little bit? Hope so. I’ve been waiting to share some good news — and a tip — about the diet I’ve been on, and I decided I’d post something when my weight loss reached 20 pounds. Well, I woke up this morning and skipped right past that to 21 pounds. Wooo-hoooo!

    It all started when I woke up on January 6th and weighed more than I ever have in my life. I’d always told myself I’d get in shape and lose weight someday when I had more time to exercise, but this was a tipping point. Figured I had to make time to exercise, and it was now or never.

    My plan: No fancy diets, just eating right and getting more exercise. I mentioned last month that a new fitness club was opening up less than a mile away, so everything was perfect.

    lose-itI have to say that I had a little extra help in the form of an awesome iPhone app called Lose It! This is a screenshot of the home page, but there’s so much more going on.

    With Lose It, I set my weight loss goal at the start: 26 pounds over six months. Seemed attainable and not risky. Lose It then told me how many calories I could eat each day and still lose that weight — it gave me a food target, which was a huge help.

    Every morning (or as often as I want), I input my daily weight and it charts how I’m doing. After every meal, I also input what I ate and it tells me how many calories I ate and how many I have left. It has a lot of foods in its database, but I also have to “create new food”(s) when I eat something that’s not in there, and that’s easy to do (and kinda fun, I dare say).

    When I exercise, it tells me how many calories I burned and those get subtracted from what I ate — in other words, credited toward my daily calorie allowance. It has all kinds of exercises in its system, all the basics that I do when I workout at the gym, and it even has stuff like yard work, hedge clipping, lawn mowing, etc.

    This app has been a huge help. Thank you, Lose it!

    I haven’t quite reached my goal — five more pounds to lose for that. When I get there, I’ll actually be at the same weight that’s listed on my driver’s license.

    So, enough bragging about weight loss. Just wanted to share and, in case anyone out there in Readerville is also trying to or thinking about losing weight, offer some advice and info about the Lose It app. I think you’ll love it.

    Miscellany

    Coolest. Coasters. Ever.

    February 17, 2009

    coastersThese make me wish we drank a lot more beverages outside the kitchen than we do, and/or that we hosted parties and friends at our house more often.

    A company called Meninos (from Brazil, I think) is selling this set of 16 coasters with icons from the iPhone.

    How cool is that!??!

    Only problem is that the whole set runs $60, and shipping is another $15. OUCH. Not even this Apple fanboy can justify that expense for a set of coasters that won’t get used much around our house.

    (photo courtesy veroyama via Creative Commons)

    Miscellany

    USA Today loves the new iPhone

    July 8, 2008

    From Ed Baig’s review:

    It’s cheaper, faster and a lot friendlier for business. Apple’s blockbuster smartphone already had nifty features such as visual voicemail, a splendid built-in video iPod and the best mobile Web browser I’ve ever used. With GPS newly added to the mix, this handheld marvel has no equal among consumer-oriented smartphones.

    I’m about 90% sure to get one, but can’t decide if I should give it a try on Friday … or wait a few days until things settle down a bit.

    I’m glad to see the review mention that it’s “a lot friendlier for business.” I think my wife will want one, too, but since it uses the Safari browser, there’s no way she’ll be able to access the local MLS system. That requires a PC and Internet Explorer, no ifs, ands, or buts.