Friday, 22 January 2010

Back Again...

Apologies for the lack of posts this week: a combination of a heavy workload (not helped by having my school laptop die on me, rendering me unable to use any of my prepared lessons on the interactive whiteboards), the remains of a bad cold taking a while to clear up and the beginnings of a chesty cough and sore throat (making me more tired than usual) and the arrival of my new iPhone...

I haven't really had much free time in which to explore the phone's capabilities. I have succeeded in ditching Outlook - after it tried to add a third copy of the same appointment to my calendar, I remembered why I hated it so much - and have managed to transfer everything to Google Calendar, and tie that into the phone's calendar application. I have lost all the colour coding, though, which is a pain. No doubt I will soon get to grips with the niceties of Google Calendar, but I shall be sorry to lose Calendarscope.

I took everyone's advice, and decided to check out some of the apps. I am very impressed by iPieta - it has calendars for both the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of Mass, in Latin and English, and it even has the option of side-by-side Latin and English text for prayers and Bible readings.

I also found that Tweetdeck and Facebook have iPhone apps, and Google for mobiles has a voice search option. I downloaded a Tube Map (not that I use the tube much, but it's useful to have a copy of the map which doesn't need an internet connection... as the underground stations are connectivity black holes!) I have also set up a few internet bookmarks for my favourite websites, but I've still not done very much in the way of exploration.

However, on Thursday, I had the opportunity to check out the iPhone's camera, in a situation where I have taken plenty of other photos. I had problems adjusting to the button on the screen being used to snap the scene - I kept pressing the "home" button, shutting the camera application instead - and the photos were not as sharply focussed as usual because I hadn't worked out the best way to hold the phone for photo shoots...

His Hermeneuticalness and Jonathan (our Senior MC) were keen to demonstrate that they too had personal organisers... otherwise known as early versions of "notepad"...

Despite this, Fr. Tim declared himself impressed by the speed of the phone's internet access as well as the speed for loading apps. At one point, as he was exploring its contents, (far more thoroughly than I had succeeded in doing) it occurred to me that I might not get the phone back...

1 comment:

Mark said...

"it occurred to me that I might not get the phone back..."

Indeed! I too would like to see it properly one time, though you'll have no such worry with me, as - Deo volente - after October I shan't need a phone!

It would be good to see you all sometime. No idea how or when; maybe I need to come down for a weekend.

Hope you recover from the lurgy soon; I was off work yesterday, feel to sick to go in to Addo and Recco in the Cathedral this morning, and Mass tomorrow is looking doubtful.

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