Mobile Technology – Page 3

Mobile Networking

iPhone 3G Apps I have noticed with my students that they rarely seem to read their emails, or their university emails, at least, even though this is our main method of communication with them.

Mobiles, however, they can’t get enough of, and it’s growing. With modern mobiles (and yes, I gave into the iPhone), there’s the option of a number of “Apps” which make phones SO much more powerful than we ever imagined when they came as ‘bricks’, or even than the first computer I got back in the 1990s!

We can live most of our lives on our phones, if we want… great for multi-tasking, and lots of options for reaching people by the one tool they have all the time.

The Apps I had only 2 months into owning the iPhone were:

Facebook
Twitterfon
Movies
NetNewsWire
PayPal
ebay Mobile
Mashable
Skype
Wikiamo
Yelp
RunKeeperFree
ShapeUpClub
Shotgun Free
Trailguru
Weirdfacts

Once I get my iPhone back, I intend to look at all the apps I have, and give a quick review of each. I have already downloaded a number of apps and then deleted them shortly afterwards, finding they didn’t add anything to what I was doing online.

The iPhone, the iPhone, My Kingdom for an iPhone

The iPhone

What’s this, you say? I thought you owned an iPhone, spent far too much time on it, and used it as a tool to draw together many parts of your life in one small, neat packet!

‘Tis True
I still own said iPhone, but when one tries to turn it on, one receives an image like this, which is not healthy, and renders such a touch-screen phone rather useless! Believe me, I’ve not fallen out of love with my iPhone, but missing it rather as I’d be missing an arm – every time someone asks if they can set up a meeting – “I’ll just check… oh sorry, you’ll have to wait til I get home and check my Outlook calendar”…

How did this happen?
I had a lovely weekend, meeting up with friends from the Summer trip to the Loire Valley, and then going on to a wedding in Essex. I had been waxing lyrical to the friend I had collected from the train station about the fact that I now had SatNav (CoPilot, £26) on my phone (but don’t forget that you’ll need to buy a cradle! On reaching Winchester around midnight, I was extracting the phone from the cradle (a little stiff!), and, acting rather like a bar of soap, the phone bounced out of my hands and down the road. It clearly didn’t like this and hasn’t worked since – although it did sync with my laptop, and whilst still containing battery, continued to buzz regularly – indicating that I’ve been receiving phone calls/texts, but not much I can do about those!

Is all lost?
For once, I have non-essential insurance for something – with Barclays Graduate account. Unfortunately their online claim system didn’t work, so I had to phone (and yes, this was my only phone, but I have Skype too!) , and now await a claim form in the post (so strikers, sort it out!), which I send back, claim is assessed, then they decide whether to replace or repair! Expected time 2-3 weeks (so hopefully a friend will lend me a handset – I’m a bit lost without anything, although I accept no data use!)… Sigh!