Rave: General Conference

Today and tomorrow we have the chance to listen to Apostles and the Prophet and other General Authorities. Take advantage of the opportunity.

Watch, read or listen to any of it here: http://new.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2010/10?lang=eng

Rave: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games are some really fun books. The second book, Catching Fire ended very abruptly so I am waiting for the next book. Luckily it is not too far away.

Rant: People Who Change Personal Settings in Windows

I am a CSR, and I also just like helping people with their computer problems. Category A,: simple fixes, things go screwy sometimes so they need fixing. These are about 90% of all problems. Category B: real errors, like viruses or something really broken. They take a minute to fix and are around 5% of all problems. Category C: User Preferences: not any kind of real problem, but rather that people tried to personalize something too much, that it ended up breaking other things. Sadly his last 5% takes more time to fix than all of Category A because you have no idea what they did, and thing are just weird. Yesterday I had a friend ask for help in converting files from Apple's stupid unsupported everywhere format AAC, which is another Rant altogether into something her old MP3 play could read. Switching to MP3 is an A problem, something annoying that Apple did, but has a simple fix, it just take a minute for apple to change it for you. That would have been all simple to solve except she is a C kind of person. Instead of files just opening like they should, she decided to throw in a little Windows 3.1 action, and have each folder open in a new window. Completely useless and very confusing. In a matter of seconds, while trying to locate the folder I was looking for I now had 15 windows open and no idea where I was. That would have been annoying enough, except she decided to throw another fun unexpected change. If you are guessing left handed mouse, that is a common C problem but not this one. She decided to switch windows to the single click system. For those who don't know about it, usually when you use a computer you click once to select something, and again to open it. Very intuitive, easy for selecting files to move and such. Hers instead would on that first click just open things. New folders, iTunes, random other applications. It was a mess. I eventually learned that to select you just have to hang your mouse over and it would select on it's own. Scary for those of us who ctrl click to select only the files we want. All and all it made something that should have been super easy become super complicated. This isn't the first time I have run into something like this, like the man at work, who needs everything flashing colors and bigger, or the lady who decided she needs to personally backup the servers, but sometimes you just need to fix what you can. Take a deep breath and move on and try to forgive and forget.

Rant: iPhone 4.01

I haven't ranted about anything in a while, mostly because i am generally a nice guy, but something are still annoying, or at least funny, as in today. Apple just released iPhone OS 4.01, which fixes the antenna problems in the new iPhone 4, and supposedly all the old ones too, like my 3Gs. I would like to show you what it actually did.

Before:

After:

Now focus, with all your might, on the signal strength on the left to see the difference. The iPhone is now magic and will never not work, because the bar has grown tall enough that even when you have no signal, it will still tell you that you do. Yay for Apple!

Rave: Meebo Bar

Today I was telling my roommate about the bar that I have here at the bottom of my page. It is really cool, because it lets me(or you) chat with friends, share this page, or just ask me a question right now. He thought it was cool enough to put on a page for himself. If you want one, just go here, sign up, and then add the script that it gives you into whatever web page you want. Mine is kind of one of the boxes on the side, that is why you might see something that says Meebo Bar but show nothing around it, but that slight annoyance is more that worth it. Meebo is awesome!

*Update: I deleted the name from the widget like meebogreg commented, and I now have the bar, and nothing else about it on my page.

Rave: Free iPhone Texting.

After almost a year of trying to figure it out I kind of got a work around working for texting through Google Voice on my iPhone. First get a GV account. They are now free if you have a gmail and live in the US, just go to here. You need to make up a new number, which is the annoying thing, but you can use it with your phone forever after. From that point you can text and call from the mobile web page, but it it is kind of annoying. Instead go to Voice Central and sign up, that will tell you how to get something that looks as good as an app on your phone, to text and call from, with your GV number. There would be a real app, but apple is a bunch of jerks and blocked all of them. The only problem is that it doesn't do push notifications. From this point, you can just get emails every time someone texts you, but that gets boring, so instead go to GVMax and set up an account to forward your texts to your google talk. It is really simple to sign up. Last download meebo! and sign in with your google talk account, which is the same everything as your gmail, and tada, it pushes every time you get a new text, and added them to your buddy list, so that you can text them forever from there. That is what I do, and it works pretty well, if you ever need to start a new text to someone not on the buddy list, just open voice central and start it there.

Rave: Cool iPhone Apps

In light of the new iPhone 4 coming out next week i wanted to rave about my favorite apps that I have on my phone. Some may change next week after OS 4.0 comes out. Most of these either are or were free.

Geocaching: This is one of my favorite games. People hide stuff and leave the GPS location and you can go find it. It is fun when you have some spare time, or just want to explore outside. It is a bit pricey but I think it was worth the cost, it is seriously the only app I have ever paid money for. Here is a free version that shows you the closest three caches.

WHERE: Find out what is near by. I use it for the cheapest gas prices around, even if Cheap Gas! is a bit simpler.

Fandango: How can you go wrong with knowing what movies are at the theaters near by, and if you want even order tickets.

Movies: Flixster and Rotten tomatoes got together to make this app. It gives pretty good movie rating and so much more.

Kids In Mind: I have used this web page for a long time to know if a movie will be crude or not. If you want the explicit details of how bad a movie, or just want to know the exact amount of F words used, this is an app for you.

Convertbot: If you every need any conversion possible this app is for you.

TuneWiki: Have you every just wanted to sing along with your music. This app has scrolling lyrics that move with the music, so kind of like your own free karaoke app.

CheckPlease: A really nice tip calculator, I use it every time I go to a restaurant.

ShopSavvy: If you every are wondering if you are really getting a deal at a store, pull this app out, scan the bar code and find out what other pricing there is locally and on the internet.

Urbanspoon: This app is just fun for going out to eat, shake it, and it will tell you where to eat, including reviews and a price gauge.

Bump: The coolest way to exchange contact info. They even have it for Android now, it works with almost any smartphone.

SoundHound: Everyone has heard of Shazam this does the same thing but better. Shazam works for music on the radio, but SoundHound can also pick up songs you sing, which helps to find out who sings that song that is stuck in your head. The only downside is it is kind of expensive for an app so they have a light version that lets you try five songs a month.

Pageonce Personal Finance: This tracks all your money and bills so you know what is due and when, with alerts, and even when your checking account is running low.

Meebo: By far the best chat app on the iPhone. It looks beautiful, and it is always logged in, so you will get push notifications for the rest of your life if you want them. eBuddy, Nimbuzz, Palringo and fring are okay in that order, but Meebo beats them all out of the water.

Speed Test: is nice to find out if you are imagining it or if you internet is really laggy.

Here are a few cool church apps:

Gospel Library: If you are LDS, or Christian in general, you should have this app. It give you access to scriptures and anything else you could want, Sunday School manuals or even General Conference Talks.

LDS Hymns: When you need a hymnbook this is always here for you. There is even a Spanish Version.

Mormon Channel: This app lets you listen to the Ensign, Conference talks, Scriptures or the "Mormon Channel" which is some radio station put on by the church.

Lastly everyone has there favorite games. These are mine:

:Shift: If you get easily dizzy this isn't for you. This is the best use of black and white I have seen in my life.

Parallelus: Test your coordination while trying to collect hearts and avoid bombs at the same time with two parallel screens, one for each thumb.

Tunnel 3D: Just fun use of the accelerometer in your iPhone.

Falling Balls: Use your accelerometer to avoid getting crushed. Super basic graphics, but downright fun.

Action Heroes 9-in-1: A good small fun collection of games.

I have gone through tons of apps, and those listed are my favorites. I know I am forgetting some that everyone has (lightsaber, facebook, FS5 Hockey, IMDB, Pandora, iHandy Level, Remote), some just good reference (Background Check, iTranslate, Dictionary, Google, Zillow, Computing Assistant, Pi Cubed), convenient ones (inside redbox, Dropbox, Air Files, GPS Box, Apple Store, scanR) or ones to just show off (iSeismo, SnapTell, Koredoku, Remote Pad).

While linking all of those I noticed that some are no longer in the app store. Also a lot of them have gotten pretty expensive, but you can use a apps like apptizr or PandoraBox to find apps on sale (aka free for a limited time).

Let me know if you have any favorites that I missed.