As Good as a Holiday
I've been using Tim now since Feb 2012. For those of you who missed that blog, Tim is my Samsung Galaxy Note. He has really changed the way I navigate my online life.
Email
Email is now more or less instantly downloaded to my pocket. In other words, if you send me an email, Gmail picks it up from my ykarp.com email server. My phone then syncs with Gmail and the phone whistles that mail has been received. The delay is inconsequential, but I do notice that my daily Dilbert email reaches my work computer a minute before my phone does. I love Dilbert cartoons, and I'll take 'em wherever I can get 'em.
The emails I write from my phone are also shorter than ones I write from a real computer. That's undestandable given that touch-screen typing is slower and less accurate (actually, I'm writing this blog post on my Galaxy Note in portrait view right now!) Perhaps I shouldn't, but I also forgive myself more for grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes and typos for the same reason.
I have freed myself from the tens of email subscriptions to which I signed up over the years. Now the important emails don't get lost among a blizzard of ZDNet, Wired, TechCrunch, and SlashGear emails. This brings me to the next point.
Flipboard
Flipboard is the best thing since wireless internet. Instead of sitting through mountains of subscription emails, all I do now is read them on Flipboard. Flipboard brings news, blogs, Twitter and Facebook to one place. I love browsing the headlines, reading the interesting articles and forwarding the best ones on to my Twitter and/or Facebook friends. The Flipboard "flipping" animation is really cool, and I really like how it finds articles that I would be interested in, based on the articles that I've read and the feeds to which I subscribe. It saves me from opening a bunch of emails and it is also a more fun way of reading interesting stuff.
PC
I found that in the last few months my PC usage at home has dropped considerably. This is both a result of my kids monopolizing the machine and the fact that 99% of what I used to do on the PC, I now do on my phone. Of course there are times that I would like to use a real keyboard and a big screen, but that is a matter of comfort, rather than a necessity. Anyway, the Galaxy Note has a nice, big screen as far as phones go, so there's less of a need to kick my kids off the computer than there was, before.
Contacts
I love that my phone syncs instantly with my Gmail contacts. I no longer store contact info on the phone or on the SIM - if my device is lost or stollen, at least I'll still have access to those details. Somehow I accidentally added all of my Facebook friends to my contact list, so now I feel very popular whenever I have to search for a name.
Calendar
I installed the Google Calendar Sync application on my work PC that syncs my Outlook calendar with my Gmail account. Then, when Gmail syncs with my phone, I have the appointments right there, reminders and all. The reasons for this roundabout method are that I want my phone to remind me about work meetings (a desktop-only reminder is not especially useful when I'm not in my office), and because I don't want the IT people at work syncing my Outlook with my phone. It's a private phone and so I don't really want them messing with it. I also don't want to receive work emails on my phone, which would be very annoying. I'm afraid that if they set the phone to sync the calendar, they will also push email to the phone. So I'm using this rather unorthodox method - but it works very nicely, so I'm happy with it.
Anywhere
Having a phone like this - and it really is difficult to relate to this little computer as a phone - makes it easy to just look things up on the go. I have a 2 GB per month data plan, which sees me through. I love watching TED talks and YouTube clips. I also listen to Internet radio from time-to-time, which also eats bandwidth.
Camera
When I have our little Samsung point-and-shoot, I'm unstoppable. I'll photograph everything and then spend the time at home filtering out the blurry and the embarrassing. But my photography habits have changed with the Galaxy Note. The camera is quite good, and the photos I take automatically sync with Dropbox. But taking photos with this thing is a bit unweildy. First, I have to unlock the phone. Then I have to open the camera app (the icon is on the main screen, so that's pretty easy). Then I have to line up the shot, adjust the zoom and press the shutter button. Unfortunately, the shutter button is located in a place that is too easy to tap by accident, so I end up taking a lot of unwanted pictures. Also, the phone's on/off button is located exactly in the position that a regular camera's shutter button would be. So I often turn the phone off by accident instead of taking a picture. I know that this is just me not getting used to the way it works, but it is frustrating. What this all means is that I don't take as many happy snaps as I would otherwise - to some this is a blessing.
On the up-side, the photos that I do take, and which come out well, are really easy to share. I love that when my baby daughter does something cute and I manage to capture the moment, I can instantly email it to my family so they can all coo and kvell together with me, no matter where they are in the world.
Books
Reading is one of those things I love to do. However, a busy family life doesn't always allow for losing ones-self in the thick plot of a good novel. But traveling between work and home gives me an hour or so where I can enjoy a good story.
I use Kobo reader to read free books published by Gutenberg Press, and I use Wattpad to read some original material. I would like to read better-quality original stories from Authonomy, but the last time I checked, their site was mobile-unfriendly. The standard of Wattpad stories is often low, they are sometimes painfully cliched and are almost always riddled with spelling errors. But they are still entertainment, of a fashion. And they are free.
Alarm
I know this sounds simple and very noob-ish, but the alarm on my phone is pretty cool. I can set a number of alarms, with different sounds, to go off on the days and times I want. So, for instance, I can set the alarm to wake me at 5.55am on Sunday through Thursday. I can set the alarm to also wake me on Friday, but at 6.30am. On Saturday the phone remains silent and doesn't wake me up. I don't have to remember to set the alarm or turn off the alarm for different days of the week. Let the computer do all the thinking. The built-in app on the phone that does this is really simple. I use it all the time. I am not obsessed with my phone but, yes, I do sleep with it (or next to it...or it next to me...but not in a weird way...)
What's Next?
For the last few weeks I have been carrying around a disk-on-key containing the image file of Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). The instructions on the Internet seem easy to follow, and if I don't screw it up, I could have a more updated phone in an hour or two. Apparently there are a number of major improvements in ICS over my currently installed Android Gingerbread. But I'm chicken. I have a feeling that it won't go as smoothly as the Internet says it will and I'll completely mess up my phone's operating system. Anyway, the next version of Android, Jelly Bean, is just coming out now. I don't know if my phone supports it, but maybe I should wait until a JB version becomes available for the Galaxy Note and skip ICS altogether. But, as the Aussie saying goes "a change is as good as a holiday", and I could do with a holiday...
Email is now more or less instantly downloaded to my pocket. In other words, if you send me an email, Gmail picks it up from my ykarp.com email server. My phone then syncs with Gmail and the phone whistles that mail has been received. The delay is inconsequential, but I do notice that my daily Dilbert email reaches my work computer a minute before my phone does. I love Dilbert cartoons, and I'll take 'em wherever I can get 'em.
The emails I write from my phone are also shorter than ones I write from a real computer. That's undestandable given that touch-screen typing is slower and less accurate (actually, I'm writing this blog post on my Galaxy Note in portrait view right now!) Perhaps I shouldn't, but I also forgive myself more for grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes and typos for the same reason.
I have freed myself from the tens of email subscriptions to which I signed up over the years. Now the important emails don't get lost among a blizzard of ZDNet, Wired, TechCrunch, and SlashGear emails. This brings me to the next point.
Flipboard is the best thing since wireless internet. Instead of sitting through mountains of subscription emails, all I do now is read them on Flipboard. Flipboard brings news, blogs, Twitter and Facebook to one place. I love browsing the headlines, reading the interesting articles and forwarding the best ones on to my Twitter and/or Facebook friends. The Flipboard "flipping" animation is really cool, and I really like how it finds articles that I would be interested in, based on the articles that I've read and the feeds to which I subscribe. It saves me from opening a bunch of emails and it is also a more fun way of reading interesting stuff.
PC
I found that in the last few months my PC usage at home has dropped considerably. This is both a result of my kids monopolizing the machine and the fact that 99% of what I used to do on the PC, I now do on my phone. Of course there are times that I would like to use a real keyboard and a big screen, but that is a matter of comfort, rather than a necessity. Anyway, the Galaxy Note has a nice, big screen as far as phones go, so there's less of a need to kick my kids off the computer than there was, before.
Contacts
I love that my phone syncs instantly with my Gmail contacts. I no longer store contact info on the phone or on the SIM - if my device is lost or stollen, at least I'll still have access to those details. Somehow I accidentally added all of my Facebook friends to my contact list, so now I feel very popular whenever I have to search for a name.
Calendar
I installed the Google Calendar Sync application on my work PC that syncs my Outlook calendar with my Gmail account. Then, when Gmail syncs with my phone, I have the appointments right there, reminders and all. The reasons for this roundabout method are that I want my phone to remind me about work meetings (a desktop-only reminder is not especially useful when I'm not in my office), and because I don't want the IT people at work syncing my Outlook with my phone. It's a private phone and so I don't really want them messing with it. I also don't want to receive work emails on my phone, which would be very annoying. I'm afraid that if they set the phone to sync the calendar, they will also push email to the phone. So I'm using this rather unorthodox method - but it works very nicely, so I'm happy with it.
Anywhere
Having a phone like this - and it really is difficult to relate to this little computer as a phone - makes it easy to just look things up on the go. I have a 2 GB per month data plan, which sees me through. I love watching TED talks and YouTube clips. I also listen to Internet radio from time-to-time, which also eats bandwidth.
Camera
When I have our little Samsung point-and-shoot, I'm unstoppable. I'll photograph everything and then spend the time at home filtering out the blurry and the embarrassing. But my photography habits have changed with the Galaxy Note. The camera is quite good, and the photos I take automatically sync with Dropbox. But taking photos with this thing is a bit unweildy. First, I have to unlock the phone. Then I have to open the camera app (the icon is on the main screen, so that's pretty easy). Then I have to line up the shot, adjust the zoom and press the shutter button. Unfortunately, the shutter button is located in a place that is too easy to tap by accident, so I end up taking a lot of unwanted pictures. Also, the phone's on/off button is located exactly in the position that a regular camera's shutter button would be. So I often turn the phone off by accident instead of taking a picture. I know that this is just me not getting used to the way it works, but it is frustrating. What this all means is that I don't take as many happy snaps as I would otherwise - to some this is a blessing.
On the up-side, the photos that I do take, and which come out well, are really easy to share. I love that when my baby daughter does something cute and I manage to capture the moment, I can instantly email it to my family so they can all coo and kvell together with me, no matter where they are in the world.
Books
Reading is one of those things I love to do. However, a busy family life doesn't always allow for losing ones-self in the thick plot of a good novel. But traveling between work and home gives me an hour or so where I can enjoy a good story.
I use Kobo reader to read free books published by Gutenberg Press, and I use Wattpad to read some original material. I would like to read better-quality original stories from Authonomy, but the last time I checked, their site was mobile-unfriendly. The standard of Wattpad stories is often low, they are sometimes painfully cliched and are almost always riddled with spelling errors. But they are still entertainment, of a fashion. And they are free.
Alarm
I know this sounds simple and very noob-ish, but the alarm on my phone is pretty cool. I can set a number of alarms, with different sounds, to go off on the days and times I want. So, for instance, I can set the alarm to wake me at 5.55am on Sunday through Thursday. I can set the alarm to also wake me on Friday, but at 6.30am. On Saturday the phone remains silent and doesn't wake me up. I don't have to remember to set the alarm or turn off the alarm for different days of the week. Let the computer do all the thinking. The built-in app on the phone that does this is really simple. I use it all the time. I am not obsessed with my phone but, yes, I do sleep with it (or next to it...or it next to me...but not in a weird way...)
What's Next?
For the last few weeks I have been carrying around a disk-on-key containing the image file of Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). The instructions on the Internet seem easy to follow, and if I don't screw it up, I could have a more updated phone in an hour or two. Apparently there are a number of major improvements in ICS over my currently installed Android Gingerbread. But I'm chicken. I have a feeling that it won't go as smoothly as the Internet says it will and I'll completely mess up my phone's operating system. Anyway, the next version of Android, Jelly Bean, is just coming out now. I don't know if my phone supports it, but maybe I should wait until a JB version becomes available for the Galaxy Note and skip ICS altogether. But, as the Aussie saying goes "a change is as good as a holiday", and I could do with a holiday...
Try "Pocket" It's a "read later" app that syncs well with Flipboard, Twitter, and the Android browser. The reading experience is very nice, and it syncs with your PC, so you can read it later anywhere you want.
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