Uber - very interesting experience

We are staying at the Logan Hilton overnight since we are leaving so early in the morning so we decided to take a cab to Alewife MBTA station.  We need to take a cab since no busses run to Lexington on Saturdays (a topic for another blog post).  Rod called two cab companies and neither had a cab to send out to us.  Really????  One said they could send one in 30 minutes which was tolerable but then called us back to say they did not have a cab for us.

We had used Uber when we were in London in June.  Our friends Andy and Miriam use these services all of the time and I had loaded the app onto my iPhone out of curiosity but had never used it.  I got onto Uber and requested a cab.  Someone would arrive in 6 minutes, which was just about how much time it would take us to get ready.  The app showed us a picture of the driver, the kind of car he drives and we could look on a map to see where he was as he approached our house.

In the end we took the cab all the way to the airport hotel for $30, rather than switching to the MBTA.  This is a lot less than half of what a cab would cost.  I don't think this is a perfect situation, but Uber is definitely going to shake up the cab industry and I for one am only going to use Uber from now on because of the convenience and because of their business model.  We talked a lot to the driver on the way to the airport.  He used to drive in Norwood and has worked for Uber for 1 month.  He is convinced that Uber will win the current legal battle in Boston.

I understand that there is tension in this industry between the traditional cab companies and Uber, but believe me, if I cannot get a cab at all in Lexington and I don't really have another option, this is how I have to get somewhere without a cab and on a day when the busses are not running.  I am often an early adopter of technology so for now on I will adopt this new business model, until I get burned or hurt somehow.

Latest Technology Challenge

After one week, I am still not sure about my new Macbook Air.  The first night was painful with lots of profanity and "What is happening?" and "Why would they do that?" and "Maybe I should have bought an IPad with a camera".

I know change is hard, in fact I teach change management but when it is happening to me it is different.  I am getting over some of the initial frustration and in fact like some of the features and functionality.

However, yesterday when my video camera did not work on two back to back calls, one Google Hangout and one Gotomeeting, I was irate.  Of course I naturally went to the internet for resolution and found out that with the new OS update, there is a problem with Macbook Air computers and Skype, Hangout and Gotomeeting.  However, there is no problem with Facetime and Photo Booth.

So, it is not a hardware problem, because the camera works.  It is a software problem, but Apple software or the other companies?  Apple apparently claims it is the other companies problem.  One solution is to use Time Machine, which is another Apple product, hmmmmm!

So, NO Apple I am not going to buy another piece of equipment, to backup my machine.  If I back up this machine it will be with Carbonite which has saved me three times this year when the desktop had to be reimaged from scratch.

Last night I was so mad I was going to the Apple store ASAP today.  This morning after sitting on it and doing some research, I am going to wait until the software people in which ever company have the problem, sort it out.

It is reported on enough forums as a problem, so hopefully by the time my next video meeting comes along it will be fixed.  I do have a solution that I can use for my Google Hangout calls, which is a workaround but will enable me to be seen on a video call.  This is after all, why I bought a new machine, so I can take part in video calls.  They are so much better when you can see the body language of the other participants.

My next challenge is to sort out my shard Contacts and try to eliminate the duplicates on my iPhone and get the phone numbers in contacts on my Macbook Air.  I have tried to solve this challenge before and have lived for years with duplicates.  Anyone have a suggestion on this challenge?

But, I want it all

As Apple is releasing their new iphone and ipad today I am very confused. I was an early adopter so I have an iphone and ipad which are first generation. I am also a frugal yankee, so unless something is broken, I do not feel as if I should buy the newer model, and I could NEVER buy two things.

Recently, as I continue to adopt technology, I have been meeting with people on a video call. Neither of my old pieces of technology allow the video call. I can participate on my old and ipad with audio but not video.

Concurrent to this, I have been contemplating a new laptop and it WILL be an Apple product. I am eyeing the Mac Air. There are only a few things I still need a laptop for, but when I need it, I need it badly. Examples are emails older than my ipad will store, marking spam in my email inbox, typing long documents, some apps on the ipad have less functionality, tagging posts in my blog, etc.

So ideally, I want a new Iphone, Ipad and Mac Air. Santa? Can you hear me now? The frugal Sally steps forward and starts a pro and con list and a limitation of only buying one piece of hardware. I usually end up with the Mac Air as my choice.

Help me friends. What should I buy?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mobile phones and technology - Who else thinks about these things?

Maybe not every body, but I am sure some of you have done the following:

1. Sent a text and then put the phone to your ear to talk expecting a call to have been made
2. Tried to turn the cable box off with your cell phone
3. Looked for your cell phone while you are talking on it

I regularly do the second two things on this list, and just now I did the first one, which was a first for me.

With all the technology we have for someone easily dis tractable, I get confused.  Every time I try to turn off the cable box with my phone, I think that someone should invent this feature.  Actually, someone probably already has invented this, but it has to be a one click feature.  It cannot involve getting into an App.

Now that I think about it, I have another technology desire which I think is being worked on by smart people.  I pay for my coffee right now through the Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts preloaded cards on my iPhone.  Starbucks has had this for a few years and I was an early adopter of that App and DD just released it at the end of last year.

I would like ONE APP, which allows me to pay for everything, everywhere from my phone.  Because of the Starbucks and DD apps, and being able to pay by phone, I have left my house a few times with just my phone and no other means of payment.  Unfortunately for those who live with me, I can only buy coffee if I forget my wallet.  Starbucks and DD have lulled me into being able to leave with just my phone. 

How soon will we be able to pay with just a chip implanted inside our body somewhere.  Maybe I should have asked the wrist surgeon this when she put the plate in my wrist.

Organizing our Photos - WOW things have changed

I have spent almost the entire day today with a burst of energy to organize our photos.  In another post I talk about an incredible change that happened when Daddy died.  From that day, I decided to put our photos in albums.  I did not want someone to have to sort through boxes of photos when I die. 

That system worked very well until 2002ish, when digital photography entered our lives.  We have organized digital photos on our hard drive fairly well, by date and month, and thanks to Carbonite, they are backed up so when we lost our hard drive earlier this year, I recovered them all.

When I got my iPAD, the generation before the camera version, I synced a few photo folders to the iPad but not a lot of them.  iTunes is the absolutely worst way to sync photos.  I have been struggling for 2 years with iTunes and the iPad.  I also have photos on my iPhone that I take when I am out and about and don't have a camera available.  I have almost 1500 there.  AND, folks send me photos through the mail, so in my Yahoo mail, I have a folder of pictures.  AND there are some online photo storage apps that I have accounts with where pictures are stored.  AND last year, I worked halfway through our 35MM slides scanning them into digital images.  The other half are waiting for me to scan them.  AND with a camera on your phone and the proliferation of digital images, there are that many more images waiting to be seen and reviewed.

OK, I can blame some of this on technology and some of this on my lifestyle and organization.

This week, I decided to get all my digital photos on my iPad.  I struggled with iTunes, but gave up last night.  Today I purchased Photosync for $1.99 (I don't buy apps that cost more than $2, I am cheap), which I think is going to work and will take some time, but it works.  So while I wait for the most recent batch of Photosync to SYNC, my mind is busy figuring out how to get all of these stored photos together somewhere.  I am not including those in albums just yet, that is for another decade.

This to me is a perfect example of "Technology is great, but sometimes is really complicates things."

I won't be defeated by technology

I refuse to be defeated by technology.  For a few weeks now, my iphone and ipad calendars have had something funky going on.  Funky is a technical term BTW.  Yesterday, I started getting alerts on my iphone and ipad which I had not been getting before.  New feature I thought.  Actually it turns out that another calendar account on the ipad and iphone were associated with another family member's calendar, and that calendar has alerts set up.  My calendar was not the default.  HMMMMM?  I had deleted and re-added my email account three weeks ago to try to fix the problem, and during that process the default calendar changed.

It was not really bothering me a lot, however, I knew that at some point I would have to resolve it.  Why today?  I had a few minutes and I was mildly frustrated with having to look at both iphone and ipad for calendar entries.  I was cruising along, comparing my desktop yahoo calendar with ipad and iphone and then . . .
BIG MISTAKE:  I deleted my account on the iphone with any calendar events which I had input there.  At first I was pretty peeved with myself, but being the quintessential Pollyanna, I knew I could recover from that.  I would have to find out what recent events I had input into just the iphone, e.g. hair dressing appointment in January.  I will have to "Think like Sally" to recover all of those.  (If I blow you off in the next few weeks, here is my apology in advance.)  Sorry.

I searched some Apple forums, and other people have had the same problem (sync between Yahoo calendar and Iphone) recently and it is not clear whether it is an Apple or Yahoo problem.  I don't care, I just want my ipad, iphone and desktop to reflect the same calendar, and for now they do.

On to the next problems of duplicated contacts on my iphone, which meekishly I tell you has gone on for months.  Better duplicated than deleted and gone forever.
Bottom line is I am willing to put up with inaccuracies for a bit, but sooner or later, I want that technical challenge and I jump in.  This explains why a prior career of mine was as a computer programmer.  I love finding bugs, and am convinced that I will always find it, or them. 
Today, Technology did not defeat me, and only briefly did I think it might.

Just not sure some technology is more efficient - IM and texting

As I was IMing with a colleague yesterday this thought that is the title of this blog post came to me.  Before IM, you would walk to the office next to you, or pick up the phone and talk live.  Those conversations might not have been efficient but I suspect they were more efficient that some of the IM "conversations" I have seen or been a part of.  Additionally, IM lets you remain a bit detached from the person, where you cannot read innuendos or body language.  There is so much room for misunderstanding.  Having said all of this, IM and chat have become such a big part of our communication.  Why?  You don't have to get up and leave the task you were in the middle of is part of the answer.  It is quick and can bring remote workers closer is another part of the answer.  It allows multi-tasking is another reason.

Walking around the office and hearing the clicking of the typing and the bell sound notifying someone of another IM causes me to ask, is this really more efficient?  I bet some of those conversations should be live ones or at least phone conversations. 

I often am in the middle of typing an IM thread and stop myself and pick up the phone or suggest a live conversation when we are both free to avoid bad communication or misunderstanding.

I know that IM does provide some convenience which is why we do it.  You can quickly get information when you are in the middle of another meeting and that person can reply even if they are in the middle of another meeting.  For this, it is valuable and efficient, albeit distracting.

Texting has also entered our culture as a method of communication.  I "get" texting.  You can send a message, and the person does not have to be there, and can answer at their convenience.  A quick message or question that can be read on your own time is not as disruptive.  It is like voice mail, if you really don't want to talk to someone, you can text them.  There is still abuse with texts, when in fact conversations should be live.

So I wonder what the next technology will be?  What will replace IM and texting?  What other multi-tasking activity will be banned while you are driving?