Comments on: Personal Synchronicity

By: Todd

Todd — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:00:30 +0000

Android isn’t forked, it’s just legacy. If you’re likely to use apps, you want to stick with the most recent phones. The older version phones are more like enhanced feature phones.

I’ve got a Google Nexus One. I’ll probably go back to a regular cell phone when my contract is up in 2012. The screen is just too small for surfing the net. I need a pad for that, but I refuse to buy an iPad.

I have a great idea for a pad/phone shopping app. It’s a database that already has most everything you’ll need in it, sorted into categories. Stuff like milk, butter, eggs, bread will be in the main category. You enter the data into your pad at home, then it syncs to your phone.

I’m trying to get somebody to build it, since the last thing I programmed on was an Apple ][ in high school.

Mark, I love your pitching practice and pool analyzer apps. To bad they’re one use only apps. Didn’t they have a toy like that Think Fast app, but it didn’t say names?

By: Keera

Keera — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:52:28 +0000

FeelinOld @29, see, that’s the thing: Why do I have to install a third-party app when my Mac already has a to-do list and its calendar syncs to the iPod/iPhone? (Not that Mail’s to-do list is a big hurrah.)

I was badly spoiled by my old Palm PDA, with its combination of DateBk and HandyShopper (both 3rd party, one freeware, but Palm OS did have built-in to-do with alarm). HandyShopper was a database that had alarms. Fantastic for repeating tasks! (SplashShopper is similar but because of some annoyances with iOS, I hate using it.)

When looking for to-do apps for my iPodTouch, I am stopped by one thing: Most demand or expect me to synchronize with or log into a web equivalent (like “Remember the Milk”) to use, and there isn’t any free wi-fi where I am.

I may end up with Google for everything, in the end. It’ll sync with my SonyEricsson cell phone.

By: FeelinOld

FeelinOld — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:50:52 +0000

Oh and even though your locked in to the app store, the phone hasn’t been neutered by the carrier, it may be locked to a carrier, but they haven’t been able to for instance disable downloading pictures off the phone to your PC because they have a package to send the pictures over their network at $X/MB, disabling uploading ringtones because they want you to pay them for ringtones etc. etc. I’m not sure how bad it is elsewhere, but Canadian carriers are good at this.

By: FeelinOld

FeelinOld — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:43:30 +0000

But there IS an app for that.
I succumbed to the iPhone craze, looking at all my options it came down to an iPhone or one of the Android phones but wasn’t sold on the longevity of app availability for the Android especially with how badly the OS has forked lately.
There are a number of free ToDo apps in the app store as well as some paid ones I haven’t tried. There is also google, I use google calendar, and know tasks are available as well, but haven’t tried it yet.

By: Keera

Keera — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:14:50 +0000

What Lola @27 said.

Mark @26, I use a PDA to help organize my spare time, because there I have a far wider range of (unrelated) activities to handle than I do at work. Since I have a mind that mimics ADHD, I will easily forget things unless they are in front of me. So having a to-do list that will remind me when the next thing to do needs doing, is very helpful.

Every PDA and cell phone has to-do lists with reminders - except Apple’s.

By: Lola

Lola — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:56:13 +0000

Without to do lists and reminders I would never remember my kids’ and grandkids’ birthdays. Today was one of them and I remembered …. because I was reminded. Of course a sibling also made it her business to remind me this morning too, but for once, I already knew. All to do and reminders aren’t for business.

By: Mark in Boston

Mark in Boston — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:24:03 +0000

Keera,

A To-Do app with reminders is for business! Take off the suit and tie and get a life!

By: Keera

Keera — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:25:59 +0000

Mark in Boston @23, I have stated before in this group that iPhone/iPod Touch (I have the latter) have failed in my eyes by not having a built-in to-do app with reminders (it doesn’t even sync to Mail’s to-dos). What that has to do with being for the consumer, I don’t know. And that fancy-schmancy scrolling? Meh. This Mac fan is not a fan of Apple’s handhelds.

By: Mark in Boston

Mark in Boston — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:32:04 +0000

@Paperboy: Morse code! There’s an app for that:

http://gizmodo.com/5229550/morse+it-iphone-app-makes-samuel-morse-proud-on-his-birthday

By: Mark in Boston

Mark in Boston — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:29:05 +0000

Keera: There is one fundamental difference between iPhones and Blackberries. Blackberries were designed for businesses. An administrator can provision thousands of company phones to run in-house applications in one step. The iPhone was designed for consumers. They must be provisioned one by one. But all the things you as a consumer might want to do with your iPhone are easy.

Back in the very early days of the IBM PC and the Apple II someone writing in a computer magazine divided the world into sixes and eights. The eights were the 8080, Z-80 and 8086 processors — CP/M, IBM PC, no graphics, word processing, databases, all business, suits and ties, clean-shaven. The sixes were the 6502, 6800 and 68000 processors — Apple II, Commodore 64, Macintosh, graphics, music, creativity, blue jeans, beards, bare feet.

You could do the same with Blackberry vs. iPhone now.