This iPhone tip goes out to those of you following the growing “Life Hacks” movement - gaining back precious minutes of your life through efficiency practices.
We’ve all been stuck in meetings that we wish we could get out of. Well, fortunately His Steveness has designed something handy into the iPhone which will help us reclaim our lives so we can get back to doing what we _really_ want to be doing. If you have the foresight, try this before attending your next meeting:From the main menu, select Clock then Timer. Use the wheel interface to set your interval (How much of this meeting are you willing to endure?), set your ringtone and hit “Start.”
Attend your meeting. Go ahead and shut your phone down (read as: Hit the hardware button on top right) and set it on the table next to your notebook, printouts, etc. and act as interested as you can in the meeting. Resist the urge to check the timer - don’t worry, it won’t let you down. When the timer reaches zero, it will wake up your iPhone and play the ringtone. To anyone glancing over at your iPhone, the combination of idle screen wallpaper and ringtone will look convincing, even to a fellow iPhone user.
Grab it shortly into the first ring, give it a quick glance, and apologize to those left in the room.. “Sorry, I gotta take this…”
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Officials in India are using ringtones of moos and bleats to lure and trap leopards. Apparently “forest guards” have found ringtones are safer and more cost effective than luring the cats with live cows and goats for bait. Read the Reuters story>.
(Thanks Laine Fast for the link.)
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Fiona Carswell, a graduate of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, has the answer to your text message doldrums.
“CELL STICKIES: For people who go to great lengths to see what they want to see, Cell Stickies is a small booklet of translucent sheets with comforting messages printed on them. Not satisfied with the text message you received? Peel off a Cell Sticky and slap it on your cellphone screen, showing you the message you really wanted to see.”
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The best mobile news and discussions for the week ending 26 January, 2007.
User Experience
1// An interesting video Q & A session with Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience at Google shares her thoughts about Google as a “swiss army knife that is closed.” She suggests that all the tools are there, but they don’t throw it all at you at once. There’s a nugget of simplicity there that mobile “portals” could benefit from.
She also suggests that Google engineers, sales people and even lawywers are user focused. She pontificates on the dangers of overdoing Web 2.0 to the detriment of usability.
2// On the voice search front, Midomi has announced a music recognition service (alas not yet for mobile). Users can sing or hum a song and get results. Pretty impressive results, according to ZDNet. What the news sites failed to mention is how much more natural it will be to do a voice search on a voice-centric platform like mobile.
3// On the mobile voice search front, I have to suggest those of you heading to Barcelona in a couple weeks to make sure and check out Promptu’s voice search, nominated for 3GSM’s Global Mobile award.
Mobile news
4// In the clamor of the Apple Keynote, Nokia and Visa’s announcement of mobile Visa payments in the US snuck under the radar.
Mainstream media digs at the iPhone
5// Colbert is a voice of finger-wagging, syrupy, in your face, um, reason and he is on a roll this week. If you missed the episodes, here are a couple of clips featuring commentary on the Cingular and AT&T merger and he pans the iPhone release.
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Ripped from the headlines, here’s a collection from media sources around the web. Apparently when Apple made its announcement, editors and bloggers around the world sharpened their lucky pencils and exclaimed, “Now here’s a piece just begging for a snappy headline.”
Apple’s iPhone is pretty ordinary at its core
Andrew Kantor, USAToday
Cisco Bites Into Apple Fame (video)
Forbes.com Video Network
Why it’s the Apple of everyone’s eye
Phyllis Furman, New York Daily News
Apple’s new fruit forbidden for now
Jim Rossman, The Dallas Morning News
Continue Reading »
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Got Windows Mobile? Don’t fret, you can be cool like Steve Jobs too.
If you’re like me, perhaps you bought that Motorola Q for its slim form factor, only to find that you no longer have the sveltest handset on the market anymore. Well look no further; you don’t have to switch to Cingular in June after all. Simply enable this handy iPhone theme on your Q (or brand new Q Pro) and be the envy of all.
Before you get your hopes up, those nifty icons are just for decoration. Its Windows Mobile; you didn’t actually expect them to work, did you?
The theme does provide one-click access to your messaging options. [Not available for download.]
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California commuters not wanting to spend $30 to $90 on a handsfree device have found a $2 alternative in order to comply with the new hands-free law in effect this year.
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