Communications and productivity tools

So I’ve owned a smart phone for almost three months and am proud to say I have not taken one selfie yet.  

Bell Canada Pay phone Winter 2014

I’m waiting to see how long it takes until it owns me, my attention, mo money and time.

The photograph above is the current screen lock image I chose out of a sense of nostalgia and tongue in cheek humour.  Pay phones are a rare sight these days.  They’re also likely the least hygienic of communications tools.  Before I use one, I wipe the earpiece and mouthpiece with my sleeve.  They also don’t get much respect as you can see from the fast food containers left on top of this one by two boys on their way to hockey practice and waiting for their bus.

My paid work involves supporting productivity tools and email while analyzing the potential of new applications in a business environment.  It is interesting work and indeed provides much variety.  I figured it was about time that I invested my time learning more about potentially productive apps for business and personal use.

My personal smart phone helps me keep in touch with family and friends via text messages, email and yes … by telephone calls.  I have to be careful with the overly-helpful auto-correct that interprets my fat finger typing sessions.  One thing that wrinkles my whiskers is that within one week of getting the device, I received my first recorded, telemarketer call. Ugh!   

As an avid reader who likes to relax with a good book, I don’t think I could handle an app like Spritz that helps you speed read a book in a fraction of the time.

In addition to other handy features mentioned in this other blog post, I can view spreadsheets and carefully edit basic documents with the SkyDrive apps on my smart phone.  Microsoft has already changed that to OneDrive because of a lawsuit caused by their rushed choice of names, and has recently pushed out updates to users of their SkyDrive apps and the consumer version of Office online.

On a slightly related note, the World Wide Web turns 25 years old this month. I became entangled in the web in 1995, enamoured by the act of hyperlinking and collaborating with like-minded folks online.  I learned a lot by performing hands-on work and basic HTML web page coding.  I also devoured books and articles by Tim Berners-Lee and Jakob Nielsen.

Thanks for reading this far and not disturbing the Tabby Cat.  She is one of my lazy roommates and is an inspiration and distraction for some of my creative writing and photography.

Take a little detour and visit The Year of the Rabbit domain, a place for my novel about fate, family and forgiveness.

• If you would like to download the first few chapters for free, visit this page at Smashwords.
• If you want to read more, you can set your own purchase price (above 99 cents) at Smashwords.
• If you’re not sure but would like to first see what others thought of the book, start here.

Listen – if you don’t own one of those newfangled eBook readers yet, you can  purchase a Portable Document Format (PDF) version of the novel and read it on your computer, laptop or tablet.

If you’re waiting for the next print edition, it may be out before 2023.

Thanks again.

T

Advertisement