ineed help
Yes, I'm in the backyard with my iphone, and laptop, and camera!
I was stoked last week to discover I’d won a writing comp over on Karen’s blog… Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum. And yes, I’ll admit to doing a little happy dance when the sponsors contacted me to organise delivery of my prize – an iphone.
I think as parents we all have a responsibility to keep up with current technology. If we don’t, our kids will be living in a world we can’t participate in, can’t contact them in and worst of all, can’t keep them safe in. One day my kids will want to be on facebook, and twitter, and whatever the next thing is, and that’s ok with me because I’ll be there already. Well, I’ll try to be!
Sometimes I cringe because at only 31 I already feel like just as I get my head around some aspect of technology it all changes, or upgrades, or is replaced by something better. What will I be like at dealing with current technology in twenty years time?! Despite this, I know I can’t stick my head in the sand and pretend that social networking sites, and phones that can do things we’ve never imagined don’t exist. Why? Because I’m a mum. And if those things are going to be part of my children’s world as they grow up, those things are going to be part of my world too.
So about my new iphone. My three year old can play games on it already. My twelve month old isn’t quite there yet – I need to get him one of these (hehehe). My hubby is already dabbling in augmented reality and coding for iphones!!
And me?
Yesterday iworked out how to answer it when it rang. And imanaged to send and receive txts. If only icould work out how to import my old contacts list! This weekend I’ll be at a seminar iwould love to tweet from, but ithink istill have a bit to learn before then. Anyone got any advice to share on iphones? Most of all ican’t find the function that turns my iphone into a little housecleaning robot…
_________________________________
Speaking of winning things, want to win this gorgeous book?
Your contacts should import automatically from your sim card. Did you have them on the card or on the phone on the old one. If you need help with this email me and happy to help.
I tried tweetdeck on the phone but didn’t like it, I now use echofon (which used to be called twitterfon, no idea why they changed it) – get it from the ap store.
Once you get used to it you will love it. There is a video on the apple site which is a walk through of the iPhone – it’s great for when you are getting used to it.
Enjoy the phone – I love mine
And I agree with what you say about technology and keeping up with the kids. My cousin is sticking her head in the sand as far as her own 3 kids and technology go. My first comment when I heard was “how is she going to teach her kids to be safe?”. I agree that we need to try and at least keep up with our kids, so that we know what they are doing. How will you communicate even at the most basic levels with your teenagers when they know that you have absolutely no idea about their lives – I think that would be really difficult – and scary.
I find it hard to strike a balance between what is necessary, practical and affordable. The new technologies are very much marketed towards young people with a highly disposable income, sadly we are on 1 or sometime no income and keeping up can be hard. In saying that I think it is really cool that you won one!
I just found this – http://www.occupybaby.com/
Maybe your 12mth old isn’t too young after all – I haven’t tried it so don’t know what its like – could be well worth the 99 cent investment (I’m guessing that’s US too so a little more than that)
LOL Gemisht… I still think he’d just eat it!
Lol, that last paragraph made me chuckle.
A friend of mine got a new iphone last week and had to take it back as she couldnt work anything out on it!!
I agree with a previous poster, it is hard sometimes to work out a balance of everything.
Transfer the contacts on your old phone (if they were stored on the phone) to the old SIM then put the the old SIM into the iPhone. Hit “Settings”, then “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”. Scroll down and hit “Importing SIM Contacts.”
I say the old SIM because I think (but not 100%) that you can’t do that to the iPhone SIM.
I would find it difficult to cope without my iPhone. I find it so handy with its calendar and ability to find an address straight from Contacts. I’ve bought Sygic, GPS software and now need to work out how to make it recognise the addresses in my Contacts. Am having far too much fun with it…but it’s solely for organisation purposes…really…
There are a few really good apps (mostly free) that I use all the time on my iphone.
a. Boxcar – it beeps at me everytime there’s a new tweet from one of those I follow. – cost about $3
b. Evernote, which is a bit like google notebook. You can capture thoughts/tweets/pics/emails etc all in a notebook type program for later. – free
c. Dropbox – brilliant app on both your pc and iphone which means you drop files in the box, and it syncs the file with your other devices. – free
d. Twitterific. I used to use echofon, but changed to twitterific. Just personal taste. – free
e. Fring – can sign into MSN, google chat, skype, yahoo etc all from one app – free
f. Optus my account – if you’re on a data plan, you can make sure you don’t overspend. – free
g. Facebook. nuff said.
h. Youversion.com Bible – brilliant. – free
i. ShopShop shopping list – I’ve stopped using scraps of paper for my shopping list and store it all on the iphone.
j. Yellow pages – free
k. Around me – because I travel quite a bit, it finds my GPS location and tells me where the supermarket/restaurants etc are – free.
l. Mybrisbane. not a bad app for traffic, fuel prices, transport timetables etc – free.
Wow! From the list above sounds like you will be able to just about everything from your new iphone! Maybe it does have an ivacuum hidden away somewhere!
First of all, congratulations, Cath! What a fantastic surprise for you. Thanks for this convicting post. I’m not very technological savvy and often need to ask my oldest son to help me with computer/mobile phone problems. And I’m well aware that one day he won’t be around so often. But you’re totally right, it broadens our horizons and impact when we know what’s going on.
Blessings,
Paula
Just thought I would add a couple of my favourite apps.
I agree that ShopShop is great
Shazam is fun – hold your iphone up to music and it will tell you the name and singer (free)
HeyWay – if your partner or friends also have this they can send you location updates or you can request their’s – eg my husband “HeyWay’s” me when he is at daycare so I know he has picked Emma up and I go straight home – he could message but HeyWay is fun!. (Free)
My daughter likes DoodleBuddy – a drawing application (Free)
PaperToss – Emma is better at it then I am!
Thanks for your list Tracy – I’m going to get a few of them!
Have fun with the iphone Cath!
LOVE my iphone
I like PandoraBox – you can check what apps are free that day. I have only bought a couple of apps – everything I use is free!
Love “ToDo” – you can write with your finger on it instead of having to type in.