Nina Lewis

Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

The advancement in technology for cell phones never ceases to amaze me.  But then, it isn’t hard to amaze my addled pea brain, now is it?  You can check your calendar, send e-mail, play games, listen to music, check your to do list, keep track of finances, locate business and restaurants, manage your physical fitness routines, take pictures — and oh, yes, place phone calls.  (What I want to know is how soon until it will be able to wash windows and scrub toilets, huh?)

The other day I came across a spectacularly innovative thing:  camera lenses for your cell phone.  Imagine that!

I’m not a professional photographer by any means.  But I do know that to attach a lens to a camera the lens screws on.  As in there are the ‘threads’ that allow you to twist the lens onto the camera and hold it tight-y tight and snug onto the camera.

And, I am smart enough to realize that cell phones do not come equipped with those all important threads that hold a lens on. Not my phone. Not yours. Not anybody’s!

So what gives?

Well, hold your horses for a moment, buckaroo.  I’ve gotta tell you about the lenses first.  There are two of them.  One is a fisheye lens.  The other one is a macro/wide angle lens.  They work with ANY cell phone.  Did you catch that?  It will work on my fabulous iPhone and your Blackberry Torch 9800.  Your LG, Nokia, myTouch 3G, and even your Samsung or Sanyo phone. As long as it has picture taking capabilities.

How is that?  How can a lens fit any and all cell phones?  Such flexibility doesn’t happen in real life with SLR or DSLR cameras . . .

With a detachable magnetic ring. (And that’s gotta be one powerful magnetic ring to hold on the lens if you ask me!)

How cool is that?

The fisheye lens only costs $25.  The wide angle/macro lens runs $20.  Bundled together they are only $40.  (That’s just two trips to the movies and two large tubs of popcorn and large drinks for my sweetie and I . . . totally affordable.  Totally!)

Oh my! I want them, I want them, I want them!!!

How can I justify getting lenses for the camera on my cell phone?  I’m not a serious photographer.  Not even a half-serious one. I only take pictures of lime green sandbags or insanely adorable grandchildren (mine) or surreptitious photos of random women at Fijian airports whose haircut I happen to like.

It’s just that my technology addiction needs a fix.  I think these lenses would be the fix for that fix . . .

(Note: this is not a paid advertisement.  It’s an out and out public display of coveting.)

What would the world be like if there were only one flavor of ice cream, vanilla? Those of us who love caramel pecan would be sorely deprived.

What would the world be like if there were only one presentation software, PowerPoint? We’d all be mad as a hatter.  All college students and conference attendees would be asleep before the first click of the mouse. Huzzah that there’s Keynote for Mac computers. Alas, Macs in the classroom or business or conference presentations are small in number.

Now, thanks to innovation over the Internet, there’s another solution: Prezi. It’s a presentation method with an attitude.  It’s thinking out of the box. (PowerPoint never was this fun — nor will it be!)

Inserting text and images is easy.  Creating a path among your items is as simple as clicking on the items.  Navigation through the saved presentation is pretty intuitive.  However, they have their own little Prezi demos to demonstrate how to use Prezi.

I just realized something.  For me, someone who loves technology and uses technology lots, figuring out Prezi was a snap.  For those less skilled, it may be more the crackle and pop experience.  So, be sure to watch the videos.

Here’s a little Prezi that I made moments ago . . .

I just discovered a sweet new technology.  And, I have a blog where I discourse about said technology.  (Sometimes I write about technology here, too, but the other blog has been languishing for such a long time that I decided to post the information on that blog.)

But, I’m so excited about it, I thought I would talk about it here.  But, I’m so lazy I didn’t want to actually ‘write’ more about it.  I didn’t want to expend the mental energy to write something new about it.  After all, I had said all there was to say on my other blog.  I didn’t think I had sufficient mental energy to pull different words out of my cerebellum and plonk them down on this page to explain the new technology.

So, I thought that I would just link to it.  Links are easy to do.  Much less energy.  Much less thought processes needed.  That way, you can read and learn about it but I don’t have to write about it.

Read what I wrote on Technology Mavin.

(You know, if I had just actually written about the technology instead of spending all of this time moaning about how I didn’t want to write about it here on this blog, I could have actually written about the technology and you wouldn’t be bored with my moanings about not wanting to write and being too lazy to write about the technology that I just discovered and if I had actually written something here your technology mind would be enlightened and I wouldn’t be wriing this horribly long run-on sentence.)

What does every professional career woman need? What technology is a must-have? What Christmas present did my sweet husband give me that tickled my lil’ technology heart?

Why a little KupKake (2 GB USB drive), that’s what!

Imagine how impressed folks will be when I pull KupKake out to download files.  Imagine how envious my co-workers will be as I plug KupKake in during a meeting to access mission critical data.  Imagine how I could start a fad on campus among students who just HAVE to have their own KupKake.   Just imagine.

My soul is giddy with technology glee.  Very giddy.  That’s because I discovered the application iTalk for my iPhone.  It is a free application — but it can be upgraded to the premium version for only $4.99.  There is a very small, unobtrusive ad at the bottom on the free version.

This application is about the most simple way to make an audio recording that I have ever used!!

You use iTalk to record with your iPhone and then you download the recording to your computer using iTalk Sync.  Once your file is in iTunes, convert it to an MP3 file and upload to your file server.  Then, it’s ready for all your adoring fans to listen to.

Fast.  Easy.  Cheap. If you have an iPhone . . .

And, the quality is really good!  Take a listen.

Podcasat about the iTalk application

This recording was done on the highest quality level. I think it sounds pretty dandy, if you ask me.

I’m off to play with this app some more to check out the quality of a recording done on the good level.

My sympathies go out to all of you non-iPhone users!