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Tech

30 Days About Me. Day 10: Something that Makes Life Easier

August 10, 2011 by robertforto 7 Comments

I am partipating in a blog challenge–

It is 30 Days about Me from a Daily Dose of Toni

So far I am loving it! I connected with a few great bloggers and I have read some interesting posts from them. I have even gotten my wife, Michele to participate. Who would think, even after 10 years you can learn things about a person that they share with the world through their blog.

Today’s topic: Something that makes life easier.

Well, I, like most will probably have to say their iPhone. I don’t know if it makes life easier but it makes it much more connected.

I have been drunk on the Apple juice since as far back as I can remember. I used to have one of those little square suitcase type Mac’s with the black and white screen since the early 1990’s.

Right now I have an iPod, a Touch, 2 iPhones, an iPad, a Mac Mini, and my MacBook Pro.

But this isn’t about them. It’s about the iPhone. I use my iPhone for just about everything. I am a Twit-Facing YouTubing Ustream hosting blogging machine.

I use my iPhone for my business. I accept credit cards from an app called PayAnywhere. I keep my track of my work with my client’s on TimeWerks, I keep my calendar with Google Calendar. I have 11 email accounts, 14 twitter accounts, 6 blogs, Linkedin, Skype for video calls and chat, Google voice, an 800 number platform and a GoGo inflight WiFi service, just to name a few.

Paypal for invoicing to clients and impulse purchases on e-Bay and Amazon. My bank, Chase, even lets you take a picture of a check and it will deposit into my account. That is a great feature since the nearest branch is probably 1100 miles away.

For those that want to stalk me I have 5200 check in’s on Foursquare and can say that I have been to every one. I am a newbie to Gowalla but it is still fun.

I use the top of my 4 gigabyte data plan every month and occasionally use my iPhone as a hotspot for my Macbook when I am on the road. I have hosted my radio program, Dog Works Radio from a busy restaurant with my iPhone on more than one occasion.

I use my iPhone for my Sirius Satellite Radio broadcasts–since it is not available up here in Alaska. Occasionally I will listen to Pandora, iHeart Radio or audio books.

I use MapMyRide everyday for tracking my dog sledding training runs. Last year alone I ran over 1800 miles on the back of my dog sled with my iPhone on and one time it saved my butt when I took a wrong turn on a trail that I have never been on. Getting lost in the middle of Alaska when the temperature is -25 degree is not something you want to do.

On the trails the music is rockin’ with a playlist that includes Metallica, Rob Zombie/White Zombie, Eminem, Godsmack, Herbie Hancock, and Bob Marley. But just so you know an iPhone will not work at -32 degrees. It shuts itself off and will not turn back on until it is warmed up. And the same goes for a 120 degree sauna.

So, Steve, there are limits to your technological wonder…

With that, I guess you can safely say that my iPhone is the one thing that makes my life a little easier and hey guess what?

If I lose my iPhone there is an app for that too.

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

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Filed Under: 30 Days About Me, Daily Post, Tech Tagged With: 30 days about me, apple, daily dose of toni, ipad, iphone, IPod, postaday2011, robert forto, Tech

Harry Potter Badge on Foursquare

July 20, 2011 by robertforto 1 Comment

Alright all you Harry Potter geeks and Foursquare addicts. The pair have teamed to to pay homage to the hottest flick of the summer:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

Foursquare has released a badge to commemorate the movie.

Text for badge

Seven years after Harry Potter learned that he is a wizard, it’s just him against the Dark Lord. Join the battle at http://bit.ly/pIXd21, with code ‘harrypotter25′ for 25% off the of the video game. Grab your wands. The final battle is here.

How to unlock

Check in to a theater and shout “Harry Potter”

This badge is worldwide

Lets be friends on Foursquare

Related articles
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  • ‘Harry Potter’ blows past ‘Dark Knight’ for record opening weekend (bizjournals.com)
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Filed Under: Daily Post, Foursquare Badges Tagged With: Film, foursquare, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, harry potter badge on foursquare, postaday2011, robert forto, Tech

The iCloud

June 6, 2011 by robertforto 2 Comments


Our family includes four Appleholics. We are so drunk on the Apple juice that we could start our own 12-step program.

All of us have at least one iPod and we have too many iPads, iPhones, Macs and Mini’s that we could have our own orchard I think.

Just today, something exciting happened to all of us Apple geeks. Steve Jobs came out of medical leave (again!) not to release a new iPhone 5 but to talk about the iCloud. On the heels of Amazon and Google we knew this was coming. It was just a matter of time. What was it just a few weeks?

What is iCloud?

iCloud allows you to seamlessly integrate all of your devices over the web. It lets you synchronize your content through the air. This is the next step in the computing world. I have told my kids for years that the days of a clunky desk top computer with a 500GB hard drive and a keychain full of flash cards are numbered.

The iCloud is purely awesome! This will change how we use our computers and devices forever. We will no longer be dependent on one device. I have four iPods/iPhones. One in my truck, one I use when I am dog sledding, an iPhone with very little music that I use every day, and an iPhone that sits in a drawer as a back up. Every time I want to sync my library from one device to another it is a hassle. I am constantly shuffling from one device to another. The iCloud will eliminate this.

With the iCloud, instead of syncing your devices to your Mac to get the files you are looking for, you can connect to the cloud and sync with it. The cloud will be the hub of EVERYTHING that you have on those PC’s and Macs.

For example when you take a photo on your iPhone it will push the image up the cloud. Later on that evening when you turn on your Mac, your image will appear among your photos without having to transfer the photo.

The stuff of business

All of your contacts, email, and calendars will be sync’d across all of your devices. Calendars will appear on your iPhone, your Mac and your Touch without having to do anything. You can even share these with your friends and co-workers.

All iCloud users will get a @me.com email account that pushes all of your mail to the cloud and sync’s it to all the devices.

The band played on...

The coolest feature of the iCloud is the music. All of us have iTunes libraries. Ours is stored three places right now. On my MacBook Pro, My Mac Mini and a 500GB hard drive that is hooked up to an old Dell and so archaic that it no longer works because I can’t find a driver for it.

We have a music library of over 7500 songs. Most of them come from CD’s that we have ripped, a process that has taken hours upon hours. I will get to that in just a sec.

Any music that you have previously bought, you can download to 10 devises for no charge on the cloud.

An auto download setting within your devices will automatically sync your new purchases across the devices. If you buy that Justin Bieber in secret one night, you wife will find out the next day when she opens the iPad’s music player. The song will load into your collection there too.

ITunes Match will let you match all of your ripped from CD tunes with 18 million tracks stored in Apple’s servers. That means you don’t have to upload them to the cloud. It will cost you $24.95 per year to do this. So if you plan to visit the used record store, like I love to do, and you buy a lot of music for 6 or 7 bucks a cd and you want to share these disc’s across your devices it will cost you a bit. But think about it–25 bucks a year is less than the cost of two new cd’s.

Storage

Right now, iCloud provides you with 5GB of storage for mail, documents and back up. This storage is outside of your quota for iTunes and photos, iWork documents, apps, and books.

This is going to rock for our business (and yours too)

Just in the past couple months my wife as gone to an iPad as her primary device for our business, Denver Dog Works. We can do everything on it from processing credit cards, to blog writing, to Facebook and Twitter updates, to Skype to production of our Internet radio show.

One thing that we have struggled with is the ability to share documents. We have tried yo use Google Docs. We have found it clunky and has limitations. As well as blog writing on Pages with links and it not transferring seamlessly with WordPress.

With iCloud you can access documents between devices while on the move. Keynote and Numbers will work with a click or a swipe.

When and How?

Just moments after Steve announced the new service the App Store and iTunes were dramatically updated with a new “purchased” tab for re-downloading software and content and a new version of iTunes (10.3) was released.

Once you download all the updates you will see the new iBooks as well as the “purchased” software by clicking the “updates” tab from there it will be seamless.

While today’s update will offer you a “taste” of the cloud, the full service–including wireless syncing of content and data–will roll out with the launch of iOS 5 this fall. Just in time for Steve to come back again from his medical leave to introduce us to the iPhone 5!

Filed Under: Daily Post, Tech Tagged With: Denver Dog Works, iCloud, iOS, ipad, iphone, iPhone5, iTunes, mac, postaday2011, robert forto, Steve Jobs, Tech, The Cloud

Foursquare vs. Gowalla

June 1, 2011 by robertforto 1 Comment

First let me preface this by saying I am a 40 year old self proclaimed tech geek that is a father of three, have a successful dog training business in Denver, Colorado, and I am running down a dream in Alaska. I am rarely seen without my iPhone in my hand and I hardly ever use it for phone calls.

With that I am also a hard-core user of Foursquare and have been for almost a year now and I am an up-and-coming-Gowalla-nut.

When I first started using Foursquare (for real) last June I had intentions of two things–one to let my business associates know where I was at any given time, and two to refine my business as a personal brand not just a faceless storefront.

[Follow me on Foursquare]

Think about it– would you rather do business with a thriving–living-breathing-active couple of entrepreneurs or a stuffy franchise where people wear uniforms with name tags and call you sir and ma’am all the time and have little experience in life because they are working 80 hours a week on minimum wage?

In this article I want to compare and contrast the differences between these two very popular location-based services.

On Foursquare, a user “checks in” to locations (as pinpointed via satellite) to invite along friends, leave tips glued to GPS coordinates (like ordering advice at restaurants), and compete for digital rewards in the form of badges, or titles like “mayor” (for the user who checks in the most at a venue).

Similarly, Gowalla asked users to check in places in order to collect digital goodies, akin to virtual geocaching.

In my analysis there is a place for both of these services. Both have their place in the marketplace and can be used effectively in establishing not only a personal brand but also a loyal fan base. I don’t know how many times over the past year a client has come up to me and said. “I follow you on Foursquare and I checked out (restaurant, store, park, etc.), thank you very much!”

This is exactly what I am talking about and this is why I use these services.

[Follow me on Gowalla]

Gowalla, at least for me, is more of a game that my wife, Michele and I play together. It is not as widely used as Foursquare and just a few of the places have been added to check in. Gowalla is more like a game. You earn kitschy pins (instead of badges on Foursquare) for things like the states you visit and you have the opportunity to complete challenges. I recently completed the Denver Championship Chase where you get a pin for checking in at the different sports venues around the Mile High City, more on that in a sec.

Foursquare and its Mayorships are a bit diluted. So many people are using the service now that you are seeing a lot of duplicate venues and obscure places like “in my backyard, or in my bed, or driving down the highway.”

Of course in any “game or app” there are people that are prone to cheating. I have no idea why. For example there was this “clown” in Alaska that was friends with me on Foursquare and one night I was using the app and I noticed that he was checking in a lot! In one hour he grabbed a sub at the deli, took a train from Wasilly, Alaska to Anchorage, shopped at Sears and was on a cruise on Princess Cruise lines. Being my sarcastic self, I called him on it and sent him a message…

Which brings me to my next point: Privacy. A lot has been said about location services like Foursquare and Gowalla and the expectation of privacy or lack thereof. I can recall one young lady’s story where she was checked in at a bar (or restaurant) and a creepy guy approached her and introduced himself. That would even freak me out!

[Read more: Flying high with WiFi]

I guess that goes without saying that you shouldn’t put your home on the apps as a check-in–or at least not your picture. Sure there are a ton of creepers out there but come on people, do you think that most of America is running around stalking everyone else? Hardly.

As I mentioned earlier, both services offer the user the chance to accumulate badges or pins. Until the apps really catch on, most of the badges on Foursquare are located in the bigger cities such as L.A., San Francisco, New York, etc. Foursquare does offer badges for events like the Super Bowl, Groundhog Day, Election Day, and national “events” like that as well as brand-type badges for checking in at Apple Stores, Starbucks, etc.

Badges are reward icons that are earned when you check-in to specific venues numerous times or if the venue is special, like the Super Bowl.

Mayorships seem to be the biggest draw to Foursquare. It’s the digital equivalent of the kids game “King of the hill.” If you check-in to a venue more than anyone else, you remain the mayor.

Gowalla does not use a point system or mayorships, instead they have Spots, Trips, Pins and a Leaderboard.

Spots are Featured Places like sports arenas, monuments, and parks created by Gowalla. You earn special badges for checking-in to these locations.

Trips are badges for special locations created by Gowalla and YOU. Yes you can create your own Trip that other people can complete in-order to earn the badge. For example I could check in at all the dog parks in Denver, Colorado then using the “Create a Trip” option on Gowalla’s web site I could select all the dog parks and create a trip called Denver Dog Parks. Now when anyone checks-in to five or more dog parks in my Trip they get a special badge.

Pins in Gowalla are the same as badges in Foursquare. They are icons that represent the venues you have check-in to.

The Leaderboard is the closest thing to being mayor in Gowalla. It shows who has checked-in the most and their number of check-ins. But unlike Foursquare’s Mayorships, the Leaderboard is not prominent on the app or web site, you actually have to do a little digging to find it.

I have found that Gowalla is much more accuarte at pin-pointing your location than Foursquare but both services have a check-in “range” that can vary from just a few feet to up to a 1/4 of a mile.

I know what you are saying… why is a 40 year old guy playing app games on his iPhone? One word– FUN! I am ultra-competitive and so is my wife. It is just something cool to do together. Just yesterday she screeched “Ha! I beat you this week!” proclaiming her winning weekly point total.

Are you a Foursquare fan or do you like Gowalla? Each has it own advantage and disadvantage. While Gowalla has more to offer the biggest disadvantage seems to be fewer users. Foursquare on the other hand could end-up losing users if they do not start adding new elements to its game.

So where do you check in?

Filed Under: Daily Post, Tech Tagged With: foursquare, foursquare vs. gowalla, gowalla, iphone, postaday2011, robert forto, Tech, wasilly alaska

The KGB, troopers and breaking the law

April 18, 2011 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Picture this:

Last night I am heading down KGB Road on my way home. No, it is not named after the Russian spy organization but it DOES drive past Redingtonville. If you know anything about mushing you know who Joe Redington is. Well, his namesake-homestead is still a very active kennel on the Knik Goose Bay Road.

As I was driving down the road a trooper with his lights on was flying down the road the other way. Everyone on my side of the road pulled over–as a courtesy, or maybe its the law.

I was responding to a Facebook post about a picture I posted of the town that Sarah Palin built. If I was typing on my iPhone I probably would not have noticed the SUV in front of me and the trooper would have another problem on his hands.

Thankfully, I was using a speech to text app called Vlingo.

I love Vlingo. I was an early adopter, sometime over a year and a half ago.

This app rocks! It allows you to do just about everything. Here are some examples:

“Text Michele: what are you up to?”

“How many teaspoons in a tablespoon?”

“Update Facebook: Running down a dream, sorry you’re not.”

“Call Mom”

“Pizza restaurants in Denver”

Through nerd magic the app will do exactly these tasks without ever having to type on the keyboard.

Yes, it took a little while for the app to recognize my speech but after using it for some time it is nearly flawless.

Just last week the fine folks of the Alaska legislature said no to a bill that would make it against the law for us to use cell phones (without a headset or bluetooth) while driving. Yep, they do things different in Alaska. It is still okay to drive down the Parks Highway and text your mom and 55 miles per hour.

[Download Vlingo app now!]

That’s the way it should be. Who are they to tell us that we can’t text and drive but they allow guys to ride motorcycles without helmets? Which is more dangerous?

I’m just sayin’… 

Thankfully, I use Vlingo and you should too. Give it a try. Your car insurance people will be thankful you do.

What is your favorite app?

Robert Forto | Team Ineka | Alaska Dog Works | Mushing Radio | Dog Works Radio | Denver Dog Works | Daily Post

___________________

Robert Forto is a musher training for his first Iditarod under the Team Ineka banner and the host of the popular radio shows, Mush! You Huskies and Dog Works Radio Shows


Filed Under: Daily Post, Robert Forto, Tech Tagged With: alaska, apple, iphone, postaday2011, Tech, vlingo

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