New discovery: AirDrop

Before the past few months, I always kept Bluetooth and AirDrop off on my phone to save iPhone battery.

While on a boat heading back from kayaking in a small town in Alaska, a middle aged couple told me to airdrop some photos over to them. "I don't have service." "You don't need service." And just like that, the photos appeared in my photo album.

Needless to say, airdrop (for photos specifically, although I'm sure it could be useful for files too) was my new discovery. We used it in college a few times to transfer music, but the thrill was not as large. A few reasons I like it more than texting photos:

• It saves your phone storage
• It transfers faster
• It eliminates the extra step of saving the photo

Happy airdropping!

Facebook phone search

Online tip of the day!

Did you know that if you type in a cellphone number into the Facebook search bar, the person's profile will come up?

At first, we thought this was only possible if you had your cellphone number publicly posted on your profile, but the profile comes up regardless. It worked for all of my friends' numbers who I typed in, and when someone I am not Facebook friends with was searched, they came up along with our mutual friends. Creepy! No guarantees that it will work for everyone, but definitely something to test.

We can't prove this, but my coworker and I think that this is because of the Messenger app. Guess there IS a reason everyone needs to have the app to be able to read your messages...data collection. Looks like Facebook might become the new phone book. Give it a shot!

Word of the day

Nomophobia: Fear of being out of mobile phone contact

Think: NO-MO-bile phobia.

Read more in Business Insider here.

Commuting- a time to disconnect?

Everyone commutes. Whether it's to and from work, while traveling or throughout the neighborhood they live in - people commute through car, train, bus and other options all week long. 

Look on any bus or train these days and more than half of individuals are drowning in their smartphones. Hearing "I was lost in the world of Instagram and missed my stop" is normal to hear from people my age. Just on the platform the other day, every single person waiting was on their phone.   

The L platform for the Red Line

On my daily commute to work, I often struggle with whether commuting is a time to enjoy some quiet time to yourself (the L is pretty silent in the morning) or connect with your devices- whether you're reading, on social media or email.

The desire to connect can sometimes dictate a commute. Similar to the New York subway, the red line of the Chicago L is underground, so cell service is minimal. This is different than the brown line, which although slower, is above ground, or the bus which follows the lakefront.

I've found myself guilty of doubling my commute time to take an alternate transit option when I need to make phone calls or be part of a group texting conversation. The amount of times I did this made me stop and think, is it worth it? How bad is it really to DISconnect? 

The next morning, I timed how long you are out of phone service on the red line. There is a whopping total of 10 minutes underground from the work subway stop to the above-ground stop I live at. 

That small number, 10, is in my head every time I'm making a transit decision. Is someone going to die if I wait 10 minutes to send a response to a text? Will this friend freak out if I call them back when I get off the L? Will I survive without checking Facebook, Instagram, Timehop and Twitter on the way to work? Will 10 minutes of silence kill you? The answers: no. A commute, if anything, IS the time of the day to disconnect from devices and ponder to yourself. 

iPhone storage tips

Have you ever tried taking a picture on your phone and received the pop-up, "There is not enough storage to take a photo."?

Are you at the point where you get reminders from your iPhone that you can see how to "Manage Storage" in your Settings?

Here are two quick tricks for you!

1. We think our storage is coming from photos & music, but that neglects all the picture messages (and sometimes even videos) sent in texts. I learned this the hard way, when I saw one day that "Messages" was taking up 4 MB of space and my 900 photos took up less space than that.
   
   SOLUTION: Within Messages, type "Video" and delete any videos in your texts. Then, delete the pictures you've sent to others, especially if they're saved elsewhere on your phone as they're taking up double the space!
2. Panoramic photos use up nearly 4-5 times the amount of storage space as one regular picture (I had some that were 15-16 MB, when usual photos are 2 MB!).
   
   SOLUTION: Delete all your panoramics to clear up infinitely more photo storage space. 

Good luck! 

iPhone location tracking

When Kathryn was visiting recently, she showed me a cool iPhone trick she came across on Buzzfeed.

Within your settings, your iPhone creates a location map of all of your recent calls and where you have dialed them from. 

If you go to Settings --> Privacy --> Location Services --> System Services --> Frequent Locations then click a country or region, you can see where you've made calls from. Between my family's travels May through June, it was a pretty exciting visual overlay. 

It also shows you where the calls you make around you track as. For example, calls from my apartment track as the restaurant next door. 

Check yours out! 

System Services 

Frequent Locations

The future of children in America

On the CTA this weekend, I sat across from a mom and her daughter in a stroller. The mom was zoning out in her own world, and the stroller child below was occupying herself perfectly playing games on her mom's smartphone. This is our future! 

A kid playing with her mom's smartphone on the El

Growing up in the information age

A few weeks ago, I wrote about social media anxiety and our need for instant gratification. Recently, I've downloaded Chicago's TransitStop app from the CTA, giving up-to-the-minute updates on when the next train or bus will arrive at your destination. Growing up in the age of constant, accessible information - we have grown to accept and expect these apps to be present, which I've learned is both a blessing and a curse. It's great to know when the next train is coming, but also upsetting to know if it will be a longer wait than was anticipated. 

Recently while headed back home, I was about three stops away from Howard- the station where I transfer to the Purple Line closest to the north suburbs. Out of curiosity, I checked when the next purple line train would arrive, hoping it would be a seamless transfer.

Needless to say, my heart started beating faster when I saw that not only was the train arriving in a minute, but the next one wasn't for 14 minutes. Parts of me felt like it was a race and the train had to make it in time for my transfer, and I actually started to get eager and anxious.

The TransitStop app while waiting for the Purple Line

A different part of me thought, "Would I really have known the wait time was 14 minutes if I just got outside and waited?" Probably not. We have plenty to entertain ourselves these days, with smartphones, reading material and music or audio books right in front of us - that it was going to move right along anyway. 

With the vast amount of data and information available at our fingertips, we can't let information that was once inaccessible stress us out as much as it does. 

iPhone trick of the day

Want to send a text message to multiple people, but not want them to see who else it is going to on your iPhone?

Have no fear, a friend just taught me a solution to this!

• On your iPhone, go into Settings --> Messages
• Turn off iMessage.
• Under SMS/MMS, turn off Group Messaging
• Send a text and it will send as an SMS text to everyone on your list, not showing them who else is on the thread.

Ah-ha! 

COOL APPS: Passbook

After not wanting to print a boarding pass last week, I decided to innovate and use the American Airlines app on my cell phone to check into my flight. When I logged in to the app and the boarding pass image appeared, it gave me the option on the bottom left corner of the screen to export it into an app Apple automatically installs on your iPhone called Passbook.

Not aware of how Passbook could be used, I was impressed that it saved your boarding pass without needing to re-connect to the Internet every time like opening it in Safari would do. It does this not only with airline tickets, but any tickets-movies, shows, etc.

It even sends you push notifications for flight updates such as gate and boarding time, and for a ticket as important as a flight, leaves it on your home screen until the flight takes off and the ticket is scanned - making access convenient. 

I definitely recommend using Passbook in the future as an effective way to track tickets! 

COOL APPS: Testing out iOS7

Like a true digital vanguard and constant attempt to be an early adopter, I spent this morning reading technology blogs about the features of iOS7, and specifically, how to save battery life. There is nothing more frustrating than low battery percentages on your phone when it's just sitting in your purse with WiFi, location trackers and other apps sucking it away.

I learned a lot from some reading, like the clock app icon being an actual clock, how to block calls and more. But the third point in this Mashable piece showed me the very exciting news that the Compass iPhone app now has a level.

As the tenant of a new apartment that my roommate and I are currently decorating, this news leaves me dumbfounded as we just hung up all of our frames using our own eyes as level, semi-upset that we didn't own the tool.

So for good measure (pun intended), I went to a few of our frames and put the level on them to see how we did.

Testing out the new iPhone level on the Compass app

And look- it is perfectly straight!

For more iPhone tips, ways to save battery life on iOS7, and detailed directions on how to turn off AirDrop, Bluetooth, background app refresh and other battery suckers, click here. 

iOS7: Your personal assistant?

After downloading iOS7 last night, I've been browsing around to see what kind of updates were made. Obviously, the overall look is different, the camera is better and there are changes across multiple applications. 

But after checking out the notification center, I kind of feel offended that Apple thinks your phone needs to play the role of a secretary. It writes to you, in complete sentences, about the weather and any other reminders you have programmed. Crazy! 

A year without technology

I wanted to pass along this article in the Toronto Sun about a family from Guelph, Canada. I have the utmost respect for them: they are living a year "like it's 1986" and parenting their kids like they were parented–without most technology.

After realizing their 2 and 5-year-old boys would not look up from screens and devices, they decided to spend April 2013 through April 2014 living without them just to see what it was like. They gave up things like a DVR, GPS, cell phones, digital cameras, coffee machines and plenty more.

The woman has read 15 books since the experiment, and the man said that in his first few weeks without his cell phone, he could almost feel his pocket vibrating as if it were there. The town seems to be supporting their efforts, with the couple claiming sometimes neighbors will drop off VHS tapes on their doorstep and other gifts with knowledge of the so-called 'experiment.' The article ends with the man stating how their family feels closer and talks a lot more.

As ideal and simple life sounds with such a decision, I don't know if I could do such an experiment after growing up with everything we have. Maybe a month without all of the devices...but a full year? What this taught me is as easy as all of our devices are supposed to make life (GPS instead of looking at a map, smartphone instead of Internet on a computer, etc), they actually make it more difficult. I'm embarrassed at how often I've been on my iPhone and Facebook since moving back home. Hopefully, more families take similar efforts before GenZ doesn't know life without so many screens.

A self-test to mitigate phone anxiety

There is no doubt that we are addicted to our cell phones. In fact, another study was released last week that says seven in 10 Millennials keep their smartphone within five feet of themselves at all times. Think of how many people sleep with their phones. Or how many apps you receive push notifications for. Or how prevalent text messaging is to our daily lives, compared to what it was 10 years ago.

This past year of grad school, which was probably the most stressful school year of life in some capacities, was the first entire school year where I owned a smartphone. I upgraded to the iPhone a semester earlier, and was starting to adapt to the lifestyle of push notifications, iMessaging group MMS text conversations, email being right there and always being the owner of a GPS. Now, it was engrained into my daily routine. I woke up every morning at nearly 7 a.m. to my phone alarm and read email on my phone, mentally crafted a response, and typed them up on my computer an hour later when I was more awake. If I was making dinner and heard the email vibrate sound on my phone (which I only received from my school account), I immediately stopped and went to check what it was. It was so bad that if the phone rang while I was in the shower, I would get out to answer it so there would not be another item on my to do list to call that person back. I’m not kidding.

All of these habits caused what I think of as phone anxiety. I was anxious to receive answers to texts and emails, watching the “…” typing message or read receipts like a hawk.  When I was driving and the texting sound came through, I immediately had to check what it was and take the proper action, as unsafe as it is.

The noticeable difference in this phone anxiety came when I found my heart rate at a higher and higher rate over the pure sound of my phone. Hearing the vibrate buzz, Twitter ding or text/voicemail ring, my heart rate paced until I saw what the notification was. And rather than being an invigorating, exciting type of stress to see the message, it seemed unhealthy, dangerous and a burden. Societal expectations have placed pressure to respond or take action immediately, growing our impatience on both the sending and receiving end.

So now that school is over and I’m not being called to assistantships, campus activities or academic questions that might require immediate responses more so than other things, I’m trying the experiment of inviting media into my life. Living life first, and consuming mobile media second. By taking the vibrate sound off of my phone, and turning the ringtone off while I’m driving or getting important work done—I’m in control of when I do or don’t want to check what’s going on, hold a text conversation or respond to emails or Facebook messages.

Instead of hearing the ding, moving away from my resting heart rate and getting incredibly anxious, I can CHOOSE when to check and respond to everything. Sure, phones are intended for immediate communication when they ring and we all know how much I like to talk on the phone, but with so many mobile applications and social outlets calling our attention, I don’t want to get so engrained in those that I don’t realize what is going on right in front of me, or what other things I could be doing. I like to think I’ve been doing this for a while by never letting Facebook or Instagram send push notifications, but there is always room for improvement.

So wish me luck as I turn my phone on silent and check my phone when it’s the right time, sound like a plan?

Read scripts: the bane of our existence

When you mail someone a letter, the post office does not notify you when the addressee receives it. When you leave someone a voicemail message, your phone does not beep to inform you when the person called has listened to your message. So why do Facebook, more and more email servers and iPhone text messages feel the need to notify you with the day and time the receiver opens your message?

We live in a world where we’re provided with too much information. Knowing when someone receives something does not help us any more than it does hurt us. It’s not even overinforming- it’s stalking when you’re following someone’s every click within their personal communication with others. Having this technology is like putting a recording bug on every human being and turning us into machines instead of real people, who have real commitments in their real time.

What decisions do these read scripts help us make? With confirmation that the other party has seen something, we don’t know if they have actually read the entire message. People can glance at text but not ever digest it until they are more focused. Part of the power of email and text messages as a medium is the time you have to craft a good response, so expecting immediacy is no good. You might as well have called them and asked their opinion in that moment if you’re going to text/email, then expect a quick reply. Therefore, if you want to live and make well-informed decisions, don’t rely on the “read” message at the end of an iPhone text or email. Respect the person you’re communicating with to respond on their own time—the power you gave them by writing to them instead of calling—and adequately answer what you needed. 

Pay attention to phone use

Having an iPhone for almost 10 months now, I feel like I can't even distinguish when I'm using my phone and when it's away. With so many young adults, students and teachers using iPhone during the day, there is barely a delineation on when we're using our phones and when we're not. When they are in use, are we texting? Using applications? Searching information online? Responding to email? Or...actually making a phone call?

With journalism classes, meetings and assistantship work filling up business hours, responding to texts, calls and emails is like autopilot Monday through Friday; I don't even take note of the pace I'm moving. Living on the same floor as five of my closest friends at Mizzou, I find myself making a lot less phone calls to those friends than I have the past three years of college, since we can talk in our apartments. So I felt like I was using my phone less for actual usage purposes and more for data and email, and wanted to check this perception.

Out of curiosity, since I don't have a phone bill mailed, I called my Sprint account information code yesterday hear a account summary of my monthly phone usage. Surprisingly enough- this perception was pretty inaccurate. It's probably a rare case compared to other college students, but here's what I learned:

• Between Sprint to Sprint, anytime and night/weekend minutes, I've used 1300 cell phone minutes in the past 20 days. I know I like catching up with people on the phone, but this averages to 65 minutes/day. Looks like I'm going to need to assess how much I'm on the phone and when that time is - because apparently those hours are adding up! 

• I used 430 text messages in the past three weeks, averaging about 20 text messages a day. Not bad, or alarming, especially compared to the volume of people I'm in touch with for work on campus.

The takeaway here: Don't live so automatically when making calls, sending texts and using data. Then, I might start to realize what I'm doing for an hour per day on the phone. Is it while I'm walking back and forth from class, or is it taking away time from homework? Am I calling recruiters for the Career Fair, or family and friends from home? When other college students and I start to pay attention to these things, maybe we'll be more productive or assert more thought into what we're doing. 

Smartphoneless

A few hours ago as I was loading the dishwasher, my iPhone slid off of the counter and the screen stopped functioning. It digitally created white and blue lines that filled the screen and didn't permit me to see the actual phone, but I was able to tell that the operating system was still working. I have insurance, the phone didn't crack and overall, it should be a pretty easy fix.

But I freaked out. Faster heart rate, tears and being upset at the situation. It's a Sunday night so there was nowhere open for me to get the issue fixed, and because of my work and commute hours, I'm going to have to rush to scrunch in some time at Best Buy to see what can be done. 

It's a pretty normal feeling these days to be let down without a cell phone; they are vital to our communication and the rise of the mobile market and smartphones in particular is massive. As I sat down in silence to think about what I could do, analyze why exactly I was upset and how many other ways I could communicate with people, I determined some reasons for this depression.

A simple one could be our reliance on smartphones. My tentative plan for Monday was staying in the city, taking the L to Lincoln Park and meeting friends for dinner, taking the L back to the suburbs and calling for a ride home. Without a phone, I can't call for rides, map out where I'm going or check the train schedule. Thankfully, I quickly realized that because of my do-it-yourself personality with these things, this was only a minute reason because I don't rely on applications as much as some of my friends do. I wasn't worried about getting lost, having a mobile computer to save information on or being "cellphoneless"- I've spent chunks of time out of the country where I function perfectly fine without a phone (despite how much I love to talk). 

The bulk of my sadness about the broken phone was not how much it would inconvenience me, but how much it inconveniences those around you. I was in the middle of a few conversations, waiting for some calls back and now don't know what these people said. I have to drastically change my plans for Monday because I can't confirm where exactly I'll meet my friends to commute together before dinner. And I can't communicate with my parents to pick me up, so now I have to use a car and pay to park at the local train station. People rely on others being accessible, and even if they're not responsive to calls, texts or emails, others are fairly certain that they notice them. 

Therefore, I'm hoping to take some days away from my phone and trust that those I'm close with have other ways of contacting me, like a house phone number or email. I sincerely apologize for anyone I have inconvenienced and hope that the issue is fixable! 

iPhone update

Now that I have had an iPhone for three weeks now, I've been thinking about how it has changed my life. Here are the top 10 most noticeable differences!

1. I actually READ Twitter
All of those dull moments where I'm waiting- to get picked up, in lines at the grocery store or at a stoplight, there is now something to do. I can catch up on news and my friends' momentary thoughts on the Twitter application. So I'm definitely over-informed. 

2. GPS 
I've never owned a GPS, so setting out to drive somewhere (like Ohio where I am right now) without even writing down directions is a relief. Because of this, my goal is to still always know my bearings and where I am going and not just follow what the GPS says without having any idea where I am.

3. Email....without a computer
I was able to take a vacation without my laptop for the first time in years, and STILL have full access to my email. I could reply if I wanted to or just know things right as they come, without carrying around a huge device! The iPhone definitely offers plenty of ways to keep in touch with work life.

4. Voice activation
If I am driving and want to reply to a text message, I can just dictate to the phone what to type rather than try it myself! Granted, you need perfect enunciation for this, but it's pretty awesome!

5. You can look up anything nearby
Apps like AroundMe let you choose a category (ex: gas, coffee shops, grocery stores, bars) and it will show you the names, addresses and phone numbers of all locations. You don't even have to think about entertainment, coupons or specials when leaving or going into a city- it does it all for you!

6. AutoCorrect
In a book I presented for my management class about how the internet is changing our brains, it reported that we strive less for perfection in terms of spelling, writing and more because we live in an immediate world where you just want to be out there. AutoCorrect confirms this hypothesis by making me a lazier typer, just typing words close to what I'm trying to say knowing it will change it. I've never been this way with spell check, so it's a strange difference, but a convenient one. Copying and pasting allows you to send the same thing to multiple people without others knowing...muhaha.

7. HeyTell
HeyTell is a walkie talkie app that you can use with other friends who have smart phones. Most question why a walkie talkie is necessary when you have a phone, but I am a fan: you don't have to text or type out messages, you don't listen to rings and the other person can reply at their own convenience. You can Hey Tell people when you get outside to pick them up instead of waiting to call. And my friends think it's the most fun thing that's happened to our phones!

8. Headache from the screen
If I stare at the screen for too long, especially in a car or moving space, I get a huge headache. Therefore, I'll have to be careful about how much I think I can do on my phone!

9. Push notifications 
"Push notifications" can be granted to any app, giving you up-to-date reminders about what is going on with it. This sense of immediacy has definitely changed how I think about things, from email, to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, maps and more. The option to know things right as they happen is insane but where society is at.

10. iPhones are like Twitter- the more friends of yours that have them, the more fun they are.

I don't know what provokes such excitement, but when a friend responds to a text message and the text is blue, I am ecstatic. This blue text denotes that the person you are texting is actually "iMessaging" you, or sending messages through the Cloud. Which next, means that they obviously have an iPhone. You can then FaceTime them (which I still haven't tried yet), be friends with them on other apps, and more. Therefore, it's a lot cooler to have friends with the phone for sharing purposes as well as group MMS text messaging that puts multiple people on the same message!

iPhone ownership

I am officially the owner of an iPhone 4S. After holding out on getting a smartphone for the past few years and planning to waiting until after graduation, I gave in and upgraded to the iPhone. 

As I described to my sister, buying an iPhone is not just like getting a new phone, it's like buying a new lifestyle. My dad spent two days setting up his smartphone upon purchase, and I've spent the past few days adjusting. I now have full access to internet with 3G (whatever that means), a GPS, my email, the weather, a camera, apps, voice activation and my own personal secretary...her name is Siri. 

As obsessed as I am with email, my favorite tool is voice activation. I don't have to text and drive anymore because I can dictate what I want in a text message and it will type it for me. You can press a button and ask Siri pretty much anything, and if she (yes, I'm speaking as if it's a person) doesn't know the answer, she'll look it up on the Web. I was Christmas shopping in Target and when they didn't hold the gift that I needed, I asked Siri what the phone number for GameStop in Glenview, IL was and it called it for me. So much for phone books, Google-ing phone numbers or any of that...smartphones do the work for you. 

Half of the issues in my life have now been solved. I can type (or record) a message on notes and it will send it to my computer. I can check my email from the train. I don't have to open my computer and scavenge weather.com each morning. I don't even have to take out my digital camera to take a picture, upload it to my computer and put it online...I can snap a photo and Twitpic it in seconds. There are no PNC banks in Missouri, so I can take a picture with it, submit it on my VirtualWallet app and the check will clear. 

There is definitely a price to pay for the convenience--the insurance for two years costs more than the phone itself (with an upgrade). The cost adds up by the time you buy a phone case, car charger and additional applications. I run the fear every day that I will drop the phone and lose everything. 

But I feel like after waiting so long to get a smartphone, it's acting as not only the gift it is, but a reward. I no longer have to stop in a parking lot and call for directions. Call friends to Google phone numbers and text them to me to call businesses. Mail checks home. Look up Mizzou sports scores. The phone does it all. It's truly fascinating. 

Naturally, I'm pretty competitive, but having the iPhone really is a daily "YOU WIN!" You followed the blue dot on the GPS to find your way to the restaurant, win! You don't have to log on Facebook later because you cleared your notifications, win! Downloaded a new app for free, yay! Look forward to further posts, updates and stories about the usage of my personal secretary and phone that does everything for you. 

iPhone 4S