Happy 5th Birthday App Store

Today marks the 5th Birthday of the Apple App Store and a dramatic change to the way we all buy software. To celebrate apple is giving away some very popular apps.

A short definition
App is simply a shortened form of the word application. We use to refer to them as programs when we used them on a computer.

A short history
We have had applications for a long long time. They use to come on CDs and before that floppy disks. The iPhone had apps before there was an app store; everything that was loaded on the phone was an app. But, after jailbreakers created a way to put there own apps on the iPhone Apple realized there was tremendous revenue potential in creating an official App Store.

Long before the advent of the iPhone we in the handheld computing world were using the term app. I remember while I was a Mormon missionary in Pennsylvania in 2009 a kid we were teaching asked me if I knew about apps. Of course I knew about apps I said, I had been using apps on a Palm Pilot since I was 13 years old. Missionaries are a very focused group of people and I had no idea what was going on In the world of iPhone and ultimately the world of electronics.

A discussion of change
Things have changed phenomenally in the last 5 years, not just for the iPhone but for software overall.

What we use to do

• We use to go to a physical store like Best Buy or, try to remember, Circuit City 
• Options for each type of application were few to none
• lay down 50 bucks or more every time we got an application
• every time a new version of that application came out we had to go back to the store and shell out the money again
• We expected those applications to be perfect that they would run without coding problems

What we do now

• We open up an app store on whatever device or computer we have, never leaving our home
• There are hundreds or thousands of options in each category for a mobile device, and dozens of options on a computer
• We would like our apps free if possible, if that does not happen we would really like to pay no more than a dollar or two for the software
• When a new version of an app is released we expect it to be handed to us, via an update, for free
• We expected that applications, especially new ones, will have bugs in them and that these will be addressed frequently by updates

Do you see the way the world has changed because of the App Store? When Apple started doing it mainstream everybody had to jump on board, and as a result they changed not only the phone industry, but the whole electronics industry. 

Please leave your comments about how you think the App Store has changed things.

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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

Hardware Review: Karma hotspot

Name: Karma Hotspot
Stars: 4
Hardware Type: Cellular Hotspot
Price: $99 (when I bought it it was $89)

It's hard to be productive these days if you don't have internet. A hotspot lets you get internet wherever you are.

The Data Dilemma
My internet tends to be a little on the temperamental side, meaning it does not always like to work. Sometimes it likes to work only for specific devices and only in certain spots in my home. Unfortunately I don't have control of the router, my landlord does. That does have the plus side that I don't pay for my internet, so its not all bad. What is bad is that it tends to go out at the most inconvenient times, like right when an assignment or paper is due and the library is closed.

Because of this schizophrenic internet service I decided a cellular hotspot might be in order for emergencies. The problem is I hate data plans, I think they are the biggest ripoffs in the world. Can I tell you what I hate most about them? Ok, I will, you pay for data you may NEVER use! That thought just makes me sick in the heart. So I searched and searched and searched through every possible hotspot option available from the major carriers and the major prepaid brands. Everybody had activation fees and expiration dates.

Enter the Karma.
Karma is a new idea, and a breath of fresh air in the world of cellular data. The folks at Karma believe that you should only pay for data that you actually use, and they also believe that you should be rewarded for sharing with others.

You pay for your hotspot, they give you one gig of data free, you pay $14 for each additional gig, your data NEVER expires, every time someone new gets on your hotspot they get 100 free MB and you get 100 free MB for sharing. You never pay for other people's data usage, you only share your connection.

Features
Ok, so that probably sounded like a sales pitch, which it was not, I am not affiliated with Karma in any way. Let's examine some of the features to see how good they are.

• Coverage: the best pricing does you no good if you don't have coverage, and this is where Karma loses a star. 
• They cover 80 major U.S. cities. 
• Fortunately for me Provo is at the tail-end of the Salt Lake coverage.
• The coverage we get is pretty stable, just a few spots around that have a problem.
• If you live or travel in cities where there is coverage then its good deal, if not than its probably not for you.
• Social data: this is Karma's big push, share with others and get free data.
• Anyone around you can get onto it.
• Up to 8 devices
• They have to sign up or sign in with their own Karma account
• which automatically gets them 100 free MB
• And automatically gets the Karma owner 100 free MB
• It works if you are somewhere where a lot of people are looking for a free wifi connection
• Battery Life: Karma claims between 6-8 hours
• Seems to work fine for me
• I rarely charge the device, but I don't use it for extended periods of time very often.
• Size: the Karma is half the size of your smartphone
• It easily fits in your pocket allowing you to take wifi with you anywhere.

Conclusion

If you live where there is Karma coverage you can't get a better deal, unless you actually use several gigs of data every month in which case some of the major carries might be slightly cheeper on data prices. But Karma has sales almost every holiday dropping the price of a gig into the $10 range.

If you have any questions about Karma or choosing a hotspot please feel free to ask them in the comments below. Or answer this question: what would you find most helpful about having a cellular hotspot?

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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

You can purchase the Karma from Amazon here (Affiliate link)

Book Review: Platform, by Michael Hyatt

Title: Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World
Author: Michael Hyatt
Genre: Business
Stars: 4

Michael Hyatt is the name in Platform building, probably because he wrote the book on it. This book has been on my to read list for a while. I just recently finished it, and it was excellent.







Summary
In this book you walk through the steps of building your own platform. You learn how to take your wonderful idea, concept, product, or service, and turn it into something people will notice. A big part of this book is dedicated to blogging and social media, teaching you how to do them better.

Thoughts
I really liked this book. It is easy to read because Michael writes in a conversational style and sets up his chapters with subheads and bullets. For me it was fun because he writes the way he talks and I first discovered Michael through his podcast, This Is Your Life, so I could hear him speaking to me through the book.

Reading this book will help you build a better platform. Like with most books I read I did not agree with everything this one taught, but most of it was good advice. I'm sure anyone who follows all the directions in this book will build a great platform. Michael does not want you to spend a lot of money, that is one of the main points of the book. Unfortunately, not spending a lot of money can mean very different things to a former CEO and a college student. For that reason, there are some things the books instructs to do that I am just not able to do.

Recommendations
I would recommend this book to just about anyone. In today's world we all need to be savvy about things like social media, even if we don't want to build a platform right now. However, I would not recommend that you run out and buy this book right away. Much of the actual content of this book can be found on Michael's blog. That is where I recommend you start. If you like what you find there and would enjoy having everything compiled in a cohesive step by step reference then go ahead an get the book.

I truly believe this is one of those books that can help you live better. I think if you do not already follow Michael Hyatt it would be well worth your time to look through some of his work and see if you can benefit from it.

What books have helped you live better? Please share your recommendations, thoughts, and comments below.

If you found this post helpful or interesting you can , Tweet it, use the new social site potluck or use one of the buttons below to share.

Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

You can purchase Platform here (affiliate link)

Things I Loved Today

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that in life bad things will happen.

For those of you who follow me on twitter or are friends with me on Facebook you know that at the end of everyday I post a tweet and status that start out things I loved today. I do this for a simple reason, because even though it is true that bad things happen every day it is also true that good things happen everyday, things worth loving.

Why?
I noticed that there is a lot of negative expression in social media, plenty of expressions of despair, disappointment, and discord. At one particularly negative point in my life I realized I was a contributor to this part of social media and I realized that it was probably not healthy. Even though I felt really bad about life at the time, it did not help to reinforce the negative. I realized I could lift myself and others by choosing to accentuate the positive things in life.

This gave rise to my first round of things I loved today postings which I did for a couple months and now have recently returned to as I again found myself facing a negative outlook.

Social For Good
For me it was not really even about the social aspect, it was about doing something simple everyday to improve my attitude and recognize my blessings. I was surprised at the positive response I received from my Facebook friends, many of them liked the posts and would comment on what a wonderful thing they thought these posts were and how they lifted their lives as well.

It was not until later that I realized that many of their news feeds were probably full of the same negative updates that mine often was and that I had contributed to. Because of this, a post focused on the positive appeared as a breath of fresh air to them. I think each of us can use social media to have a positive impact on ourselves and others, if we choose to.

The Challenge
So you can probably guess where I am going with this, I want to challenge you to try using social media for an intentionally positive purpose, to see the goodness in your day and brighten the digital sea you swim in. So here is the challenge, its as simple as 1, 2, 3.

1. Try posting 1 "things I loved today" to a social media site once a day
2. Continue to do this for 2 weeks
3. In each post try to name at least 3 things you loved that day

And that is it, that's the challenge, not very hard. just see if your attitude toward life is improving at the end of it. If you are using twitter use the Tweet #Thingsilovedtoday. If you choose to take the challenge please leave a comment letting us know.

Counting your blessings to improve you attitude is nothing new, this is just a different take on it for our social media world. Just give this a try and see if it can benefit you. If you would like to see examples of these posts just Follow @halduauthor. 

If you found this post helpful or interesting you can , Tweet it, use the new social site potluck or use one of the buttons below to share.

Thanks for reading, and remember, you can live better

Podcast Review: Today in iOS (Tii)

Stars: 5

Type: Technology/iOS

Run Time: approx. 45min-1.5hours
Release: ~weekly

The Today in iOS (Tii) podcast was one of the first podcasts I ever started listening too and is probably responsible for me falling in love with the medium. This show began when the first iPhone was announced, before it had even been released (it was called Today in iPhone back then) and so it is the longest running iDevice podcast in iTunes. It now deals with all news, tips, reviews and questions iOS related.

The power of this show is in its community. Rob Walsh who hosts the show has built a powerful community based podcast off of listener feedback. One listener will call into the show with an issue happening with their iOS device or something they would like to know how to do on it, Rob will give any suggestions he has, and the next week you can be sure that at least several other listeners will have called in explaining their solutions to the problem. I have contributed in the process as both questioner and answerer several times.

So there you have it, if you love learning about iPhones, iPads, and iPods this is the show for you to listen to. Go listen to an episode and let me know what you think Tweet to @halduauthor or leave a comment. 

If you found this post helpful or interesting you can , Tweet it, or use the new social site potluck or use one of the buttons below to share.

Thanks for reading, and remember, live better

Gospel Library 3.0, new features

Last week the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released their new gospel library app, Gospel Library 3.0. The important thing to note here is that this is not an update to the existing app, so you will not receive an update notification for it. You will have to go into the app store and search for it and download it new onto your device. The reason for this is that the old version (2.5) is being kept on the app store for people running a version of iOS later than 6.1.3 this is a really nice thing for those on older devices.

Note: if you are jailbroken at 6.1.2 you will not be able to install this app but the old version should keep working for you.

The Gospel Library gives access to all the scriptures and manuals from the LDS church, including the new editions of the Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.

Lets go over what is new in this app.

New Layout:
Something some of us have been waiting a long time for is a new layout to the Gospel Library and they have done a really nice job with this app. Its close enough that you can still recognize everything but it is much nicer put together.

As you can see here you can access the library from the menu button (red arrow) without having to sift back through all the screens, two taps on the book shelf icon (orange arrow) will take you back to the library home which you see here.

Of course this all looks much nicer with actual covers showing up in the library menu, however if you prefer the old look you can select list view (yellow arrow).



Page Numbers
Maybe not a major new feature but it will prove very useful between those using print and those using electronic scriptures and manuals. Page numbers had previously appeared in only the Teachings of the Presidents manuals. They will now appear in all books (this feature can be turned off if desired), the page numbers will correspond directly to the page numbers in print editions.

Notebooks in Windows
One of the greatest feature of the Gospel Library has been the ability to have multiple books open at a time. This feature still exists in 3.0 and now for the first time you can have study notebooks open in separate windows as well, this is great new as it will make taking notes much easier.

Sharing
A share button has finally been added, both to the menu bar and to the annotation toolbar (green arrows). This will allow you to share inspiring quote and references with FaceBook, Twitter or via email and iMessage. This will be a great missionary tool going forward.



Footnote and Audio Sidebar
By pressing the sidebar button in the upper right hand corner (blue arrow) you can access the new footnote and audio player sidebar. This will allow you start and audio recording of the book you are reading that you can follow along with. Let you jump to the footnotes. Of course this is also available by tapping on any footnoted words hyperlinked in blue.



Custom Collections
By tapping the New button (pink arrow) you can make a new collection to which you can add different items from the gospel library to have them organized. After you create a custom folder you can  add items to it by hitting the edit button (black arrow).

Those are the new features I have noticed so far, if you have found others please leave them in comments below or Tweet to @halduauthor.

The app is not perfect yet, it has a few stability issues but nothing worse than past versions have had and I assume there will be an update soon to deal with those soon. If you haven't downloaded the app you should, let me know when you have.

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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better

Parental Controls Part 2

With Apple's recent announcement at WWDC that they will be making it easier to find kid appropriate apps in the app store I thought it might be time to revisit the Parental Controls and go over the items I did not cover in part 1.

Again go to Settings > General > Restrictions. If you have already set up restrictions then you will have to enter your restrictions pass code. We will pick up where we left off in part 1.

Privacy Settings (red box)
There are a number of options here as you can see in the screen shot.


When you click on any of these items you will have two options (orange circle):

• Allow Changes
• Don't Allow Changes

If you have children primarily using the device you probably want to toggle all of these to "Don't Allow Changes." The reason is that many apps will ask on launch if they can access such things as Location, Contacts, Photos, etc. All the child has to do is click yes and its done. Location services is probably the biggest one here because there are many apps, particularly free apps that advertise that will ask for your location but do not need it for anything having to do with the app.


You will also see a list of all the apps that currently have access to that setting or account. In this case this is my Twitter and we can see that both the Twitter and Flipboard apps have access to my twitter account. I can toggle these permissions on or off.

It is a good idea, even if you do not have children, to go through this list and see what permissions you have given out to apps, you might be surprised what apps are trying to track you. If an app does not have a good reason for accessing this information then turn it off. For example I need Weathercube to know my location so it can give me the proper weather, but I do not need Fruit Ninja to know my location because it is just a game.

Allow Changes (yellow box)
This is the name of the next section for some odd reason, don't ask me why because that is the same thing we were doing before.
This allows you to restrict the changing of "Accounts" which means email, calendar, and contacts accounts. Setting this just means that if you have you device hooked up with your iCloud, or Gmail account your children won't be able to delete it, it also means that they will not be able to set up syncing with some other account.




The "Volume Limit" can be a little confusing. You cannot actually set the volume limit here, you can only choose wether or not that limit can be changed. To actually set the volume limit go to Setting > Music (green arrow).
This is important because especially with young children you do not want them putting the volume up too loud and damaging there ears. So you may want to set a volume limit and then select Don't Allow Changes here.

Game Center (blue box)
The last section just has to toggle switches. You can choose not to allow multiplayer games through game center and to not allow the adding of game center friends. This is just a way to keep your children from accidentally encountering an online predator through game center.

Well that is it for restrictions. There is one more parental control item that deserves its own post to explain so I will be getting to that later. Please make sure you take the simple steps you need to to protect your children on an iOS device. If you have not already read Part 1 you may want to do so.


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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better