Redirecting My Energy

For more information, click here!

iPad 2 and FaceTime

My sister just ordered her iPad 2. She fell in love with Mom’s iPad when she visited us this past summer.

Now Mom is talking about trading in her iPad for the iPad 2, which would give her the ability to FaceTime.

Actually, might be a good time for mom to switch. We recently got rid of the landline, and Mom still isn’t thrilled with using her cell phone, even with the nifty new Moshi handset I purchased.

I can just see her now….sitting in her room with her iPad 2, chatting face to face with her daughter, granddaughter, and if my son ever answers his iPhone…her grandson. All that face to face chatting, and no additional phone bill.

iPhone 4S

According to our son’s recent Facebook post, he’s getting the new iPhone 4S this Friday. He also has the iPad 2, which he loves. This is the same kid (well he really isn’t a kid, he is in his early 30s) who harassed me with I got the first iPhone. He wasn’t the least impressed and kept complaining because my reception sucked. I don’t even think he took two minutes to check out my nifty new gadget.

Well fast forward a couple years, and he is now moving onto his second iPhone.

According to the Facebook posts of my daughter and daughter-in-law, the resent updating of their iPhones hasn’t gone well. Both my daughter-in-law and son-in-law lost tons of apps and music on their recent update. Apparently they haven’t been able to get them back at the iTune store.

Oops.

Moshi Moshi Handset for the Cell Phone and iPod Touch

Well, we zapped our landline a couple of weeks ago. Since I like an old-fashioned handset, I ordered a Moshi Moshi handset for my iPod Touch, and it also fits into my Blackberry.

I have the Textfree app on the iPod Touch, which turns the iPod Touch into a phone. They even give you a phone number. The app is free, no monthly fee and all incoming calls are free. You purchase minutes for outgoing calls. It only cost a couple bucks for a 100 minutes.

There is a nifty little button on the inside handle of the handset, that you push to disconnect or connect to the call. So when you want to hang up, just push the button.

I tried it in both devices. I could hear very well. The only weird thing, unlike a traditional phone handset, you don’t hear your own voice in the earpiece, as you talk into the mouthpiece. I can hear the person on the other side of the line perfectly, clear and loud. But, I find myself talking loudly into the phone, because it seems as if the line is dead while I talk.

I’ve had mixed reviews as to how I sound when using the phone. I spoke to my aunt, using the iPod Touch. She is hard of hearing, and when I used the iPod Touch to talk to her without the handset, she said I sounded as if I was in a tunnel. She liked the handset better.

But, my daughter said I was cutting out, when using the iPod Touch and the handset. Yet that might have been more the iPod Touch and not the handset.

When I talked to hubby on the Blackberry with the handset, he like it better without, while my daughter said it sounded fine. Again, it could be the reception of the device.

The one thing I was not happy with, and not sure if I can fix it some way – if I leave it plugged into the iPod Touch, it won’t ring for an incoming call. So, unless I see it light up, I don’t know I have a call.

I can leave it plugged into the Blackberry, and I hear the phone ring. Yet, it is really the iPod Touch I bought it for. So, I need to see if there is some setting I need to change.

The handset has a solid feel. It is actually heavier than a traditional phone handset.

So far, I like it.

Roku 2 - A Different Way to Watch TV

I’m ending the summer revamping my budget – looking for items to cut.

Two items hitting the chopping box – our landline and TV cable.

Initially this began not because I wanted to economize, but because our provider has been giving us horrendous service all summer. Actually, it is a new provider, in that they bought out the old company.

Not many choices where we live – so I decided to look in another direction.

Yesterday hubby and I purchased the Ruko 2 – which allows us to stream Netflix, Hulu Plus, and lots of free channels to our TV.

There are three models. We purchased the mid-priced one, at $78. Would have gotten the lower priced one for $20 less, yet that can only be purchased online, and with shipping, it would end up costing almost the same as the Ruko 2.

It was ridiculously easy to hook up. I put batteries in the Ruko remote (they came with it). Plugged the device into our TV, and plugged the power cord into the device.

The cord it comes with (to hook up the TV to the Ruko) is not for high definition. So, if you want hi def, you need to purchase separately a HDMI cable. We happen to have one already, so didn’t need to purchase one.

You also need high speed Internet.

The only time you need a computer is when signing up, and getting all your passwords in order. After that, you don’t need the computer to use the Roku, just high speed Internet.

To use, we turn on the TV, then click source until we see the word Roku appear on the screen, and then we push OK on the very simple remote they provide.

So far……a very addictive device.

Debt Ceiling Issue for a Non-Partisan Voter

The Internet definitely changed how we deal with political issues.

I live in Arizona and just went to my representative’s website, to send him an email, in support of negotiating a bi-partisan resolution on the debt ceiling. My US Representative is Trent Franks.

On Frank’s website, he has a quote by Margret Thatcher, “Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides."

Hmmm…..interesting…..doesn’t give me much hope he will be routing for my side, which is compromise.

One thing Trent seems to forget when quoting Thatcher….when there is only one road, having the drivers coming from opposing direction always leads to a car wreck.

Rather like what we are seeing in our country at the moment. A car wreck.

Sometimes the drivers need to swerve a little to the right or left, in order to make it safely down the road.

iPhone - iPod Touch FaceTime

I am really loving my iPod Touch these days. Our daughter and her family are now settled into their new Alaska home (her hubby is in the Coast Guard). And while I am in Arizona and she is in Alaska, the other day she gave me a guided tour of her home.

She walked me through the house, the patio and I saw the neighborhood. Our one-year-old granddaughter even blew me kisses…that was my favorite part!

Our grandbaby also disconnected the call at one point, when she reached out to me, and touched her mother’s iPhone.

I’m still loving the fact that with the iPod Touch there is no monthly fee, I simply tap into my home’s wireless.

Perhaps it is not as good as seeing my granddaughter in person, and giving her a hug, but I will happily take those kisses.