I remember the day I first got my BlackBerry Curve.
I reveled in the connectivity and the ability to check email in line at the grocery store. I solved disputes among friends with a few clicks and gleefully Googled home repair from the passenger seat on the long drive home from Montreal.
What a difference a few years make.
First, there’s such a thing as being too connected. When the BlackBerry network went down a few months back, I briefly reveled at the lack of connectivity – the relative peace – my inability to check anything. Yeah, I loved that until I needed to call someone.
Then, there’s the lovely speed dialing feature. To be honest, I still haven’t figured it out, but my derriere has.
Somehow I periodically bump buttons that add to this list. Not a big deal when I enter a company’s fax, but having the chief of police on speed dial can cause problems.
See, my bum doesn’t just know how to populate this list, it knows how to call people from it as well. I’d actually butt dialed the chief about six times before I figured out what was happening and why.
Cool fitness things these phones can do
Still, it’s amazing the new things phones can do – especially in terms of health and fitness. Need an ultrasound? There’s an app for that. Really. (See http://bit.ly/zp0BrF .)
On a more practical level for most of us, this friend of mine, Paul, told me about the MyFitnessPal.com bar-code scanner app. When he goes to use the food tracker, he no longer has to manually enter nutrition info or even search for it. He can simply scan a bar code and the app will find it for him. How cool is that?
For those who can’t afford a trainer, there’s a solution: the free Nike Training Club app. (See http://on.mash.to/A0wudq.) This app will generate custom workouts from professional athletes. Again, way cool.
Then, there’s iMuscle (http://bit.ly/wy5jVz). It takes an exercise and shows you graphic images of the muscles being worked, how they move and what the exercise should do. Kinda creepy, but still, well, cool. In seeing what the exercises are supposed to do, you can figure out how to do them correctly.
And I can’t forget Jeff Galloway’s Ultimate 5K app (http://bit.ly/z1DBVk). Created by an Olympian, it allows you to use your smart phone to help you get in shape for a 5K.
Don’t you just love technology?
One problem though.
Not a single one of these thoroughly awesome apps will work with my BlackBerry. All are for iPhone, iPod or iPad.
Darn those Apple users. They get everything.
There’s not an app for that
Oh, well, at least I can still listen to music and books on tape via my cell … except that the buttons are kind of funky and wind up skipping too far forward or backward or … whatever.
Yeah, like my son, I have cell-phone envy. And my husband? He has no sympathy (http://bit.ly/zQbOyd). Doggone it all. My husband’s next column might be on why his wife shouldn’t have a new cell.
He can talk. He just got a new Android – for work, of course.
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And now for fun
Dig this Saturday Night Live skit:
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