Archive for January, 2012

Tweeting using Siri

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Hi, it just occurred to me that if you want to quickly tweet from your iPhone 4S using Siri, you can do it without any sort of hack. This requires that you have an iPhone 4S of course, a Twitter account, and a texting plan with your carrier.

1. Sign into Twitter and setup the texting service. When this is done, you send a text to 40404 with your tweet. There are several other things you can do, but they are not important for this post.

2. Add a new contact in your iPhone called Twitter. The phone number for it should be 40404. Note that this number works in the U.S. It may be different for other parts of the world.

3. Using Siri, say something like “Tell Twitter, This is a tweet from my phone.” And then Siri will send a text message to the Twitter contact which effectively tweets what you say.

Hope this helps someone.

It was interesting getting the iPhone 4S

Saturday, January 21st, 2012

This Friday evening was pretty interesting. Mainly because I finally got the iPhone 4S, thanks to selling off many DVDs we no longer watch, and doing some remote work.

Because it’s been snowing pretty hard and because the weather is less than favorable, there were not many people at the mall where the #AT&T store was located. It was a weird feeling walking in that mall and it not be crowded. In some ways it reminded me of some of the older malls in Denver.

So, when we’re at the #AT&T store, the guy who’s helping is either not with it, or not wanting to work, or just lazy. He takes my cash, and upgrades my account with no problems. However he doesn’t mention anything about the data. Before upgrading to this phone I was using an older #Nokia E61 and so was on the 200 Mb data plan. I would have guessed that he would want to mention other data plan options. Oh, speaking of which, it’s almost time for #AT&T to change their data plans to $5 more. So you might want to think about this in case. Anyway, I tell him I want the 2 Gb plan and he upgrades it.

Next he proceeds to set up the phone with the sim card and transfer my number to it. Nowhere did he mention the Apple Care plan, insurance, the fact that I have to get it right there and then or else. Nada! Even though I would have declined the offers, he still should have mentioned him. I mean, isn’t he supposed to be a sales guy? As I said, maybe he wasn’t feeling well. After all, he was stuffed in half of his nose and runny in the other.

I do give him credit in that at least he put the iPhone in the Otterbox case I brought with me. I was certainly not going to buy one there. That leads me to wonder that if he saw me bring in my own case, maybe he figured I was smart enough to not get the Apple Care plan and so didn’t offer it to me. Hmm, food for thought.

The biggest one though, is he didn’t tell me that by me upgrading my account with this new iPhone 4S, it would renew my #contract for 2 more years. Hmm, does that mean I can cancel and use that as grounds for no #eft? Not that I want to at this point. Despite the issues many have with #AT&T, they will screw you over just as much as the other big players. So I’m good, we, as the public have learned to bend over and take it. I mean, $30 per month for unlimited texting even though it doesn’t even cost them a fraction of one cent for 10 text messages? Yes, yes, I know they are a business and they will make #money off the customer, but still.

I lost my train of thought. Oh yes, just saying that #Sprint and #Verizon will do the same thing in their own way, so #AT&T is not the only devil in the field.

After leaving the store, and the mall, we had dinner at finger-lickin’ good. I didn’t have my #4square app setup quite yet, so I couldn’t annoy anyone with my check in. I was like a little kid. I couldn’t eat very much because I just wanted to get home and play with my new toy. Sure enough, as soon as we got home, I ordered the #kids to feed the #pets, and I went and setup my phone.

So now I’ve officially re-joined the #Apple users who are tied to their phones. Oh, and BTW, I still can’t stand iTunes.

Stuff about numbers

Friday, January 20th, 2012

It’s interesting how certain dates stand out more than others for me. For example, I can remember specific dates and times of things from over 25 years ago, yet I can’t remember something which happened a month ago. I know there is a difference between long and short term memory, but still. In addition to remembering specific dates, I also have a special place in my heart for certain birthdays.

One date which stands out is of course 7/24/1974, wow, that’s a lot of sevens. In fact, 7/24/1974, or 7/24/74 for short, and my name are tied together in terms of the phone. Here’s how.

  • 7 = R
  • 2 = A
  • 4 = G

The letters R, A, and G, are my initials. Now if you take out the A and leave just the letters R and G, those are 7 and 4, my birth year. So, both the month/date and the year fit the initials of my name.

Another few dates which stand out are 5/28/96, 12/05/00, and 12/21/04. Those are the birthdays for my 3 kids. All of these dates fell on Tuesdays. Now, if you add up the date numbers, 28 + 5 + 21, you get 54. Why is 54 important? Well, if you divide 54 by the number of kids I have, 3, you get 18. My extension at GW Micro ended in 18. I didn’t ask for it either, it just worked out that way.

There are many more birthdays I remember vividly, but to list them here would make this a longer-than-necessary post. Also, most of them are ones which only have personal meaning to me. A few are, 3/17/84, 6/10/80, 12/3/74, 11/13/74, 12/20/75, 7/15/83, and 2/14/76.

As far as dates of special things in my life, other than the birthdays of my kids, the following are special to me. 7/24/95, 5/13/96, 5/31/99, 6/28/00, 8/5/06, 12/8/08, 9/25/10, and 6/23/11.

Thanks for reading this, and as always, comments welcome.

Almost there with the iPhone 4S

Monday, January 16th, 2012

So, I’m almost there with the iPhone 4S upgrade. I’ve sold many movies and done some phone computer training and troubleshooting. Also, thanks to a few donations, things have moved along rather nicely. Only have about $50 left to go and the upgrade can be purchased.

On a side note, it’s very cold today. My heater is definitely doing its share of work. And I’m glad for it.