Information courtesy of BillShrink.

There should by rights be a team of holiday police who wrestle your tech from your grasp as you pass through customs. At the very least there should be an amnesty box, in which you can deposit your phone and/or personal organiser for the duration of your trip. But alas, there is none of these things. And so a combination of modern communication infrastructure and weak will have allowed the tentacles of work to extend well beyond the walls of my place of employment.

When I finally get round to unpacking I find that I have forgotten my charger. This is perhaps the act of a desperate subconscious trying to save me from myself. The battery will not last the week and so the phone gets switched off. But still I find myself sneaking away from the dinner table every now and then, powering the thing up to see if there are any messages, all the while trying to avoid discovery by my family. I feel like a wireless operator for the French Resistance. Except, well, what exactly am I resisting? The chance to spend proper time with my family, the opportunity to take time out from work, the undeniable need to recharge my own batteries?

Read full story by Kevin Fong.

Can start to see the potential of it, how it changes the meaning of what is seen – fascinating!

If you’ve never heard of Vouchercloud (or other similar apps, which I’d love to know about), I was told about this over Easter. If you don’t have a smartphone (a variety are accessible), simply go to the website and download printed vouchers before you go.

What does Vouchercloud do?
Another example of global returning to local… On entering a postcode (or type of activity, or name of company), the app searches for nearby offers within distance (you can bring all of them up, but I tend to be looking for restaurants), and offers a range of discounts to be used in store.

“Get the latest discount voucher codes from a range of high street and local retailers. All our voucher codes are updated weekly, allowing you to get the best promotional deals as soon as they get released.”

What’s Special about Mobile?
However, what I love about this app is the ability to use it on the move. On downloading the app, it uses the phones GPS function to identify those nearest to you, and which have valid vouchers for that day (yes, some appear on a Friday night, and not on a Saturday and vice-versa). You can also save favourites for those places that you like to visit frequently!

“Vouchercloud is also the first voucher supplier in Europe to have released a separate mobile voucher application. You can now also get our discount voucher codes directly to your smart phone by signing up to our mobile voucher app”.

Not Always Super-Prepared?
When out and about, I haven’t always thought about where I want to go, or I’m staying with friends and have no access to a printer, so this is great. I simply get up a code on the phone, show it to the waiter in the restaurant, and they subtract from the bill – saved £20 in La Tasca the other week, got a few pounds off my tyres in National Tyres & Autocentre, and a meal for £10 in Zizzi.

What’s New?
Vouchercloud are clearly very excited about their new collaboration with Vue cinemas, and have a special offer of 2-4-1 for a viewing of ‘Knight and Day’, the new Cruise/Diez film, voucher valid until 14th September. Here’s the preview for the film if you’re tempted:

Is the site interested in feedback?
The site has an active Twitter account. I just sent this status update indicating that there was a spelling mistake on their ‘apologies we’re super-busy’ message, and 5 minutes later (who knows, they may just have noticed it themselves too):

Why Sleep Cycle?
For years I have complained of being tired, and have had all kinds of tests… but I think the general conclusion is that I just enjoying living life to the full too much, and consequently do too much (and I work best late at night too… why is culture built around morning larks rather than night owls)!! Recently, however, I have been waking up knowing that I have had a lot of disturbing dreams, feeling less refreshed than ever, and falling asleep in the middle of the day. Many years ago I stopped trying to get to sleep if my eyes weren’t closing on their own – either picking up a book, or watching a film I already know (or now, iPlayer, in the knowledge that I can finish watching the next day). Last night I went to bed at 1.15am, watched Casualty, and started watching John Bishop’s Britain… I had already set my phone alarm… and it looks like it woke me just as I’d slipped into the second super-deep sleep of the night…

The App
The app, which was only 59p, was recommended to me by a friend who had tried it for several nights. You need to be able to leave your phone plugged in all night, otherwise I suspect it sucks all that wonderful iPhone battery life… The app uses the iPhone accelerometer (used to sense orientation, acceleration, vibration shock, and falling) to monitor movement during sleep. The more you move, the lighter the sleep phase that you are in. As I already had the phone alarm set, I didn’t really test the claims of the phone that the best use of this phone is to set the alarm, and the app will sense which is the lightest part of your sleep pattern within a half-hour window around the alarm time, and wake you up, allowing you to feel more refreshed/less tired during the day…  maybe one to try tonight…  The phone keeps a record of all your statistics.. maybe one to take to your GP to discuss… Note: Don’t put the phone under your pillow, not good for the phone or the accuracy of the app.

“Scientific” Review

“Actigraphy is the science of recording motion patterns during sleep. It is generally considered a more accurate means of monitoring sleeping patterns than a sleep journal or devices that can only record in short time frames, but not as useful as polysomnography, which encompasses the use of an EEG. For instance, it is very useful in collecting the night-to-night sleep patterns of patients diagnosed with insomnia or disorders with their circadian rhythms.

So in trying this app out, the graph is a little misleading. Since no motion occurs during REM sleep, the part of the graph that says “dreaming” is a misnomer. Perhaps a better term would be “wakefulness”. However, “deep sleep” works okay for the lower portion, but keep in mind that REM is when we are dreaming the most, and true “deep sleep” occurs in the latter two stages of Non-REM. More motion likely means you are not in REM, but for deep sleep you could easily be moving or not. The app builds on ideas that actigraphy utilizes, which is a good test for basic sleep cycle pattern testing, but should be used for novelty purposes only and to get a GENERAL idea of how you tend to sleep. The fact is, you could lay still during Non-REM just as you do in REM, so if you are truly having sleep issues, polysomnograph performed at a sleep clinic is the way to go.” (Review by a physiology instructor)

I still have several months to run on my contract for my iPhone (3GS 32GB), so an iPhone 4 is definitely out of the question at the moment, and probably have to wait for iPhone 5! The only things I crave on the iPhone 4 are the improved battery life (although not the weight that comes with it) and the flash on the camera… Otherwise, I’ve updated to OS 4.0 on my phone, so I’m sure it gives me whatever the extra functionality is… although unfortunately the phone seems (unsurprisingly) much slower and the battery life is just killing… although that may be more down to the experiments with geolocation software – notoriously hard on battery life!

Apps Folders

With OS 4.0 comes the option to place apps in folders… which sounds like a great idea… so long as you can remember which folder you put them in… Folders can be named whatever you want, and you work with whatever system works for you!

iPhone Folders

• Hold down on an app/folder until the cross appears in the left-hand corner (see right)
• Drag & Drop on top of another app which you wish to put into the same folder
• Name the folder appropriately.
• Continue

Now, I have huge problems getting my apps (all 9 pages of them) to move across the screen boundaries on my phone, so Tweeted out, and got lots of helpful advice that it was also possible to do this, much faster, in iTunes

iTunes Folders

• Ensure that you have the latest version of iTunes available.
• Attach iPhone to computer, allow it to Sync
• Click on ‘Devices’
• Look for the tab ‘Apps’, and a screen similar to the following will appear:

• Drag & Drop apps from the main screen into the numbered screens.
• Click on the numbered screen to ensure that it appears as the main screen
• Drag & drop within the screen to in the folders. Appears to be a limit of 9 apps in each folder… (so I have ‘Games 2′)… actually, that’s not true – just got 10 in one!
• Press ‘Apply’ otherwise before syncing, otherwise your phone settings will overset it (found that out the hard way!)

Maybe I’ll be back with another screenshot when I’m done… fortunately I had only moved about 20 apps when I lost what I’d done!!!!

I started writing quite an extensive blog post whilst sat in Zizzi’s in Manchester last Monday on the WordPress app on the iPhone, but although it indicates that there is a draft in the local folder, there’s nothing there to open – it was my first go at using the app, so if anyone can tell me what I’m doing wrong, I’d love to know!!

The Digital Day

On that day, a Monday on which I was having a day off in Manchester, I had considered the amount of digital data I had used by lunchtime….

• iPhone: Alarm clock
• Bible (YouVersion)
• Calendar (to check the time of my flight later in the day)
• Train timetable – what time did I need to leave to ensure time at the airport.
• Weather (what did I need to wear?)
• Tweets via Echofon, including photos
• Contact with friends (inc the one I was meeting later) via Facebook (and emails)
• Checking in at various locations with Foursquare and Gowalla (including adding new locations/photos)
• Geocaching (do you know how much more difficult that is in the urbanised areas than in the countryside – had to sit on a bench awaiting the other 3 benches around me to empty out – thank goodness for Mancunian rain!)
• Vouchercloud, to check out somewhere I could get a good meal (on my own) for lunch.
• And then I was sat there tapping in a blog on WordPress, but that didn’t quite work….

And that’s just the digital stuff I knowingly use… our entire world runs on digital in many ways

Digital Fasting

I had already booked, post giving my Twitter Talk to OutThere to go to St Cuthman’s for a retreat – phone went off shortly after I arrived… I then realised I had to turn it on as it was my only alarm clock (despite breakfast available til 10am!) – I risked it without the following day. Occasionally I missed the opportunity to take a photo of something, or tweet about something, but without that, can start to look at the views, at sitting still, etc. differently… I’m not saying I want to be without my digital tools (I especially love my Twitter, Facebook & blogging!), but it was such a relief to turn my phone off and NOT be available to anyone else but me – and a big pile of books in the library (for the record: 5 fiction books, 3 non-fiction books, 3 chapters of Ortberg, and reading through from Amos to Matthew in The Message)… and some gentle walks, meals cooked for me, lots of sleep and a bit of art! I was ready to dive back into Twitter and Facebook when I got back online – as you can kind of deal with stuff then & there, but it’s the email which tends to hang around until dealt with – and often requires more thought! Short of deleting around 2000 emails when I got home, I still have a big pile to deal with…. I need to plan my next digital fast, so that the digital world remains enjoyable and appreciated!!

Over the past couple of months I’ve been pushing some of the GPS features on my phone (I’ll be back to talk about Foursquare and Gowalla in future blog posts), and the subject of geocaching has come up several times, so what is it… this video explains best:

With my work with CODEC, one of the ideas that I’ve been thinking about is creating a geocache trail, but it was not something I’d ever done – I just knew it was some sort of electronic treasure hunt – and sounded a bit geeky – but here we are, it’s NOT:

So, Tuesday evening, I went to #winchesterweb and I knew that Aimee (@sermoa) had talked about #geocaching before, so I asked her about her for more info, and if she knew how to set one up… not yet, but maybe that can be our next project, but rather than trying to explain it, we went #geocaching tonight (and wasn’t it nice weather for it!)!

So – why would you want to?

As with many things, it’s essentially a re-invention of an old game (apparently the first geocache was set up in around 2000, when accurate GPS data first became publicly available – and not restricted to the military), a treasure hunt, but utilising modern technology (any GPS system will work, including SatNavs). Children will love it, and I really enjoyed it – a good excuse for a walk/chat with a bit of a purpose, and the excitement of not knowing QUITE what you’re looking for, and then seeing the comments & thoughts of all those who have come before you (all the time able to Tweet away, etc.!) – in these recessionary times when there’s so much concern about obesity – a free way to get some exercise (and exercise your brain!)

So – how does it work?!

So now, do I try and explain it…

First:

• Visit geocaching.com to identify geocaches you’d like to visit (print off as desired), or download an app onto your phone. I had the trial version of the official app, which offers 3 geocaches (but not THE nearest 3, necessarily). The full version is £5.99, which I have now downloaded, although I haven’t got the hang of how I log my finds – I still seem to have to go to the website for that!
• Alone or with a friend (more fun with a friend!), take your smart phone (or your old technology – paper!) and track down the spot using GPS co-ordinates (usually accurate to within about 6 metres).
• As you get very near, abandon the technology, use your eyes, and track down the item – the geocache description will give an idea of the size of the item that you’re looking for.
• As subtly as possible, extract the item.  Move away from the area, and open the item.
• See what’s been placed in there (some are tiny, and simply require that you add your name/date/comment to the list… so take a pen, just in case – although both the ones we found tonight had writing utensils in them!), and record your visit (both on paper, and by any other electronic means you like – but don’t give away the hiding place!).
• If there are items in there, it’s possible to take an item out, but you must replace it with something – preferably of equal or greater value! There may be a Trackable item in there, which you should remove and record – and then find another geocache to place it in.
• Ensure that the container is well secured and (subtly again) return it to where you found it.

On Return:
On returning from our walking/hunting (2 hours!) I logged into http://www.geocaching.com, set up an account, and then logged my finds (there’s an option to let people know if it’s disappeared, or if the item needs some form of maintenance… and hopefully you won’t need it – to say that you couldn’t find it)!

• Find 1
• Find 2
• Trackable
• Photos from the evening on Flickr

Next Steps:

• Set up a geocache – lots of hints and tips available on the geocaching site!
• Official guidelines – I already know: no food (foxes!), no medication (how do we know it’s really paracetamol!), and – I wonder why – no weapons!
  

Initially, during an ‘app swap’ session at an educational tech conference (#pelc10), I couldn’t see the point of this app, but decided that it was only 59p, and my colleague seemed almost unable to use it for laughing.

What Can You Do With It?

Strictly speaking, there’s not a lot to this app.

• Carl will repeat everything you say (and any music you play if loud enough) with a high-pitched voice.
• Tickle him, he will laugh out loud.
• Poke him and he will shout and yell.
• Pinch him to hear him  growling.
• Leave him alone, he’ll chatter back at you

What Do I Think?

Aside from the fact that it gives the biggest belch ever when opening (beware!), this app has had me in stitches several times over the past week (and it’s been a pretty tough week). The website describes it as ‘ideal for children of any age’, and I’ve never denied that I never want to fully grow up! Simple things please simple minds is what we always used to say, but really, life doesn’t have to be all serious!! I’m not going to say that this app does’t have a purpose/point, it does, and let’s enjoy it!

App Homepage: Talking Carl
Price: 59p

“Filippone, “We found out that about 80 % of this generation will look at your website before they ever look into the foyer of your church.”

Social media, i.e.. Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, blogging etc. .has exploded, looking at the numbers. Facebook alone claims 400 million members, Twitter is expected to go over 26 million adults this year.”

A 16 year old says: “”I use it to communicate with everyone, I look up things. it’s just my way of life.”"

Read full article, and thanks to Pete Phillips for putting me onto this story.