From one Boomer to Steve Jobs: You Changed Our Lives

Dear Steve Jobs,

We all know you were one of us, a Baby Boomer. Of course, you were a bit different from the beginning. You thought different. Well, even though your ad campaign said
“Think Different” I’ve always been partial to “Think Differently.” Either way, as one Baby Boomer to another I want to thank you for giving us the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone and the iPad. Each in its own way has changed the lives of many Baby Boomers. 

Here are some examples. The iPod changed my travel life. Before the iPod, whenever my husband and I would travel, we would take along an extra bag for all of his CDs and his CD player. He never had enough jazz with him. When the iPod came along, he was reluctant to try it. He said he would never be able to get the quality of his CDs on this device. Some time went by and we were planning a particularly long trip, so he figured out how to transfer his music to the iPod using Apple Lossless audio compression. It was just what he needed. He hasn’t used a CD player since, except perhaps to upload to his computer. When we go on vacation, no more do we have to take a suitcase for the CDs. 

You gave us the iTunes store and that changed how I bought music.  You don’t hear much about this store as an invention, but it was an invention none the less. Not only could I now download individual songs and “albums” to my computers and transfer them to my iPod, I could research music easily here. While the music industry said you ruined their business by letting people sample and buy piecemeal, consumers loved it. A lot of people were angry about your proprietary format, too. But that doesn’t change the fact that this was an amazing invention. The iTunes store today includes much more than music. People buy TV episodes and movies there. They can buy a documentary to take with them on the go. Steve, for better or for worse, you revolutionized the way people buy music and other media, and we Boomers were the beneficiaries.

I also remember when I had a phone that was just a phone. It couldn’t help me find my way around, or help me look up something on Google. Nor could it record important meetings or take impromptu color pictures. I remember when it was a struggle to text, so much so that I didn’t do it and I wondered why all the “kids” were texting so much. Now I have an iPhone, and for better or for worse, I am never without my email or a book to read. Now I send text messages often, and I text to other Boomers, not just my kids. 

Everyone who reads Tech and the Baby Boomer knows how excited I was about the iPhone when I got my first one. Travel apps took me to destinations I could only imagine. Brain games kept me sharp. It really was the first phone that was easy enough for the technologically challenged to use, and so it was an good choice for the Baby Boomer generation, especially when we had some disposable income to spare.

And then, the iPad came along. You said it was magical and you were not far from the truth. How many devices out there can let you see a slide show of your entire photo library and also let you program your digital recorder? How many devices let you read a book, draw a picture and open your locked car? On how many devices can you play board games with others and watch a movie?

I know I sound like a commercial but the iPad was an amazing invention and I know many Baby Boomers who use it every single day. Steve, I know that you had this idea about tablets well before anyone else. I remember the Newton way back in 1993, your failed tablet computer. The Newton was an idea before its time. The iPad was an excellent execution of an idea whose time had come.

I know that there are many Baby Boomers who swear by their Apple computers, whether it was a MAC or today’s more advanced models. I was a PC user myself. However, I understand. When Microsoft was always breaking down, Apple’s operating systems were sturdy and rarely needed repair. Graphics artists loved them. Schools loved them. An Apple computer was probably the first computing device many children ever used, and most of them used them in their schools.

So I end my posthumous letter to you. You were a Baby Boomer who changed the world. You were a a computer genius, but you were cool. You were one of us and your products transformed us. Thank you.

Esther Surden

Who knew the iPad Doesn't Automatically Sync Calendars?

I got my new iPad this week! I know, I know, I said on this site I wouldn't get one until the price came down and it weighed less. ( Why I didn't Pre-Order the iPad) But my adult kids and my husband decided to get me one for my birthday and Mother's Day, and, how could I say no? Besides, I told myself, I'll get to write about it on my blog.

The device is amazing, but I haven't had a chance to try everything out on it. I've been busy with school, working and life, and haven't been in the consuming media frame of mind. However, the very first thing I did with the iPad was download all of my pictures to it. There can't be a better photo viewing experience available than this device. Every picture looks breathtaking.

I'll tell you another thing I love about it. I carry it around to the couch, to my bedroom, everywhere I go inside my house. The iPad makes computing just that much more accessible! Its hard to explain how much better an experience this is than my iPhone. My iPhone is amazing, but there are certain websites that just can't be read easily on the tiny screen. The iPad's screen size is just right and, yes, Steve Jobs, the device is almost magical.

So have I found anything I don't like so far? Of course. When I first plugged in the iPad to my computer to sync it, it didn't automatically sync my calendar. For those of you who don't know what syncing is, it is short for synchronizing, so that all the calendars, emails etc. on one device are up to date and the same as those on another. What's with that, Steve Jobs? I was told I could buy something called MobileMe for $99/year that would keep all of my calendars, email accounts, and contacts in sync for all my devices. Frankly, Boomers, this is a feature that should be free. The family paid enough for this device! We live in the 21st century now, and syncing should be included in any device that purports to be "easy to use."

Anyway, with the help of my son, we found the online instructions for syncing a calendar, notes and contacts to the iPad. It's really simple and the calendar etc. syncs every time you connect your iPad to the computer.  I'll present the steps  below, in case anyone else runs into this problem.

1. Plug your iPad into the USB port in your computer

2. When the  iTunes screen appears on your computer, go to the Devices icon

3. Click on the Devices icon

4. A series of tabs will appear

5. Click on the tab that says "Info"

6. Scroll down to the Sync Calendars area and click on the box

7. Take a look at the other options. You can sync your contacts and notes as well.

I hope this helps other Boomers set up their iPads. Can anyone think of a reason why this wouldn't be an automatic part of iPad setup? We are coming closer to devices that are as easy to use as the TV used to be, but not quite.

Cooking Allergy Free--An App for That

A couple of years ago I joined a group of women who play Mahjong. We meet every week, and someone cooks dinner. We eat and laugh, and then we play. We decided to cook dinner because everyone was eating too many snacks during the course of the night, and we wanted to be healthy.



However, after two years, cooking dinner is a bit of a challenge. Some members of our group don't like certain food items like soup or even Brussel sprouts. Everyone is on a diet at one time or another and can't have carbs, fat, sugar, or something else! And others have food allergies. I think that food allergies, sensitivities, and auto-immune diseases like Celiac, have become more prominent in our Boomer generation. They are more easily diagnosed, so more people know they have them.


A recent entry to the iPhone App family called "Cook it, Allergy Free" was developed by Kim Maes, who is getting her masters degree in nutrition. Kim wanted to help people who want to cook taking allergies into consideration.  I like this app. The recipes look good and easy to follow and the amount of information given is amazing. Unlike many of the apps I've reviewed here, this one isn't free. It costs $4.99. If I make a number of the recipes and it helps me deal with the food allergy problems of my friends, then it will definitely be worth it.


When you first open the app you are greeted by a list of food types: Appetizers, Breads, Breakfast, Vegetables, Main dishes etc.

I decided to tap the Main Dishes tab, and I found that further broken down to Chicken, Beef, Pork and Seafood. Since chicken is a dish everyone will eat, I took a look at the chicken dishes.

The first one was Apricot Chicken with Almonds, which looked like a good prospect.

But what was I going to do about those pesky Almonds? One of my group can't eat them. Should I leave them out?  Well, this app provides a great list of items that can be substituted for almonds in this recipe. I'll pick one of those.

The app also has a way to create a grocery list for the ingredients, and can place the list by grocery isle, making picking up the ingredients easy. I don't know about you, but after all these years of grocery shopping for my family, I'm getting tired of it. Anything that makes it easier is appreciated.

If I were to have one criticism of this app is that I wish the nutritional information had been included. I'd like to know how many calories are in a serving, how much fat etc. Someone in my group is always on a diet and would like to know. However, in general, I'd say this is a good way to find new recipes and still accommodate dietary difficulties. I'm glad to have it and I thank the developers. For more information and additional recipes, check out the blog and website at Cook It Allergy Free.

Going to the Louvre: There's an app for that

I've been to the Louvre, and I am an art lover, and I assure you that an Apple iPhone is no substitute for a  visit to a real museum. However, for fun, I thought I'd download a free application (offered by that venerable museum) that has been making the "Top 25" free list at the iTunes app store.  It turns out the Louvre Museum app is a good way to pass some time looking at photos of great paintings and learning something about them. It's an app I think other boomers will like as well.

The icon of the Louvre application is a picture of the Mona Lisa, arguably the most famous painting in the collection. Click on Mona, and you get a lovely picture of the museum at night, followed by a page that says "Artworks" with Mona in the middle. If you touch the picture of the Mona Lisa, the introduction to the collection begins. I touched the first artwork presented --The Lacemaker by Jan Vermeer, and a larger picture of the painting came up.

Touch the small star on the right hand side and you come to this page.

  
When I touched the "About the Work" tab, an explanation of the picture and its components appeared.

The "back" tab, took me to the menu where I could "See more detail." Here I was able to use the iPhone's stretch feature to make the painting fill the entire field of the phone's screen and turn the photo to the orientation that best fit the work. Turning the phone horizontally brought up the "back" button again, and I returned to the menu.

The "Technical information" tab is pretty much what it seems: information on the size of the canvas, what kind of paint was use, where the inscription is, how the museum acquired the painting, and so on. The "Location" tab shows a map of the location of the painting in the museum. If you were walking through the Louvre, you might want to use this iPhone application to find important works.

 
The application contains pictures and information on about twenty pieces of artwork. I haven't had time to look at each one, but I look forward to it, as free time allows.

How to find a Restaurant Using an iPhone

Yesterday, I walked down 45^th Street near 5^th Avenue in New York while looking at my iPhone GS, which can be a dangerous thing to do in New York! There was a method to my madness. I was trying out a feature on the Yelp! app that lets you see reviews for the restaurants you are walking by while you are walking by them. Anyone out there who has found themselves in a strange city either on business, pleasure or family business knows that finding someplace suitable to eat can be challenging. Yelp! is an application for the iPhone GS  that takes the fuss out of this process using something called “augmented reality.”

Now, you know I’m venturing into strange territory when I begin writing about “augmented reality,” but that’s what I plan to do in this entry. No, I’m not reviewing Star Trek. I am discussing something that will be very useful for boomers. Like many of these applications, it took me a little time to figure out how to use it, but with the help of my son, I think I’ve got it.  That’s one of the things I keep forgetting to say. Most of the applications I’m talking about were shown to me by others first. They seemed baffling to me when I started to use them, but became easy once the “magic” was unveiled.

After you download the Yelp! app from the app store,  you activate your GPS on the iPhone GS so the phone knows where you are, and then you open Yelp!. The first thing you see is the Feed page, which lists recent reviews of nearby restaurants, with some painfully honest comments. If you wonder how far away from you the restaurant is, you can see the mileage right on the Feed page. An icon at the bottom of the page will say “nearby.” When you go to the “nearby” page the fun begins.

The real magic is up at the top of the “nearby” page, on the right, and in a little button that says Monocle which only appears on the iPhone GS. I'm sorry to say other iPhone users don't have this. When you hit that button, you activate the augmented reality feature which works with the iPhone’s camera. If you are walking down the street looking for a particular restaurant, the Monocle feature actually leads you to it. This is helpful when you are walking down a street with a lot of restaurants, and you only want the one you picked out. Or it helps you select from a lot of different restaurants on the same street. Just click on the reviews until you find the perfect place.

So if you are in downtown Manhattan (or anywhere USA) just walking around, use the Monocle feature on Yelp! It’ll let you find a good restaurant and take you right to it. It also will help you find the nearest bank, a nail salon, and many of businesses for which you may be looking. I’m sure a lot of boomers will find this application amazingly helpful. I did!

Brain Games--Expanding the Boomer Mind

In searching around for ways to expand my boomer mind, I found some brain games on the iPhone GS3 which are easy to play. Some of the applications are free.

My latest download is Brain Toot (Free) by Vertical Moon. This app has four exercises on it to test thinking skills and reaction times, something we boomers need to do. Brain Toot was easy to find at the app store; all I did was use the search function for brain games. It was easy to download with instructions that were easy to follow. It's amazing: an application I can use right after it downloaded! There was some confusing language, saying that the application used to be known as Brain Toot Lite, but now is called Brain Toot (Free). However, when I downloaded it, all of the graphics say Brain Toot Lite, so I guess they forgot to change those.

Not withstanding the confusion, the games are fun and do test my abilities. There are three levels of difficulty, so you can challenge yourself a bit. After all, getting better at this is supposed to expand your brain. One of the games that uses a hidden ball in a Three-Card Monte kind of scheme seems to stump me. I can't seem to locate the right ball. Maybe my visual acuity needs some upgrading! Anyway, I'll keep trying. The company has a pay version available which is only 99 cents, but so far the free version is fine. I'm sure it will get boring eventually. One annoying thing: the app keeps reminding you to upgrade to the pay version. I guess I shouldn't complain. App developers need to make money somehow.

Gaslighted by the Apple iPhone

I'm just a boomer, but everything Apple does is supposed to work right the first time right?  Wrong. I guess I've been brainwashed by their commercials.

Apple has a voice memo application that comes with the iPhone 3GS. It's handy to use to make notes to yourself. If you're like me you'll want to use it all the time to leave yourself messages about where you put the keys or where you parked the car at the airport or mall.

Anyway, I liked this feature when I finally learned how to use it. Who knew the little red circle under the microphone had to be pressed to make a recording? When you press it using the touch screen a meter appears and you know you are recording. At the same time, the button turns into two little red lines. But doesn't that usually indicate pause? Well, yes it does in many other places, but on the iPhone it means you are recording. I can learn this! I really can. Actually, you do hit the button with those two lines on it to pause.


Then how to do you play back? That was really hard to figure out. There's another gray button that takes you to the list of recordings you've made. To play back you touch a little arrow on the left of the recording you want to hear. Only sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't!

Oh, Apple, my Apple, how can you do this to your boomer users?  When I first ran into this, I felt as though I'd been gaslighted!

But I knew what to do. I went out on the web for a solution, that is, I searched Google for problems with Apple's voice recorder application. Someone suggested turning the iPhone off using the button on top of the phone (held down for a couple of secs) and then restarting the phone. It worked. The recordings miraculously began to play. Alas, this fix doesn't last. Before you know it, you are pressing the arrow and nothing happens.

There are all kinds of suggested software repairs out on the web for this glitch, but I'm not phone software savvy. I'm just a user who wants to use my voice application the way it was intended. Oh, Apple, help us boomers, and fix the voice memo problem. Thank  you.