iLearn iGuess: Part 1

Blog for Saturday, September 24, 2011.

This week I think I'll focus on Apple and Social Media uses of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

When my wife and my cell phone plan was finished in June, we decided to get iPhones for a variety of reasons: we wanted to "get with the times", we were already using Google Calendar and wanted a phone that we could sync it to, we had a first generation iPod touch and liked the apps that we could use (Angry Birds, Text Twist, etc), and, due to the nature of our jobs, one of is often at a meeting/conference in Brandon or Winnipeg and we wanted a good way to stay in touch.

One aspect of the iPhone that we discovered was FaceTime.  If you've never heard of it it's a video calling feature built into the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad, similar to Skype that uses a wifi connection.  We have used FaceTime a lot since getting the phones.  In July, I was at BU taking Graduate Scholarly Writing, and my wife and 3 daughters (one a newborn) went and stayed at her parents cabin in Minnesota.  We were able to communicate using FaceTime the two weeks we were apart.  Some awesome advantages of Facetime: because it uses wifi, there was no cost for my wife using her iPhone in the States, I was able to see her and my daughters everyday (sometimes 2 or 3 times), it is easy to switch the camera to face in front or behind (show people/the room, or show yourself) and it worked very, very well, with no skipping or frozen video.

We now use FaceTime with my brother in Alberta, my wife's mom in Brandon, and her sisters in Minnesota.  It is a lot easier than having to use a computer/laptop and, because of using wifi, is free.

The student services personnel in our school division each were given iPads (for use with students) this fall, and we have been using FaceTime to talk to each other.  My high school counterpart works in Boissevain, and it is nice to be able to have face-to-face conversations.  FaceTime is a really neat way for people to stay in touch and work together.