My Favorite iPhone App

I made the switch from Droid to Apple this past weekend.

The main reason I made the move was because my HTC Evo shift was beginning to have performance problems, with numerous stalls throughout the day, and there wasn’t another droid on the Sprint market that I was interested in.

This post isn’t to compare droid to ios, because you can find many of those discussions here or here. They can be heated.

Even as I was buying my new phone, the sales rep. continued to tell me why droid was better.

I will say, I love my new iPhone. Obsessively really. I spent most of the weekend reading blogs on users favorite apps.

The one I came across that is now at the top of my list (with Instagr.am as a close second) is Momento.

One of my goals for 2012 is to document more of “the little things” in life. A mini-personal blog if you will. Quick prayers. Small milestones in my children’s lives. A moment of clarity in a difficult decision.

Not a long journal (I have one of those), but just moments where I think to myself, I’d love to remember this.

Momento seems to be the perfect app. for this. Not only does it have a beautiful (award-winning) interface, but it allows me to capture moments however I see fit: with a photo, a Facebook update, Youtube video, etc.

I can even add “tags” to my moments. So in a few months, if I want to go back and read all my moments where I needed peace, or inspiration, or even a laugh, I can tag those moments appropriately, and re-read them. One functionality that a pen and paper wont allow.

What’s your favorite app?

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Unplugging – There’s (not) an App for that.

On my morning drive into work, I shuffle between several radio stations. News Talk, Country, Top 40, and “Family Friendly.” On Monday morning, I found myself engaged in a conversation that was taking place on Atlanta’s Q100.

The topic: are we too “plugged in”? Particularly, they were focusing on kids that play video games and watch movies for hours each day.

But, that evening, as I was thinking through the conversation and the amount of time that the parents and kids spend in front of their computers, TVs, videos etc., I started thinking of how social media has elevated the amount of time professionals spend “plugged in”.

Twitter. 4-square. Facebook. Apps. iPhones. Droids. iPads. iPods, Kindles. Blogs. The list could go on and on.

I was sitting on the couch and took a moment to look around. The scene in my house looked like this:

My wife and I were both on our laptops.
The TV was on.
I had Twitter, Facebook, and a blog up.
Both of us had our cell phones near our lap.
One ear-bud of my iPod was in so I could hear the music I wanted to download.
And did I mention I was trying to carry on IM chats with several kids in my church youth group?

Don’t get me wrong, I love social media (obviously). And the technology that our generation has at our finger tips is nothing but astounding.

But, being in a business where “building relationships” is key, it’s hard to learn the boundaries. According to HR Examiner, the most influential recruiters are those “plugged in”. In fact, 100% have a blog, 40% have more than one blog, 96% are on Facebook, 88% on Twitter, and on average have over seven different presences in social media (LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs etc).

Should I even touch on how many passwords you need to remember?

So, my question to you, does our generation know how to unplug? Is there an app for that? Should one of the 3,000 text messages teens send per month say “turn off UR cell”. I also believe one of the main reasons 64% of Americans watch TV online is so they can multitask.

It’s hard. Trust me. I tried last night and lasted till about 9pm when I checked the weather online, then found myself bouncing off into four other sites within a matter of minutes.

My prediction for social media in 2011 – people will be seeking “balance”. Learning how to leverage the powerful tools, yet not spend their energy trying to be in all conversations at all times – becoming better at targeting the right conversations.

So, now that I’ve written this blog, I’m going to turn-off my computer and go for a run. . . after I check Facebook one last time.

Camera Quality Battle

I have been wanting a side-by-side photo comparison of the best camera phones on the market. Today, I gathered a few colleagues and took pictures using their EVO, iPhone 4G, and Incredible. Which picture do you think is best?

iPhone 4G

EVO

Incredible