If I Don't Contact You

Once a year, generally over the summer, I clean out my contact list in my e-mail accounts. They accumulate faster than a hummingbird flaps its wings. To add to the misery, I have multiple accounts. One is my personal Gmail account and then there is a school Gmail account. Add to these our info business account, my personal business account, this Gmail account for my blog; then there is another Gmail account for "storage" and finally, one just to house the updated contact lists once they are culled. 

In the last week, I decided to begin my summer task. Fortunately, I only use 2 Gmail accounts for actually e-mailing, so these contact lists are downloaded separately and then uploaded into my account that will house the final draft. Gmail is great in that it will find and merge duplicates saving hours with that otherwise horrendous task.

Still, after all the merging and deleting, I still had 879 individual contacts to go through. This has to be a multi-day process as my attention span is not that long to keep at it to completion. Generally I manage to spend 3-4 hours for each go at it, before my eyes or brain melts into the heat of the day.I go through ever name that is not ringing a bell at first glance to see if I made some notation that is not showing in the contact list. 

Aside from the hassle of having 14 Katalins drop down to choose from when sending an e-mail, because I have an Android smart phone, it downloads all of the contacts from 2 of my Gmail accounts and stores them in my phone for easy access later. You have no idea how heavy it can be carrying around 879 contacts with all of their associated information.

Today I sent out 259 e-mails with this note:

Sorry to bother you, but I am cleaning out my E-mail contacts and found you there. Sad to say, the memory is slipping and with some embarrassment, I cannot remember why I have you in the contacts to begin with. Perhaps it was saved automatically when you happened to write me?

Anyway, I am going to delete you, but if I should know you, please respond to this e-mail by refreshing my memory. My face will turn red, but I will enter you back into the contacts with a  memo this time around.

It could have been via any of these e-mails that we connected

drryanjames@gmail.com

ryan@budabab.com
info@budabab.com
budapestcreativitygroup@gmail.com

Once again, sorry for the intrusion,

Ryan

The side benefit of this is that I eliminated dozens of addresses for those whose e-mails were no longer being used. I am now down to the most significant 429 contacts. If you don't hear from me, you were deleted, so write again. 

Now if I just stop my phone from syncing with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest, I won't get a back ache from carrying it around.

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Phone Home With Android

I love to debate the differences between MAC and PC with people. Actually, those that held fast to their opinions and could not understand my stubborn refusal to play for their side, have booted me out of the life because of it.

I was Skyping with my long time friend Daphnee, yesterday. She and her partner Ellie who have been together for 27 years, flew to New York City from Santa Fe to get married. Both of them are originally from NYC, so it is not like they are taking advantage of the system. Because they can afford it, they had a professional photographer who put all of the photos on a DVD for their continued memories. I asked her to send me some pictures.

Daphnee who had a MAC, coyly shared that she had no clue how to get the photos from the DVD to an e-mail. With regrets, I said if it were a PC, I could take her through it over Skype, but for a MAC, I am clueless. She said she would have to call her son in NJ to tutor her. Instead, I offered to have one of my friends here who is a MAC user to write out instructions step-by-step, however, I had her do this from my computer for feel that procrastination would set in. 

It was interesting to me that she had problems remembering how to do it. Before sending it off to Daphnee, she mailed it to herself to review and edit while on her MAC before sending it off. She also shared that her father had a MAC, but never felt comfortable learning it and returned it.

Daphnee also wanted to download Skype, but didn't know how. I found the MAC Skype download page for her and sent the link. It stated that one needed to have OSX 10.4 or higher to use Skype. She had no idea what version of her OS she had and I couldn't help with a MAC. Another call to NJ to speak to her son for assistance. FYI, Microsoft bought Skype.

Today, I read an article about Android phones vs 'the others'. Androids are taking over the market. 
"Smartphones powered by the Android and iOS mobile operating systems accounted for more than eight out of ten smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12)." It further states "respectively of the 152.3 million smartphones shipped in 1Q12" with Android having 59.0% of the market with 23.0% for iOS (iPhone). 

Losing the race, but still contenders Nokia follows with Blackberry on their tail.           

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• Microsoft at Work on Meshing Its Products With Skype

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What's App With You?

One of my darling former students who had graduated to nephew status is now living in Berlin. He is working on his PhD is American History at an American university. I cannot remember which university, but if he reads this I am sure to be admonished; I will return to correct the details. 


The point of drawing attention to him is that he made me aware of a new smartphone application. Yes, he is a poor destitute university student, yet found hidden coins in the depths of his change purse to buy an iPhone. Now that I think about it strangely it was at the time he just happened to mention he did not have money for food for a week. What's an uncle to do? You think you raise them right and then...


Whatsapp messenger is compatible with the iPhone, and smartphones of the Nokia, Blackberry, and Android persuasion. They allow the user to SMS anyone anywhere in the world for free. Caveat emptor (Let the buyer beware), in this case, let the user beware, the app is free, but the receiver needs to have the same app on their phone. It takes two to tango or swap files in this case. The bonus is that you can also send unlimited images, video, and audio media. Using the same data plan as your Internet connection, the phone does not use the traditional SMS route of transfer.


At first I hesitated. How many people am I in contact with who have smartphones? Let me think! Oh, yea, one in Berlin. I told him I would install it, but he had better use it with caution. Any messages concerning his destitute finances will now require he SMS me a copy of his latest credit card and bank statement before I think about playing any soulful tune on my heartstrings. 


I easily found the app in the Android Market on my Samsung Galaxy i9000, the best phone decision I have ever made. Now we will have to see if this is the best app decision I ever made. For now, I am able to send SMS messages to and fro Berlin for free.


If you have a smartphone and download the app, send me a message to let me know. You need to use the + sign, country code, and then the mobile number. My number is
+36-70-315-8828. Happy texting. 


Related articles

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Mobile Phone Rip-off

This post is mostly thanks to Debbie Littlejohn, the editor of WXP News. This makes me praise Europe, where my phone is unlocked, not tied into any particular company. I am free to change services whenever.

If you're a smartphone user with all the bells and whistles on your account, it can be downright scary when you take a look at how much you pay your cell phone company over the course of a year. Let's take a typical connected couple, with both people having phones on a Verizon family plan. If they don't talk much, the lowest priced voice plan they can get is for 700 minutes. That costs $100/month if you want text messaging, or $70/month for talk only. Data packages range from $10/month for 25 MB to $45/month (per phone) for the business data plan. Most will need at least the 30/month unlimited consumer plan, so now we're up to around $160/month. 

Let's say you have the Droid X phones and you want to be able to use your phones as wi-fi hotspots when you travel. That's $20/month more, per phone. What if you want GPS navigation? That's another $10/month, per phone. Now we're at $220/month. Tack on fees for Visual Voice Mail ($3/month) and VCAST video on demand ($10/month) and it's $246/month. Oh, and if you want insurance on those phones, add another $6- 8/month, for a total of around $260/month. That's over three thousand dollars per year - but wait! We haven't added in taxes and surcharges and all those other little special fees that can add 20-30% to your bill. Being optimistic and assuming only 20%, that brings your annual expenditure for cell phone service for two people to $3744, and that excludes the $400 you paid for those subsidized phones. 

Of course, not all of us need or want all of those services, and costs vary depending on provider. Sprint, for instance, has a $99/month (per phone) plan that includes unlimited "everything" (talk, text, web, email). But then they charge an extra $10/month if you have a 4G capable phone like the HTC EVO (whether or not you're in an area that has 4G service) and $30/month for wi-fi hotspot capability. With insurance, your monthly charges for two come to $284 excluding the taxes and fees - and those EVOs cost you $300 each. 

Okay, then what about an iPhone? Your family plan with 700 minutes costs $70/month (and you do get rollover). If you want to tether, the data plan is $45/month per phone, and unlimited texting is $30/month (for both phones on the family plan). AT&T Navigator is $10/month. In other words, the service prices are the same as Verizon's (coincidence?) and your iPhone 4 costs $200- 300 each, depending on whether it has 16GB or 32GB of storage (better spring for the 32, since there's no microSD slot). 

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