Author: Robin

My new EVO Shift

When I started looking for a new phone, my son was quite clear – I didn’t need a fancy new (read, expensive) phone because I had an iPad. He’s concerned that if I spend all my money on me, I won’t have any left over for him. That’s a valid concern, but that’s a whole other post.
This post is all about my compromise phone. I really wanted the HTC EVO – all those fancy features and all that cool Android powered goodness appealed to me. The price tag didn’t. Even after my substantial phone upgrade discount, it’s not a cheap phone. Fortunately, a smaller, slightly less fancy (but with a real keyboard) model came out to save the day. The EVO Shift was a bit cheaper and it had a real, slide-out keyboard. I’m not a fan of software keyboards on tiny screens, so this was a big selling point.
I’ve had the phone now for almost a week and I have to say I LOVE it. I’m in the process of searching for my next car and having Evernote (snap a pic, enter the details of a potential new Robin-mobile, save to the cloud – priceless!), the Kelly Blue Book application (check the suggested retail price and reviews of any car I look at while standing on the lot – priceless!) and a beautifully designed connection to all my Google-y information (contacts and such, especially, for saving the numbers of all those car salesmen) is priceless.
I’m still in the process of learning the phone – my Dad called me the other day and I promptly hung up on him because it was the first call I’d gotten and I automatically swiped up to answer it. That was the action needed on my Pre. That, however, dismisses the call on my EVO. Oops! Other than the small learning curve ahead of me as I shift (pun completely intended) from my Pre to my EVO, I forsee no problems with this phone. It feels well made, its battery lasts longer than 5 hours at a time and it is FAST compared to my Pre. I’m definitely in like…

Web 2.0

You can now find me on the Kindle…

Post author By Robin
Post date April 6, 2011
No Comments on You can now find me on the Kindle…

The book on Library Mashups, to which I contributed a chapter on the LibraryThing API, is available on the Kindle – for .26 cents less than the paperback. If those .26 cents have been holding you back from picking up a copy of this book (or if you are like me and a couple of my co-workers and have grown to prefer books in electronic formats), head over to Amazon and get yourself a nice clean e-edition!

iPad

The iPad (first gen) after the glow wears off

Post author By Robin
Post date April 4, 2011
No Comments on The iPad (first gen) after the glow wears off

That’s sort of a misleading headline. The glow still hasn’t really worn off for me, nor has it for this group of iPad users that have provided “one year after” roundup. The general consensus of that article is that they don’t regret their purchase – and I concur wholeheartedly. I, like some of them, find doing a lot of content creation on the iPad isn’t a huge burden. Of course – I have one of those fancy bluetooth keyboard cases, so I am sort of cheating, but I’ve done a lot of writing on my iPad. I won’t say that it’s as easy as using a full-featured desktop + a full size keyboard, but for quickly popping out blog posts, emails, meeting notes or even articles, it’s worked well for me.

The other thing I’ve noticed during my time using my iPad is the interest it gets in the older (than me) crowd. My mother and my significant other’s mother both told me – within a week of each other – that they want to get an iPad soon. My mom has decided to wait until I upgrade and buy mine (a year or better, but that’s ok with her), but my SO’s mom is actively looking for one now. None of us are Apple fangirls. I haven’t owned an Apple computing device since I was in 8th grade and, as far as I know, neither mother has ever used one. The iPad has been just that interesting and just that useful!

I thought the idea of a “one year after” look at the iPad was neat (plus the article has ALL KINDS of excellent app suggestions), so I wanted to post this – even though I haven’t had mine for a year yet. For those of you who are still on the fence, I’m still happy with mine and use it *every single day*.

Web 2.0

The week in Tweets

@xorpheous Cardinals Rule! Redbird nation all the way!! Maybe I'll actually watch a game or two this year… #
@xorpheous Huh. Cards have already scored… #
@xorpheous So true, Doug, so true! 😉 #
@xorpheous so…. How's that tied thing workin' for ya? #

Tags roundup, tweets, twitter

conference

PLA’s Virtual Spring Symposium

Post author By Robin
Post date March 30, 2011
2 Comments on PLA’s Virtual Spring Symposium

I’m attending the technical track this morning – Mobile Feast: Reaching Library Customers via Mobile Technology and Can Your Library Provide the Electronic Content That People Want and Need. I’ll just summarize both of them in this post, rather than trying to do two at once.

The twitter hashtag for the sessions is #plavss11.

Michael Casey and Christopher Baker started off with a discussion of mobile technology and how to reach patrons. 47% of mobile consumers use connected media – they expect immediate access via the device they choose, they expect it to be easy to use from their device and they expect the resources and functionality of the site. Libraries need to consider cost of delivery for all of this as well as staffing new points of service in the mobile arena.
Michael Casey discussed the use of Library Anywhere which lets your patrons search your catalog – may be a cheaper alternative to III’s airpac (their mobile product). Christopher mentioned the need to make it optional – don’t force tablet users to the mobile site. They also discussed the LibGuide feature that makes a mobile site from each of the guides natively.
Where do you start? With vendors that have mobile sites – Overdrive, Database Apps (Ebsco, etc). The fact that you can’t opt out of Overdrive’s mobile site in the iPad (for example) was mentioned. Bad design.
They discussed the challenges of SMS reference. They use LibAnswers.
They’d like to see increased ILS interoperability, fewer difficulties in creating seamless design transitions. There are limitations of downloadable content, a cost for delivery of this, staffing mobile services appropriately, and understanding shifting points of service.
They also discussed what we control vs. what we don’t. The most important thing we don’t control is the tool that the user chooses to access our services.
Michael started with a Libraries = Community + Content. He showed a slide that shows that 90% of the US population averages $31,244 a year. Reuse space – more digital content means more space for libraries.
He talked about the future of DVDs (see Netflix and Redbox) – libraries should be considering what we will do when movies are only streaming?
Next he showed an info graphic about how Netflix killed Blockbuster. He thinks we need to do what Netflix does – what if we could provide the content to the patrons as well as Netflix.
It’s a question of content access – libraries have to provide access as easily as Netflix and Amazon.
Save Libraries – www.libraryrenewal.org – Library Renewal
ALA EQUACC – ALA presidential task force on equitable access to electronic content – equacc.ala.org