If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain. And vice versa. Most see her turning anti-clockwise. Which I find IMPOSSIBLE to fathom. I can only see her going clockwise. Surprising…I’ve always convinced myself I’m completely left brained – rational, logical etc.

See the rundown of the right and left-brain functions. Apparently you can try to focus and change the direction.

Since I posted this, reader Teresa sent me a link to a site that explains how this works (and that the right/left brain divide isn’t accurate – we use both in tandem)…

What they reveal is how our brain processes visual information in order to create a visual model of the world. The visual system evolved to make certain assumptions that are almost always right (like, if something is smaller is it likely farther away). But these assumptions can be exploited to created a false visual construction, or an optical illusion.

The spinning girl is a form of the more general spinning silhouette illusion. The image is not objectively “spinning” in one direction or the other. It is a two-dimensional image that is simply shifting back and forth. But our brains did not evolve to interpret two-dimensional representations of the world but the actual three-dimensional world. So our visual processing assumes we are looking at a 3-D image and is uses clues to interpret it as such. Or, without adequate clues it may just arbitrarily decide a best fit – spinning clockwise or counterclockwise. And once this fit is chosen, the illusion is complete – we see a 3-D spinning image.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

• uses logic
• detail oriented
• facts rule
• present and past
• knows object name
• words and language
• math and science
• can comprehend knowing
• acknowledges
• order/pattern perception
• reality based
• forms strategies
• practical safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

• uses feeling
• “big picture” oriented
• imagination rules
• symbols and images
• present and future
• philosophy & religion
• can “get it” (i.e. meaning)
• believes
• appreciates
• spatial perception
• knows object function
• fantasy based
• presents possibilities
• impetuous
• risk taking

OK, so there’s conjecture about all this. Regardless, I quite like the idea that I could be a right-brainer. Maybe I don’t have to struggle to be so damn logical and fact-checky and hard on myself that I forget names of things but remember what they do.

You?

My assistant Jo loves these (she should probably be on commission for selling in Echofon…she wouldn’t rest until she was allowed to put it on my phone):

Echofon for Twitter (free)

This is the best app around for twitter-on-the-go, especially for those like me who tend to tweet a lot! It’s easy to navigate, with some handy ‘echofon specific’ features that make it super quick to update your status, ‘reply all’ or ‘retweet with comment’. It also does all the standard twitter things, including pics and videos. Love it.

Talking Carl (free)

This is just for sillies, and fun. I do some work with foster kids, so it’s handy to have some quirky kid-friendly, distractable apps on my phone for those tantrum-type moments. Talking Carl is a crazy red guy, and if you touch him, he laughs, and talks. If you talk, he copies you, and it’s HILARIOUS. Kids(and adults) love him. Check it out. This is he:

Kerri Sackville, blogger extraordinaire, soon-to-be-published author, and manic mum of three, raves about these:

Touchwriter ($1.99)

Okay, I’m loving Touchwriter. I’m forever writing myself notes, but a) always forget to carry a pen and paper, and b) lose the notes anyway. Touchwriter allows me to ‘handwrite’ notes with my finger, and then - unlike other ‘finger-writing’ apps – immediately shrinks the words as I write so that each notes can fit a lot of text. There is a space bar, paragraph break and different colours, and the notes can be saved or emailed. I prefer Touchwriter to the ‘finger-to-text’ apps, as I find they make a lot of errors when converting, and are hard to use.

Zombiebooth ($3.99)

For the kids, you can’t beat this. Great stuff. You take or download a photo, then with a couple of clicks turn the person into a zombie, complete with bloody eye socket and gross-out skeleton mouth. Hours of wholesome fun.

Julie Cowdroy is a passionate writer, activist and political voice. Check her out here on facebook…

Ausvotes: ABC Elections(free)

I was engrossed in every detail of every event that occurred during the federal election. All day every day. This app was absolutely genius especially on voting day and the days following as we all eagerly awaited the results. I had access to the latest news, tweets and analysis. I especially loved being able to look up an electorate name by suburb or postcode. Oh look, now I have really got my nerd on.

eBay (free)

I am eBay queen. I hate buying brand new stuff. I love selling and buying. My latest story is that I sold our old lounge suite for $500 and bought a pretty much untouched black leather lounge suite for…. wait for it….. $373. Wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t tracking it using the Ebay iphone app while vacationing on the Sunshine Coast.

Bean Hunter(free)

I lllooooovvveee coffee. Good coffee. I often write from cafes and love to find new ones. Beanhunter allows me to simply hit ‘Near Me’ wherever I am and I have a list of great cafes with reviews, distance to get there and ratings. Lifesaver especially when I have to venture out of my local village.

You guys listed the following as some of the best apps around. Thanks to Paul, hotdiggity, Amy, Courtney, Madison, Alyssa Medayna, and Louise – I’ll be trying out some of these for sure:

Remote app (free)

Love the Remote app . It turns your iPhone into a remote so that you can control your itunes remotely… If you’re taking a bubble bath and you want to listen to music, but you don’t want your mac anywhere NEAR the tub…just turn on remote and click through your tunes. Namaste!

LocATM ($2.49)

This app locates the nearest ATM to where you’re standing (either just your Bank or all Banks)

Flashlight (free)

Turns your iPhone camera flash on for finding stuff in the dark – sooo nerdy.

Gratitude ($0.99)

This is a diary for listing the things which make me grateful each day.

Mood Tweak (free)

This app plays soft noises to fall asleep to. I use this if I’m having trouble shutting my brain off. Always works for me.

ShopShop (free)

This app is a shopping list manager. Great for keeping track of what you need. Because who carries pen and paper these days anyway!

QuotaLite and Consume (free)

These apps both track mobile usage. And other interesting things! Consume will also warn you to avoid going over your mobile phone cap. Bonus.

Chronicle ($3.99)

A great travel diary. Or a personal journal. Somewhere to store life’s moments/events in word and picture.

Intuition(free)

Intuition aka “mom’s personal assistant” has helped me organize schedules and sort activities in such a way that none will be forgotten.It also has a comprehensive grocery listing that saves time in thinking what to buy. I have been really forgetful lately (thanks to epidural) so I appreciate this app a lot!

Water Your Body($1.19)

Kinda dorky. But I drink far more water(as opposed to none at all) if I have a number to work towards.

Scoopon (free)

Daily deals for all major cities in Australia. It’s great for sourcing gifts to use down the track.

]]> http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2011/01/the-best-ever-iphone-apps-a-listicle-part-2/feed/ 3 http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2010/12/the-best-ever-iphone-apps-according-to-me/ http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2010/12/the-best-ever-iphone-apps-according-to-me/#comments Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:43:36 +0000 Sarah Wilson http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/?p=1589 I’m excited about a few apps that make life sweeter, better, lighter. I’ve listed the ones I swear by. Please do add yours to the mix below (I’ll do up another post down the track of your suggestions…).

Most of you know about Bump (free) and Shazam (free), yes? The former shares contacts when you bump another Iphone owner’s phone (which also has the Bump app installed). Bump!

The latter is just mandatory. You like a song on the radio. Or in a mall. You press the button. It tells you the name of said song and artist. You can then buy it on iTunes. Shazam!

And I’ve banged on enough in the past about Instapaper (free) for saving and reading Web pages after you’ve moved offline.

Others on my iphoney (be sure to add to the list at the bottom in the comments bit!):

Hipstamatic ($1.19)

This is seriously sweet. A photography app that will – unpredictably, randomly, in an artful way – saturate, blur, sepia your pics. It runs frames around them, makes them look like old-school Polaroids and so on. Here’s an example (the kid isn’t mine…Aldous is my best mate Rosie’s little urchin. BTW, I just noticed the Photo Restoration sign in the background…how synchrolicious!).

Sleep On It (free)

You an insomniac? Don’t know why? This one lets you track your nightly patterns and moods and daytime snoozes,  helping you work out what factors are affecting your sleep and how much sleep you need each night to feel rested and energized and other stuff. It’s also an alarm.

Google (free)

Don’t waste your time with the standard browser – the app is waaaay better and funnerer. You can voice your search – you can say “Caltex” it will use GPS to find you the nearest one.  Handy at trivia nights. Just say the topic and it will find the wiki for it. The recent update allows you to take a photo of, say, a book or DVD or a wine bottle and Google searches for information on it!! So clever. So fast.

Good Guide (free)

I’ve mentioned this one before…Good Guide ranks all kinds of consumerables for their toxic/ethic/environmental factors and gives them a score out of 10. The app allows you to scan barcodes of a product you’re thinking about buying; wait 2 secs and it gives you the score. Sooo good for buying cosmetics, or checking to see what the stuff you have at home is doing. It really only works with US products (so about 1/4 of the stuff I have in my cupboard). But good for taking OS.

iperiod (free; with upgrades available)

You know when your doctor or acupuncturist asks you where you’re at in your cycle and you have no idea? When you use iperiod you have all the info there, including a little alert letting you know when your next period is due.

Scanner Pro ($8.99)

I’m in love with myself for finding this one. I don’t like buying stuff. I don’t want to buy a scanner for the rare occasion I need to scan a form and email it. And I no longer need to. This app works incredibly well. You take a pic of a document, it resizes it to fit a standard A4 format (if you want), then adjusts the image to get rid of shadow or curve. Then you can email it directly from your phone. Magical scanner action in your pocket!

And if you’ve got time to kill: FakeCalls ($1.19)

I came across this one via New York Times’ David Pogue. He thinks it’s very funny:

When you tap this icon on your Home screen (it’s disguised and labeled only FC), in about ten seconds, your phone rings. It’s a fake call from — anyone you’ve selected in advance. (I have mine set to Barack Obama, but that’s just me.) The simulation of the iPhone’s traditional incoming-call screen is perfect — ring tone, contact info, Mute and Hold buttons, the works. Ideal for extricating yourself from difficult situations, like meetings or bad dates.

OK, so what apps do you rap about? Ones that make life breezier? Share here and I’ll post ensemble over summer, ready for some New Year focus!

Like all things with technology, it moved faster than I was able to adjust. So, truth be known, it’s not really what I thought it would be. But, then, it’s exactly what it needs to be. ‘Cos here it is.

I thought about doing a mass overhaul, to get it ship-shape (redesign, get it looking less “young”, change the name to…a real blog name!). But instead I’ve opted for gentle shifts.

On Wednesday I posted about how I hired a virtual assistant to help with my blog. They’ve kindly decided to offer everyone a discount on Freelancer – three project posts for free! When you register, use this code: “SARAH”. They’re also answering any questions you might have on the post.

Today, though, I want to share two other services I totally dig:

1. Blog Doctor Clare Lancaster:

Clare looks under the hood of your blog and tells you how to make it SING!!! People who understand blogs AND are able to communicate are very rare. Clare, who runs Online Business Overhaul, a 5 week DIY online marketing eCourse that covers strategy, seo, social media, email marketing and general promotion of biz online, is like a hen’s tooth. The ecourse is one of her services. Another is dotmarketing – a bespoke blog review service. She looks at your blog. Then dot-points what you need to do next. So helpful!

I got Clare’s dotmarketing treatment. She pointed out stupidly obvious things I just couldn’t see and gave tips on how to increase traffic, how to link in Twitter better etc. She doesn’t just connect dots, she provides the n-dashes inbetween!  But note, she books out quite quickly. You can reserve here.

2: The Makeroom Team:

Lealah and Glen at The Makeroom do little tweaks for me, like my email signature. We share an office. Lealah is the design person, Glen (Mr Pink) plays the tuba and is the IT dude. He gets excited when I ask him a techie question he hasn’t come across before. Together they bridge that terrible gap between the techie stuff and the pretty stuff. They just make it happen. Here’s some of their work…

Feel free to share your tips and tricks and contacts here…

It also gets you to write a letter to your younger self, which is integrated into the clip, too.

It’s all a bit nerdy and is mostly about showcasing Google Chrome (which you download …free) and HTML5. Pundits are saying it’s The Future (man!) of music videos.

Whatever. I like the nostalgic nudge it provides.

The lyrics of the song that forms the soundtrack go like this:

I used to write,
I used to write letters I used to sign my name
I used to sleep at night
Before the flashing lights settled deep in my brain

But by the time we met
By the time we met the times had already changed

So I never wrote a letter
I never took my true heart I never wrote it down
So when the lights cut out
I was left standing in the wilderness downtown

I used to write letters. I wrote a lot and sometimes I still do. When I’m agitated I write to myself, like I’m writing to the little girl inside who is a little bewildered by All That Life Is. Writing it down unfurls my true heart. Nothing magical in that. It’s just a process that gives attention to my true heart.

The song continues:

oooo we used to wait
oooo we used to wait
oooo we used to wait
Sometimes it never came
(oooo we used to wait)
Sometimes it never came
(oooo we used to wait)
Still moving through the pain
(oooooo)

We used to wait, it’s true! And often it didn’t come – letters, responses, phone calls, answers. Nothing was instant nor guaranteed. Which was kind of good. Sometimes there was not much we could do other than move through the pain of the uncertainty. Now days, there’s always a way to make things happen, faster or from thin air. Which puts untold pressure on us. Waiting and accepting…it was kind of a blessing, really.

Anyway, I put in the address of the patch of dirt in the country outside Canberra where I grew up. I haven’t been out there since the family had to leave when I was 16. You can check it out here if you can’t be bothered to make your own. I got quite emotional seeing the dry bushland that used to overwhelm me as a kid. So much nothingness. So much brown. A lot of loneliness and dry awkwardness. And goats. Goats and dry dams and dirt. Below are Billy the dog, a goat and one of my brothers, Simon, and sister Jane.

In the bit where they invite you to write a letter to the you that used to live there, I wrote this:

Everything is going to be OK and the dirt will define you.

What would you tell yourself? Do you prefer waiting and just sitting through the pain? Are we all a bit tired of not being able to simply wait?

I personally get pretty uptight when guests stay. Having new people in my space confronts me. I live a pretty selfish life and I get all flustered when my routine is mucked about (mostly because I have no “fat” in my schedule…something I’m desperately working on right now…for another post). When friends and my large family step into into my home it kind of breaks my stride. Which sounds revoltingly ungenerous, I know…

That said I always put out flowers – daphne is a favourite – in the spare room, place a towel and facecloth on the end of the bed and bust my foof-foof valve (as my grandad used to say) to show them a good time. Lifehacker suggests we all go one step further and they’ve created a Guest Information Pack template you can download for free.

It includes spots for useful information like informing your guests about household quirks. It takes a few minutes for the hot water to get all the way from the basement of your apartment building? Make a note that they should run the hot water while they brush their teeth to get it shower-ready. Have a dog with a delicate constitution? Make a note that table scraps will make everybody miserable. Militant parking regulations? Make sure your guest knows their rental car will get the boot if they park on the street after 2AM.

Effecient and kind. I like. What tips can you share on how to make hosting smoother?

***Updated Friday 5pm: News is emerging the election will be called tomorrow. The PM is saying she’ll ask the GG to delay issuing the writ until Wednesday, which means IF YOU’RE NOT ENROLLED TO VOTE YOU’LL HAVE ABOUT FIVE DAYS TO DO SO. Do it at my link here.

***Updated Friday 5pm: Latika Bourke has started this election Twitter list of political journos to follow. For more, see my list below.

I keep getting asked the best way to stay up to speed with the stuff we all need to know for the election. Honestly? Twitter. It’s taken a while, but Twitter has really settled into itself and we’re kind of getting the hang of how to best use it. It’s not really for inane “I just ate 3 Maltesers” updates. It’s a business tool. And a media tool.

Heading into the election, Twitter will play a major role. News will break on Twitter (as it did with the Abbott/Turnbull spill). Dynamic, important debate will happen on Twitter. Without spin (there’s not enough characters!). On Twitter the media/opinion leaders we all love actually share what they REALLY think, rather than the publisher line.

Before I break into a list, a community announcement: The election COULD BE CALLED THIS WEEKEND, which means you need to be enrolled to vote NOW. Not on Monday. TODAY. Got it? Once the election is called, there’s about 1-5 days (depending on how fast they move things) to do so. If you’re a first-timer, or you’ve moved, or you have kids who might not be correctly enrolled, check out my election cheat sheet. Pass her around…

Enough of that. My list. Please add any dinkum twits you’re loving and I’ll post it!

Very Good Twits (who provide useful commentary and useful links)

* Annabel Crabb: my favourite columnist. Hands down. Find her at ABC’s The Drum.

* Leigh Sales: also at ABC’s Drum, and host of Lateline.

* Latika Bourke: based in Canberra and great for the scoops.

* Dave Penberthy: editor of The Punch (and closet feminist, truth be known).

* Mark Colvin: really knows how to use Twitter well…shares great reads.

* Samantha Maiden

* Laurie Oakes and David Speers

*** an observation: many of the most influential voices are young women. Just saying….

*** If you’re not already, do yourself a massive favour and tune into Q&A on ABC, Monday nights. It works really well with Twitter – viewers can tweet their thoughts in real time as the political leaders and commentators rant and debate on the panel. Their opinions run along a ticker at the bottom of the screen. The show has recently hit its stride – fun, robust, loose, candid. Exactly how this kind of debate should be.

*** Also check out The Chaser’s Yes We Canberra, Wednesday nights at 9.45 on ABC.

Any others I should add to the list? Who are you loving for robust political thinking? I’m sure I’ve missed a few…

But how to clear the clutter? This little gizmo – ManageFlitter – does it sniper-like.

It works by sorting your Twitter followers list into:

• Talkative or Quite – They tweet too much or too little.
• One Sided – They don’t follow you back.
• Possible Spam – They have no picture on their Twitter profile

You can then hit the unfollow button if you feel it suitable.

And, nope, don’t feel guilty.

We kinda have to realise that it’s not about the person, it’s about what information they’re sharing. I use Twitter to get my news updates – I mostly follow journalists and news services. I also follow a few bloggers who share fab links. I don’t use it to keep up with mates or personalities. I don’t follow Lady Gaga. I don’t follow Ashton Kutcher.

I mostly delete people when their messages get “unhealthy”. I deleted Deepak Chopra a while back because his tweets were almost manic…they got me agitated!!! I’ve deleted a few comedians when their tone has got snarky and cynical. The effect of being bombarded with bitchy asides is powerful. You start thinking in the same tone and seeing the world as something to be poked.

What about when YOU get unfollowed?

Just. Don’t Care. Practice it as an art form. Twitter is meant to be about sharing information. I CHOOSE to not see it as a popularity contest. Keep sharing good stuff and the right people will want to listen. This is the point of it.

Digital  Inspiration has this list of gizmos that help you see when others stop following you. I advise NOT using these. A fetid breeding ground for paranoia!!!

I also recommend veering clear of this:  tweet beep sends you an email when you’re mentioned on Twitter. Stokes the ego in a really annoying, addictive way. DON’T NEED IT. SLIPPERY SLOPE!

How do you manage your Twitter? Do you have any formulae you recommend?

Yeah, you got it? I’m clearly not that secretive. But you know that, I reckon.

This url shortener – trick.ly – works by allowing link access only to those who can answer an intimate question about you. Inner-circle stuff. I love that the url for the site is actually trick.ly (no dot-com).

Lunch, by the way, was ace. The company was astute and dynamic and authentic. I drank green tea and ate parmigiana. Then there was a sun shower. The end.

The new wisdom is knowing this. The new status is being in control of it.  The new power is having firm boundaries. Like, for instance, standing tall and proud and declaring you only check email twice a day. Or boldly deciding you work a four-day week. Or not taking your phone out with you when you have dinner with someone you wish to explore intimacy with. I’ve experimented with all this. And more.

To this end another nifty little tip for stemming the tide of group work emails onto one’s phone, from timesonline. It seems rather involved and bothersome. And, personally, it doesn’t work for me because I don’t get too many group emails any more (I’ve used other techniques to plug the flow, like unsubscribing from emails, and requesting that I’m left off certain group emails). But it could suit you:

If your work e-mail is anything like mine, many of the hundreds of messages you receive every day are actually addressed to groups or huge mailing lists, rather than you personally.

Sometimes it becomes difficult or even impossible to find the things you’re really looking for, particularly in older versions of Outlook.

In desperation the other week, I set up a new account on Gmail. I then went back to my work Outlook and set up a rule to automatically forward mail addressed to me personally to Gmail.

So far, so good. Gmail acts like a filter, and it’s much easier to search and access on a mobile device than going through all the Microsoft Exchange setup malarkey.

Now comes the bit I love. Head back to the Gmail account and click on Settings. Add your work signature under general if you wish. Then mosey over to the Accounts and Import tag.

Here, there’s an option for everything you send from Gmail to appear as if it comes from your work e-mail address. You enter the address you want it to look like, Google then sends a confirmation e-mail to that address. You confirm, and bingo!

The upshot is that my personal mobile phone now picks up work-related e-mail sent to me personally, and I can reply on the move while appearing to be at my Times e-mail address. Setup is easier than MS Exchange, search is faster, and all the e-mails are intended for me personally.