Who said an old IPhone can't zoom

I simply talked myself into thinking that without trying enough

We were sitting around at the monthly old farts breakfast and Steve was showing his fancy Smart-Fone to Don who is thinking about getting one. They were talking about the camera and how well it worked. Nice to have an extra camera around if it's any good. I asked Steve if his would zoom and he sad yes so I tried mine again. The squeeze screen thing didn't work but just dragging your finger made a Zoom Bar show up that looked like volume control.  WaaLaa .... my camera zooms.

When I first got this Phone it was with the full Internet package but I can't stand the Internet on a super small screen with no mouse or keyboard. I had a contract so had to wait it out but changed to a normal pay as you go Amigo plan as soon as I could. Still a Smart-Fone will eat up your minutes if you don't have everything turned off except the Phone. 50 pesos was lasting two weeks instead of a month. I had to get a Telcel store person to find the offending app. I text because it's cheaper and leaves a message and talk and that is all.

Slim Pickens

And Slim be doin' the picken

I haven't been the biggest fan of Telcel for the last three years but since we have no Telmex phone or Internet service in our little community there aren't any other options.   I've come to realize a CEL phone is the way to go for flexibility but you need the right "plan" and the right phone.   I was taken in with the free IPhone if you pay upfront.  Also taken with the thought of Internet on the run.   Problem is I can't stand Internet on something as small as a phone so a smart phone 1/2 or 1/3 the price would have worked just fine .... and NOT Apple.

My first cheap Nokia died within months and Telcel said humidity voided the warranty.   Second cheap Nokia they gave me a Manzanillo prefix so my time flew off the phone.   Gift to neighbors.

Thinking I needed a real phone I was prepped to spend way more than I needed.  I guess being cool and up-to-date was part of it. So my free phone was an Iphone 3s when the model 4's had been out for about a year.   I didn't know the difference and Telcel was clearing their inventory.   The contract was for 2 years and within 6 months I knew I was wasting money on the extras.  Patiently, patiently I waited until last November when my bill jumped from 500 pesos to 1500.  Figured out that upgrading the Apple IOS turned everything Internet on and was on 24/7.  Not Telcel's fault but proof I did not need an Internet phone.   Finally was able to cancel in December at the end of 2 years with a very expensive final bill.

So about a week ago I received my bills via Email expecting only for this modem .... and sure enough there was my phone bill for January and February to the tune of 1000+ pesos.    Another trip to Telcel in Manzanillo and was told even though I had paid and canceled I was missing another piece of paper which I was never told about.  They also said I was using the phone in February for something but I had thrown the old SIM card away in January and bought a new Amigo - pay as you go plan.   Finally when asking for a supervisor the clerk changed her mind and I have another piece of paper that may be the official thing ???   Just checked my online account and it's still there ??

Also while trying to handle this by phone instead of another Manzanillo trip ..... the 800# only talking to help desk personnel charged my phone almost 40 pesos.   Slim is a pickin'    !!!! 

Mom's want Lullabies

I put some kids video songs and some goofy ones on my IPhone and Nahima, the 3 year old, likes to listen to them in the car.   Problem is she can listen to them over and over and was driving her mom and I crazy.  I went looking for some that were a little calmer and just to give us some variety. I ran across a bunch on YouTube that are nursery rhymes. Some you recognize from the English equivalent and some not.

Everyone around here has smart phones* so after figuring out what format* the phone used to play video I put a few on Nahima's mom's phone. Now the neighbor mom's are hearing these and they have helped a few babies fall asleep. I have two video requests pending when they bring the phones over and may get more. Lots of babies in the neighborhood.

*smart phones -- They don't have Internet because they can't afford it .... but the phones have video and still camera, play video and music, have a radio and TV reception ... and are cheap.

*format -- My IPhone plays .MPG,  MPG4, etc.   Their phones need .AVI for the video or all they get is audio.   I use YTD Video Downloader to convert to many different formats.  YTD also downloads the videos.

Love Hate my computer and all things connected

I just spent the last 10 days wondering why Java was not working in Google Chrome but worked with Firefox and IE.   Worked fine for over a month after the new system was installed.  The guys in the repair shop installed Avast for the virus program and it seemed to work so I left it alone.

Installed and uninstalled plugins and extensions.  Installed and uninstalled Java, finally with the special Chrome install.   Nothing worked.  Finally read that Avast was troublesome but in a different situation.  Had to give it a try so as soon as it was disabled I had Java back.   The main reason I needed Java is Disqus that runs comments on my Blog and many others uses Java.   I couldn't comment or even read them.

So now Avast is gone and I've installed AVG which I had for years and don't remember any issues.  I also scan manually with MalwareBytes at least once a week.   Hopefully everything will be cool for a little while.

The next issue was neither ITunes or my PC could read my IPhone like it was a hard drive.  Had worked that way for the 2 years that I've had it. That meant I couldn't access pictures I'd taken or upload music or videos to the phone.   That sent me on a search for some second party software and what I found was Syncios.   Sync-IOS (sync operating systems) works perfectly and is free.

When you download Syncios it asks you if you also want to download Mobogenie and for some reason I said yes when I usually say no to all the extras offered.  I had no idea what it was.  Mobogenie turned out to be essentially the same as Syncios but was for Android devices.   Install it on your PC and it installs on the Android at the same time.  That means I can download from the PC and it goes to the Android or if the Android has it's own Internet connection it can be stand alone.   It goes to a site very much like Google Play and we only downloaded a few games for my neighbors Tablet but I'm sure there are other apps.

Suddenly this morning I'm able to read my Iphone like always. Mystery or another Avast issue? All's well that ends well but I somehow think my computing future will not be trouble free.

Two more songs the neighbor kids like

And I do mean "like".   They can play these things over and over for days.  The songs by Hermanos Vazquez and CoCo No by Roberto Jr. ... and Gangnam Style that I posted a video of a few days ago.  

They have a couple of them on their Cel phones and I wanted to put a few on mine except I hate ITunes which is usually for managing music and videos on IPhones and other Apple products.   You install ITunes on your PC and it takes over ... won't use it!!

I knew about YTD Video Downloader to download videos from YouTube.   It also converts files to different formats after you have downloaded.  Original YouTube is in .FLV and my IPhone needs MP3/4.   Then I did a search for an ITunes replacement and found CopyTrans Manager works perfectly, very small in size ... and both programs are Freeware.   Now my phone is the favorite because of the big screen compared to theirs.

Rolling in the Deep - Hermanos Vazquez


El CoCo No - Roberto Jr.

Foto Geidy in Melaque

The best foto I got at the quinceañera was outside the church with Wendy in front of a nice black pickup. I was ready to enlarge the original when the store owner suggested they could remove the truck and put in another background (fondo). We looked at a bunch and decided on this one with some green to match her dress. This is a foto of the print with my IPhone so quality is poor but the print looks good. $200 pesos for the print which is about 10x12 and 80 pesos for the background.

Dinner Serenade

Cuchillo was playing guitar on his front porch last night while I was cooking dinner and I setup my IPhone in the window to take this video. You'll have to turn up the volume a bit but it worked pretty well. Cuchillo (Estephan) used to play up and down the coast between fishing trips. Now he just fishes from time to time. He also makes throw nets.

Trying my IPhone camera

Tried my IPhone camera yesterday while at the open mic at Sirenitas. There are no adjustments so you get pretty much what you see. This one is a little darker than reality and a different angle might have helped. Keeping it steady is the most difficult part .... practice and more practice. You can switch from still foto to video and my few video trys looked pretty good. Still not ready to edit videos or uploading to YouTube over Telcel WiFi.   The fotos are quite large so have been reduced a lot for the web.

IPhone foto of Melaque beach

This IPhone has GPS and uses Google Maps. I was wondering if fotos from the camera were automatically embedded with the location GPS data. I found this site GPS Visualizer that allows you to upload a foto and it will create a map if the foto contains GPS info. The map above shows what I got when I uploaded the beach foto on top and it's right on. So far this is just interesting as I haven't found a way to easily connect a map to a foto. Right now the location maps for Blogger are not working and it doesn't seem to be a Google priority.

Back in the connected world

I've been trying to get back into the connected world since I moved to my house outside of Melaque where there is no telephone or Internet. Two weeks ago I got my first cel phone, the Nokia 1616 below. That's the cheapest phone and for $350 pesos you get the phone and $100 pesos of airtime.

First cel phone in this day and age ... yes I know, I should have had one before. Had to have a neighbor teach me how to use it. Pretty easy really and things went well for the first week.

In the mean time I was evaluating my Internet options including a radio type transmission from a nearby community. That would have involved building a tower and buying sending and receiving dishes. Quite a bit of money for only a shared signal that may not be around next year.

Everyone said Iusacell was cheaper but the signal was weak in our area so I finally went into Telcel last week to see what was available. What a surprise to find they had an unlimited Internet service with a USB modem and an IPhone for $700 pesos a month. That package does require an 18 month contract and a credit check ... but I was approved and it's not much more than a 2meg service from Telmex.   And no I didn't have to pay extra for the Iphone or USB .... it's included in the contract price.

I'm now using the USB modem with my desktop and was quite excited to start using the Iphone to browse the web and check email. Sadly Telcel messed up the activation and neither one of the phones work even tho I had $100 peso credit on the Nokia. The messages say my SIM cards are not registered. I can guess at the problem but this will require another trip to Telcel in Manzanillo.

Oh well, at least I have Internet on this computer and will report what the mis-configuration problem was later this week.

Seems the SIM cards were reversed so problem solved. Another correction is that the USB connection thru this computer has a 10 gig limit. Only the Iphone has unlimited Internet time and gigabites.

I added the Speed Test image which is from a server in Guadalajara. The servers in the US gave me .85 megs and 1.2 megs. The service is rated at 2.5 megs.