Why is it that blog posts are like buses: you wait for ages for an idea and then three come along at once? The 'Apple' I'm talking about is nothing to do with the fruit trees that surround The Cottage for hectare after hectare in this, New Zealand's fruit bowl. No it's the Apple.
0500 hrs this morning and my iPad 'rang' and woke me. My iPad rang?? How come? It is wifi only.
One of the beauties of the iPhone is that it has a programmable sound notifications so that I have it set for no 'ringing' during the hours of midnight to 0630. It's also programmed to take calls from designated numbers or people or from anyone who tries twice in quick succession. However Apple has Facetime which enables people using an Apple device to contact each other orally and visually over the internet free via their Apple device. It is only recently that a friend in Australia (Fiona, daughter of one of my oldest friends who lives in Canada who is not into modern technology and doesn't even have a cellphone) got me to start using it.
Fiona is in Canada at the moment. Fiona is trying to persuade her Mum to get an iPad so that she can communicate more effectively with her daughters and friends scattered throughout the world (Fiona doesn't have a landline telephone). To that end they were in an Apple Store in Canada. Who better to demonstrate Facetime on but someone in New Zealand. They miscalculated the time and were quite surprised when a rather sleepy voice answered his cellphone wondering how it could have rung and why it was still dark. It was, in fact, the iPad that had rung but my sleeping brain hadn't computed that.
Frances Garrood would, I am sure, say that that demonstrates all that is bad about modern (ie post 1970) technology (see Pre-1970s - The Best Inventions) but for me it demonstrates all that is good with the ability we now have to communicate with each other in this physically large and yet very small earth.
So whilst I might have some misgivings about being woken at 0500 I am very thankful for the ability to communicate with my friends so easily.
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I didn't know that the communication was free.... yet another reason to get an iPad. Promise I won't ring you at funny times if I do!
ReplyDeleteIt works on the iPad, Mac and iPhone (and may work on the iPods other than the one I have which is the 120Gb one which is just designed for media).
DeleteFacetime, my friend, is the next best thing to sliced bread. Oh, wait, it is BETTER than sliced bread!
ReplyDeleteI have these two one-year-old grandbabies that are separated from me by space & time. Enter, Facetime!!!!!!
Oh my gosh! These little ones not only seeeee me, but also recognize me from this wonderful mode of communication!
Thanks be to the stars for this gift of recognition!!!
Amen to that Lisa.
DeleteMy friends know better than trying to ring me at 5.00 in the morning...! I'd be so scared, certain of this being really bad news, since only something terrible like a sudden death or accident would justify anyone ringing me in the middle of the night.
ReplyDeleteI really like my old iphone but I don't need an ipad. My sister has one, and it is very useful when we are travelling together.
They got the time difference between Canada and NZ wrong by a couple of hours Meike. I think a lot of the things many of us call needs are only wants. I have the iPhone and the laptop and a Kindle which, for me to enjoy the life I have, I class as needs. I don't need an iPad. I have it because it's handy which is a pretty feeble reason in the greater scheme of things. Would I buy one again? I'm not sure that I would. Now you have me thinking of needs. Oh dear.
DeleteIs there a difference between Facetime and Skype? I don't have Apple; and I still haven't actually tried Skype. I've installed it on my mobile with the intention of being able to talk to my friend who moved to Australia. But we still haven't connected that way. I'm neither an early morning nor a late night person, and my friends know that. If my phone does ring at odd times, I'm like Meike and would expect bad news. (As has been the case a few times.)
ReplyDeleteYes, Monica. Skype is much more versatile and can be used by anyone regardless of the type of computer one has. You can also type messages and send texts and phone calls via Skype. Some Skype is free and some is charged. Facetime is purely a visual face to face way of talking to people over using Apple products. I now use both. I'm both and early morning and a late night person but 0500 is too early even for me but they calculated the time difference incorrectly.
DeleteI'm with Frances! I've abandoned the phone (or rather it has abandoned me and is in the Vodaphone hospital/mortuary) and I'm going back to snail-mail. Sadly, I'm now addicted to blogging so that may take a while to dispense with...
ReplyDeleteI write quite a lot of snail-mail missives but would be really lost without my phone. In its various incarnations it has been my constant companion since around 1990 before the 'modern' network phones came in, I think, 1992. How antiquated they look now. They were just phones at first.
DeleteAh, all these strides in technology makes communication so very easy. It's almost like magic... a simple click or keystroke and voila! we're in touch with each other, from wherever we might be in the world.
ReplyDeleteYes, Virginia, and I am so very grateful for that.
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