Aviate (Beta) -- The Review

I've used launchers in the past, and while they have tended to allow more personalization; they mostly just made life more difficult.  Aviate has deviated from that course, and I must say that it definitely paid off.


 Let me just break things down a bit.

• Interface - The UI for this launcher has no learning curve, because of how simple it is.  There are no complicated settings; just organization that requires minimal effort.
• Usability -  I think a monkey could figure out how to use this launcher, and without trying to insult anyone; I mean, that the least technology inclined person you know could probably figure it out in under 30 minutes.
• Performance - Not that I'm certain that this is the right word for what I'm talking about, but regardless; I have found Aviate to be the "Speedy Gonzalez" of launchers, it is smooth and zippy and JUST WORKS! 
• I did notice that Moto Assist doesn't seem to be functioning well with it...  which I find pretty bothersome, since that's part of why I love the phone to begin with.
• Screenshots!

As of 10/23/2013 I still have invites for people who need them!  Get me your email address if you want me to TRY and send you one. I say "TRY" because several times I've been beaten to the punch by the waiting list, and people have already been sent invites.  Also, keep in mind that I personally have 4 left, and when you install, you will also get 5 invites to share (at least that's how it WAS working when I got it).

Employed!

Hello folks!  I realize that it's been more than a month since I have posted anything, and so to bring us all up to date:

1. I am no longer looking for work!  I have been busy preparing my home office to be worked out of for quite some time now.
2. I have found a most awesome legitimate "Work from Home" opportunity, which lets me put my kids on the bus in the morning, and walk downstairs in the afternoon for work".
3. I did sign a NDA for this job.  This means that I am a work at home Ninja, you know I'm out there, but you will never know where!
4. I decided that since I found a code for a free month of Xbox Gold membership, that I would give it a shot. I might post my gamertag publicly once I've decided if I will be keeping it or not; so if you are expecting me to share it simply because I have it; you'll just have to get over that little feeling of entitlement.

I am still IN LOVE with my Moto X, and as I have posted on Google+, I am in the process of taking "Aviate" (it's still in beta so you need to get an invite if you want it).  I will not give anything away as far as my thoughts on the launcher, I hope to find time to post a detailed review of it in the near future.

That's all for now folks!

Moto X Adventures part 2

I suppose following a brilliant revelation about the case I have been using that the Moto X was not intended for a case.

I had been having a problem with getting the screen to come back on after answering a call. I couldn't figure it out until I had to do a voice audition for a potential job tonight.

My husband reminded me that it didn't used to do this. Realizing that he was right we took the case off, and magic! Problem solved. Except that now we're taking bets on how long before I stop this one and have to call the insurance people to replace it.

Grocery Apps

I have been working with several of the available (and "free") grocery applications for Android since my last post.  A few were tossed out of the competition quickly; having proved themselves to be unacceptable for normal use.  The 3 that are still installed on my phone have immense potential for everyday use.   List Ease, Out of Milk and Our Groceries are those lucky apps.
Let's discuss the good, bad, and ugly of these 3 Inventory/Grocery List Applications


List Ease

• Keeps track of $$$$ -- Allows you to input the cost of each item, as well as sales tax.  Will estimate the cost of your shopping list.
• Large barcode "vocabulary"  recognizes most products when scanned.
• List share and sync
• More features available when you upgrade to a subscription

Out of Milk

• Different types of lists -- Shopping, To Do, and Pantry(Inventory).  User creates sub categories within each to further organize items.
• This application is tied to an account, which means that you will not lose your lists if you uninstall for whatever reason (Like your SI surprising you by making Google Wallet work while you're putting groceries away; yes this happened during the course of my testing)
• Customization seems to be a huge part of this app.  Not only within the lists themselves, but in the settings as well.  The ability to change what actions do what is easily available, and fairly idiot-proof.
• List Sharing -- share lists using whatever means you wish

Our Groceries

• List Sharing/Sync -- can be requested or allowed from the app.
• Recipe section -- allows user to add ingredients to a shopping list

List Ease

• No dedicated section for recipes (although this could be done by making a new list for each recipe)
• Switching phones means lost lists.  Syncing does not work, leaving me to think that the developer abandoned users.

Out of Milk

• Scanning an item multiple times does not increase item count; instead creating another instance of the item, which can be slightly helpful if you have scanned two entirely different things, and the scan has resulted in identical item information.

Our Groceries

• Having switched phones this weekend I cannot access lists on the new phone that were created on the old. This was expected since there is no "sign-up" or "log in" to lead anyone to believe that it would sync.

I had totally planned on putting in the Ugly section as well.  Unfortunately, between life (aka looking for work and parenting) and a change in technology (I am now rocking a Moto X, and handed off ownership of my Note 2 today) I was unable to get as far as deciding just what the Ugly for each one was.  

Moto X Adventures

If you follow me on Google Plus; you may have noticed that I've got a new phone!  I'm now working with the Moto X, and given that it's SUCH a gigantically different user experience I was surprised how much I actually enjoy using it.

My favorite things (so far):

• Small enough to use easily; and not too small to use for what I actually do with my phones
• Camera is fast, simple and easy to use (quality of pictures is a bit lower than the Note 2, but I no longer have to struggle to both hold my phone still and take the picture) There are also some pretty cool things it lets you do with your pics after they're taken.
•  The look of it!  Lines are simple, and it just isn't a flashy phone at all.
• I have yet to experience that "echo" during a phone call, and I could actually understand what my mumbling older brother was saying the last time he called, and I didn't hear what I said repeated in my ear 2 seconds after saying it.
• GPS is spot on...  We visited Elmira, NY over the weekend to assist in rebuilding their Level 8 status (and yes, to also Max out our inventory) and I experienced absolutely no drift (granted from time to time GPS signal was completely lost; and took a bit of time to get back, however I might attribute that to the area/Network)
• I can actually hear a notification from 2 rooms away w/ a door closed.  I could never do this with the Note 2 even with the volume all the way up. 
• Assist; absolutely has yet to fail at knowing when I am in a moving vehicle!
• "Okay Google Now" yeah; I absolutely love that this works; and only works for my voice. Yes, my family has tried and failed.
• Also; Anyone who has ever bought a smartphone knows that the film on the display usually has a bunch of text or whatever on it; to tell you (who they think must be that dumb) where all the buttons are...  The film on this phone has only a small white corner, and is otherwise clear, allowing me to use it while waiting for the ones I ordered to get here.

The stuff I could do without (so far)?:

• It's a slippery bugger, just like the Note 2 was, only the back panel is prettier (which is helpful since it's not the regular snap-on variety)
• The battery is NOT removeable, which means when the battery dies; you have to be near a power source
• Video chatting in low light; not happening.  It just doesn't gather light the way the Note 2 can.

An Inventory/Grocery Shopping Adventure

Awhile back, I attempted to change some details as far as how the URL for this blog was going to work.  I can safely say that it failed miserably; and for a while I even forgot if my domain name was still registered!  This morning I finally gave in and decided to see if I could fix what I screwed up, and Voila! I have things back the way I had them set up originally.

Now, if you head to http://erintotten.com you will end up here (on the homepage I'm sure) again through the magic that is url forwarding.  I'm not ready to try that whole mess where I remove the "forwarding" part, and redirecting isn't needed.

I had lots about the new X in my Stream today

What I've managed to catch in my G+ stream on the new Moto X today; minus the +Ingress related stuff.


50 Gig of Drive storage for 2 years...

Bloatware...

Vs. iPhone, SGS 4, and One...

The Verge hands on...


Motorola also threw in some really cool customization (But for now only if you use AT&T).

Oh Dear; Watch your step Niantic!

New weapons only hackable from certain Motorola phones; I never dreamed that I would feel blackmailed into buying a certain phone.  If there is no concession made for those of us loyal and "since the beginning" players, I may have to stop playing.  We were prepared for commercial portals, those only in the game because a business paid for the exposure, and I had even entertained the possibility that item codes might be included with purchases as incentive to spend money at one store over another; obviously, Google would make money by selling the codes to the business as advertising.

This development has a lot of people upset, and I don't blame them.  I do think that perhaps it's worth waiting to find out if Google is really using something that many have made a lifestyle to make the game much less fun without the purchase and use of a Motorola device (Maybe everyone doesn't know Google bought Motorola?).  Either way; I'm prepared to wait and see where this goes.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (No Baking!)

I posted this on Google+ a while back, but finding it again just now reminds me all over how great it felt making my own snacks as a kid.

This recipe came from a cookbook I kinda ganked from my Mom.  Making these is something I can still remember 20 years later; it might have been longer than that though.  I remember I loved how they didn't need to be baked, and they were so gooey and chewy and delicious!

Plastic Iphone?

I can't imagine that this article on Wired is going to be considered good news by Iphone lovers.

In fact, my husband had the iphone 5 for a bit, and absolutely  sarcastically raved about how it's "higher quality" build made it so much more "magic"  than my Galaxy Note 2.  In all honesty I can only reason it out one way; Apple switching to a plastic back for the iPhone must mean that they have merged with Samsung; right?

Report Reveals Apple Working on Plastic-Backed iPhone http://t.co/blCpk6A2c1
— WIRED (@wired) July 29, 2013

In other news; the Chromecast has been hacked and spotted running a GameBoy Emulator; crazy but apparently true!

How to root your Google Chromecast (and run a Gameboy emulator on it) http://t.co/tkx1MdlmRk
— phandroid (@phandroid) July 29, 2013

And, yes.  I am pretty psyched that I embedded those without losing an eye.  What can a girl say? It's been a while since I actually made use of Twitter.

Chromecast

Last night; I sent +Joe Totten to Big Flats after work (in Rochester) to pick up a Chromecast from the nearest Best Buy store.  It added an extra two hours to his drive time, but he did it.  He then came home and set it up (upsetting because I missed that part).

Based on what I was told by my other half about set up, what I have witnessed for myself, and what I have seen others saying so far; this is Definitely worth the $35 price tag.  Very simple set-up; you plug it into the back of the TV, and there is minimal set up after that. Chromecast has awesome Wi-Fi connectivity (I value this especially because the Wi-Fi our router provides is constantly disappointing with EVERY other device in our home), Not even once did it need to stop and buffer once we got our router to play nice (I did say it was crappy Wi-Fi right?).

A note of contention has come up in relation to restrictions on the API; however I find myself in a position where I am able to understand this to at least some extent, and others seem to have an optomistic view as well, in this case, it's Gabe Stein of fastcolabs.com .  Another slight upset was the fear that we wouldn't be able to stream personal content through it, but this concern has been assuaged by Kellex over at Droid-life.com.

As we only bought it yesterday; it's likely that I will have more insight into this amazingly affordable and small device, but for now I'm giving it the "Tottenmom Stamp of Approval".

NOTE We have been able to use the usb port on the back of our tv to power the chromecast also making it self contained essentially. 

Pinterest

So; I finally relented and decided to give Pinterest a shot.  I will now admit that I was wrong in my assumption that it would be terrible.  In fact; I can easily admit to being in love.  If only it were friends with Google+!  I absolutely despise how every app seems to be friendly with FaceBook, a social networking site which I never have trusted to protect my privacy.  I pinned so much stuff since yesterday; and it really does make holding onto things like cool ideas, websites, images, etc easy.   So, yes.  I am on Pinterest now...  *sigh*  and now that I feel super guilty now that I have not been using some of the other things I've downloaded...  yeah; time to see what I'm missing with some of those things as well.

Oh boy Google, the inner Geek is not impressed at all this time.

While I was extremely pleased that I received the most recent update to Gmail before my husband did; I find myself still thinking on day 3, how much I still dislike what they've done.

I can see the direction they're going with it, I just prefer to decide what emails go where.  I believe I have expressed my love with Altomail already.  The latest Gmail has tabs which at first glance seem to do the same thing Alto does with "stacks".  The new tabs are pre-set in nature.  You have the option of which to use; however not the option for custom tabs.  I personally find that it is much easier to keep my Ingress related emails separate from my Amazon emails, simply because Amazon is shopping, and Ingress can be a life consuming game if you let it.

I can't say that I was particularly fond of the previous "upgrade" either.  I hold those colorful letters in absolute disdain; rather than simplifying my inbox Google made it more complex, and also continues to give iOS users the mobile app which frankly is better than it's Android "twin".  

Recent events!

1. Tottenmom79 is now a Level 8 Agent of the Resistance. 
2. I have posted my resume for public consumption
3. I have given some thought to teaching myself to "spin" and the idea of raising some angora bunnies to supplement that is really tempting!
4. Soon I'll think of some more tech-related things to post about; and maybe be able to stop having dreams about blowing up every Enlightened portal I see on the Intel map.

That's it for now in a nutshell; I do have invites for Ingress (which is STILL in Beta btw) if anybody needs one!

Alto is missing only one thing

Alto is missing only one thing that would eclipse my use of Gmail as an actual client for viewing my emails.  Today, Google+ was giving me a hard time.  The chat function simply was not working, for whatever reason and this meant that in order to continue my daily here and there conversations with my husband I needed to have Gmail open.  This royally bites especially since I'm trying to give Altomail a real chance.  I have to say; I am a visual person, and I learn by doing best.  That translates to Alto being a really good fit for me; allowing me to organize without creating filters (I hate that process, and it doesn't matter if it's Yahoo! or Gmail, it still sucks) I love the different "view" options in stacks.  Stacks are my friend, they do what I tell them to do, they let me make changes quickly, and they let me create new stacks simply by dragging from my inbox.
I don't need to search through my messages, or watch a huge list of folders...  Yesterday I posted about muffins, and chocolate.  Alto is to email what cocoa powder does for boxed muffin mix (especially the apple cinnamon kind)

Please find more cool stuff for me to try, or be prepared for random content.

MUFFINS

Alright, so this is monumental if you like muffins and chocolate (and even better if you like chocolate muffins)!  I have discovered this week, that making chocolate muffins really only requires a few things.

• Cocoa
• A box of muffin mix (any kind but corn probably wouldn't taste so good)
• The stuff it says you need on the box

All you have to do is add a couple teaspoons/tablespoons of cocoa to the dry mixture, and then follow the rest of the directions on the box.  You can add as much as you want, but I try to keep it so that I put just enough in to make it look that chocolatey brown color.

Had to share that, and so far it's great with apple cinnamon AND banana mix.  kthxbai

Email, email, more email

Believe it or not; I remember life before the internet.  My parents didn't have a computer for me to even do word processing on before I got to my sophmore year in highschool.  I didn't have a home internet connection until I was 21, married, and living in Vermont with our baby girl.  I had the privilege of skipping right over dial-up for the most part, and diving right into a cable internet connection.  email was easy, Yahoo! was where all my friends from NY were on.  I could chat with them, receive countless stupid joke emails that my husband had already seen from his friends at work.  Then I switched to Gmail, I gave up trying to fight Spam in my inbox.  I didn't care about enhancing the size of anything, I didn't want to help someone steal money from Nigeria, and I managed to push my friends in the right direction over time.

Nowadays, I still get the equivalent of a metric ton of email on a daily basis.  Gmail has not been as effective at helping me keep things neat and tidy the way I like them, even while it keeps Spam out with phenomenal success.    Given an invite to Alto, I thought I would set it up and see how I liked it.  I am open to suggestions of other clients that will try to make my Gmail experience better, so if you know of any, please let me know in the comments here or on Google+, and I'll try and share my thoughts and feelings on all of them (after trying them out of course).  I'd love to have one that also has an Android app available, but it's not a requirement, since I don't do much email "reading" on my phone, as much as just checking to see how important it is at the time.

Time to try and get some homework done for school now, leave your thoughts and suggestions below and try to have a good day!

And the Winner is....

I must admit that several note taking apps have made choosing only one of them a hugely difficult thing to do.
Previously I stated that the app that would win the Tottenmom approval stamp:

• should not have to install multiple apps to make it work
• The learning curve should be minimal for use
• S-pen compatibility
• Multiple notebooks (to keep class notes seperate) 
• File types (what are my export options)
• Efficiency (will I be able to keep up with a professor's lecture)
• Extra stuff

I have found 3 worth talking about with you, and will share them in no particular order.

1. FreeNote; which can do soooo many cool things, like import and take pictures, record voice and video, resizes text to fit on the paper lines; while keeping the text on the line (this means that you can't make text go "superscript" or "subscript", which is both a downfall and a positive, depending on the task at hand.  Outside of that, it's easy to figure out, responsive, and allows organizing of files.
2. AntiPaperNotes; is a bit different when it comes to the way it allows you to enter "written" data.  If you just open it up and start writing away, you will probably run out of room, however there is also a zoom feature, which allows you to place the "zoom" area where you want, and then allows you to navigate across or up and down the page as you need in order to put your notes where you want them.  Files can be exported as .jpg's or .png's which might work for sharing your course notes, but not for re-editing them, and likely not copy/pasting chosen parts either. I found it easy to understand and use, responsive, and easy on my eyes (which face it people, some apps just don't give a flying **** if you can see after you open their app or not).
3. HandRite is pretty awesome too, and is in some ways a blended version of #1 and #2.  Like AntiPaper, your handwritten text is resized and moved to the appropriate line on the paper, however, depending on which part of the "writing" area you use, you can have super and sub script with no real difficulty.  Like both of the others, it's easy to learn and use.  The "writing" area can be moved up or down on the screen here also, which is NOT possible in FreeNote, and to a lesser extent in AntiPaper, where the zoom area can be switched to the top or bottom depending on where you want it.  

I do plan to see about getting some screenshots posted in here in the near future, so keep an eye out for those.In the end, I feel like HandRite and AntiPaper are better options than FreeNote,  I call a TIE.  Please discuss below, and let me know what you think.

Note 2 "note-taking" update

I have taken a close look at two Note-taking apps, and have easily tossed out the third.  Antipaper and Handrite free are still in the game.  However I bid farewell to LectureNotes; which will definitely not meet the needs of someone who doesn't have time to learn a complicated eco-system.

I'd still be thrilled if there were some suggestions for other options that might work; I am finding it neccessary to change Roms tonight in order to get around the latest VZW ota update that wants to brick my phone; I'm not sure how this will affect the apps I'm testing, but we will see, and when I finish getting that done tonight I will try and remember to update this post to include a link to the ROM I'll be using.

Taking Notes on the Note 2

Hi people,

I was looking for a better note taking app for my Note 2, since S Note really wasn't going to help me in a pinch if I actually needed to take notes with it in class.  I came across two (so far) that seemed to meet my needs, and after playing with both of them for a few minutes, I realized that I really should compare a few different ones, and share what I find...  Since I only just decided to do this in the last 5 minutes or so; it might take some time before I post the results.
I am more than happy to take suggestions for any free or trial versions for this little project, so if you have suggestions let me know.  So that there is no confusion, I want to make my basic wishlist for a note taking application clear ahead of time;

• I should not have to install multiple apps to make it work
• The learning curve should be minimal for use
• S-pen compatibility
• Multiple notebooks (to keep class notes seperate) 
• File types (what are my export options)
• Efficiency (will I be able to keep up with a professor's lecture)
• Extra stuff

The two I've started with are Handrite Free and LectureNotes (Trial Version); so let me know if there is another one I should take a look at and I'll check 'em out!