When technology becomes part of us

[Hereware]

Hi guys,

Are you getting hooked on mobile apps or computer software in your daily life? Do these apps become part of your daily life? What is your favorite app and why? I would be glad to know your thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

[Michael Murphy]

I spent 34 years at a major telecommunications company and 10 years at government locations designing the required hardware required to run business applications.  I started as a programmer and rose to a architect.  Loved my job.  Today I am happily  retired but pen and use a iPad Pro (my main system) a iPhone pro max 12, a Apple Watch 6, and a 27 inch Mac system.  What I love is instant connection where ever I am.  Books, movies tv shows are with me where ever I go. I get alerts on all my devices from news weather.

[kristina]

Hi guys,

Are you getting hooked on mobile apps or computer software in your daily life? Do these apps become part of your daily life? What is your favorite app and why? I would be glad to know your thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

.. I am not sure whether I could ever get "hooked" on a computer, but life without the convenience of doing some research on the computer could be very dull & frustrating, as it certainly was sometimes "in the old days", whilst I studied and had an idea in the evening or very early in the mornings when the libraries were closed and there was no way to check-up on an idea ...

Through the computer it also has become so much easier to be in contact with people/patients all over the world with similar medical symptoms/diseases, which helps a lot ...

Also, just a few days ago I was trying to find the address of a childhood-friend and without the computer it would have been extremely difficult ...
 
...And then there are some favourite books which went "for walkies" ages ago and could not be found anymore and through the Internet it has become so easy to replace difficult-to-find-books, especially in different languages ...
 
... Another great plus of having a computer is, of course, YouTube, which provides the possibility to find some distraction/entertainment ... and there are also some very old classic movies to be re-discovered, which is absolutely perfect and very much needed on a "rainy day", especially right now, whilst I am just about "hanging on" and don't feel well at all...

... I would not know about "mobile apps" because I only have an "ancient" mobile telephone, which is about 30 years old and still in reasonable "working order" (touch wood ...) and I use it very rarely ... but I keep it in my handbag all the same ...

Good luck with your research ...

P.S. I would also like send my sincerest Thank You to all the people/engineers/technicians/computer-specialists etc. involved for their valuable time to make our life these days so much more easy through the invention of the computer and keeping etc. of the computer-world going ... it is very much appreciated

[Hereware]

Indeed, computers really made our life easier and comfortable. I also enjoy youtube but, there are still lots of great apps out there and that's what I want to discover too =) I'm not into games but, would love to give it a try.

[Riki]

I would say that my most used app is TextFree, which is an app that gives you a local number anywhere in the world for texting.  I got a number that's local to NYC so that my best friend could text me without having to pay any usage charges.  I'm also an avid Amazoner, to the detriment of my credit cards.  I also tend to use an app called Nookazon, which is an Animal Crossing New Horizons trading app.

Other than that, I think I use the same apps as anyone else; Facebook, Twitter, Domino's *LOL*

[frugallyzing]

Photoshop and Skype but they're for work. Great apps though.

[iolaire]

I'm 100% hooked and have been most of my life.  I grew up in remote Alaska with no running water nor electricity, diesel lamps and wood stoves for all cooking.  In Middle school I bought my first computer a Apple Mac SE and a Honda generator to power it. 

Since I bought my first iOS device in 2007 I've done more playing then hobbyist activities like I would do on computers.  Now its mostly Facebook and reading news and blogs.  I'm a long time fan of RSS aggregation of blogs and news sites.  I use the paid https://bazqux.com/ to manage all my feed and read the content on the web, that drives the sources for the iOS app Feeddler Pro on iOS for device reading.  I'm also using Apple News more and more these days to discover new random "news" content and more in-depth articles.  I've never made the jump to watching videos and would much rather read my content.  I don't really talk on the phone if I don't have too so my wireless service use is all data.  Prior to COVID I used over 5 gigs/month for my data consumption mostly on my hour commute each way to work.  (I've always used MVMO's for lower cost wireless, right now I'm on MintMobile which is a MVMO for T-Mobile.

I also read a lot of fiction of various types, prior to dialysis I would pickup hard covered books from the new arrivals shelf at the library, but once I was on the machine I moved to kindle books on the phone.  Since then I've used library kindle books exclusively.  I browse the new releases and popular books and add them to my holds list.  Most popular books have waits of a few months so I add books to my holds monthly and they come in every so often.  Right now my holds system is working fairly well where I have books coming in right around the time I'm finishing the prior book, sometimes they come in too early or in bunches so then I delay the delivery for 7 days.  I read a book every week or so but most mass market popular books like say a Steven King book often take a day or two.  Right now I'm working from three library systems for the holds.

For a few years there physical technology maintained my life with the dialysis machine.  Now its pharmaceutical technology maintaining my life.

So yes technology is a significate part of my life. 

[kristina]

Hello Iolaire,
Many thanks for sharing with us your computer-knowledge. Our many years-old “compy” (HP laptop) has unfortunately become, over the years, more and more eccentric (at the moment it seems to be getting too warm too quickly and so it just closes down...) and unfortunately, it seems to need replacing, because the fan does not work efficiently to cool down “compy” any longer either.

But, times have moved on and since we only need a small and simple “compy” for letter-writing, on-line research generally and in different libraries etc., Yahoo and Youtube (music/films etc.), there does not seem to be an easy replacement for such simple computer-requirements any longer and it seems, that computer-productions seem to have developed into a different direction, such as computer-games etc.  ...  and we are now wondering, how to replace our “ancient HP-laptop” with a new one to continue as before ? Any ideas would be very much appreciated and many thanks from Kristina.

[iolaire]

Our many years-old “compy” (HP laptop) has unfortunately become, over the years, more and more eccentric (at the moment it seems to be getting too warm too quickly and so it just closes down...) and unfortunately, it seems to need replacing, because the fan does not work efficiently to cool down “compy” any longer either.
…  and we are now wondering, how to replace our “ancient HP-laptop” with a new one to continue as before ? Any ideas would be very much appreciated and many thanks from Kristina.

Have you looked into any of the all in one computers? They can be very compact and affordable. Alternatively something like a chrome book might serve you good if you are ok moving documents to Google and editing them there.

My main worry is modern windows laptops might not have the longevity you want.

[kristina]

Our many years-old “compy” (HP laptop) has unfortunately become, over the years, more and more eccentric (at the moment it seems to be getting too warm too quickly and so it just closes down...) and unfortunately, it seems to need replacing, because the fan does not work efficiently to cool down “compy” any longer either.
…  and we are now wondering, how to replace our “ancient HP-laptop” with a new one to continue as before ? Any ideas would be very much appreciated and many thanks from Kristina.

Have you looked into any of the all in one computers? They can be very compact and affordable. Alternatively something like a chrome book might serve you good if you are ok moving documents to Google and editing them there.

My main worry is modern windows laptops might not have the longevity you want.

Hello Iolaire and many thanks for your kind suggestions, I am sure they go a long way to assist in my compy-replacement-research.
Thanks a lot, it is very much appreciated.
Just by the way ...  I sometimes wonder about your life in Alaska. Since I spent some childhood-years in the Alps, I remember many winter-days through my childhood, when I could not go anywhere, let alone to school, because there were meters and meters of new snow on the roads and everywhere else and it was too dangerous to go out at all, because the road could not even be re-traced, so to speak, etc. I am sure you have many memories about such experiences as well ...
Many thanks again for your kind computer-replacement-suggestions, it gives me a very good idea, where to go from here.
Take great care and many thanks again from Kristina.

[Hereware]

I also got hooked during the lockdown, but now I am not using it that often.