Friday Diary: Moving from iPhone to Android. Final Post

To read the first three parts of my switch from an iPhone to an Android click on Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Also check out Alisha’s helpful comment about the Android.

It has been about 4 weeks since I made the switch from an iPhone to Android.  There have been some growing pains but all in all things are alright. 

First off I am going to say I still prefer my iPhone.  It has only been a month and while I have grown to like my Android, it just isn’t my iPhone.  This could be because the iPhone was the first smartphone I ever used and it is what I learned on.  For example, I learned to use Medline on PubMed, but Ovid Medline will always be my DOC (database of choice) because that is what I first learned when I was in library school and what I used years ago when I was an Electronic Resources Graduate Assistant at the University of Missouri Columbia.  

I ran into an interesting blog post yesterday stating basically that you are what you use.  According to Ars Technica, researchers at the University of Illinois believe “people treat brands as they treat themselves, leading users to feel more affected by brand failure instead of less.” Attacks upon people’s favorite brands can be perceived as attacks against their self image.  Because the brand is perceived as a part of ourselves we are more likely to minimize its failures and maxmize the failures of its competitors.  Right now it is the iPhone vs. Android vs. Blackberry debate, but it could easily be Coke vs. Pepsi.  It is hard for me to think that I feel a certain brand is a part of me, I kind of would like to think I am above all that.  But hey if I was able to always have my way I’d be an iPhone talking, Coke drinking, Ovid searching librarian.  But this is life, and things happen.  If Pepsi is in the vending machine and I need caffiene, I’ll drink it.  As much as I used my iPhone and currently use my Android, I can now say that this whole phone thing is like the soda wars to me.  I prefer Coke but the two are so similar in taste that if I want a soda, I will take either one.  I prefer the iPhone but an Android gives me such a similar experience, it isn’t worth the extra $1200/year to be on AT&T with my iPhone.

Now things in the telecommunication world change rapidly.  Who knows maybe a year from now Sprint will sell VirginMobile or VirginMobile’s rates will go up.  If things change and the cost of having an iPhone (on AT&T or Verizon) is cheaper or closer to the same price as my Android then I will go back to an iPhone. 

The biggest problems I have had with my Android have been with the contacts list.  It is horrible.  Hopefully the kinks will get figured out.  The biggest problem I had with my iPhone was the lack of Flash.  Sorry, I know there are people out there who said they don’t miss having Flash.  I missed it.  Both phones have their faults. 

Android doesn’t have as many apps as the iPhone but as I mentioned in an earlier post, most of my favorite apps are available in the Android Market anyway.  If you have specific apps that you rely upon on your iPhone but you are considering moving to an Android, go the Android Market and look to see if it is there.  See if one of your friends has an Android and will install the app for you to play with (assuming the app is free).  However, the Android Market is growing and more more iPhone app developers are also developing for the Android.  According to a survey of 47 developers at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, 47% said they develop their apps for both iOS and Android.  “While that’s admittedly a very small sample,” appolicious advisor says, “it still seems to indicate that quite a few developers are expanding beyond the walls of the iTunes App Store to check the waters in Android’s pool.”  Additionally with the new open source project, “in-the-box” Engadget thinks more iOS apps will be brought to the Android platform.

If you have an iPhone and want to move to an Android it will be bumpy because you are used to things being a certain way, but once you get used to things you will be fine.  I am assuming the same would be true if you went from Android to iPhone. If you have never had a smartphone you don’t have to get an iPhone, you will be happy with the Android provided you do the research to find one that fits your lifestyle.  Hint: Go for the best antenna signal strength, nobody ever complains when their signal is too good, but a constantly weak signal will having you saying words you never knew existed. .

That brings me to one of the strengths of an Android, lots of options.  If you are somebody who likes to have a lot of options the Android is for you.  Everything from camera, OS, memory, etc. are all different for each manufacturer.  An iPhone is an iPhone, there is no extra memory or another “brand” with a better pixel camera. 

The best thing I have gained from this is that I have a working knowledge of both phones.  I am now able to answer questions on either platform fairly easily, which has been helpful on several occasions professionally and personally.

Marketing Electronic Resources

Looking for better ways to market your electronic resources?  Marie Kennedy is collecting web snippets on ScoopIt  that show ways libraries are marketing their electronic resources. The site isn’t specifically directed at medical libraries, but the information she collects is still very helpful since every library seems to struggle with marketing eresources. 

So if you are looking for ideas on marketing your electronic resources or you just want to keep up to date on how other libraries are doing things, add the site to your feed reader.

 

 

Should Hospitals Buy iPads or Let Doctors Use Their Personal Device?

Does your hospital allow iPads or tablet devices?  How about smartphones?  Nope don’t feel too bad, a lot of hospitals (including mine) still haven’t thought of  personal devices as necessary medical devices.  The personal information device (iPad, tablets, smartphones) represent a watershed event where doctors are able to access medical information on the go.  They aren’t tied down to a computer or laptop.  It will be interesting to see how small and large hospitals deal with this watershed event.  It has been interesting to see what hospitals (well known and not so well known) have made the progressive leap and what hospitals (well known and not so well known) have not. 

There are two schools of thought (three if you count a no adoption policy).  One is the hospital buys one specific device and supports it.  The other school of thought is to allow physicians to user their personal devices.  

FierceMobileHealthcare looked at two institutions that implemented mobile device policies, one hospital bought the device and the other allowed doctors to use their own device(s).  Both institutions are trying to provide doctors with a way to use mobile technology at the bedside, but each have their own reasons for the path they chose. 

Hospital buys the device:

Dale Potter, CIO of 1,300-bed Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada implemented an iPad roll out which was described by FierceMobileHealthcare as “arguably the largest roll out of hospital-owned tablets in the northern hemisphere.”

Dale’s hospital bought 2,000 iPads, has 1800 iPad 2’s on order, and may buy even more  in the year.  Dale believes hospital ownership was important and the way to go for moving his hospital forward to be “recognized as a top 10 health center in North America.”

Because the devices are hospital owned, it allows them to have control over the apps and other software on the devices.  They completely relying on the App store or outside vendors either, the hospital hired 120 developers to create apps for the institution, including a mobile electronic health record and a dozen in-house apps.  Because the devices are hospital owned and they not only can control the apps and software but they have created a remote wipe, log-ins, and other security protocols.  Even though the iPad is $600, Dale says that the costs of buying each doctor an iPad is cheaper than buying the a PC or laptop and “significantly less than other medical instruments that physicians carry with them each day.”

Doctor’s choice:

Todd Richardson, CIO with Deaconess Health System, Evansville, Ind., lets physicians use their personal devices for work.  Richardson’s primary reason for this is the devices are constantly changing making it difficult to remain current financially and logistically (constantly updating new devices with OS updates, patches, etc.).
 
In addition to the financial issues, management and ownership of the devices can be difficult to deal with.  Todd states that maintaining the devices, providing sync and charging stations and keeping track of them is “a hassle he just doesn’t need.”  Additionally doctors are going to load their own apps and software on the devices regardless, so if it is their person device it makes it easier. 
 
Deaconess allows doctors to use personal devices because they use Citrix to access the EHR via a secured wireless SSID and physicians must register their device’s MAC address.   
 
It is an interesting debate, which method is right lies more with the culture of the institution and what the CIO feels will work best there.  At least these CIO’s are addressing the issue. 
 
Now how does this relate to medical libraries?  Well we probably don’t have much say, if any,  in what direction the CIO goes with.  But once the decision is made, librarians can get on board by supporting the devices.  That means helping with the selection of apps, looking at library and information apps, helping doctors use the apps or the device itself.  There are a few doctors who have come into my library asking about certain resources for their iPad or Android.  Currently my hospital has yet to adopt a mobile device policy so much of the stuff they ask are general questions of getting on the network, how to access a medical video on YouTube (hint: turn off wifi and use 3G), how to connect to full text articles, etc.   But even if you hospital has adopted a mobile technology policy, you will still get questions (especially on ebooks, ejournals, and what databases have apps), so it is important to know what is out there. 

Rethinking Reference Collections

I saw this online class, Rethinking Reference Collections, on Infopeople’s website and it got me thinking. 

First things first, for those interested in the class here is the info: (It appears a course directed toward general library, not specifically medical library.)

When:
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 – Monday, October 17, 2011

Fee:
$75 for those in the California library community and Infopeople Partners, $150 for all others.

Course Description:
This four-week online course will encourage you to rethink your reference collection and identify changes that reflect today’s realities while promoting increased user and staff satisfaction. You will learn how to determine usage of print reference materials, make weeding decisions, and find sources for reviews of reference resources in both print and online formats. Through reading materials, assignments, discussion, and interaction with the instructor and other learners, you will explore ways to promote reference collections and resources to your user community. In the third week of the course, you will have an opportunity to participate in an online meeting to discuss collection evaluation and promotion of usage.

For more information go to: http://infopeople.org/training/rethinking-reference-collections

Now that the course information is covered, I can tell you how just the description started me thinking about reference collections and medical libraries.  How many libraries keep the reference collection separate from the circulating collection?  Why?  Is it because of some old way of how we used to keep reference books separate?  With some things it makes sense, you have one spot where all the dictionaries, thesaurus, drug books, etc. are located.  But in some ways it doesn’t make sense (to normal people).  You have Hurst’s the Heart and all other new cardiology textbooks on the reference shelves.  To the average person, that means they have to go to two different places to find cardiology books, the circulating shelves and the reference shelves.  Last year we started noticing that more and more of our patrons were having problems finding books.  Some would go to the circulating collection and complain about the lack of current core textbooks, while others would go to the reference collection and lament that there were no books available to check out.  People weren’t used to going to two places.  When you think about it, why should they go to two places? 

The locations were just there to help people realize what was available to circulate and what had to stay in the library.  So we decided to merge the two sections together.  Now reference and circulating books are shelved with each other.  The reference book has a red dot on it, indicating it is reference and can’t leave the library.  Now users can browse the shelves more efficiently and get better idea of our entire collection rather than walking back and forth.  

Of course that just covers the reference collection in book form.  That doesn’t really cover one of the major ways our reference collection has evolved.  As a large institution that has over 41 buildings on more than 140 acres, not everyone is able to get to the library to use the reference books.  Long ago we began purchasing electronic book packages containing popular reference book titles.  These books allowed our users to access the “book” from any on campus computer or from home.  This made the reference book “circulating,” it wasn’t locked up behind the library doors.  Yes the printed edition was, but the online (and often more current) version was free from library confines.

There has been a lot of discussion about ebooks, usage (or lack of), pricing, available editions, DRM, multiple versions, etc.  That doesn’t mean they are easy or that we don’t have any growing pains with them, we do.  But people are using them, and using them a lot.  Are they hitting the numbers that we see with ejournals, no.  But they aren’t sitting on the virtual shelf barely used either.  Perhaps it is because we are a large institution and our users don’t have time to trek across campus to look up something in the library, that they can access with a click of a mouse.  One thing is for sure our medical reference collection is going more and more online every year. 

The other reference collection that has shrunk considerably in the past few years is what I like to call the librarian reference.  I remember when the MeSH guide was always within arms reach and the Encyclopedia of Associations was right behind me, The Official ABMS Directory, and the AMA Directory of Physicians were used a lot.  About the only thing I use every once in a while is the AHA Guide.  Everything is online.  Why buy the print?  Once the shelves behind the reference desk were full of books.  Now….

What changes have you see in reference collections?  How is your library changing with them?  Besides moving to online, what are other changes that you see happening?

Friday Diary: Moving From iPhone to Android Part 3

Click here for part 1 and part 2 of the series.  Also check out Alisha’s very well thought out comment addressing some of the things I mentioned about my phone in my Part 2 post. Thanks Alisha 🙂

I am slowing starting to get used to my Triumph.  It takes a while for my brain to reprogram itself from iPhone thinking to Android thinking.  I have finally straightened out my contacts list, learned more about my battery life and reception, and looked at some of the top Android apps (non medical).

Contacts List:

Sigh… This by far is Android’s worst feature.  My sister works for a cell phone company in Chicago and her husband works for an even bigger telecom company.  Her company does not have the iPhone, his does.  She uses an Android. (Everybody recognizes iPhones and it would be really gauche of her to have one indicating she is not even using the carrier she works for.)  He has had an iPhone almost since they were a glimmer in Steve Jobs’ eye.  So, when it comes to cell phones I can call for help.  I called my sister and asked her about my contacts list problem.  She made a big sigh and glumly said that it is awful.  She said iPhone does a much better job and that Android and Google have made a real mess of the whole thing.  Judging from the Internet and the Android help boards, a real mess is mild.  The boards are full of people in the same or similar situations as I was with their contacts list.  My sister said her husband helped her with her contacts list and she still has duplicate entries, old emails, etc. that she can’t fix.  Unfortunately in the Android contacts list there can be information that are from FB, Gmail, Yahoo, or anything else you have synced and if that information is a duplicate or wrong you can’t delete it.  You try and it says you can’t delete information because it is from FB. Once I discovered the mess and realized it was from syncing things I turned off syncing.  You would think that would eliminate the duplicate entries and all information in my contacts from FB and Yahoo. Nope, still there and still couldn’t delete it.  That is what was the most frustrating.

I would like to say that now that I have fixed my contacts list that I have learned something that I can repeat back on this blog.  I would like to say that, but I can’t.  Have you ever been working at a problem trying so many ideas that get you partially to where you want things and only by constantly plugging away at it do you eventually get it to work?  That is what happened with my contacts list.  I tried so many things, turning off syncing, turning on syncing, entering my contacts directly into Google, downloading Contact Analyzer 2 (an app that supposedly fixes Android/Google contacts), and manually deleting some info (when it allowed me to).  I tried so many things that I am not entirely sure what worked when, how, why, or whether some things ever worked.  Long story short, I got my contacts list fixed, but I don’t know how. Sorry.

Battery Life:

Supposedly the Triumph battery has 500 min of talk time and 300 hours of standbye time. Uh huh.  Well if they mean standbye time as the phone is sitting on your desk not synced to anything (email, FB, etc.) and you have perfect reception so it doesn’t have search for a signal, then it probably has 300 hours of standbye time.  In real life, like the iPhone it all depends on what you are doing with your phone as to what your battery life is going to be.  I learned very quickly with my iPhone that I needed a car charger.  I would use my iPhone all day and it needed a charge going home. I often used my iPhone in the car for directions and geolocation is hell on a battery.  So I didn’t even blink and bought a car charger for my Triumph.  I also downloaded and installed the free JuiceDefender app, upon recommendation from my husband.  (He said the free version is just as good as the pay version, we’ll see.)  In general I have noticed my Triumph gets about the same battery life as my iPhone.  If I didn’t have JuiceDefender would I notice any difference in my battery?  I don’t know, maybe.  But it all depends on the apps running.  Listening to my Sirius satellite app sucked the battery life out of my iPhone just as quick as my Android. 

Reception:

Eh. The Triumph does not get good reception inside.  This has nothing to do with VirginMobile’s network (which is Sprint) it has to do with the phone.  If I am outside I can get a signal, if I am indoors it depends.  Like I said this all depends on the phone.  If you are interested in an Android I highly recommend hitting the boards to get as much information as you can about signal strength for the phone.  Not all Androids are alike, some get a better signal, some don’t.  Don’t forget the iPhone 4 had signal problems too.

Another quirky thing, I am able to text and receive calls when my signal is too low to place calls.  I am not sure why receiving is better than placing calls. 

Starter List of Android Apps (non medical):

AndroidStatic tweeted me a list of the “Must Have Android Apps for Your New Android Phone -July 2011.” I agree some of the apps they list are must haves, but others I don’t think are as essential.  But apps are a very personal thing, one person’s essential apps is another person’s waste of screen space.

The apps I use that I feel are essential for my normal Android life are:

  • Facebook -mentioned on the list
  • TweetDeck -Twitter was mentioned on the list. I hate Twitter’s web interface, its mobile isn’t much better. TD has way more features and options.
  • DoubleTwist -They recommend Amazon MP3 but I spent way too much time and money on building play lists. So I am keeping my iTunes and using DoubleTwist. Plus DoubleTwist is so easy, it just uses iTunes, there is no moving files, converting files, etc. 
  • A good radio or music app
    • Sirius Satellite app – I have Sirius Satellite radio and I love it. The app is free but you have to pay for a subscription to the radio content. This app is all I need for live(ish) radio and music.
    • Tunein Radio and Pandora are on the list.  I used to use Pandora and it was fine but I pretty much stopped using it when I got Sirius.
  • Good news and weather app.  I actually like the on that came with my Triumph.
  • Juice Defender -Helps prolong your battery life.
  • Prey Anti Theft – I didn’t have a theft app on my iPhone because I didn’t have a Mac (MobileMe) and at the time I investigated the anti theft iPhone apps a lot of them got very bad reviews and were little more than window dressing.  Prey appears to work pretty well. I tested it by “losing” my phone in my house.  Now the GPS wasn’t exactly helpful for finding it within the house, but it did show up on the map andI could set off the alarm to find it.

Most of the above apps I had on my iPhone and they work almost exactly like they did on my iPhone. (One exception TweetDeck column views are little different but fine.)  In fact the only app that I had on my iPhone that I miss and is not available for the Android is a game, Zynga Word Scramble.  For some reason Zynga has not made that available on the Android. 🙁

Medical Apps:

I am going to lightly touch on medical apps because I hope Iltifat Husain at iMedicalApps.com will be writing more about medical apps on the Android from a physician’s perspective. 

There are not as many medical apps in the Android Market as the iPhone market.  This is kind of a good news bad news thing.  The good news is there isn’t as much junk to sift through when browsing.  Bad news is there aren’t as many medical apps. 

For medical textbooks on the Android, make sure you look at Unbound Medicine.  They are in the Android Market. They have been around forever putting medical texts and resources on mobile platforms (originally with PDAs…remember those).  In addition to selling these apps/texts to individuals, Unbound Medicine deals with instituions providing texts and resources on smartphones to employees, students, etc. 

Epocrates and Micromedex are both on the Android platform and both free.  Lexicomp is available in the free apps, but that is only for a 30 day free trial.

Just like on iPhone there are a lot of fully functional trial versions of medial apps masquerading in the free apps area. Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment, Nursing Spectrum, eMS Pocket Drug Guide TR and other apps are all hanging out in the free app area but are really only trial versions.

Just thinking out loud… I am curious as to why McGraw Hill can get apps of their texts in iPhone and Android, but when institutions access some of their texts through AccessSurgery or other Access sites it doesn’t work on the iPad.

As I said earlier, this is just a brief run down on medical apps. I am looking forward to reading (and linking to) what Husain writes about apps and the Android from a physician’s perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

A Physician’s Experiment: Switching from iPhone to Android

Looks like I’m not the only one switching from the iPhone and writing about it (Friday Diary Part 1 and Part 2).  Yesterday I read on iMedicalApps.com the post, “A Physician’s experiment with switching from iPhoen to Android-the beginning,” from Iltifat Husain.  His reasons for trying an Android were partly based on professional curiosity and on a dare from a physician friend.  Basically he said there was no way he could suggest iOS platforms over Androids in the medical community if all he had used was an iPhone and hadn’t used an Android.  Good point. 

I think it should be noted that for his experiment, Husain will still be with AT&T and will be using the Nexus S with Gingerbread (Android 2.3 operating system) running.  Unfortuanetly, he is only giving his experiment 3 weeks.  After moving from an iPhone to an Android I personally think 3 weeks is not enough time to really get used to the feel of the Android.  I bought my Android (Motorola Triumph Android 2.2.2 operating system) about 3 weeks ago and I am still working on reprogramming my brain from iPhone to Android. 

While I have reviewed the basics of switching carriers, the Triumph, and general apps on the Android, I have not started discussing the Android system nor the apps related to the medical profession. It was on my to do list but since I will be keeping this phone for at least a year, I wanted to set up basic functions and apps that I use on a daily basis (like the damn infernal contacts).  While things like the contacts and syncing email are important, they are of a general nature and not specific to any one group or profession.  Thankfully, Husain will be discussing how the Android handles things specifically important to medical professionals.  In his next few posts he will be focusing the quality and number of medical apps, ability to read and store medical literature, and the overall user experience of the operating system (my guess Gingerbread since that is what his phone has).  I will be very interested in his thoughts.  Not only do I want to know about the medical apps doctors would use daily and the differences (if any) between the two platforms, but I am also interested to see what he thinks about Flash and whether having it on the Android is helpful. 

Hopefully between the two of us and our reviews, we will have covered enough about the Android to help people decide what platform they want.  That is if they have a choice, so many hospitals only let people use one platform (usually Blackberry) over others that the decision may be taken away from them if they want it tied into the hospital’s email, system access, etc.  Of course there a lot of people using iPhones (unapproved device) in my hospital that perhaps system integration isn’t as essential to them as the iPhone experience.  If people are willing to trade system integration for user experience, then discussing the differences between the iPhone and Android may be even more important.

Doctors Using iPads Biggest Headache for Hospital IT

Last Thursday I read a short little post from iMedicalApps, Hospital IT cite Doctors using iPad for work as their biggest headache, which led me to a slightly longer post on Forbes, Doctors Love the iPad. But What’s the Prescription for Tablet Security?  Basically, the iPad and smartphones have created a paradigm shift for hospital IT departments. 

Hospital IT departments must focus on data security and until recently that was primarly related to devices owned and maintained by the insitution.  Sure there were probably doctors who rounded with their laptops but the number of those were small compared the recent explosion of doctors making rounds with iPads, smartphones, and tablets. 

“As iPads spread virally throughout the healthcare industry, IT chiefs are left wondering if these new devices will compromise the security of their organizations. After all, it introduces a fundamental shift in the way we manage-or rather, relinquish managing-the endpoint. We are entering a world with more lightweight endpoint devices and more heterogeneous operating systems, and since these devices are often owned by the employee the IT team does not have control over the software running on these devices.” 

“Relinquish managing the endpoint,” perhaps it is just me but this reminds me a bit of libraries as online databases and ebooks and ejournals become more accessible to people.  Remember a time when you had to put the phone handset into the modem to get on to Medline?  Once librarians were the keepers? or maybe a better word should be the the finders of information.  People had to come to us for information, we managed the endpoint of information for patrons.  Now that information is easier to come by online and users are finding it themselves our role has/must evolve. 

Now we don’t have to deal with patient data or network security, but hosptial IT departments are experiencing some of the same control issues with access to information that we went through.   It will be interesting to see how they evolve.  For some IT departments it will be a bigger shift than for others.  How big of a shift not only depends on the culture of the department and the hospital network. The security system must be able to deal with mobile devices but so must hosptial applications including the older ones that every hospital seems to have and rely on in some way.  As  John Smith  commented on the Forbes post, some older Windows systems don’t work with these new devices.   On his own blog, John’s post Extending the Rudder goes into more depth about the security, mobile platforms, and thin computing.   

The horse is out of the barn folks, now let’s see which hospital IT departments evolve and which ones don’t.  Technology has forced many professions to evolve, including the ones born of technology.

Friday Diary: Moving from iPhone to Android Part 2

Part 2 of moving from an iPhone to an Android: (click here for part 1 in the series)

 General or Pre-Installed Apps:

The calendar, camera, camcorder, messaging, market (Android market), and maps are fine with me.  The calendar uses Google Calendar and that is what I use, so for once I didn’t have to do a lot of set up. It pretty much recognized my account right away.  One minor critique is if you have only one thing listed on a day, in the monthly view it appears as if that day is open/available.  Only by clicking on that day do you see that one thing.  So you either have to change your view from monthly or click on the day to make sure.  Maps uses Google Maps and it is very good.  It is more robust than the standard maps app I had on my 3G iPhone.  Google Maps does not speak/talk to you like a GPS might, MapQuest has a free app that does that.  Both MapQuest and Google Map are very similar except for the audible directions feature.  I am testing both out on my way to/from work and errands so that I can see which one I like the best when the time comes that I really need a map.  The Android market is very similar structurally to iTunes, but ther seem to be a lot of comments about apps working/not working depending on various Android operating systems.  (That is just kind you get with an Android.)  Additionally, whenever you download an app you get several warnings about what that app can/will do to your phone and what systems it affects.  Some of the warnings are nice to know but sometimes they are overwhelming and don’t always make sense to average users. Heck downloading a simple stopwatch app had a few warnings.

Clock and Keyboard:

The clock is one of the pre-installed regular apps on my phone that I was disappointed with.  Really how hard is it to have a clock app that also has a stopwatch and timer?  Clearly the developers don’t have kids or stay close to their oven when they are cooking.  I used the timer feature on my iPhone all the time.  I would set the timer for 15 minutes and tell the kids when it rang it was time to clean up, go home, give somebody else a turn, etc.  I would also use it a lot for cooking.  I am no master chef but the timer on my oven is quiet, so in addition to setting it, I would set the timer on my phone.  That would allow me to go upstairs, go outside and watch/play with the kids, etc.  I am just befuddled that somebody creates a clock app for a phone but can’t include a timer and stopwatch.  Stupid. But I did find a good free app called StopWatch & Timer.  It is simple and does exactly what I need it to do.

The keyboard on my Triumph is touch screen, similar to the iPhone.  But it behaves slightly different.  I can’t explain it exactly, but two things I noticed are the keys are a different size and they touch each other.  The iPhone keys are slightly smaller and there is some space (not a lot) between each letter.  I was having some real problems typing on the Android keyboard, but I figured this was just something I would have to retrain my fingers on.  However, the one thing that I loved that wasn’t on my Android was an auto corrector & spell checker.  Now, I know some people (like my husband) HATE the auto corrector & spell checker on the iPhone, but I really liked it.  For all of the funny mistakes my iPhone’s auto corrector made, I came to rely on it and adjusted my text/typing style to deal with it and use it to my advantage.  For example, I would just hit the space bar twice to get a period at the end of the sentence.  The Android had some sort of auto suggestor on its phone, but it didn’t replace words, it didn’t do the double space bar period thing, and its vocabulary was very limited.  Combine that with the slightly different keyboard buttons and it was taking me twice as long to write/text something with a bunch of spelling errors in it.  It was out of my desire for an auto corrector that I found the A.I.type Keyboard app.  Not only does it have an auto corrector but it also allows you to change the style of your keyboard to an iPhone.  While the auto corrector is not as good as the iPhone, it is better than nothing and I am doing better at typing.

Contacts:

Oh I have such a love hate relationship with Google.  I love its email, calendar, docs, search engine, and I think I like G+.  But I absolutely HATE, HATE, HATE having my Google Contacts as my phone contacts.  UGH! What a freaking nightmare and the worst decision for Google to force more people use Google.  If I was more paranoid I would start to believe Google is amassing this information for some nefarious reason.  Why does Google need my mom’s phone number?  I have people in my Gmail who should stay there, not to be duplicated in my phone’s contacts. I also don’t want all of my phone’s contacts moved to my Gmail.  For example, my online bill pay companies all came over into my phone contacts.  Additionally, if you synced your other email accounts and your FB account on your phone, it moves those over as well.  It was and still is a total organizational disaster.  Now there are settings that say only put people in contacts if they have a phone number.  I checked the box, but still I got my online bill pay sites in my contacts.  Additionally, if you have a contact listed in multiple places it duplicates all of their information.  For example my mom’s email address is in my Yahoo and Gmail address book.  When I clicked on her name in my contacts list there were 2 email listings (all the same address) under her contact name, but I couldn’t delete them from my Contacts because they were being imported from my Yahoo and Gmail.  In addition to having multiple people with multiple emails, I had multiple phone numbers listed 3,4,5 times under the same person.  The winner for having the most duplicate phone numbers and emails is Mike.  He has 6 duplicate emails and his cell number is listed 3 times under his name.  His work and our home phone aren’t listed even though I synced those before I moved.  The best part is I can’t easily delete all of these duplicates.  Not only is this frustrating for me personally, but it kills my voice recognition system with my car.  I have a new Ford Flex and one of the things I love, love, love is that it uses Bluetooth so that I can answer my phone or call somebody completely hands free. My phone could be in my purse in the trunk and if somebody calls me I can answer it by tapping a button on the steering wheel.  (The conversation is public, it is heard through the car’s speakers.)  If I want to call somebody I tap a button and say, “Call mom at home.” It then dials my mom’s home number.  Well if you have multiple phone numbers listed under a person that all say home the system gets confused. 

I don’t know what was worse, setting up and fixing all of my contacts or syncing my email systems to the phone.  However, I think I am leaning toward contacts as being the worst feature on my phone so far.  The email syncing took 2 hours and 2 beers.  The contacts mess is taking several days to figure out and work on.  I have yet to find an app that fixes this mess, if you know of one that is free please let me know.  I almost feel like it might be faster if I nuke everything and start loading my contacts from scratch again.  I think I might have to undo or nuke my email and FB syncing to fix it too. This mess with my contacts has almost caused me to run back to Best Buy and return everything and go running back to AT&T.  It also led to a huge fight in my house on how to the damn thing working the way I want it to work. 

DoubleTwist for my music player:

The Triumph does not come with a music player, which actually is kind of good for me.  I already have a lot of songs in iTunes.  I loved using my iPhone as my iPod so I definitely wanted to use my Android in a similar fashion but I just heard of nightmares trying to move your iTunes library into WindowsMedia.  DoubleTwist is a free software and app combo that uses your iTunes library.  You download the DoubleTwist software onto the computer that has your iTunes and you download the app to your phone.  DoubleTwist is like a shell system over your iTunes that builds and syncs your iTunes library to your Android phone.  You still download songs through iTunes, create play lists, and amange titles using iTunes, but DoubleTwist makes it possible for your iTunes work on your Android.  I am told that everything you ripped from CD to iTunes will work on iTunes.  However, if you purchased music on iTunes prior to iTunes Plus (January 2009) that music won’t come over to DoubleTwist due to DRM issues.  But you can make those older songs available on DoubleTwist by paying an extra .30-.60 cents per song. 

Downloading my songs to my Android was where I had my first experience with my memory card.  Memory cards in phones are new to me since iPhones didn’t come with them. You bought an 16GB iPhone, you got about 16GB of memory.  The Triumph comes with a 2 GB mini SD card and wow that is not enough memory.  I wasn’t able to sync all of my songs because I ran out of room.  Had I really thought about memory cards and phones I would have realized this before I even tried to sync my songs, but I forgot.  Thankfully I had an old 8GB mini SD laying around from an old camera that went belly up.  I used that and that worked.  When I get around to it I will probably buy a 16GB mini SD for the phone, or maybe if my 8GB one is doing fine I might just wait around until the prices of a 32GB come down a bit.

Hopefully next week I will have my contacts straightened out and I will let you know that disaster resolved itself.  I intend on looking at a few medical apps that I used to have on my iPhone and see if they are available on the Android and how they work.

What is Fair Use

The MidContinental blog referred to a good post on the Myths About Fair Use, on Inside Higher Ed. Patricia Aufderheide specifically mentions academics and their misconceptions of fair use, as a medical librarian I see some of the same misconceptions with the doctors we serve as well.

Patricia breaks it into 7 myths (or as I would say 7 deadly sins) of fair use. She discusses using resources for class, whether the use is transformative, non commercial/commercial issues, and more.

It is a tricky topic and even reading through Patricia’s article can be a little confusing.  Personally, I wish she used more examples to further explain her points because when she writes;

“In practice, since 1990 judges have boiled those concerns down to two: Is your use transformative? (In other words, did you add real value and did you employ this material for a different purpose from the one that the owner created it for?) Is the amount appropriate to satisfy that new purpose? If the answer to these questions is yes, the market effect concern takes a back seat. And judges look closely at community practice. That’s why codes of best practices in fair use have been so valuable in establish what is acceptable and normal to do in any professional community.”

I have to re-read it a few times and then I am not quite sure what exactly she means and how it applies to me or the doctors I serve.  Fair use can be tricky and confusing to people, and often when it is discussed or people write about it they tend to slip into their legal voices.  Hey doctors do it too, they often speak in medical terms to a patient and sometimes don’t realize the very intelligent patient has no earthly clue as to what they are saying.  If you want academics, doctors, librarians, and everyone else to understand fair use, then take a page out of health literacy advocates book.   Highly educated and literate academics and doctors have difficulty understanding the legal nuances of fair use.  Something like a “fair use for dummies” article or site would be the most helpful in educating academics and others to basic ins and outs of fair use.

I did a quick search online and found The Copyright Site had a very basic flow chart on fair use.  The Copyright Site originated from a class at the University of Alabama where Dr. Vivian Wright saw a need for copyright information for educators.

You’ve heard the phrase “a picture tells a thousand words,” well if you are looking for something like that for the subject of fair use you might be interested in reading the comic book, Bound by Law created by Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Public Domain.  It appears to be centered more around artists and film making but it really applies to anybody wanting to use images or icons for their work.

If you are in for a little fairy tale fun with Disney films to learn about copyright and fair use, you might want to check out Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University video that reviews copyright principles through the words of the Disney characters.  The video can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo It is cute but a little disjointed at times.

Copyright and fair use are tricky little devils, perhaps you have good sites that plainly explain fair use, if so please share them.

 

MedlinePlus Connect Recording Available

Were you too busy to catch the free webcast about MedlinePlus Connect and linking them within the EMR?  Well you are in luck, the webcast is now available online for free at https://webmeeting.nih.gov/p92647717/

MedlinePlus Connect is a free service from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Services.  It allows hospitals and other health organizations to link patient portals and EMR systems to MedlinePlus. 

To find out more about MedlinePlus Connect go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/connect/overview.html.