[pianotech] Smart Phones - Was QR Codes

[Bill Fritz]

In my previous life at Hewlett Packard, I was in most of the technical sales pilot groups... first email (internal to HP at first), first laptops, first cellphones, etc.  It was fun... but there sure is a lot of work involved with being 1st in a technology... giving feedback, finding errors & bugs, giving reports, and wanting much more than was 1st delivered.  My wife would poke fun at me, sitting in bed w/ her... and the laptop in my lap.  (We won't go into her specific comments ;-)

Today, I usually wait til the 2nd or 3rd generation of something that looks promising.  

I just got my 1st smartphone (an iPhone 4) in December.  (That smartphone added 40 points to my IQ, and I'm now in the "plus" column!)

It's fun & great.  How did I live without it?

2,500 contacts, 
synchronous with Outlook Calendars, 
auto back up on my own computer (not the iCloud), 
and tons of apps:  
Weather w/ radar & severe warnings
find the cheapest gas in the area, 
a quick text to a fellow Piano Tech for an answer or idea, 
a virtual HP12c (financial calculator), 
Alarms & Timers
an Amazon barcode scanner (can I get "it" cheaper from Amazon, as I wander the halls of Target), 
Internet on the run, for another way to find answers
email (I don't use it much on the little iP4 beast, though easy way to check to see if anything important has come thru)
(already mentioned) camera.. which can then send the pic via text to that Piano Tech friend of mine almost immediately, and get a quick reply
maps & locator, where am I...  (though I like the GPS in my car better)
Language translator (for fun & "pleasure"...  Donde esta el bano)
Keep up to date w/ any airplane flights of mine or friends (aka early, late etc)
a game of Hearts
... and of course, I have my backup tuning program "Verituner"... which does indeed have 0.01 resolution in setting custom temperaments etc.

so for another 2 years' cellphone contract & a measily $100... I got me a new phone that does all kind of things.
As my dearly departed 88 yr old father said...  "Wow Bill, these new tools sure make Piano Tuning easier."  And the 3 he mentioned were ETD's, cellphones, & GPS

It's fun & great. How did I live without it?  Kind of like this great email pianotech discussion group.  Now all I need is a "banter" filter!

Onward & upward...   Bill Fritz, St Louis
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