Wednesday 28 March 2012

Flatland

(March 2012)



I love my iphone. I’m not an Apple fan-boy. I mean I’ve got an ipod nano as well, but while a lot of their stuff is very nice to look at, it’s also unfeasibly expensive for what I need it for. Any decent smartphone would do, I reckon, but an iphone is what I’ve got.

You can get these free and/or cheap apps with a ton of out-of-copywrite works on them, which is how I read this. If you’re unaware of Project Gutenberg I can’t recommend it strongly enough. If I were back home, a smartphone would be very cool and all, but not so useful if I’m being honest. Here it’s great. My commute is a little over an hour each way so I can stack it up with flash-cards, books like this, games and actually make a bit of use of the time.

It’s how I write a lot of this blog (well, the preliminary ideas, at least) and is frankly one of the few times I can regularly force myself to study Japanese. Since the birth of our son it’s also pretty much the only window in my day when I don’t have to worry about other people. Gotta make that gaijin bubble work for you, y’know?

6 comments:

  1. I know there was a day when I considered the ipad an unnecessary item...It's just kinda foggy cuz it is everywhere and does everything anytime for me now. You using the sleep measuring tool?

    /fanboytalk

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    1. Oh no, please don't /

      I want an ipad, but until now I'm not sure I could really justify it in comparison to, say, children's clothes and food. Pesky priorities.

      But with the launch of the new model the old versions are so cheap it'd be almost rude not to. 30,000 for the cheapest. Trouble is, my iphone is a 3GS, so a little old and there are a growing number of apps I'm finding I can't use. Dunno whether to go for the cheap(ish) option and see it go obsolete quicker, or wait until I can justify spending the money on the latest version.

      I know Salaryman's a fan too, though he only seems to pop up when I talk about comics ;) Both of your thoughts (and anyone else's) would be welcome.

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  2. Haha, that's just because I haven't gotten around to putting you in the blogroll yet so I'm always late to your posts (the blogroll is more for me than the visitors)!

    Not sure where you stand on filesharing, but with my iPad and Demoid account (thanks Chris!) I just download comics these days and rea them on the paddy! I should mention that I do support buy stuff I really liked when downloading.

    The iPad is completely essential for my life now! I have a smartphone as well but the screen is too small for most stuff. Didn't bother with 3G for my paddy though, felt a bit too much since I have the phone for that.

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    1. I keep meaning to ask you how you get your comics. Another mark in the 'for' column then. Still not sure about the new model though. There are always teething troubles with new apple stuff. What to do, what to do..?

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  3. I was studying kanji on my phone but i realised i was only getting better at reading kanji in the phone app and nowhere else.

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    1. Yeah, that's true to a degree. But anything's better than nothing, y'know?

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