I love the Chronicles of Narnia books, and I can’t wait to see what the film makers do with this book:
I’m hoping they have more on this movie at ComicCon this year.
Send Your Kid to Apple Camp
Last summer I signed my daughter up for one of the free day-camps they do at the Apple store and she learned all about photography. She had a great time. I was excited to get an email this morning about this summers program. It’s all about making movies this year. I’ve already signed her up because spaces go fast. Did I mention it’s FREE? I thought I’d pass it along to any of you who may have kids between 8-12 who would love a fun activity for a few days this summer. They are even having a film festival for all the films the kids make. Should be fun.
If you’re in San Diego we are doing the early session at Fashion Valley on July 19 – 20. Maybe I’ll see you there.
Last Day to win an iPad, Get 40% off
Today is the last day to enter to win an iPad over at Simply Youth Ministry.
Also it’s the last day to save 40% off on almost 300 resources. It’s only good till 3 PM PST today, so hurry over.
First Look: Apple iOS 4
I gave into temptation tonight and downloaded and installed the gold master of the new iPhone operating system tonight. I’ve held off on the earlier betas, but after seeing the Apple keynote this week I wanted to check it out for myself. After the first few hours there are a couple of features that are a huge improvement.
1. Folders for apps. I’ve really been annoyed lately with how many apps I’ve had on my phone and how to organize them. This new feature goes a long way to fix it. I think the process of actually making the folders is a little janky though. You create or add an app to a fold by dropping an app on another. The problem with this is the apps like to jump away from each other during this process. I haven’t tried to do this in iTunes, maybe it’s easier there.
2. Background apps. This is one going that people have been asking for since day one of the iPhone. I always hated this on my old windows phones because it constantly caused crashes and battery drains. It was also always a pain to close running apps. Apple really got the implementation of this right, switching is easy and I can see that this will be a huge click saver.
3. UI. They’ve really put some polish on the look of things. Transitions between screens is nicer. I like the ability to put pictures as backgrounds behind the app icons, but you really need to be careful what you use, the wrong picture can make it almost un-usable. The visual flow between the new folder apps and background apps works really well.
4. Unified Inbox. I don’t know how many of you have multiple email accounts, but i have 4 setup on my phone and sometimes it was tiring going between each one to check new messages. Now you can get all your accounts in one central inbox. But don’t worry, you can still access each one individually also if you like the old way. The only problem I had with this was looking at my email almost became overwhelming, but I think I deal with more email than the average person.
There are a few things I still wish they would deal with (notifications, more info on the lock screen) but overall it’s a solid upgrade. I already miss some of the new features when I switch over to my iPad. Looking forward to that upgrade this fall.
What do you think is still missing?
40% off at SimplyYouthMinistry.com
It’s time for the anual 40 40 40 sale at SimplyYouthMinistry.com. You can get 40% off tons of great resources. There’s also $1 off select books. It only lasts for 40 hours so hurry.
There are a couple of other bonuses:
-40 Free Backgrounds – 40 great summer backgrounds for your ministry.
-Win an Ipad – Who doesn’t want this magical device. Just fill out the form to enter. Good Luck!
Stats on Internet Pornography – Online MBA
LOST: The End
One of my favorite TV shows is coming to an end this weekend. After Sunday we won’t have the survivors of Flight 815 to lead us through a mysterious island complete with time travel and side-ways universes. I admit I was a little late to the LOST party, I didn’t start watching it till last fall, and thanks to Netflix streaming I got through the first 5 seasons in time to join in with everyone else when the season 6 premiered in February.
I love the story of these messy people and the journey they have been on. I look forward to the final act and see how they end up. I hoping I’m not disappointed, I’m trying to keep my expectations in check.
If you need one final LOST fix your should check out this amazing art by former Simply Youth Ministry creative director, Ty Mattson. They are great.
If you want to dive into theology and what we can learn from LOST, there’s a great book by Chris Seay. His book covers some of the ideas of faith and connection that are expressed on the show.
Check it out HERE: The Gospel According to Lost
For all you lost fans, enjoy the finale, I know I will.
Quick Tip: Use Spotlight (Mac)
For long-term mac users, this may seem ridiculous. For those converts from the PC universe, be prepared to have your world rocked. Spotlight is Apple’s search feature built into OSX, and if you’ve converted from a PC throw all ideas about how search on large file systems works out of the window.
Without going into mega-geeky details, the way that the Mac formats hard disks allows for incredibly quick search (instantaneous in comparison to the PC). Just click your little magnifying glass at the top right of your screen, type what you’re looking for an voila; (in 1-2 seconds) it’s there! Emails, applications, text files, images… everything!
And here’s the best part: it searches the contents of files as well as filenames! There are lots of other tools that seek to improve on spotlight. I’ve tried them, but keep coming back to spotlight because it is so solid, and it’s on every mac at which I sit down.
Star Wars Fun
I realize I missed posting on Star Wars Day this year (May the 4th be with you.) But I still thought these were fun even if I’m a day late.
The star wars saga told in Legos in less that 2 and a half minutes:
and if that’s not enough, visit JibJab to put your self in the saga!
May the 4th be with You!
