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<div>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 ;-)</div>
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<div>Today, I usually wait til the 2nd or 3rd generation of something that looks promising. </div>
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<div>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!)</div>
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<div>It's fun & great. How did I live without it?</div>
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<div>2,500 contacts, </div>
<div>synchronous with Outlook Calendars, </div>
<div>auto back up on my own computer (not the iCloud), </div>
<div>and tons of apps: </div>
<div>Weather w/ radar & severe warnings</div>
<div>find the cheapest gas in the area, </div>
<div>a quick text to a fellow Piano Tech for an answer or idea, </div>
<div>a virtual HP12c (financial calculator), </div>
<div>Alarms & Timers</div>
<div>an Amazon barcode scanner (can I get "it" cheaper from Amazon, as I wander the halls of Target), </div>
<div>Internet on the run, for another way to find answers</div>
<div>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)</div>
<div>(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</div>
<div>maps & locator, where am I... (though I like the GPS in my car better)</div>
<div>Language translator (for fun & "pleasure"... Donde esta el bano)</div>
<div>Keep up to date w/ any airplane flights of mine or friends (aka early, late etc)</div>
<div>a game of Hearts</div>
<div>... and of course, I have my backup tuning program "Verituner"... which does indeed have 0.01 resolution in setting custom temperaments etc.</div>
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<div>so for another 2 years' cellphone contract & a measily $100... I got me a new phone that does all kind of things.</div>
<div>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</div>
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<div>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!</div>
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<div>Onward & upward... Bill Fritz, St Louis</div>
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