According to the website release…

Our most popular Web feature since 1997 is now available as an iPhone app! Saint of the Day allows you to carry the wisdom of the saints with you everywhere you go.

Audio version available!

Each daily entry is audio capable and includes a brief saint biography, commentary on the saint’s relevance to your own life, and a reflective quote from Scripture, the saint, or another spiritual writer.

Other notable features include

• Searchable database
• List of patron Saints
• Interactive calendar

The cost is $2.99 and can be purchased in the iPhone App Store.

In a statement, Amazon says that, “over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books.”

The last couple of ‘books’ I’ve purchased were E-books for my iPad and they were significantly cheaper than their printed counterparts. Plus, thanks to electronic bookmarking, I can read them across multiple devices. That means I can read the same E-book on my PC, Mac, iPhone and iPad, and my bookmarks move seamlessly between them.

How about you? Have you purchased any E-books? Have you been pleased with the experience?

• Retina Display. Without a doubt, going forward, this is the standard against which all smartphones will be judged. The ‘Retina’ display is outstanding. Here’s a case where the marketing-speak about the human eye not being able to see the pixels is spot-on correct. When holding the iPhone4 at normal reading distance (between 6-12 inches), you simply do not perceive any pixels, all letters are crisp and smooth. To compare, I went back to an iPhone3G and iPhone3GS and the improvement is like night and day.
• Size. The iPhone4 is slightly slimmer than it’s predecessors and is comfortable to hold for long periods. Before I got a case for the unit, it was a bit tricky typing on the on-screen keyboard in portrait view, but other than that, it’s feels completely natural.
• Front-facing camera. Having tried to take self-portraits with my old iPhone3G and guessing where the snapshot button was and what the picture would look like, this is a great new feature. Sure, it’s not as high-quality as the rear camera, but it’s acceptable.
• Battery. Seems to hold a charge a bit longer than my iPhone3G, but I still charge it at least once a day. Could probably stretch it to every other day, but I don’t want to risk it.
• Voice commands. Part of the new iOS4, it works as advertised. REALLY appreciate that it works smoothly over bluetooth.
• Mutli-tasking. Honestly, I never really missed this feature on my iPhone3G, but it is handy to switch quickly between apps via fast-switching.
• Faster processor. For me personally, this is probably the biggest improvement over the iPhone3G. Everything is snappy. For example, when updating my 40 RSS Feeds via the NewsRack app, it now takes about 15-20 seconds where before it took about 90 seconds.
• Camera. The 5-megapixel camera is awesome. I’ve since sold my Canon PowerShot A590 and Flip Mino HD with no regrets. Two less devices to carry around in my backpack!
• Antenna issues. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about the antenna issues with this device. I can confirm that if you hold (and squeeze) the outside edges where the 2 black lines are, you can reduce the signal strength. Fortunately, I never buy an expensive smartphone without getting a case or skin. I picked up an iFrogz case and haven’t had any antenna issues.
• Sans Case. The design is industrial and the heavy use of glass —front and back — is nice to look at, but for the 24 hours before I got my case, I was a bit paranoid about it slipping out of my hand. Unless you will only use this in a padded room with carpet, get a case or skin. The aforementioned iFrogz case is great.

Summary. This is something like my fifth or sixth smartphone and is far and away the best. If you’ve got an iPhone3G, this would be a recommended upgrade, but if you’ve got an iPhone3GS maybe not so much.

How about you? Any thoughts so far?

Some film-school students armed with an iPhone and a lot of creativity put together this awesome HD movie using the $4.99 iMovie app.

They’ve updated it to include a behind-the-scenes look at how they did it. It’s definitely worth watching in it’s entirety.

I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that we can now create such high-quality productions with these gadgets. My first handhdeld device, a Palm III, wasn’t even backlit! We’ve come a long way folks.

How about you, doing anything amazing on your iPhone?

“Apple of My Eye” – an iPhone 4 movie / film – UPDATE: Behind the scenes footage included from Michael Koerbel on Vimeo.

Sometimes I derive pleasure from stirring up the pot a bit … is that so bad?

While at the Catholic Media Conference earlier this month, I was part of a lively debate about how the heck should photo contests be judged. It was myself, a writer and 2 writer/photographers. I brought up our situation at The Catholic Spirit, where some entries to our Cathedral photo contest were obviously manipulated/photoshopped. Our debate ended and nothing was decided.

Back at The Catholic Spirit, we’re discussing another upcoming photo contest. The issue resurfaced about whether to allow photoshopped images or not. That debate is still ongoing.

Then this morning, I was doing some housecleaning on my inbox and came across an old blog post from David Pogue (NYT). I saw the headline and chuckled. “Photoshop and Photography: When Is It Real?” It’s all about a magazine running a photo contest and a debate broke out about photoshopped images. If you have a strong opinion one way or the other about this topic, it’s a good read.

I’m in the camp for allowing photo manipulation. Hey, Photoshop ain’t cheap…you gotta use it for something, right?

Back to stirring the pot…

What do YOU think?

Does using any ‘photo editor’ to crop or color-correct constitute photo manipulation?
Should there be multiple categories for the contest?
Should a masterfully executed photo shot be judged higher than a mediocre one with amazing Photoshop editing?

The purpose here, is to suggest some ideas on how you might utilize Social Media to communicate more effectively and fulfill the mission of your Catholic organization, whether you are a parish, school, ministry, or non-profit.

Tools you’ll need:

• A website that is updated often and contains a blog. I recommend building Joomla, Drupal, or WordPress based websites. For more info about what it should include, read “What Makes a Good Parish Website.”
• A Twitter account for your organization. Free.
• A Facebook page. Free.
• A YouTube account for videos (Optional). Free.
• A Flickr account for photos (Optional). Free.
• E-Newsletter (Optional, but highly recommended). Good ones are Constant Contact, IContact and Mail Chimp.

10 Suggestions to get you started:

1. Copy the ‘Pastor’s Corner‘ usually found in parish bulletins onto a blog on the website. Then add a direct link to it on your Facebook page and send out a Tweet as well. HINT: Almost everything should be concluded with a Tweet that contains a link to your Facebook page or website (shortened of course!).
   
2. Fund-raising? Be sure to send out reminders via e-newsletter,  Facebook and Twitter. If it’s an aggressive campaign, once a week reminders are fine. Otherwise, at a minimum, once a month. HINT: Make sure to explain why fund-raising is important by using concrete examples of the good that has been or will be accomplished.
3. Spotlight a success story, especially if it was a direct result of #2 above. Blog it, post it on your Facebook page, then Tweet about it.
4. Take photos and video of your Parish events (Fish Fry, Festival, Charity Projects, etc.). Post them on Facebook, YouTube, Flickr…and then Tweet it. This is a great way for guests and visitors of your site to see your vibrant community in action.
5. Mass/Confession times. Be sure to make this highly visible on your website and Facebook page. If there are seasonal or Holy Day changes, get the word out on your website, Facebook, e-newsletter — then Tweet it.
6. Volunteer and Employment positions. Not only should they be announced on your website, but don’t forget Facebook and Twitter and e-newsletter.
7. School closings due to weather. Website, Facebook and Twitter.
8. General announcements and news. Bulletins and mailings are OK, but for more immediate action use your e-newsletter, blog, Facebook and Twitter.
9. Share inspiration. Have you come across a website, story, quote, picture or video — something that has inspired or encouraged you? Share it on the blog, Facebook, and Twitter. We all need these from time to time, but don’t go overboard.
10. Educate. Make people aware of and explain to them how an issue might affect them. Maybe it’s an upcoming legislative session or something to do with changes in the Liturgy. Use the blog, Facebook, and Twitter to inform.

As you probably noticed, these are 10 ways to use Social Media to “Get the word out”. It’s also important to use these tools to get feedback. Be sure to include an easy way to contact you on your website. Listen and respond to comments and messages on Facebook and Twitter. Remember, this is Social Media. If it’s just a one-way street of you promoting your content and info, people may just stop listening.

Lastly, if you’re just getting started, it may seem a bit overwhelming, but it isn’t. If you truly make the commitment to utilize these new methods of communication and evangelization, you will find a way to incorporate these tools into your daily workflow and it will become second-nature.

Are you already using Social Media? If you’ve got more suggestions, please leave them in the comments below.

This morning I checked in on Foursquare at my favorite Caribou and saw a new feature, ‘Special Nearby.’ After clicking it, I was informed that after 10 check-ins I qualify for a $1 discount on a large coffee. YES! Location-based social networking is growing up.

Apparently, this feature has been around for a couple weeks, but I hadn’t stumbled upon it yet.

This should be a reminder to those businesses to start taking this movement seriously and develop a game plan.

Looks like iPhone4 news is hitting the streets, and one of the stellar new features appears to be FaceTime, which provides video chat/calling.

As with most Apple products, it looks solid and well designed…and easy to use.

I’ll have to admire it from afar since my iPhone 3G probably doesn’t support it. Until then, Google Video Chat will suffice.

Best laid plans

Last week, I made a large purchase on eBay. Typically, if I find a good price, I’ll go with the ‘Buy It Now’ feature, which is what I did for some expensive software. I would’ve saved a big chunk of dough going this route, rather than buying the software from a retail source.

‘Caveat Emptor’ – Let the buyer beware

I’m trying to protect this sellers identity, so I won’t reveal what the product was nor the seller, but I did basic research on the seller before the purchase. Everything looked fine. It was obvious that this seller does a lot of business on eBay and in the past year, they had only one negative complaint, but something like 300 positive comments.

The transaction went down without a hitch and I got the software. The first red flag was that the license keys were handwritten, not the actual labels. Also, what I received was slightly different than what was advertised (minor red flag).

When I plugged in the provided license keys during the install process, it was rejected. Uh-oh. BIG red flag.

I called Apple support to see if there was something I was missing or doing wrong, but I wasn’t too excited at this point. Sure enough, when I provided the license key to the support tech, he informed me that it was a deactivated key and had been shared across the internet. NOT good.

Escalation

I immediately sent a message to the seller and within 24 hours, I also opened a case with ‘eBay Buyer Protection.’ Technically, they really want you to work these things out between seller/buyer, but due to the high cost of this purchase and the potential fraud, I was VERY eager to get this resolved quickly. I’m glad I escalated.

The seller was surprised to hear of this news and emailed me a new license key. A quick call to Apple support confirmed what I was beginning to think…yes, the license key might be valid today, but there is no guarantee that it won’t be sold or distributed like the other one, which might get it deactivated.

To increase my anxiety, the seller was now starting to balk at offering a refund. Now I was really glad I opened the case with eBay Buyer Protection.

Resolution

Within 48 hours of opening the case, eBay Buyer Protection decided in my favor. They gave me a pre-paid shipping label and when the item was received back by the seller, my PayPal account was instantly credited for the cost of the purchase and all shipping.

Folks, THAT is how you retain customers. Swift response, and (though I am biased here) a solid judgment.

Finally, to be fair, it’s very possible that the seller was unaware that those license keys were no good when listing the software. Oftentimes, people who do a lot of business on eBay turn things around and might not take as much care as they ought to, however, it’s reassuring to know that if things go askew, eBay is willing to step up to the plate and take action.

Happy Tweeting!