As you already know from my previous posts about the service, I am a big fan of Strands. While the lifestreaming application lacks some of the features FriendFeed does, lacks the categories socialmedian offers, and has a relatively small user base, the site has attracted a very loyal number of users who have enjoyed sharing their updates from various social networks and engaging with the growing community on items, adding comments, and giving a quick thumbs up or down to the content from friends you are subscribed to.

While other services have worked hard to deliver a mobile version of their site, Strands has become the first lifestreaming application to be added to the iTunes Store. This is a big achievement for them, considering the service is still considered "beta".


The Strands iPhone App Gets to the Lifestream Quickly
In my testing of the application, I found it to be very slick. Rather than a jerky afterthought, as many mobile sites are, the application was smooth. I was able to post a new item, just by hitting the "Share" button, and could click on any item to add a comment or, as with the standard Web site, add a thumbs up or thumbs down vote.

The iPhone app feels as an iPhone app should. Clean. Simple, even to the point of being too simple - at least for someone like me who wants to get a full picture of activity quickly. While the Strands iPhone app showed updates from friends on the site whom I follow, I quickly found myself at the bottom of the screen, looking for what do next. Where is page two, or a simple "Next" button that lets me go see the next page of updates? Hopefully that will be added in the next revision, or information junkies like me will starve.


I Can Add Comments and Posts from the iPhone App
Drew Olanoff, Community Manager and Evangelist for Strands, wrote in an e-mail that the company's beta testers say the new app "makes lifestreaming pretty darn addictive." Having the iPhone app will absolutely mean I'll be checking into Strands a lot more while on the go than before, and if I get nutty, I can even sync it up with my Twitter account, so you would see all my activity from the app. You can do that simply by adding your Twitter credentials on the iPhone app itself.

Want to find out what the growing Strands community is doing and get engaged? Check in and sign up by going to http://www.strands.com and using the promo: "strandsiphone".
You can find me at http://www.strands.com/louisgray of course.

The Price Is Right on the iPhone - Just Like the Game Show
Given our prior stories on the new UNO and Yahtzee games for the iPhone, it should come as no surprise to you that I've been having a lot of fun checking out the iPhone app for The Price Is Right, a near clone of the television game show, which I watched diligently during my misspent youth. If I remember correctly, it always came on at 10 a.m., as Bob Barker followed up the 9 a.m. Sesame Street.

Like the original game show, The Price Is Right application on the iPhone is divided into four parts.

First, you bid for an item in contestants' row.


Get closest to the price, but don't overbid!
Second, you play a contest to match prices and win prizes.


Remember Cliff Hanger?

Or It's In the Bag?

Punch a Bunch?

And Master Key?

Third, you spin the big wheel!


Getting $1.00 Is SO RANDOM.

Fourth, you have the showcase showdown to win the big prizes!


Just what would I do with a sailboat?

You might even win A NEW CAR!!!


After playing the Price Is Right app for a few days, I have to admit how much harder it is to actually play the game than it always looked on TV. While I admit, I would be "that guy" who always outbids a competitor by a dollar to try and get on stage, it's happened to me on the iPhone. And on one showcase, I bid $31,000 when the actual price was $30,750. Of course, that meant I lost when my opponent underbid by more than $7,000. I swear I was physically in pain. And don't get me started on the Big Wheel. Even if I was on a hot streak, the wheel is flat out random. There is zero skill involved, so you basically have a one in three chance of advancing even if you blew your contest.

I also learned I am horrible at putting for the Hole In One, that I always overbid for small items and underbid for large ones, and I have a tendency to draw the Strike chips out of the bag, or pick the Master Key that is a dud. I was just messing around when I picked the avatar who was losing all his hair, but by the time I win this game, the photo could actually be accurate.

But don't let my complaining stop you. If you're a fan of the game, and you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, go get it, and you could be the next contestant! It is $4.99 from the iTunes Store.

Despite its more diverse start, there's no question louisgray.com has more than done its fair share of tilting toward tech - so much so that it practically seems out of place to keep you updated here on all our family news, including baby pictures, baby videos, trip updates, and the like. Meanwhile, at the same time, my poor wife has been itching to get a blog started so she can keep pace, not just with me, but all her lady friends who play the role of mommyblogger.

As a result, we've launched a new site for my wife, Kristine, at TheGrayEffect.com, to cover all her interests and whims. It will also be showing anything and everything we feel like when it comes to keeping you posted on Sarah and Matthew. While we both are authors there, I expect she will be doing the majority of the posting.

And, as usual, we will continue to keep tabs on the twins on our SmugMug account, on YouTube, and occasionally, via FriendFeed.


See Also: Two Thumbs Up: Louis Gray Effect on FriendFeed
(Image Borrowed from Two Thumbs Up)
The Gray Effect can be found at www.thegrayeffect.com. You can also subscribe by RSS here.

Wheee!

By Ken Stewart of ChangeForge (Twitter/FriendFeed)

With job losses rising to the highest levels since 1993, an estimated 6.7 percent, or 10.3 million, Americans now find themselves unemployed. In the month of November alone, 533,000 jobs were slashed from payrolls – the worst cuts since 1974. With everyone focused on industry after industry needing government assistance, economists are predicting the unemployment rate to reach a staggering eight percent.

When will it all end?

A more immediate question everyone is asking is, “When will it end?”

The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a committee responsible for maintaining records of the start and finish of each recession, deemed the economy began an official decline in December 2007.

That is little surprise to those hit hardest by this recession. Most complain of business being sluggish, while those interviewing for positions that may still be open are quite openly stating, “It’s a tough job market out there.”

What does it all mean?

Friends of mine have lost their jobs, but are finding ways to continue working though not necessarily in their career field. While out, we see shoppers everywhere, restaurant goers enjoying meals, and lots of traffic on the road. So the signals do not necessarily line up, for me at least?

Are we simply adjusting our expectations back to where they should be? Are we simply – well – simplifying?

With everyone busier than ever, a focus on what is important might already be underway. One Nielsen study suggests:

• Parents are busier than they were in the past. Many more are single parents, and two-parent families have seen a dramatic increase in women’s participation in the labor force.
• Total workloads (counting paid jobs and unpaid work at home for both moms and dads) have risen and remain high - parents average up to a 9.5-hour workday every day of the week.
• Despite more hours on average going into paid work, parents’ time with their children has not decreased over the past several decades, and in fact has risen for married mothers and married fathers, and for single mothers for certain kinds of care.
• It is not sleep or free time that has been compressed to enable parents both to work more outside the home and to spend more time with their children - it is housework that has been sacrificed.
• The pattern of increased time spent with children is not only a U.S. phenomenon, but also appears in many countries in Western Europe.

A harsh reality.

It is a harsh reality we live in, with one of the most massive economic “bubbles” bursting in our lifetimes. Whereas the “Dot-Com” bubble mainly impacted the technology sector, this has struck much closer to our homes, and our hearts.

President-elect Obama, promises a stimulus package, but even he predicts things are going to get worse before they get better.

“There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better," Obama warned.

Perhaps this recession serves as a harsh wake-up call, perhaps this nation’s spending habits were not sound, and perhaps we allowed ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security, leaving oversight in the hands of those we thought we could trust.

All of this matters little to friends and family left jobless during this holiday season. Reality is a cruel teacher, often times. While we may all long for a return to simpler times, simplicity may not be had for those trying to cope with how to wrap a lump of coal.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To learn more about Ken, visit his about page. You may also find Ken on FriendFeed, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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