Technology

Uber Cool Taxi Service

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In the past, whenever I hailed a cab in Toronto, I would be constantly rejected for not going a far enough distance. For example, none would take me from Sound Academy (most inconvenient location ever) to Union Station. However, recently I decided to try the new Uber Taxi service and I think it may solve all my taxi problems.

The service operates with a smartphone app. It pinpoints your locations as well as how far away the closest cars are. Once you hit the big green button you get a text and a cab instantly heads to you and your phone keeps track of it’s location. They’ll call you once they are outside. The cars are black and sleek and makes me feel like I have a million dollars. There are two types of cars you can choose from; a normal black car and an SUV.

Another neat feature about Uber Taxi service is the payment is done through the app with a credit card. There is no worry about having cash at hand, and they don’t need to know how much you tip. The service fee (of $8) is a little bit more than the normal $4 you pay to get in regular cabs, but at the end of the ride you don’t have to add tip (and there’s no option to even if you wanted). There is a minimum charge of $15, but at least that means they will take you anywhere no matter the distance.

I love that Uber has considered business through an app. It’s innovated and smart, and I’ll definitely be riding them again! It’s still in testing in Toronto but the other cab companies can learn a thing or two from their business model.

I’m A Fruit Ninja Black Belt

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When Fruit Ninja first came out, I thought it was pretty stupid. Then I got it on my iPhone and I liked how I could play quick games when I was waiting for the train.


If you don’t know, it’s a game where you simply slice the fruit that is popping up on the screen. Arcade and classic mode has bombs that either lower your score or kill you. Zen mode you just slice to a timer. It’s pretty simple. There are also bonus fruit that can be bought that raise your score.


The game would have probably been not as interesting if it weren’t for the Dojo. It is where the “unlockables” were listed. They were mainly for aesthetic values, such as different designs of blades and backgrounds but a goal is a goal and I finally unlocked them all.

Unless you care about raising your score, the game doesn’t really have too much replay value. So off in the vault of beaten games it goes.

The People Who Read This Blog (or So I Imagine)

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I haven’t written here in a while. I was busy attending NXNE last week and catching up on photo editing this week. However, I looked at my WordPress Dashboard today and there was a striking amount of people visiting in the past week or so. I honestly light up when I even know 10 people read this, but the past little while have been in the 400-500s.

I started to ponder, what you all must be like and came up with this list of people who I think read this blog:

Trolls
You people search the internet for random things. Some way or another, your quest to find junk landed you here.

Dog Lovers
My bichon is obviously the most adorable thing in the world. I assume 90% of you follow this just to look at cute puppy photos.

Food Lovers
Maybe you’re a food lover, and you are here for the delicious photos of food. I’m not sure if my recipes are well written enough to warrant anybody following them, but I am going on an adventure to eat all sorts of things!

Adventure Time Fans
I’ve only ever had one post about Adventure Time, but it is the top Google search of all time here.

My Best Friends
Thank you for visiting, just because we’re BFFs. I know you probably think all that on here is terrible, but you’ll come back anyway.

Angry Birds in Space is So Much Better

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It’s been a while since I have beaten an iOS game. But now that I commute (A LOT), I have a few on my phone to amuse myself during down times. The majority of my iOS gaming still happens on the iPad that I don’t really carry around with me any more.

Angry Birds I’ve never actually beat yet. I think I got stuck and gave up. However, Angry Birds In Space, adds a whole new level of complexity, gravity. The whole premise is there are planets and their orbits can suck you around in a loop and you must use this to your advantage. Some of the birds are the same as in previous games, but a few have changed.


The addition of gravity gives the game a whole different feel. You’d think winning a level was a fluke before? Well, you never know where on earth the orbit will swing you sometimes. The only thing I didn’t like about this new game was that harder levels had to be purchased for another 99 cents.. so for now I am going to cross this game off as beaten!

Things I Learned From Being Just Mobile

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My period of computerlessness only lasted for mere few days. I didn’t expect Dell to ship my laptop back so quick and in tip top shape. I survived the past few days with my iPad and iPhone and blogged occasionally from work when it wasn’t too busy. I was surprised how efficient I was at music blogging when I had a limited time frame to do it.
In addition I also realized the following:
– I had to cut my nails so I could type on a screen
– I don’t have anything that can read SD cards
– texting has made me a better typer on my phone than my iPad
– I alwaysforget to hit space onthe iPad
– Google + is actually really pretty
– nights seem darker without a laptop’s eerie glow

Just Mobile

Categories 30 Day Challenge, Inspiration, iOS, Life, TechnologyLeave a Comment on Just Mobile

20120529-230936.jpg
I am sending my laptop in for a makeover. Although I do have a decrepit backup laptop, I am going to challenge myself to live on just mobile devices for as long as Ursula is still in the shop. Yes, my laptop has a name.

Perhaps this is what the future will be like. I don’t think there is anything my laptop can do that I can’t find a way for one of my devices to. I have a first generation iPad and an iPhone 4S. One day in the not-to-distant future it will only get easier. The biggest challenge will be maintaining my script heavy music blog.

As long as I can blog, all will be merry. I will keep you updated on the journey.

This post was written on an iPad.

3 Year Twitter Anniversary

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Today marks 3 years for me on Twitter. I joined the social networking site in it’s earlier years, when most people thought it was just a place for glorified Facebook statuses. In the beginning, I probably was even guilty for using it in that way.

However, I realized it was much more. It was a way to keep up with news, read some interesting stories and last but not least, meet some great people. I’ve met some of them offline who were not just local people, but from different parts of the world. I’ve heard and seen some great music that I would not have otherwise.

If I were to give up one social network, it would be Facebook before Twitter. I will be tweeting for many years to come.

5 Types of Really Unnecessary Tweets

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I’m reaching my 3 year anniversary soon on Twitter (@tianafeng) and it has become a valuable tool for information, as well as networking with interesting individuals. Unfortunately with that also comes spam, and clutter of people who post things that are well, unnecessary.

1. Tweets about going to the gym. Unless you work in the fitness industry as a trainer or a blogger, I feel like your followers don’t need to know you are trying to work off that burger you instagram’d 10 minutes ago.

2. Retweeting your praises. I already think you are somewhat awesome if I follow you. You don’t need to keep retweeting how much other people think you’re awesome. Does this raise your awesomness level? No. Remember, people who don’t follow you won’t see these anyway and those that do might see you as an egotistic jerk.

3. Tweets about how much your life sucks. Maybe there is a reason your life isn’t turning out the way you want it to, because you enable it to. Broadcasting it to the world isn’t helping you in any way and shuts the doors to any opportunities that may come your way such as new friends or even job openings.

4. Tweets about your crush or the boy/girl you are stalking. Yes, these exist. Whether it’s the attractive person at the coffee shop, or the friend of a friend, don’t do it. You appear excessively creepy, and maybe that’s why you aren’t in a relationship. Stop looking at Craigslist’s Missed Connections and just go talk to the person. The time you spend tweeting about them can be well spent actually talking to them.

5. Passive aggressive messages to a specific person. Whether this person is actually following you or not, these are very unnecessary. If you have a feud in real life, resolve things offline. The online world doesn’t need to know you hold silly grudges. Besides if you post something stupid like “I HATE YOU!!!!”, someone might mistake it as to them.

Do I Still Use Siri?

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The 4S was my first iPhone and like everyone else I was captivated by Siri. Like everyone else, the first thing I did was ask it arbitrary questions.

What are you wearing?

What is the meaning of life

I soon realized that there were limitations to what Siri can do and that the commercials were overly glamorized. Here in Canada location services are unavailable, meaning we can’t even ask where the nearest restaurant is. Nor set location-based reminders.

So, what do I use Siri for?

I’ll tell you that I definitely don’t use it for texting. My message always comes out gibberish and nonsensical. You know how in the Siri commercial the guy is running and telling his iPhone to text a message? That’s impossible. Have you ever tried to clearly say a sentence while running? I don’t have an accent,(at least I’m pretty sure I don’t) but it can’t get my message right when I’m sitting still. To make matters worse, my boyfriend’s name is Nash which always comes out as “mash”.

He is doing the impossible

As a tech nerd, I decided to expand the capabilities by jailbreaking my phone and adding a little tweak called AssistantExtensions. It allowed me to do many things like tweet from my phone. However, for the same reasons as messaging, I don’t use it to tweet. You also can’t edit tweets, so whatever drunken gibberish was typed would send to all your followers.

So, do I still use Siri?

Yes, I do. I use it to set reminders, alarms and timers, mainly because I haven’t actually figured out how to set them manually yet. I also ask for the weather when I’m lazy to google and let it call people when I don’t want to sift through the phone book. However, it doesn’t always reach the right person, resulting in some really awkward phone calls.

Lastly, I use it to open programs. It’s one of the hacked tweaks but it’s quite useful since I managed all my apps into folders and sometimes can’t remember where I put them. If I yell “OPEN FACEBOOK!”, it will do just that. I won’t however do this in public. After all, I still think Bluetooth people look crazy, and I haven’t seen anybody yell at their 4S’s just yet.

Lessons I Have Learnt from Draw Something

Categories Art, iOS, Technology, Video Games3 Comments on Lessons I Have Learnt from Draw Something
Really horrible drawing I did of Elvis

If you don’t know already, Draw Something is the new mobile game sensation. It’s basically a set of Pictionary that you can play with your friends who have Apple and Android devices. I have been playing it for a couple of weeks now and through observation I have realized and learnt many things.

Celebrities are really hard to draw. I try my hardest not to use words when I am drawing clues. I think it’s cheating. However, when you get hit with a celebrity, it can become hard.

This is Drake, boyfriend didn't get it.
Name the first generic blonde person you can think of!

People draw people that look like themselves. Whenever the drawing requires the use of a person to describe something, they always seem to look like the person who drew the picture. I’m guilty of this too. My people always look like the doodles of me that I do on My Life In Drawings. Other people do this too though. My friends who have blonde hair draw blonde people. Those that have curly hair draw curly haired people. Even if it takes an extra step to do these things.

Guess the hair colour of the person that drew this.

It can be used as a genius marketing plan. Companies should insert their names into this game. Subliminal advertising after all. And hey, if your logo isn’t recognizable for anybody to want to draw it, maybe you should do something about that.

Continue reading ➞ Lessons I Have Learnt from Draw Something