Over the years I have noticed that many churches and smaller organizations want to embrace and use technology, but they simply don’t know where to start. One of my passions is helping those people by sharing what I have learned along the way. I have been meeting with local churches for several years now, helping them with audio/video questions and with developing a web strategy. I have been designing and hosting websites for people who need help, and it is just a small way I can help.

As a pastor, I do have limited time to work on side projects. But this is a way I can be more Kingdom focused, by helping other churches understand and implement new technology. I have a second website dedicated to sharing more about my design and consulting work, so if you want to find out more, please visit FEDesign.net for more information. I offer competitive pricing and support for WordPress Hosting, and I also offer a custom CMS platform that is incredibly easy to use and update for churches. Visit the website for a view of my portfolio.

I’ve been watching the new android phones and waiting for the next round of great phones. I was fine with my old HTC Desire(similar to the Google Nexus One) and I wasn’t in any hurry to change things up. Unfortunately, the USB port on my Desire died yesterday so I decided to go ahead and make the plunge. I checked with Verizon, but their data plans are just too expensive compared to what I have on US Cellular, so I ended up with a new Motorola Electrify.

I’m impressed so far, and I’m not easily impressed. This thing is a beast. It’s a dual-core processor, 4.3″ screen, with 16Gig of Internal memory. It has both a front facing and a rear facing camera with HD Video. It even has a hdmi connection so you can hook it up directly to a tv or projector and a SIM card slot for use out of the country. I spent a good part of the evening setting up all my apps and transferring everything over from my old phone. I don’t even think I need to root this phone since it has everything built in.

Technology can be both good and bad, and new phones are no exception. It’s hard not being over-connected and distracted, but there are several great apps that really help me in my ministry. I’m using all the Google apps, and here are some of my other favorites

• Evernote (for Note Taking)
• ADWLauncher EX (for the User Interface)
• Logos Bible Software (for Bible Study)
• YouVersion Bible (for Bible Reading)
• Wunderlist (for my To-do List)
• Amazon Kindle (for all my reading)
• Dropbox (for sharing files)
• WordPress (for updating my blog)

I did a quick search on YouTube and found the following review of the phone. Motorola phones get great reception and this phone has a much better battery life than before. It’s not 4G, but it will probably be a while before US Cellular gets 4G in our area.

I’ve been at a workshop the last few days, so I’ve been experimenting with my iPad to find the best way to take notes. I’ve tried three main apps, Evernote, Penultimate, and Notability. For text, Evernote works fine, but it’s unable to take advantage of the touchscreen of the iPad for drawing or handwriting. Penultimate is a nice program with good integration with other services, but when using a stylus, it’s hard to fit everything on screen. Notability combines the best features of all three programs, so it’s my favorite by far. Here’s why.

Notability gives you the power to combine drawings, audio, typed text, and pictures all in one document.  But the killer feature it offers is the ability to write or draw in a zoomed in window, similar to the old palm pilots or pocket pc’s. This lets you use a stylus to take detailed notes.

It also let’s you import pictures or PDF files. Yo can take notes directly on PDF files, which works great for handouts. You can also record the audio of the lecture or talk while you take notes, so this app really has a lot of power. I also use my keyboard with it to type up notes. Notability has good text tools built in, so you can format and markup your text.

When you are done, you can sync your notes to Dropbox, or email them as rtf or PDF files. I email the PDF file to my Evernote account so I can keep all my notes in one place. This is really a great example of a full featured iPad ap, and it’s only $0.99 in the app store. Watch the video below to get a better understanding of how it works.

I just picked up a blogging app called Blogsy for my iPad. I’ve been a little slow on blogging lately because I’ve been too busy and I just had to pull back from a few things. I’m in my last week of classes this semester for seminary, so I will be back to my normal crazy self for a few weeks. I’m still finding apps on my iPad and this one is a great find. I’m using my iPad more and more each week for ministry, reading, and relaxation.

Blogsy is a great app that lets you pull in pictures, videos, and format everything just the way you want. It can pull in pictures from your iPad, Picasa (which works great at pulling in pictures from my android phone automatically uploaded with Google+), Flickr, and the web. It can also grab videos from youtube. Everything in this post was done with Blogsy, so I think I’ll be using it when I’m on the go.

It works with WordPress.org or WordPress.com blogs, blogger, and with Posterous.

This week is a new experience for me. While I’m at home with our two boys, ages 7 and 11, my wife and 13 year old daughter are on a mission trip in Nicaragua. This is such a great opportunity for both of them. I’ve been two times over the past two years, but I wanted them to experience it first hand. I’m busy doing my Mr. Mom impersonation doing laundry, cooking and cleaning, and being a homeschool teacher for our boys, and my girls are over 1500 miles away serving in remote Nicaraguan villages. But even though they are far away, I get to experience a little of what is going on each day and even hear their voices through technology.

They are posting pictures on Facebook, sharing updates through the Because We Care Ministries website, and calling home using Skype. We gathered around our computer and just chatted tonight about everything they are experiencing. And the amazing thing is that it’s completely free when you call skype to skype.  We both have skype installed on our phones, I have it on my laptop, and I even have it on my iPad. They are in a small town in Nicaragua with a slow internet connection, and yet we can just talk back and forth like a normal phone call.

We live in amazing times, and the world is getting much smaller. We simply cannot overlook the Great Commission. We have no excuses. 

This is one of the coolest things I have seen in the technology world (no pun intended) How do you make a thermostat sexy? You let a former iPod designer work his magic on something that controls a huge amount of our energy usage. As an engineer, this thing really is genius. It’s a billion dollar idea that is going to jump-start an industry. Nest is the new company that is introducing a programmable thermostat that is super smart. It learns from you as you turn the thermostat up and down, and it is smart enough to adjust the temperature when the house is not occupied. You can even control it from the web or your smartphone.

I really want one of these for my house. With our cold winters, I think this would pay for itself in under one year. The cost is not cheap at $249, but when you watch the video, I think you agree that this is light years beyond your current thermostat. Super Cool or super hot – literally

I needed to do a quick webinar last week for website training. I stumbled on join.me from the logmein team. It’s incredibly easy to setup a webinar and share your screen with others. If you ever need to share what you are working on with someone else, then check out this service. Here’s a video that shows how it works.

I’m a serious gadget geek, so I’ve been reading about the speculation about the new Amazon tablet for the last several months. It’s finally here, and it definitely looks interesting. Here are the quick specs for the Kindle Fire:

• 7″ Display (smaller than the 9.7″ iPad screen, but much bigger than large 4″ cell phones)
• 8 Gig of internal memory, but you can also utilize Amazon Cloud Storage
• you can read books, magazines, newspapers, play games, browse the web  and more
• wifi only, no 3g support
• battery life: 8 hours of continuous reading
• dual-core processor, so it’s fast enough to run games
• it runs a special version of Android 2.3
• fast web-browser in addition to multiple Android apps
• all at a price of $199

So what do I think? I like the price and I like the device. The iPad still will have many more apps, so this is definitely not an iPad killer, but I do think they will sell a lot of these devices. It will become even more attractive once the hard-core enthusiasts figure out a way to root the device and install custom roms like they have on the Nook Color.

For ministry, this would be a great book reader, but I still think I would prefer a non-color Kindle because of the longer battery life.  I think the Fire is also too small to preach from with the 7″ screen. I really can’t think of a many cases where I would use something like this. Overall, I really like it, but I don’t have a reason to buy one. I already have a great android cell phone, and my wife’s iPad has everything I need and more.  If you are interested in the Kindle, be sure to check out the new cheaper $79 & $99 versions on their website.  Here’s a video for the new Kindle Fire.