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Lake Mirror Classic Auto Festival Photos, and an Oops

This past weekend, my family and I attended the Lake Mirror Classic Auto Festival in downtown Lakeland, FL. We were blown away by both the number and quality of cars entered in the event. It was a nice way to spend a beautiful early fall day. Our family will definitely go to next year’s Lake Mirror Classic, too.

However, I had an oops. I’ve blogged before about how I love the camera in my Samsung Epic 4g. And I absolutely do. But somehow — and I still can’t quite figure out how — the resolution on my camera switched from the highest resolution to the lowest sometime last week. I didn’t notice until I downloaded the photos from the auto show. They looked fantastic on my Epic’s screen, but when I tried viewing them as a full-size slideshow on my computer, I realized something was amiss.

It’s always smart to double-check your resolution before taking any photos that you really care about keeping. I prefer to keep mine at 5M (five megapixels), the highest resolution. You can see what resolution you are using by looking at the upper-left corner of the camera screen. In the image below (from MobilePhotoVideo blog), you can see it’s currently set to 5M. To change the resolution, press the Settings icon (the gear), and then choose the Camera icon. Resolution is on the second page of the five pages of Settings options.

Photo Credit: Camera Review: Sprint Epic 4G aka Samsung Galaxy S with Photo/Video Samples

Again, many, many thanks to the MobilePhotoVideo blog for sharing a thorough tutorial on using the many settings of the Samsung Epic.

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Promoting Mark Lowry Performance :: Brainstorming

For my COMM 4333 class:

Christian comedian/singer/songwriter Mark Lowry is coming to Lakeland for a performance to benefit Southeastern University’s Communication Department. We spent some time brainstorming in class today for ideas for how to promote this event.

Please have one person in your team provide your list of ideas using the form below.

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Smitten with the Samsung Epic 4g Camera

Taken with Samsung Epic 4g

I have something to admit. I have a crush. A big one.

I’m completely smitten with the camera that’s built into my Samsung Epic 4g “cell phone.” “Cell phone” is in quotation marks because to me, what I have is a camera that also happens to function as a cell phone and run Android apps.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog or Food for Thought (my Posterous account), you’ll know that I enjoy taking photos of things I run across as I experience my days. I especially like taking extreme closeups of flowers.

Today was a day for experimentation. I chose to venture out on a floral photo safari with only my “cell phone” camera; my Canon PowerShot stayed at home. I wanted to see how far I could push the macro setting on my Samsung Epic. Could it take the same kind of floral photos I usually take?

So I decided to go visit Hollis Garden in my community of Lakeland, FL. It was supposed to open at 10 a.m., but no one showed up to open the gates. I gave up and left at 10:30, but I spent a few minutes with the roses outside the locked gates before I went into my office at Southeastern University. Actually, I probably spent longer with the roses than I normally would have. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise?

After a few hours in my office, I returned to Hollis Garden and was able to go in to explore. I wandered around for an hour and took about 85 photos. In the slideshow below, you can see 30 of my favorite photos taken today. Which ones do you like best?

Bottom Line: The Samsung Epic 5-megapixel camera is stellar for my floral photography. With the macro setting, I can take closeups at least as crisp and clear as on my Canon PowerShot. My one wish is that it would be a little quicker to take several photos in a row. But I can live with that, knowing that since I will always have my Samsung Epic in my pocket or purse, anytime a beautiful bloom beckons me, I’ll be able to capture it.

The Line Below the Bottom Line: Many, many thanks to the MobilePhotoVideo blog for sharing a thorough tutorial on using the many settings of the Samsung Epic. I never even realized that it had a macro setting until I read its review.

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Inside PR :: Students Should Step Up Their Social Media

Listen to the Inside PR Podcast

As a long-time listener of the Inside PR podcast, I look forward to each episode (seriously!), and I miss listening to new episodes during the summer hiatus. I always find something useful to share with my public relations students from listening to the podcast each Wednesday. But this week . . . what a great show! It’s a must-listen for public relations students.

Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich and Joe Thornley spent this entire 20-ish minute podcast sharing their thoughts on why and how students who are planning careers in public relations should become involved in social media, along with what to avoid doing.

Standard Podcast [21:24m]:  Download


Directly from the show notes, some of the highlights are:

  • Joe shares the first tip: remember there is only one you and be consistent with how you present yourself across all mediums.
  • Joe reminds students to build a professional profile from day one.
  • Gini gives some advice for students who are hesitant to start a blog.
  • Martin points out how important it is to be careful about what you post online.
  • Joe stresses the importance of communicating and engaging.
  • Joe shares the 3 places students need to be to build their online profile: a blog of their own, Twitter and LinkedIn.
  • Martin says students need to have a good RSS reader to organize all their feeds and stay current.

Give it a listen. It’s worth your time. And subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or Google Listen so you don’t miss another episode.

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One Week of Twitter :: Fall 2010


First, Learn a Bit About Twitter

  1. Listen to Laura Fitton discuss Twitter for Business.
  2. Listen to my Twitter: What’s in it for me? presentation.
  3. Read 10.5 Ways for PR Students to Get the Most Out of Twitter.

Setting Up Your Twitter Account

  1. Go to Twitter. Click Get Started, and sign up. I prefer it if you use some version of your first and last name as your Twitter ID. (Avoid putting numbers in your Twitter ID, or you may appear like a spammer.)
  2. Upload a photo or avatar.
  3. Write a brief (160-character or fewer) bio. It’s good to mention that you’re a PR student. Consider mentioning your university.
  4. Send a tweet saying “I’m a student in @barbaranixon’s #COMM2322 /#COMM4333 / #COMM4363 /#PRCA3330 class”. (Use the correct number for your class.) Be sure to include the #xxx1234 indicator, with no spaces between the hashtag (#), letters and numbers.
  5. If you haven’t already done so, complete my form that tells me your Twitter username before midnight on  Tuesday, September 21.

Setting Up Your Following List

  1. Follow me plus at least 20 (why not all?) of the people or organizations in my Twitter Starter Pack for PR Students.
  2. Visit your class’ list at TweepML: PRCA 3330, COMM 2322, COMM 4333, COMM 4363 (I will activate these links as soon as I have your class’ Twitter usernames.)
  3. For the purposes of this assignment, you will need to be following at least 40 people.

Using Twitter

  1. Over the course of the next week, send at least twenty tweets (Twitter messages of 140 characters or less). Tip: Rather than tweeting that you’re having ramen for lunch, instead consider what might be of interest to your classmates and followers. Perhaps point others to something interesting or funny you read online. Share a fact you learned in a class. Maybe you could even pose a question that you’d like others to answer. (UPDATE: The tweets cannot all be ones automatically generated from your WordPress blog. The point of this assignment is to engage with others on Twitter, not simply announce.)
  2. In addition to the twenty tweets that you originate, respond to at least five of your classmates’ tweets. To respond, click on the arrow after a tweet. Or you can type the @ symbol followed immediately by a username (such as @barbaranixon).

Additional Information

  1. If you already have a Twitter account that you use primarily for social (not educational or professional) reasons, you may wish to create a fresh, new account for this exercise.
  2. Review my tips on how college students can use Twitter to their advantage and Choosing Whom to Follow on Twitter: My Strategy.
  3. Review Prof. Sam Bradley’s College Student’s Guide: Twitter 101.
  4. I find using the web interface for Twitter to be clunky. I prefer using TweetDeck, a free Adobe Air app that works great on PCs and Macs. TweetDeck makes it really easy to send URLs via Twitter, as it automatically shortens them for you.
  5. I’ll occasionally post information on Twitter and use the hashtag for your class (#COMM2322, #COMM4333, #COMM4363 or #PRCA3330).By using this hashtag, I’m indicating that I want students in this class to pay special attention to the tweet.
  6. OPTIONAL: If you’d like to publicize your blog posts via Twitter, you can it automatically in WordPress.

Blog About Your Experience

After the week is over, add a 300-word (minimum) post to your blog about the experience and what you got out of it. Include a link to your Twitter profile (here’s mine). Be sure to include at least one way you might find value in continuing your account in Twitter. Your blog post about this experience count as your Topic of the Week for the appropriate week.

Questions? Just send me a DM (direct message) or an @ (reply) in Twitter!

NOTE: Many thanks to Kaye Sweetser and Karen Russell for their ideas prompting this assignment.

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The Evolution of Public Relations :: An Interactive Timeline

In PR Applications class today, we’ll be discussing the evolution of public relations. See the timeline below, created by Dr. Corinne Weisgerber’s Introduction to PR class at St. Edward’s University, for an interactive look at how public relations has changed and matured over the years.

NOTE: As Dr. Weisgerber’s class was a few years ago, the timeline stops at 2006. What would you add to the timeline?

The history of public relations on Dipity.

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15 Must-Have Android Apps for a PR Professor

Samsung Epic 4G

The early adopter that I am, I just had to get my hands on the new Samsung Epic 4G when it became available at Sprint on August 31. And I am so glad I did. Though I was a Palm fan for more than a decade, I am definitely an Android convert now. The larger, super-clear screen and slide-out keyboard are fantastic. And the variety and amount of apps available through the Android Market can be overwhelming. Here’s a list of 15 apps I’d recommend for any professor, especially PR profs.

  1. Advanced Task Killer: To be sure that unneeded apps are not running and taking up precious battery power, try Advanced Task Killer. It will show you — at a glance — all the apps that are running, even those behind the scenes, and you can choose which ones to “kill.” You don’t want your Epic battery to die during your day on campus.
  2. doubleTwist: To sync my iTunes library, including music, video, pictures & podcasts, I’ve been using doubleTwist. Sometimes it seems like the podcasts don’t sync, but if I exit dT on my PC and open it again, the sync works well.
  3. Evernote: I listen to a lot of podcasts while take my morning walk every day. When I hear (or come up with) an idea that I need to capture, I use Evernote’s Audio Note feature. (Typing/texting and walking don’t work well for me. But I definitely can talk and walk.) I’ll be exploring more of Evernote’s capabilities in the coming months.
  4. TweetDeck: I confess. I am a tweetaholic. I use Twitter, for personal and professional reasons, several times a day. It’s a little tricky installing TweetDeck, since it’s not in the Android Market yet, but it’s worth it. (If you are not up for a beta app, try Seesmic instead.)
  5. Gesture Search: If I need to quickly find something (a contact, an app, a song, etc.) on my Samsung Epic, I like having the ability to search by moving my finger over the screen and not need to be as exact as when I an typing on either of the keyboards.
  6. Desk Home: In the computer lab where I teach, there is not a wall clock, and I haven’t worn a watch in almost four years. I use Desk Home to show a clean and easy-to-read clock. Don’t want to keep the students in class longer than my allotted time, don’t you know. (NOTE: This app may only work on the Samsung Epic. There are other clock apps, but this one is designed for my phone.)
  7. BlackBoard: Though the BlackBoard app doesn’t allow me to do everything that my desktop program will do, I can read discussion items, create announcements, e-mail students, and more.
  8. Kindle: My husband and I share one Kindle. By having the Kindle app on my Samsung Epic, I can read books in our collection even when it’s his “turn” to have the Kindle. And it’s great to show my students how many free classic books are available in the Kindle store.
  9. Barcode Scanner: This little app works with your Android camera. It will scan both barcodes and QR codes. It’s fun to show students what those little square codes are for, and equally fun to show them how to do price comparisons while shopping.
  10. Shazam: When I can quickly refer to songs my students also listen to, it helps me relate to them better. I cheat a little using Shazam. To find out what “that song” is, use Shazam. It will listen to the song and determine title and artist.
  11. Pandora: With Pandora as an Android app or on my computer, I can enter the name of a song I know my students like and create a playlist from it.
  12. Ringdroid: I wanted a ringtone that sounded like <gasp> a phone ringing. The Samsung Epic did not have a ringtone like this. So I found an mp3 that I liked, and used Ringdroid to create a ringtone for me. Please tell me, am I not the only one who despises other ringtones?
  13. Carr Matey: Have you ever forgotten where you parked your car? It’s happened to me before. Carr Matey is a fun little pirate-themed GPS app that will help me find my way back to my car. Backtracking in a parking lot in Florida is not only a little embarrassing, it’s downright hot.
  14. Instant Heart Rate: Ever have a rough class and wonder if  your blood is really about to boil? Me either. But this app will still let you check your heart rate using, of all things, the camera. Don’t know how it works, but it does, and it’s cool.
  15. For Immediate Release: As an avid listener of the For Immediate Release: Hobson and Holtz Report for more than three years, I was very happy to see that there was an Android app for the podcast. You can find the app by searching in the Android Market, but I cannot find a link for it elsewhere. UPDATE: Though parts of this app work, I’ve recently learned that others don’t, so I am removing the FIR app from my list. I absolutely will continue listening to the FIR podcast, just not through this app.

So those are my favorite Android apps, based on the one week I’ve had my Samsung Epic 4G. Are there others you’d recommend?