Testing the email to blog post functionality. Seems like it's not picking up iphone image attachments! :(

P.S. - this is my new wallpaper. Inside joke.

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Ying's outta town, so all you readers that like reading her posts are just outta luck! Too bad!

Next up in our dorky, nerdy, Dean posting series is a video on how I mount my iPhone in the car so I can listen to music/podcasts, use the GPS functionality, check email, sent txt msgs, and watch movies while driving down the freeway on the way to work.

Umm. Ok, so music and GPS stuff is true. Everything else is very, very, VERY, sparingly used if used at all. It's dangerous to use anything on the iPhone that takes more than a split second of focus.  On the way to work, any time I see a car driving slower than the flow of traffic, drifting inside their lane, or braking for no apparent reason, I guarantee you, that person is either putting on make up or typing something on their phone.  So don't do it! Just drive, dang it.  </rant>

Oh, before I get to the post. I notice that women who don't pay attention while driving are the drifters and brakers, while men seem to be more prone to driving slower than the flow of traffic (in the fast lane usually). </scientific observation>

Aaaaaannd, now; The moment you've all been waiting for, the video of me being a nerd!!!!eleven!1

Hey Folks!

I'm at it again.  And yet again, thanks goes to Ying for filming me being a big nerd.  Yes, I'm a nerd, get over it; I have :)

So I was wanting to watch Napoleon Dynamite. But I didn't have a way to prop up my iPhone.  I went online to look for instructions on creating any kind of make-shift stand but all I came up with was some triangle thing made out of a dollar bill and also a retail item called the Bat Rest. The Bat Rest is a great idea... but I wanted something NOW. (Kids these days; they always want instant gratification!).  So I tried to make my own bat rest out of scrap cardboard... it was ... full of fail.
:( Cardboard was too soft.

After all this work, I could have seriously just gotten two strips of scotch tape and taped the damn iphone to the wall or something. But that would've been too easy!  So I look around my desk for other options... oooh PAPERCLIP!

Watch the Video!

Anyway, long story short, after a couple of failures, I came up with this shape:
Download the bend-marks pdf template here  (Scroll down to learn how to use the template)

Cool huh?

With the iPhone:

From the side:

Back View

How to use the Template:

Get the template here. Print it out with your favorite PDF reader. Be sure not to stretch the document. If you have a ruler, do a reality check to make sure the document didn't get resized when printed.  When the paper clip is straightened out, it should be the same length as the grey line in the template.  A pair of pliers will make your job a lot easier.

1. Take a jumbo paper clip and straighten it out. Use a fine tip sharpie to mark all the bend points:

2. Bend the 7.25 and 8.25cm points. Let's call this the "V"

3. Next, Bend the 4.25cm point. You need to make the bend perpendicular and angled a bit outwards from the "V"  Also notice that the bend is an "acute" angle.

4. Bend the 1.0cm point for the tip.

5. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the other side and you're done! Here's a pic of 2 stands from different positions:

I'd like to point out the importance of the bend angles. Acute-angled bends from step 3 give the stand the correct support to prop up your iphone without falling over. The obtuse-angled bend in step 4 needs to stick out far enough so the tips of the paper clip won't rub against your iPhone and scratch it.  You can play with the width of the stand and/or the green angles to adjust how much your iPhone tilts.

Here's a video of just the stand without all the jabber

That's it! Thanks for reading~!

****************************

老娘的眉批:

這到底是什麼了不起的發明????  不過就是一根彎起來迴紋針而已啊....勞駕老娘爬高爬低的幫你攝影就算了,還千叮嚀萬交代的要我拍的時候要有當導演的sense,要懂得適時zoom in跟zoom out.啥屁啊!!!!

我左想右想,這種把戲能吸引到的觀眾恐怕只有豆媽家那顆小二的豆子,人家還有去上自然教室,懂的東西應該也比你這個cool吧!

呀!呀!呀! 烏鴉從天空飛過去,我不知道要再講些什麼好了......

Hi Readers!

I'm such a geek...

Ok, so now we got that part out of the way; pay attention!  I went online and ordered this part from Meritline:

http://www.meritline.com/earphone-adapter-iphone-3-5mm-mic-666.html

Read the description and you'll get it...

So that allows you to plug your iPhone's stereo output into the auxiliary input of your car stereo. No big deal right?  Even better is you can clip the microphone to your collar and call people and play their voice through your car stereo too!

Except for one problem... The cable is about 3 feet long.  Where are you going to put your iPhone? Hold it in your hand? So much for hands free!  So I also got this:

http://www.meritline.com/iphone-car-mount-holder-643.html

Now for the FUN part! The Modding....

I found an old telephone cable (yes, land line) and gave it a glorious future; a new chance at life!  It was to become the wire that I'd be using to relocate the handsfree microphone to an acceptable place in my car.  I had to do a little soldering.

Close up pic...

Car mount in the car... it's awesome... very sturdy and it even swivels so I can rotate it to the passenger side to let them control the iPhone..

Here's the mic.  I hadn't put heatshrink around it since it was getting late... It looks nice with the heatshrink! I'll take better pics tomorrow and update this post...

And... watch the video! ... because I didn't take any more pictures (it was late).

Near the end of the video, you hear the infamous cell phone buzzing.... stupid buzzing! I'm going to try tackling that problem this weekend with some ferrite cores. (google it).  Anyway, the buzzing only lasts for a few seconds when you start dailing or when the internet kicks in for the first time.  Still, I'm gonna try getting rid of it altogether.

Should I make a few of these and sell them?

-Dean