How I Was Convinced I Needed a Thermostat

I never knew that there would be a day when I thought to myself, I need to buy a thermostat.  I had assumed that the next time I would buy a thermostat would be when something caused my current thermostat to fail.  And at that point, I would drive to the local hardware store and look for something cheap to solve my problem.  I like my house to be the proper temperature, but I don't get excited about temperature control devices.  That was until the Nest Learning Thermostat.  This week former Apple engineers, who helped create the iPod, unveiled their latest technological creation.  Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers announced a thermostat called "Nest" that magically learn your habits.

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Why I Decided I Needed a New Thermostat

It's stunning.

The design is incredible.  Watch the video and watch how simple and elegant the design is.  The user experience appears to be done flawlessly and will be much simpler than any other thermostat that exists.  I love good design and this was the first time I ever thought that design even mattered in controlling the temperature of my house.

It's smart.

According to Nest, the thermostat will begin to start to learn your routine after a week of use.  It begins to understand what temperature you like in the morning and what temperature you like when you go to bed.  As you adjust the temperature, it begins to learn what temperatures it should automatically adjust to in order to suit your needs.  It also is built with a motion detector, so when it realizes that no one is home, it is smart enough to switch into an away mode.  It also has WiFi built in, so in the situations that I want to control the temperature form my iPhone, I can.

It's made by people who made the iPod.

When I explained to my wife the reason we need this thermostat and I made this point, she quickly said, "So that's the real reason you want it."  Apple designs great products, so why would I expect anything different from a couple of ex-apple engineers that decided to get into the thermostat business.

Ministry Lessons from Apple

Apple is one of my favorite companies that exists, and Steve Jobs is one of my heroes.  I think that Apple is able to continually push their software and hardware far beyond what anybody else is able to do.  They continually deliver amazing products and because of the success of their organization and innovations, I think there is a lot we can learn from them that applies to leading in the both the ministry realm and the business realm.

People Don't Know What They Need

Apple is known for not looking to their customers to figure out what they need to do.  They do what they think is going to be the best product for the end user and they are usually right.  When the iPhone first came out, people complained that it didn't have a keyboard; now, people don't care that there is no keyboard.

“Apple market research” is an oxymoron. The Apple focus group was the right hemisphere of Steve’s brain talking to the left one. If you ask customers what they want, they will tell you, “Better, faster, and cheaper”—that is, better sameness, not revolutionary change. They can only describe their desires in terms of what they are already using—around the time of the introduction of Macintosh, all people said they wanted was better, faster, and cheaper MS-DOS machines. - Guy Kawaski on Steve Jobs

In ministry, it would be a shame if we didn't listen to the people in our ministries, but that being said, a lot of the things that our students need to hear, they don't realize they need to hear.  Where I see this practice of Apple, really applying to our ministry, is when it comes to these unfelt needs.  What do you know your students need to hear or experience that they don't realize they need?  Apple figures out what they think that people need and they deliver a life-changing piece of technology.  When your ministry figures out an unfelt need and is able to help a student see the importance of it, they can give a life-changing message.

All the Details Matter

Apple is known for paying attention to every little detail.  The images that you see as soon as you launch an app, the placement of screws on a macbook, or even the design of internal parts of a machine that you may never open.  Apple pays close attention to the small details because they believe that the little things matter.  In your ministry are you paying attention to the little things?  How does somebody feel when they walk into the room?  How do guests feel when it's their first time checking out the church?  How well are parents informed about the details of an upcoming trip?  Are all the students feeling like somebody cares about them?

Be the Best, Not the First

Believe it or not, Apple didn't invent the smartphone, they revolutionized it.  Apple was not the first to create a phone that could run apps, but they did it better than anybody else.  They weren't the first company to allow apps to run in the background or change the way notifications worked, but they do it the best.

"[Researchers] found that only 9 percent of pioneers end up as the final winners in a market.  Gillette didn't pioneer the safety razor; Star did.  Polaroid didn't pioneer the instant camera; Dubroni did.  Microsoft didn't pioneer the personal computer spreadsheet; VisiCorp did. Amazon didn't pioneer online bookselling and AOL didn't pioneer online Internet service...It seems that pioneering innovation is good for society but statistically lethal for the individual pioneer!" - Jim Collins in Great by Choice

What Apple realizes is an important reality, that it is not nearly as important to be the first to do something, as it is to be the best at doing something.  Find what other youth workers are creating and make it your own.  Read about good ideas that would fit in your minsitry and adapt them for your context.  You don't have to be the innovator of a new model for ministry or creative idea, just be the best in the context of you ministry enviornment.

Photo Credit: Ruben Bos

How To Make a 3D Video

Everywhere you look, somebody is using 3D to promote something.  DVD players are 3D capable, television sets tout their 3D features, and even old movies are re-released as new 3D movies.  3D may be simply a fad, but regardless it is fun to have the capabilities to shoot a 3D video to show off.  When we recently filmed some short 3D videos to help with our winter retreat theme, we had to learn how to shoot and edit a video that would actually appear in 3D.  We weren't interested in buying expensive equipment to create the effect, so we worked out how to make a 3D video using two iPhones and Final Cut.

How To Make a 3D Video

1.Use Two of the Same Cameras

3D works like our eyes; the goal is to get two of the cameras (preferably identical) set up as though they were two eyes looking at the subject.  In order to do this, we used two identical iPhones set up on a Gorilla Tripod.  The Gorilla tripods are extremely flexible, which allowed us to line up our phones so they were nearly in perfect position for the shoot.

2. Layer the Videos in Your Video Editor

Once you've shot your video, import the clips into your computer.  It's important to keep track of which footage was taken from the left device and which was from the right. In order to edit the 3D video, you'll need a video editor that can handle multiple layers of video, such as Final Cut or Adobe Premiere.

Set both videos up in the timeline layered one on top of each other.  You'll want to make sure that your videos are perfectly in sync and mute whichever audio is not needed.

3. Change the Overlays

To get the 3D effect working, you need to get the red/cyan double-vision look in place.  Change the opacity of the videos to 50% so that the video appears like double-vision.  If you filmed properly, the goal would be for the images to be slightly different with each camera.  Make the left video have a red overlay (RGB: 255, 0, 0) and the right video should have a cyan overlay (RGB: 0, 255, 255).  These colors will allow the video work for a Red/Cyan 3D effect.

4. Put on 3D Glasses and Enjoy!

Get a pair of Red and Cyan 3D glasses and enjoy your creation!

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Photo Credit: Cog Log Lab & Lee Stranahan

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

One of the great visionary leaders of our time died.  His life, his innovation, and his leadership is inspiring.

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new." - Steve Jobs from Stanford Commencement Speech in 2005

5 Features for the iPhone 5

The new iPhone is coming and instead of speculating on all the rumors floating around the web about what will make this iPhone better than previous models, I thought it would be fun to list some unlikely features that I wish the iPhone 5 would have.  And of course, when Tuesday arrives and the announcements are made, I have no doubt that I will be convinced that the new device will be a necessary addition to my iOS collection.

5 Features Apple Should Release with the iPhone 5

1. Teleportation.  Who wouldn't find this handy?

2. Time Travel.  But Apple would have to restrict the ability for us to go back in time and buy apple stock.

3. Transplants.  Just in case another important CEO were in need of tracking down a liver.

4. Patent Fighter.  If someone steals your brilliant ideas, you can sue them.  Or if some troll tries to put you out of business, you can fight.

5. Phone...oh, wait.

4 Ways to Use Google Voice In Youth Ministry

Google Voice is an incredible, free tool that Google has created.  One of my favorite features that is built into Google Voice is text messaging; once you have a google voice number set up you can use it for text messaging.  We have utilized this in our youth ministry as a great tool for sending out mass text messages.  Google Voice does not have mass texting as a built in feature, but there are some work arounds that can let you capitalize on this possibility.  As we've been using Google Voice, I've had a few ideas of ways that we can make use of this technology for our student ministry.

4 Ways To Utilize Google Voice:

1. Alerts/Announcements

Do you have announcements or reminders that you want to send out to a large group of students?  Text messaging can be a great way to do that.  Of course, students should have to sign up so you aren't just spamming their phone's inbox, but texting could be a great way to get the word out about an upcoming event or program.

2. Prayer Requests

If you set up Google Voice to work with your e-mail, any text message that is sent to your Google Voice number will also be e-mailed to you.  Share this number with the youth group and let them know that if anyone has prayer requests to text them in and you will be praying for them.  It's an easy way for students to be asking for prayer and for you to potentially share those requests with other people.

3. Bible Reading Campaign

We are currently in the middle of utilizing Google Voice for this.  We had students sign up if they wanted to be reminded daily of a Bible reading that as a ministry we are going to be doing.  Each day around 3:00pm a mass text is sent out to anyone who has signed up and gives them a section of scripture to read and something to think about.

4. A place to save prank calls

Inevitably part of youth ministry is prank calls.  If your kids don't know your actual phone number, you could easily give them this one instead and have their messages saved in the Google Voice database.  Plus if Google Voice is saving it, you're not waking up in the middle of the night to hear it.