Jump to content

Suggestion for Daily Reminders


JAWMKZ

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

 

Lately, I have tried figuring out a better way to remind myself in the MKZ on things I need to take care of when I arrive at my destination or for later tasks that I need to complete. When I got the MKZ I was excited to see an actual calendar, then felt deflated when I could not set reminders/appointments with it. Additionally, I often find myself driving and out of nowhere an important task comes to mind, (call city on those potholes) in which I need to jot down to remind myself, but I am driving, so I need a recorder of such. I have looked through voice commands and confirmed with Ford. No such feature. Short of buying a mini Digital Voice recorder for those moments, then listen to the recorder to set a date in my calendar, I have started doing this and wanted to share what is working if you too are in need of a solution like this.

 

1st, I have a gmail account which affords me Google Calendar. Apple may have a feature....may. I can sync up my Blackberry default calendar with my gmail account Google Calendar and any entry into the blackberry calendar, populates in gmail. Google calendar then allows you to add a mobile phone for either email or SMS Text reminders of calendar events. Since the MKZ does not accept email as a form of message, I select SMS Text as the method of message reminder within the Google Calendar settings. Once in the car driving, Google Calendar sends me a SMS Text at the specific time I set, then the MKZ notifies me through Sync and I can listen to the reminder message...hands free.

 

The reverse of this is I have my phone number added in my contacts and use a default voice control program to request a calendar reminder (mail out birthday card when I get home, look up business address, etc) which Google will send a SMS Text out at that specific reminder time. My phone constantly reminds me I have a message or the text is stored for me to review later.

 

Like I said, this is a way around always having a mini Digital Recorder to record those times I need to remind myself of something important. I have also found myself distracted, losing focus of important stops on the way home, especially if it is snowing and there is traffic or I have to play the homeless shuffle on the walk to the car from work. I can set the calendar to remind me "XX" minutes/hours/days at a certain time and when in the MKZ, I get the text to them remind me to make the stop at a specific gas station, so take this route home, etc.

 

I hope this helps, unless you have a better suggestion or have had better experience with another program. With unlimited text messaging, all this costs me is a little time.

Edited by JAWMKZ
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi all,

 

Lately, I have tried figuring out a better way to remind myself in the MKZ on things I need to take care of when I arrive at my destination or for later tasks that I need to complete. When I got the MKZ I was excited to see an actual calendar, then felt deflated when I could not set reminders/appointments with it. Additionally, I often find myself driving and out of nowhere an important task comes to mind, (call city on those potholes) in which I need to jot down to remind myself, but I am driving, so I need a recorder of such. I have looked through voice commands and confirmed with Ford. No such feature. Short of buying a mini Digital Voice recorder for those moments, then listen to the recorder to set a date in my calendar, I have started doing this and wanted to share what is working if you too are in need of a solution like this.

 

1st, I have a gmail account which affords me Google Calendar. Apple may have a feature....may. I can sync up my Blackberry default calendar with my gmail account Google Calendar and any entry into the blackberry calendar, populates in gmail. Google calendar then allows you to add a mobile phone for either email or SMS Text reminders of calendar events. Since the MKZ does not accept email as a form of message, I select SMS Text as the method of message reminder within the Google Calendar settings. Once in the car driving, Google Calendar sends me a SMS Text at the specific time I set, then the MKZ notifies me through Sync and I can listen to the reminder message...hands free.

 

The reverse of this is I have my phone number added in my contacts and use a default voice control program to request a calendar reminder (mail out birthday card when I get home, look up business address, etc) which Google will send a SMS Text out at that specific reminder time. My phone constantly reminds me I have a message or the text is stored for me to review later.

 

Like I said, this is a way around always having a mini Digital Recorder to record those times I need to remind myself of something important. I have also found myself distracted, losing focus of important stops on the way home, especially if it is snowing and there is traffic or I have to play the homeless shuffle on the walk to the car from work. I can set the calendar to remind me "XX" minutes/hours/days at a certain time and when in the MKZ, I get the text to them remind me to make the stop at a specific gas station, so take this route home, etc.

 

I hope this helps, unless you have a better suggestion or have had better experience with another program. With unlimited text messaging, all this costs me is a little time.

 

I wonder why there isn't a push app that cannot be tied into Lincoln's system either on iOS or Android, etc. 

 

I actually never played with Google calendar, but it's something I am going to look into. ;)

 

Wow!  Talk about distracted driving.

 

You do realize that the MKZ is a car not a smart phone?

 

I think that we've crossed that bridge in the past few years.  I wouldn't doubt if what he's talking about above doesn't already exist in another make or if it's not already on the drawing board. 

 

I have a smart phone, but I really only check my forwarded e-mail on it and the stock ticker - that's it.  I still jot down my to do list via pen and paper. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just wait until all cars are equipped with Apple's in car suite or whatever Google creates and manufacturers stop it with their always terrible (relative to what they could and should be) proprietary user interfaces.

 

What I do, and this is probably going to make you laugh, is use a dash cam. For one, dash cams protect me from the bleeping idiots trying to kill me on Atlanta roads.  I have amassed numerous clips now that I plan to post to YouTube eventually - mostly people blatantly cutting me off.  But, anyway, the camera also has a microphone.  I just say whatever I need to remind myself of and then I press a button on the camera which marks/locks the video file and I know to go back to it.  Some cameras don't have this button but they have shock sensing so you can just give the camera a hard tap and it'll probably mark that file as an "event".

 

On a side note, this camera kept me from blame for one of those sport bike riders cutting off, clipping my bumper, and blaming me for falling.  And all his friends wanted to come after me as if I was attacking the swarm of sport bikes like you hear about in the news or see on YouTube road rage videos.  I just popped the memory card in my laptop, brought up the file, and waited for the police with the doors locked.  Showed the cop, gave my information, and ultimately left without blame.  Had I not had this camera, of course I would be the one to blame.  No damage but some rubber marks that rubbed off on my bumper but his bike was done... luckily he wasn't.

Edited by wildcatgoal
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a dash cam as well.  My main purpose was, as you say, to protect myself from the idiots. I had it in my 2012 MKZ.  Moving it to the 2014 was real bear.  These cars have a completely different electrical system from the first generation cars.  For starters, they use new types of fuses,i.e. micro2 and micro3. Micro3 is a 3-bladed fuse! I use an Add-a-Circuit fuse tap to take power off the fuse box but no micro2  Add-a-Circuit was available in the U.S. until some time into 2014.

 

I posted my experiences with this on the Ford Fusion Forum.  If anyone's interested in hearing about it, let me know

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a dash cam as well.  My main purpose was, as you say, to protect myself from the idiots. I had it in my 2012 MKZ.  Moving it to the 2014 was real bear.  These cars have a completely different electrical system from the first generation cars.  For starters, they use new types of fuses,i.e. micro2 and micro3. Micro3 is a 3-bladed fuse! I use an Add-a-Circuit fuse tap to take power off the fuse box but no micro2  Add-a-Circuit was available in the U.S. until some time into 2014.

 

I posted my experiences with this on the Ford Fusion Forum.  If anyone's interested in hearing about it, let me know

 

What kind of dash cam do you have? I bought one a little while ago to document my drives throughout Detroit.  It does a really good job, however, you cannot have it charging while using it - totally runs off of the battery.  Once the battery goes dead, you have to recharge it again.

 

I was thinking of using my old smart phone on video mode to record my driving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robert,

 

I was able to pick up a Vivitar DVR787HD Action camera from the Mart of Wal during the holidays, liked the picture/sound quality, options in the kit and what it did, so I picked up another for my father to use when he drives to/walks around the car cruises he goes to without me. I'll have to check and see if I can charge it while recording?? I do not see it for sale anymore at the Mart, but if you find a Vivitar, don't discount the quality for the price. I would love to find an inexpensive, 360 degree, motion detecting one to just leave in the car 24/7. Would have been nice to have one like that prior to my nice door ding......:(

 

As a follow up, my Google calendar process has worked so far. Also signed up for Sync traffic text notification (signed up for text message alerts in the Sync owners website) as I will not pay Sirius for their traffic warnings when free apps do it for free. So far, that has worked going to work and coming home. Just wish there was an app integrated into Sync (or that we can even add apps) that would be cleaner, seamless, autonomous in this process.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What kind of dash cam do you have? I bought one a little while ago to document my drives throughout Detroit.  It does a really good job, however, you cannot have it charging while using it - totally runs off of the battery.  Once the battery goes dead, you have to recharge it again.

 

I was thinking of using my old smart phone on video mode to record my driving.

I have this one.  There's a newer, updated model.  This is one of the smallest dashcams available. You hardly notice it from outside the car.  It has a battery but it's not intended to run the camera.  It'll only run for a few minutes on battery power so you could dismount it and play back video to show to a police officer, etc., in the event of an accident.  It can take a few still shots as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...