23 Mobile Things: Thing 23

I am sad to be done, in all honesty.  I have really enjoyed this experience and I hope to repeat it in the future with more 23 Things!

I think my favorite thing was the Notetaking app Remember The Milk.  It's a great list making tool and I am a huge list person, so it's awesome.  It is now in the bar along the bottom of my Ipad since I use it every day.  Never would have found it without this!  I am also hugely glad to have finally gotten connected with Dropbox and CloudOn.  I always wondered how to edit my documents from computer to computer and those two apps let me do just that - it's a life saver.  I've attached my work computer to my home computer and it's much easier than having to email back and forth to myself!

While doing the 23 Things, I was also teaching a technology class monthly in the library to help people connect more with their devices.  23 Things helped me immensely with that, giving me ideas and apps to try out with my patrons that I might have overlooked in the past - some of them did better with the ideas than others, but it was all worth while.

I said before that I am looking forward to participating in another 23 Things.  Perhaps that is an understatement and eager anticipation should be used instead.

Fantastic!!

23 Mobile Things: Thing 22

I chose the Apps Gone Free app and am quite pleased with it.  Being able to look at all the apps that no longer cost money is great and since you can search back by days, you can make sure you haven't missed anything you can't do without.

I admit to usually just grabbing a free app card at Starbucks, but since I'm not that app crazy, I've never felt the need to scour the internet for free apps for my device.  Now that I have this app, things might get better.  Who knows, maybe I'll fill up my folders at last!

23 Mobile Things: Thing 21

Best. App. Ever.

So, the bestest app in the world is the app RunPee.  It's not free and it sounds obnoxious, but let me tell YOU, if you like movies, this app will be your best friend.

The app is designed for those of us who can't sit through an entire movie without having to use the bathroom.  It gives the best times to take a potty break, tells you how long you have to do it (between 3 and 6 minutes) and gives you a synopsis of what you missed.  It even gives you the cue line so you know when to get yourself going.

On the newest update, they installed a timer so that if you start it just as the movie gets started, your phone will buzz you with an alert for the pee times!  During the Hobbit, I used this service twice and it made the entire movie much more bearable.  Brilliant family for coming up with this idea.  Someone give them a big gold star.

23 Mobile Things: Thing 20

Games, games, games.  Is there anything better to do with your device than play games?  Well, there probably is, but this is still a fun thing.

I already own Temple Run, so I can vouch for is being a really great game.  I, however, have the Disney Brave version, where you are Merida escaping from the insane bear and you get to shoot your bow at targets along the way for extra points and goodies.  Sure fun, especially the bear growl noises they've put into it.

I have two other favorite games: one is a quiz game and the other is a shooting game, depending on my mood.

You Don't Know Jack (YDKJ) is a quiz game that is humorous, naughty, and sometimes just disturbing.  There are only five questions in each round and they can be anything from multiple choice to rhyming nonsense, to true or false.  The last question is the bonus round and involves a theme.  The player must touch the screen at the appropriate time during seven mini-rounds to get the correct answer.  If you answer wrong, you lose money, so it is actually possible to finish this game in the hole.  It's an on-going game, so your scores are tracked and you can play against other people.  Very entertaining.

My other favorite game is called "Stupid Zombies" and just involves shooting zombies in different locations with different sorts of guns.  The idea is to use geometry to be able to shoot around obstacles and you have to clear the screen with a certain number of bullets or you can't advance in the game.  We'll say this helps with math skills, but really it's just fun to watch the blood splatter and the body parts go flying around.

Yay, Games!

23 Mobile Things: Thing 19

I am an avid gardener.  I love dirt, love getting my hands in the soil, love the smell of green and growing things.  So it would be no surprise that I chose MyGarden as the hobby app of choice.  Unfortunately, I spend money on gardening apps and they are all much better than this one, so this one probably will not be kept around.

What I like is that the list seems pretty comprehensive and people appear to be able to edit information for various plants, but it didn't seem like there was all that much information on the various plants already in there.  Many of the plants that I am growing at home were not in the database and I couldn't figure out how to add them in myself.

While the database was searchable, you had to be VERY specific.  In other words, you could search for Cherry Red Tomato but if you searched for Tomato Cherry you wouldn't get anything.  I think this is a problem that should be rectified if the app is ever charged for.

My favorite app for crafting is actually YouTube because there are how-to videos.  I find I learn much better if I watch a video than if I read about it - gasp! And I call myself a librarian.

23 Mobile Things: Thing 18

Education is the game on this one and I did NOT pick the first thing on the list.  Instead, I downloaded TWO from this extensive category and discovered that both of them were well worth it.

Bill Nye the Science Guy: My daughter and I LOVED this app.  It's fun to scan your thumb to get in (so, not really, but it's fun) and the "lab" is very cool.  Opening the book brings you to a list of experiments that you can do yourself using regular household items.  The TV on the table (you can click on all these objects) lets you watch show segments.  There's a section of optical illusions, planets, and even a drawer you can open to learn how to tie a bow tie, Bill's quintessential choice of neckwear.  Definitely a keeper.

I also downloaded TED because those talks are darn handy.  I really like the fact that the app lets me search by topics or presenters, but keeps a page of the most popular out front for me.  Also an app to keep on the Ipad for those times when I need a little pick-me-up or some good information from excellent speakers.  Hooray Ted!

This was a very fun Thing!

23 Mobile Things: Thing 17

I've come to the realization that it must look as though I am simply picking the first thing on each list.  I'm not, I swear, though it happened again this time.

I chose the Superior Hiking Trail app and it is really good!!  Since I am a novice hiker, I like having all the loops and trails that are part of this system explains in details and the interactive parking maps are wonderful.  It helps to know where to go!  We went hiking in Colorado a few years ago and didn't have signs for the trail heads, which made finding them really hard.  This app fixes all that and I wish every trail system had something like this.

Links to websites, information, a more details guide, and contact information help to make this app something that will be very useful when I head up to Duluth to hike.  Good job!!

23 Mobile Things: Thing 16

AudioBoo is a cute program - I like that I can search things that other people have uploaded for soundbytes.  I'm sure there's a way to make my things private, though I didn't check into that, I simply made a test byte.

After hitting the record button, I like how the dots turn colors to indicate decibels of noise - that entertained me while I was making raspberry noises.  The quality of the sound when I played it back is actually quite good, so it's an app I would use again to record small bits of sound from my kids.

It's a very simple app - no frills.  Something I also appreciate.  I hate it when apps are so complicated you can't figure them out right away.

23 Mobile Things: Thing 15

Infographics Hub was the one that I chose and I wasn't all that impressed.  They had some nice graphics, but the ones that I chose to look at had some information that was wrong.  How do I know? Because I'm a huge Game of Thrones fan and they had two of the ruling Houses mixed up on their graphic, which was pretty blatant - also two houses you SHOULDN'T mix up, honestly, with one being a dragon and the other a stag.  But enough about my nerdiness.

I guess I was disappointed that you couldn't make your own graphics with this one.  I could look up graphics by category, which was nice, but I couldn't tweak them or edit them, which made some of them unusable for anything I might need an infographic for.  These were cute, but really only useful to send to someone else or post online as a silly thing for friends to comment on.

I'm sure there are some with great information, I just didn't find them.  There may be a few hidden gems in here for people to seriously use, but you'd have to wade through a lot to find them.

23 Mobile Things: Thing 14

I am trying out Magisto because I was actually unable to get Vine, Viddy, or Socialcam through the app store.  Not sure why, but NONE of them would come up for me and after about an hour of headaches, I gave up and moved on.  I would rather have tried Vine, since I have heard so much about it, but I wasn't really given a choice on this one.

I do not really like the app - it insists on push notifications while it works on your movie. I do not like push notifications, so I had to wander back several times to see if my movie was done.  It seemed like it was far more work that six pictures should warrant, so I'm not impressed.  Still waiting for the final product twenty minutes later.

Thirty minutes have passed.  And forty and still waiting.  I am so not blown away by this app and am completely convinced that Vine would have been a better experience.

45 minutes later and the images that came out were acceptable, but not something I would do again.  It was neat that they could use my own music for the soundtrack, so I had sledding pictures with "Baby, It's Cold Outside" which was cute, but not worth the wait.  Thumbs down from me: I deleted the app.