Amy A.'s 23 Mobile Things

Discovering #23ThingsMN one app at a time.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 23 | Evaluation of 23 Mobile Things

Go back to your thoughts/ideas about mobile devices and apps. Has anything changed as a result of this experience?

I have definitely changed my opinion on the benefits of apps. Prior to this program I considered most apps (aside from the few I already had) as time-fillers. Through this program I have discovered plenty of apps that affirmed my opinion, but I was also pleasantly surprised by the amount of apps I would now consider time-savers. I’m a very routine person and have made a lot of manual schedules, budgeting tools, etc. that were available to me all along at my fingertips.

What were your favorite Things and discoveries?

My favorite discovery was Appsgonefree because it lead me to the app Spendbook. In Thing 21 I considered writing up a Personal Finance app in my surprise it wasn’t one of the 23 things. After realizing I only use my personal bank and credit card apps, I decided to discuss an app applicable to a bigger following.

When I discovered Spendbook, I realized I had finally found the personal finance app I had been wanting for a long time, but too uninterested in apps to look for (or pay for!). I think Appsgonefree will be a good way to for me to continue to discover new apps that will benefit my life without having to spend a lot of time researching apps.

How did you connect with others doing the 23 Mobile Things?

Aside from reading blog posts with the hashtag #23mobilethingsmn I didn’t do much connecting. My boss and I discussed which apps we were using and used that as an opportunity to try different apps.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

My take-a-way was that I was unjustly anti-apps for no good reason. While I still think there are a lot of apps out there that are over-priced or time-wasters, I now understand that there are plenty of apps that are useful and should be considered.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or content?

I work well with multiple deadlines, which doesn’t apply to everyone, but I think it might have been best to make a deadline for Thing 1 – 4, then a new deadline for Thing 5 – 10, etc. It’s easy with a busy work schedule to say “It’s just 23 things, I’ll get to it tomorrow or next week” then to find yourself very close to the end of the program yet still wanting to complete it.

If we offered another 23 Things program like this in the future would you participate?

I would participate if I found the topic relevant or interesting. I spent a lot of time reading about app suggestions, testing out the app and writing my review. When I found a ‘thing’ uninteresting the task instantly became more stressful than insightful.

How would you describe your learning experience in one word or in one sentence, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities to others?

No two people will have the same 23 Things experience.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 22 | Discovering Apps

I only have a 16GB iPhone so I am not normally seeking out apps as much as I am cutting back to necessities. I opted to download Apps Gone Free because I generally won’t pay for an app. I am sure there are apps out there with their cost, but I’ve yet to be persuaded by one.

I started scrolling through the list and instantly assumed these apps have gone free for a reason, they’re not interesting. That is until I came across Spendbook – Personal Finance Tracker. I hardly had to read about the app before I knew that I wanted it.

I’m very diligent about tracking my spending which usually involves me saving receipts or checking my credit card online and filling in the numbers with a spreadsheet I created myself.

The app is simple and complex all at the same time. With features to categorize what you spent your money on, being as vague or descript as you like, I appreciate the option to always go back to the home page and compare you income with your expenses.

I am so in love with this app and look forward to saying no to a receipt when I am out from now on. I was hesitant to start discovering apps for the sake of it, but I am glad I stumbled upon this one.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 21 | Free-for-all

My absolute favorite app is Open Table. I use it all the time to get last-minute reservations or to plan something in advanced. IN all honesty the restaurants I eat at don’t normally need reservations to get a table, but when you have a group of 6 plus people who finally all agreed on a place to eat, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

It’s also a great app when you’re out of town and not sure where to eat. The search features and recommendations help you decide the best restaurant within a reasonable distance of you. I also like how you can get points to use at certain restaurants. If you’re going to be eating out anyway, it seems silly not to collect points to redeem later.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 20 | Games

I download the app Word Warp because I love anagrams. I try not to keep games on my phone because I will play them out of boredom instead of finding something productive to do, but this might be the game I keep around.

It seems as though the anagram options get progressively harder and I found myself getting anxious over the clock counting down and wondering what possible four-letter combination I could be leaving out.

Overall, this is a fun game to have on your phone if you find yourself needing to pass time. It’s not a mindless activity which I find more appealing than your average game, so if you are interested in a challenging game, this is the app for you.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 19 | Hobbies

The amount of times my gas light comes on and I am instantly panicked over not knowing where the nearest gas station is, even in familiar cities, leads me to believe I should have discovered this app a long time ago.

The app RoadNinja is, of course, meant for more than just finding the nearest gas station, but that feature alone is what sold me on selecting it.

The app is very simply laid out showing all businesses and services near you, and then allows you to narrow your search to specific categories, i.e. food, gas, entertainment, etc. The only issue with the app is that I am usually in need of this information as I am driving. This is more of a fault on my end, than the apps. Needless to say, I have the option to pull over and access the app, but since it is advertised as a Road Ninja, you can assume that its most often used while traveling. With this in mind, it’s important to note that this app would be best used when you have a passenger in the car with you.

I road trip sparingly and I do think this app will come in handy at those times, but as I mentioned previously, I think I will get the most use out of locating the nearest gas station.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 18 | Education

I was intrigued by the description for Fooducate. The feature of scanning items to find nutrition information, paired with recommendations on better choices seems like a great option.

I will say that I am going into this skeptical as to what resources contribute to its healthy standards. With all of the diets out there today ‘healthy’ means something different to every person. Some people are low-carb, others low-fat and everything in between. As someone who follows a Paleo diet I don’t usually find mainstream apps and information usable as they don’t align with my nutrition.

After just creating a profile with the app I could tell it was open to alternative nutrition planning. Unfortunately a majority of the features I would use require me to upgrade the app with a fee.

I looked through all of the features that come with the standard app and was pleasantly surprised with the wealth of information available. In addition to nutrition facts and recommendations, I found the articles and news available on the home page relevant to nutrition information I am interested in reading.

I don’t think I will use this app regularly because I have already spent the time learning what foods are best for me, but I will probably keep it available on my phone when I find myself interesting in reading a new article or come across a food I am unfamiliar with.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 17 | Connecting to Community

I chose the app Going Out by Star Tribune because it provides a nice balance of activities and entertainment throughout Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Once I saw the categories available, I was very excited to have found this app through 23 Mobile Things. I can’t tell you how many times my friends and I are looking for something to do and have no idea where to even search, only to end up at the same places we always go.

The search features are everything they need to be, whether you’re searching for what’s happening right now or planning to do something within the next few days/weeks.

This is definitely an app I will keep on my phone.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 16 | Audio

For Thing 16 I downloaded the app SoundCloud hoping to use its podcasts, music and recordings as something new to listen to while running.

While I found the podcasts to be interesting, they are poorly labeled which makes it hard to know what you’re getting into before you start listening. I prefer to listen to ‘healthy living’ information, but when most of its tracks are titled with the days date, I’m not always interesting in testing miscellaneous topics out when I have a specific topic in mind.

I think this is a good app, but I am more likely to find an audiobook app or get podcasts from iTunes with better search features and descriptions.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 15 | Infographics

I was excited to come across Thing 15 because I love infographics. As a graphic designer, I think infographics are the most interesting and visually-appealing way to share information, so to find an app dedicated to any and all infographics was a great discovery.

I downloaded the app info.Graphics because it seemed to offer the variety I’m looking to browse through. The layout reminds me of pinterest – perhaps that’s because I see so many infographics on pinterest – but aside from that functional aspects of the app aren’t very great. I looked through the categories and there is a very long delay between pressing the category you like and it opening. So long, that I pressed it a few times thinking my phone wasn’t sensing my tap.

Once I found an infographic that interested me I clicked on it (waited a while again) and it finally opened up to be poorly pixilated on my phone.

After going through the app a few times it would periodically shut itself down and I’d have to start from the beginning. The app seems to refresh as well so the infographic I was in the middle of reading was no longer easy to find.

I’ll be looking into another infographic app because I’d love to have a functional and useful one on my phone.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 14 | Videos

I’ve had the app Vine for just over a year now. At first, I used it a lot and had it synced to my twitter account. It was a lot of fun to compile a few scenes to make a quick video to send out to friends.

I tried finding a few interesting accounts to follow, but for the most part I enjoy using social media to keep up with friends and family; not celebrities or comedians. So with few friends using the app, I eventually stopped using it as much and haven’t made a vine in a few months. I keep the app around in case I want to use it again, but I almost never open in to view others videos.

If anything, I come across youtube compilations of “the Best Vines” more often than I actually use the app.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 13 | Presentations

For Thing 13 I downloaded the app Haiku Deck. I rarely need to make presentations quickly. For the most part, working in communications you have a good amount of time in place to create quality presentations with advanced noticed.

In addition, I don't keep any work related things on my phone so having this app wouldn't serve me in a last-minute scenario because I would have almost no photos, text or topics to access quickly and put together in a presentation.

I think this app is beautifully designed and could be useful to some.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 12 | Books, Books, & More Books

Based on the descriptions, the app Audiobooks appealed most to me. I initially wanted this app for us when traveling or waiting on something, but then I realized that in these instances I rarely have wi-fi so I am unable to stream the content.

After realizing this, I looked through most of the list and didn't see any books that stood out to me as interesting. If you have unlimited internet in your phone I think this would be a great app, but for someone with limited data - I'll be deleting it.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 11 | Library & Reference

I have the Ramsey County Library mobile app 'rclreads'. Compared to more social apps it's not all too visually stunning, but regardless - it's extremely useful and narrows down the main resources library goers would most likely need to access on-the-go.

I've used the 'My Account' feature a few times when I've wondered whether one of my books is almost due back, or whether one of my holds is ready for me.

'Locations and hours' is a helpful list if you are the need to visit a library and need to know which is open right now.

The quick access to the library catalog helps me look up books I've heard about in conversation to see whether any of the Ramsey County libraries have the book available right now.

And finally, I like how it is linked to the metro-wide calendar. While I don't normally venture outside of Ramsey County, if I was looking for something to do it's nice to see what's happening in the entire metropolitan area.

Again, I think the only downfall of library apps is they aren't as visually appealing as most apps available. But the functionality of them makes up for this.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 10 | Sharing Photos

I already have both Snapchat and Instagram on my iPhone, since Snapchat is newer to me I'll review that.

My friends are I generally use snapchat to send a quick picture or video of something cool we're doing or watching. I like the app for that and it's nice that they've added the 'my story option' so instead of sending a snap to everyone in your list you can just attach it to your account and anyone of your friends can see it.

I think it's comical that snapchat promotes the 'privacy' feature of the image disappearing when almost everyone knows a photo can be screenshot and now they have the option to review one snap per day a second time.

Nonetheless, it's a fun app for the most part and the recent addition to be able to save an image or video you took in snapchat to your gallery has been nice when you capture a photo you might want to keep. I wonder if they will ever add the option to bring a photo from you gallery into snapchat - but that might defy the intent of snapchat.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 9 | Taking & Editing Photos

As someone who takes and edits photos as part of my profession, I'm usually skeptical of the quality of these apps.

I downloaded 'Cam Me' because when with friends, I generally do hate trying to take a group photo where one person has to attempt the outstretched arm and press the main or side button to take a picture - usually me.

There was a small learning curve to the app - I couldn't figure out at first whether I was supposed to wave my hand side to side. I eventually realized I just need to close my fingers into my hand to take the photo. This resulted in a few photos of me staring with focus and intent and my hand still in the air, but since then it's been useful the few times I want to take a group shot.

Although I don't see myself using this app a lot - it will be helpful the few times I want it so I plan to keep it on my phone for now.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 8 | Social Media Management Tools

Since getting an iPhone about two years ago I have always had the apps Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I use Hootsuite to schedule twitter posts when I am out of office but I find the web site to be challenging enough and don't envision an app being an easier to use - especially since i do the work from my computer during office hours anyway.

I think twitters app is more functional that the web. It's RT feature has more option on their app like 'quote tweet' and photo filters; while Facebook on the other hand is much better managed on a monitor over the app.

I recently discovered a new Facebook app called "Paper" that enhances the visual appeal of your Facebook feed. I haven't used it enough to say whether it's better than the current Facebook app, but it is definitely vary different and will probably just come down to personal preference between the two.

I don't care for the various apps you are encouraged to get to support Facebook functions such as messenger and the pages app. I'd rather have it all work well from a single app.

[amyaschrcl]

Thing 7 | Content Saving & Sharing

I would say that Pinterest is one of the most-used apps on my phone. Especially with the recent changes they've made to it to make it more mobile-friendly.

For personal use, I love saving recipes that I find online to my recipe board to access easily later. I'm also a very visual person, so being able to have my interests saved by pictures is appealing to me.

For work, I search all things library - funny memes, literature quotes, booklists, etc. The new "related pin" feature has been helpful in finding content from users I am not currently following that is similar to what I am pinning. When the search bar isn't providing what I want, the search categories are a great alternative and open you up to finding so much more content that you wouldn't think to search for on your own.

The only frustration I generally have with Pinterest is how easy it is to click on something unintentionally that pulls you away from what your search or current stream of pins. Whether a pin opening up (and not being able to load the last page to exactly where you were) or going to an external link, can be frustrating when you're trying to continue to scroll. Aside from that, I love Pinterest and appreciate their mobile-friendly app.