23 Mobile Things

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Thing #23- Art

Paper.

I tried to locate the app in the appstore, but gave up looking for it. :/

Forge the Neon.

So I downloaded this app, it seemed like it had promise, but even with playing around, it seems more like something to make for a five year old to keep busy than something that I would want to create on a normal basis. I liked that you could change the colors, but wish I could do so much more with this app than what it allows you to do. I wish I could just draw straight lines and create my own shapes and everything rather than have most of it down for me.

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Thing # 22- Languages

Duolingo.

I am obsessed with this now! I had it on my phone a long time ago to learn Italian, but never kept up with it, not I am trying to brush up on my Spanish and I am surprised by the amount of things I can do. I want to be able to speak to Lynsey in Spanish, while she is in school taking classes. I think I may be hooked on doing a section a day now, so thanks for including this. I like that it has a written portion, hearing portion, and a matching portion, which makes you have to work on all different levels. I definitely recommend headphones when doing this one though!

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Thing #21- CCPL

CCPL Mobile ‘App’.

For being such an Apple nerd and feeling like I have a good hold on my phone, I love this feature! I feel like I am constantly getting on the library’s website from my phone, whether it be to look for a book or to look at the children’s programming for Charlotte, this will be much nice to have than having to type in the website all of the time. I also like that it doesn’t take up as much memory space as a normal app would. I will definitely be using this in the future!

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Thing #20- Email

Mail.

I love that my phone has the built in email feature. I constantly use it to keep up with my normal everyday life and work life. It has become a big savior as of late because I take pictures on my phone and then email them to myself so that I can use an online photo editor to get them in top shape for posting. Sometimes my mail disappears, but it always comes back. I have multiple email accounts, so to be able to maneuver between them fairly easily is fantastic!

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Thing #19- Communicating

Snapchat.

I LOVE Snapchat! It’s great for when I want to send a photo quickly that doesn’t need to be saved. I often use it when I am at the store and buying things for my wife and I can’t figure out if its this one or that, so I send her a quick snapchat and she can tell me right away. I love that you can have a story on your feed so that anyone that has you as a friend can see what you want them to see, and I also love the new feature where you can see who exactly views your story. The one major downfall to snapchat is the fact that you can take a screenshot of someone’s picture. They at least tell you when someone takes a screenshot, but it doesn’t combat that the picture was taken. Obviously, I really don’t have an issue with that, but for some people it’s a major deal.

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Thing #18- Calendars

Built-In IOS.

I don’t use this function of my phone all too often, however it is useful and relatively simple to use. The only time I use it is when I am scheduling my haircut and need to see a date and then I enter it into the calendar so I don’t forget. I like the feature where you can see the calendar in many different ways, as the month, year, or years. The reminder function for the events you create are also very nice. I also like that it is just built in because then I do not have to worry about the space it takes up on my phone.

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Thing #17- File Sharing and Cloud Storage

GoogleDrive.

GoogleDrive is a life safer...pretty much literally! My computer’s hard drive was crashing and I didn’t have the money to go and buy an external hard drive to transfer all of the most important files. Luckily for me, there was GoogleDrive. I created a few different google accounts since you are only given a small amount of storage for free, but it works great and I can access all of the documents, pictures, and videos anywhere. It is super easy to upload as well.

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Thing #16- Presentations

Haiku Deck.

I was very disappointed. Currently, they do not offer the ability to create decks on the iPhone. You must do it on the web or on iPad. Setting up my account is normally a breeze, but it took forever to connect with my Facebook. But, even though I was disappointed I tried the web app version. I didn’t think the web app was very user friendly either. I thought my image would fit to the slide, but it made it huge and I couldn’t figure out a way to make it smaller. The options to create things seems to be lacking compared to Microsoft PowerPoint, so for that reason I think I will stick to PowerPoint.

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Thing #15- Games

Dots.

Blast you Katherine for including games!! I’ve played a majority of these games, and I would have to say that Dots is my favorite. I love that you can keep yourself entertained, but you are also able to play against other random people in the world. I actually rocked this game pretty fiercely. Unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of space on my phone for games, so I end up having to delete them, but Dots has stood the test of time! 

Dots for life.

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Thing #14- Hoosier Helper

Indy Star. 

I downloaded the Indy Star app. I typically look at their website maybe 3 or 4 times a week, so I was interested to see if the mobile app was as good as the webpage.I had the CNN app and absolutely hated it compared to the website. I tried to access quite a few articles. It took a decent amount of time to load the articles which I didn’t like. It also doesn’t let you access the stories unless you have a subscription which I did not like. On the actual webpage you can mostly access the article, you just have to answer a survey question. Overall, if I had a subscription I think this would be a great app, but since I don’t. Bye Felicia.

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Thing #13- Education

Lumosity.

This app is fun and really challenges you to think. I like the brain exercises and I do this randomly when I get bored. But, like all apps that I deem as game apps, I get bored with them way too easily! (It’s my antsy self that kicks in) I appreciate the fact that I felt smarter as I was going on each day with Lumosity, but whether or not I truly was getting smarter...I’ll let you decide ;)

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Thing #12- Hobbies

IMDB.

I can’t stress how much I use this app. Sounds kind of silly right? Why would someone use this multiple times throughout the week? My wife and I typically go to the movies once every two weeks or so (our guilty pleasure). While we are sitting in the theater, often times my wife cannot think of what other films an actor has been in and so I pull out IMDB and look it up. The app is also great if you are looking for ratings, movie trailers, or info about the movie(time, setting, genre, etc..) I honestly do not have too much space on my phone at all, but I make room for this app!

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Thing #11- Audio & Music

SPOTIFY. I wish I could just say that and be done with this post. 

Spotify rules over everything! I honestly use this app 4-5 times a day, whether it be while I’m getting ready in the morning, at my desk at work getting programming done, cooking, or cleaning, it’s always on. I love that you can listen to whole albums of your favorite artists (except T-Swift, if you are going to pay so you have her, sorry you’re out of luck!) Spotify free is actually not too bad, the commercials are not unlike the ones you would find on pandora. I actually have Spotify Premium, and since I have that, no commercials play and I don’t have to shuffle on mobile, which is pretty much worth the money to me.

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Thing #10- Augmented Reality

Alas! I have come to something that I did not know too much about and had to really work with the app in order to create something. I downloaded Aurasma, skipped the account making process because that was a feature, which I liked, and tried the tutorial. It didn’t make too much sense to me, but I started playing around with it anyways. 

Currently, I am reading a book called None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio. The book is about someone who learns that she is intersex. I added Marilyn Monroe dancing with her skirt blowing on top of the book cover, as a play on gender ambiguity and how society sees a female to be an image of Marilyn Monroe and not someone who is intersex.

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Thing #9- Video

So I have really played around with all of these apps prior to 23mt. Right now, I most definitely use Youtube over any of them. I get lost in the constant stream of videos, X-factor auditions, Jimmy Kimmel clips, and my favorite youtubers new content. The search feature is really simple to use and allows for you to customize your search to fit what you are looking for. Anything and everything you can think of or want is present on Youtube.

I think Vine is fun, if you are really creative, I’m not in that sense, so I enjoy just looking at other’s vines. But I will leave you with a vine I took of my dog Oliver.

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Thing #8- Health & Wellness

Since my wife and I have become paleo, exercise has also become a larger part in our lives. I downloaded the MapMyWalk app to try out. There are things that I like and things I do not like.

Things I do like:

It pretty accurately tells you the distance you have walked/jogged/ran.

It allows you to post your progress to Social Media

Weekly progress reports.

Things I don’t like:

When you phone goes to sleep it no longer keeps accurate times.

The voice that speaks is super annoying, but you can shut her off.

I will definitely keep using this app, until I find something better. So for now it will keep the coveted real estate in my phone.