On the Road with 23 Mobile Things

A journey through 23 Mobile Things

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All done!

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Thing #23 - Evaluate 23 Mobile Things

Great job to everyone who worked on this program!  I am amazed at the depth of the things and sheer amount of research that went in to documenting each of them for our benefit.  Well done!

I learned about a few new apps, for good or bad, which is exactly what I was looking for.  So mission accomplished.  I was a little surprised not to see an eBook reader Thing.  Seems like that would have been a natural fit.

Or maybe not.  The eBook landscape is complex enough that it probably warrants its own program.  Which I think would be the logical follow-up for this one.  23 eBook Things on a Stick?  Stretching it out for 23 whole things might be a challenge, although that might depend on how broadly you define the topic.  There are a lot of free eBook sites, there's software like calibre to manage your eBooks, there's book rating sites like GoodReads (not limited to eBooks but still sort of applicable), etc.  With a little creativity, I'll bet you could come up with 23 eBook Things.  Especially if you include eAudiobooks.

Of course, many of these Things would involve commercial sites where you'd have to buy an eBook to use the platform and I can see that being a barrier to some people/libraries.  Not sure I have a great answer to that one.

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

I don’t thing anything has changed. I got a new hybrid laptop at Christmas (Windows-based, touch screen, but with a keyboard). What I didn’t realize about the Windows based machine...

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Congratulations on finishing the program!

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Thing #22 - Discovering Apps

Since iOS is my mobile platform of choice, I have been playing around with Apps Gone Free.  I like the straightforward interface.  It might be nice to have a way to search for certain apps but, to be honest, I don't know how often I'd think to go look.  As it is, I get a notification each day for new apps which I can glance through very quickly.  I don't download apps willy-nilly but, every once in awhile, I see one that grabs my attention.  Very cool.

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Thing #21 - Free-for-all

I'm a big fan of the NFL Mobile app.  It provides information on professional football, including news, video, scores, and standings.  You can configure it to send you alerts for your favorite team ranging from new videos to in-game info like each score or entrance into the red zone.

I'm a Kansas City Chiefs fan living in Minnesota so my team's games aren't always on TV here; in such cases, it's nice to be able to keep track of the ebb-and-flow of the game through the app.  If they could find a way to let me actually watch the game online via the app, I'd be in heaven but there's way too much money being made through TV rights for that to happen anytime soon.  Still, a fan can hope...

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Almost there!

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Thing #20 - Games

I don't do a lot of gaming on my iPad but every once in awhile, I enjoy a game of SkySmash 1918.  It's an old-school vertical scrolling shooter along the lines of 1943 or Twin Cobra (for those of you who, like me, spent way too much money in arcades back in the day).  It's a fun way to waste kill a little time.

I don't play it much but Atari has a really cool app called Atari's Greatest Hits.   It comes with Pong but you can purchase 100 (last time I checked) old Atari games for $.99 each.  It's a great way to get your retro-game on with old titles like Asteroids and Missile Command.  You can even get a lot of Atari 2600 titles if you are really old like me.  I don't play it all that much because I haven't found it completely natural to play these joystick games with my finger on a touch screen.  But that is something a hardcore gamer could overcome, I think.  Or you could buy this cool toy.

Game on!

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Thing #19 - Hobbies

As a fan of beer and homebrewer, I like the BJCP Styles app a lot.  The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is an organization that oversees judging at beer and homebrewing competitions.  Through such competitions, they try to encourage the understanding and appreciation of beer throughout the world.

One of the many useful things the BJCP does is maintain beer style guidelines.  Want to know what an English Ordinary Bitter is and how it differs from a German Alt or American Pale Ale?  The BJCP Guidelines spell it all out with official (within the organization, anyway) definitions of each style including flavor descriptions, specifications, and even commercial versions that serve as good examples of each style.  Besides being fun for beer nerds like myself, the guidelines provide the structure needed for competitions.

For years, I have kept a PDF of the BJCP style guides on my iPad and computer.  But now there is a free app with all the data.  And it's pretty nice.  The interface is clean and easy to read.  And you can search by flavor traits, country of origin, or style name.  Or just browse the categories.

I use the guidelines when developing new homebrew recipes or checking out beer styles that I'm not familiar with.  It's also useful when you're in a well-stocked liquor store and have the urge to try a new style but don't know of a good example.

If you like beer, give it a try!

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Thing #18 - Education

I love history so, naturally, I installed Today's Document from the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA).  Today's document was the Marquis de Lafayette's Oath of Allegiance to the United States, which he took on June 09, 1778.  Each day, there is a new document.  I could spend a lot of time just poking around.  Since each document I've seen (so far) is tied to the date it is released, I wonder if there will be new document next year on June 09.  I don't plan to uninstall this app so I guess I'll find out.

The options for sharing from the app are pretty limited: email, facebook, and twitter.  I got around it by clicking the link to see the document on NARA's website.  From there, I had a lot more options including tumblr.  I hope they'll beef that functionality up a little.

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Thing #17 - Connecting to Community

Being that there was no app for Kasson, where I live, and I spend a lot of time in Rochester, I tried RochesterNOW.  There's a lot of good info here, albeit mostly links to websites.  Still, it's handy to have them all gathered into one place like this.  Unlike some of the apps I've looked at for this program, I'll probably keep this one on my iPhone.  I was glad to see Rochester Public Library represented; any public library should make a point of monitoring these kinds of local apps to ensure they are in them all.

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Getting there!

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And one more track from my old band, just for fun.

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More fun with SoundCloud.  This track is by a band I was in about 20 years ago.

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Thing #16 - Audio

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Thing #15 - Infographics

I installed Visualize for my iPad and tried to create an infographic with stats from the SELCO Help Desk.  Unfortunately the app crashed twice, each time losing the work I had done.  I started over once but the second time it happened, I called it quits.  Uninstall.  Fail.  Thank you please come again.

I may come back to this after I finish the other 22 things because I can think of some cool applications for this at SELCO.  I'm wondering if a dedicated app for infographics is needed.  I might be able to use Educreations (from Thing #13) for the same thing.  We're getting close to the deadline to finish the program but I'll come back to that and post what (if anything) I come up with.

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More on Vine

I haven't played around much with Vine yet.  Just one video that displayed my poor judgement of timing.  But I can see why this app is so popular.  I'm a little skeptical that you can really do much in a six-second video but for showing off new items or a mini tour, it looks really useful.  Maybe I just need to redefine my idea of information and how it can be disseminated.  Maybe Vine is more about marketing and PR than hard-core information like training and user support.

My kids have soccer tonight.  Something tells me that will be a rich source of Vine fun.  Better charge up the phone...