Thing 11 of 23: Library & Reference

I do use the Hennepin County Library Mobile app for personal use mostly, its a little awkward to use your own device for work but I do think the concept of the library should head in the directions of hand held devices, but the iPad is a little too clunky maybe the iPad mini would work better. The app has all the funcutions of the full website but I don't think it's designed or organized very well, it is in desperate need of an update. Another thing it could do with is notifications, I want my phone to tell me when my books are do and to show me a link to renew, wouldn't that be great!

Apps:
hclib mobile

Thing 10 of 23: Sharing Photos

The Instagram apps is really good for sharing photos and information. At work we try to use it to share pictures of our events and great for sharing great times with friends. I do use other apps to "pretty up" or add words to some photos but the Instagram app does have filters you can add on your photos. I also follow a few celebrities because they post some great photos too.

Apps:
Instagram

Thing 7 of 23: Content Saving & Sharing

My Favorite App for sharing is Pintrest. I love organizing all the fun things I find and sharing them with my friends and the people that follow me. I usually try to have content connected to the pin because often times its just the picture that you see on the app and the website is down. If I do decide to pin just a picture, the picture has to have all the imformation that I am interested in.

 The app is very well organized and allows you to use it for the purpose of organizing and sharing content. It's a little hard to share something outside the app unless the content has the pintrest option in the share button, but that has been the only obsticle I have come across.

Thing 5 of 23: Notetaking

Bamboo Paper
I really like note taking apps so I have a few and I already used Bamboo Paper and I really like using this app on my iPad. This app is great for creating your own personal calendar or to create a scrapbook. I must admit I did buy some of the extras available and they have been great.

SpringPad:
This app I have not tried before and it was great I could use it on my iPhone. I could edit my lists and notebooks on my phone, iPad, and on the computer (I love Cloud computing!!!). I love that I can add any kind of media and gather related information in a notebook regardless of where it’s coming from.
The only thing I did not like about this app is you need to create an account. 

Some other apps that I use for note taking are Goodnotes, and Paper 53. They are both great apps, Paper 53 is more for drawing but I use it to illustrate some of my ideas, and Goodnotes uses the icloud so I have it on both my phone and my iPad to keep track of things to do and write down little notes, sometimes it’s just better to write things down for me instead of typing them in.

 

Thing 4 of 23: Keeping Up

Out of the two apps I liked Flipboard more, I was easy to add my Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook accounts and you can see everything there its great. I also added some news sources like the Wall Street Journal and the Star Tribune but I didn't want to overload too much information. This is a great app for viewing all of your information and social media sources but if you want to add anything go to that social media's app.

Thing 3 of 23: Utilities

RedLaser Barcode & QR Scanner:
I couldn't find much use for this app at first, but I found out the desk scanners take the library card saved in the app!  Some cool things about this app:

• save your cards on to this app an scan them at the register <--Really handy!!
• scan a bar code to see who sells this item and the prices, local and online <-- This is great!
• find deals close by

Google Search:
I really like the voice recognition feature. I ask siri to open the app then ask away. Its really fun to just say "OK, Google" and the voice recognition starts, then I can ask my question. I've been using the app more and more just to answer questions when every I am connected to the LTE network or connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Thing 2 of 23: Mobile Device Tips

Because I favor Apple products I took a look at the iOS & overview, the hidden features and the iPhone tips & trick

New Things I learned:


AirDrop: I was disappointed to find out that the Air Drop function is not available on the iPad 2 ... I guess I'll for that function. It did seemed really useful.

Time stamped text: That was a feature I didn't know about. If you are in your texts and sweep from right to left and then hold it you can see the time you sent and received your text.

Siri features: correcting Siri's pronunciation is big, I did that right way.  You can just correct siri as you speak to her right on the spot, that's nice.

You can also change siri's voice to a male voice.

Bubble level: They are never around when you need them, well now they are included in the compass app.


All Cool stuff

23 Mobile Things: Thing 1

I want to gain some hands on experience using different kinds of apps. Usually I download an app, use it once then forget about it. Maybe writing some things down will be more helpful.  I do love learning about technology!!!


The 23 Mobile Things