Thing 23: Evaluate 23 Mobile Things

Thing 23 asks us to evaluate the 23 Mobile Things program. I am really glad that I did this program. I tried a lot of apps I wouldn't otherwise have downloaded, and discovered some features on my phone that I wasn't aware of. I think I'm much more adventurous in downloading apps and giving them a try, instead of thinking, "I'll never use that" and not downloading it. I'm especially glad I got the Apps Gone Free app because it will keep me trying new apps. It's no hassle to delete apps from my phone, so I might as well give something a whirl.

I think my favorite part of doing this training was seeing the wide array of app choices. I'm now more likely to search for apps when I think, "There should be an app for that," and am often pleasantly surprised to find that there is an app or multiple apps. For example, during the course of 23 Things, I thought I was experiencing some decreased mileage on my car, so downloaded MileageKeeper to keep better track of this, and also temporarily downloaded an app to test my speedometer (turns out when I think I'm driving 70mph, I'm actually going about 67mph).

I didn't really connect with anyone via this training, but I did have a couple of friends like Katie of the Floating Lush who did the program, as well. When it's all over, I'll probably poke around and check out the blogs of those who completed the program.

I am not sure what the actual completion rate is for these types of trainings, but it doesn't seem very high. Maybe making the prizes more prominent, or giving suggestions from past participants about how to keep on track and motivated would have been helpful. When it got to be mid-May and I realized I was only up to Thing 9, I set a daily calendar reminder on my work calendar to write a blog post first thing each morning, which is the best time for me to write. Then, when on a good WiFi connection (at my parents' home), I went through and downloaded all the apps I wanted to try for all of the remaining Things. This way, I had them all on my phone (I kept them all on a separate page, in order, so I knew which apps were for the training) and could play with them whenever I had a lull at work, or see how they worked 'in real life.' This seemed to work really well for me, because then I was able to write a blog post days or even weeks after getting an app and having a lot of time to test it.

Happy apping!

Thing 22: Discovering Apps

In Thing 22, we are asked to discover some new apps. I downloaded Apps Gone Free a few weeks ago, and so far, have been pleased that I got it. I was also able to recommend it to my husband, and because of it, he downloaded a calendar app that he really likes. I honestly don't even remember which apps I got via Apps Gone Free, but it seems very handy to get ideas for new apps.

What I'm really excited about are some of the apps I've downloaded to help during my upcoming trip to Germany and France. I'm used to using GPS and Google when traveling in order to find my way and confirm that a restaurant is a good pick, but there are no guarantees that I'll have WiFi when we're in Cologne or Paris, so it was reassuring that some of these apps have all that information within the app and no need to connect to the internet. I downloaded enough apps to create a whole folder of them (and yes, that's Pippa the dachshund's face on my phone):

I read good things about the offline maps in the Paris Travel Guide app, and the Paris Metro app seemed like a must. I also downloaded the GuidePal Paris app and then was immediately prompted to download their even better app for free. The TripAdvisor City Guide for Paris was also highly recommended, and I found a free app for self-guided walking tours of Cologne, Germany.

Also, not sure how I found it, but I got the Postagram app, which allows you to send a photo postcard from anywhere using your own photos. I think this will be cool to have, and theoretically, I could send many postcards during our trip without ever having to buy stamps! Isn't technology wonderful?

 

I may have to do one last 23 Things post to review all of these apps after our trip. Stay tuned for an update in July!