Tuesday, January 21, 2014

thing 4 - 23 mobile things - Keeping Up

I have both Flipboard and Zite on my ipad. I like them both really well.

With Flipboard, I haven't yet set up an account so I'm limited on what I can include on that. I go with the canned posts from Oddity Central, Hello Giggles, Soul Pancake and Open Culture.  I wonder if I actually broke down and set up an account if I could customize it more?

I set up Zite on my iphone as well as on my ipad. I enjoy reading on various topics there. It does make me wonder how they select the posts that I do see. I have noticed the trends on my "top stories" page. I like that I can tell them that I want more of something or less of something. Most recently, I've included a section for New Zealand as I hope to travel there for a study abroad experience in about a year.

thing 3 (utility) - 23 mobile things

Utilities apps are some of my favorite. I recently was able to download Scanner Pro FREE (and as of this posting, it's 50% at $2.99)  I love this app, it allows me to scan a document by taking a picture and will allow me to save the document. I can email my pictures too.

Here's information from the website:

  1. Scanner Pro transforms your iPhone and iPad into portable scanners. It allows you to scan receipts, whiteboards, paper notes, or any multipage document.
  2. Scanned documents can be emailed and printed, uploaded to Dropbox, Google Drive and Evernote, or simply saved on the iPhone/iPad.
  3. The application incorporates special algorithms that remove shadows, make scans sharper, correct perspective and make them as readable as possible. 

What have I used it for? Most recently, I scanned the three library cards I have and put them in one folder. I don't always have my wallet with my cards close by but I usually have my phone within arms length. 

thing 2 - 23 Mobile Thing

I think it was November when I finally broke down and purchased an iphone. I tell people that I'm still learning how it works but that's probably not accurate.

 I've got a first generation ipad, ipod touch (have no idea what generation) and a first generation macbook air. I'm really not a mac junkie but over time I've used more of their products.

 Anyways, when I get something new, I like to use it for a while first and over time believe I'll learn what I need to learn. The things I don't know, I can look up. There are plenty of videos and etc online that will teach me what I need to know. I watched the iphone video and I actually knew everything that was discussed on there. This is probably because when I first got the phone, anything that I was used to using in my android that I couldn't figure out in my iphone, I looked up. The page that I learned more details that might be useful came from this page. 

There certainly was a learning curve to switching including missing an alarm or two because my android alarm would go off out loud even if I turned off the ringer for texts/email alerts.  

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

23 mobile things - first post

A number of years ago, I started participating in 23 things on a stick. Sadly, I don't think I ever finished it. New year, new learning and I'd like to learn about the 23 mobile things. Technology continues to change and we must keep learning. I'm going to register for this and my goal is to get through it. I also hope to learn more about the mobile technology and what we can do with it. As a librarian in a community college, I see more and more students using their phones as their devices so I want to know how to help them with this technology.