For thing 3, I tried out three apps. One I already had--my bedroom clock is also a dock, and I had to put iHome-sleep on my iPod to make it work with the various clock features. Bur I'd never bothered looking to see what all the app can do on its own. Turns out, it can do some things the iPod can already do on its own, like set alarms and reminders; and other things I'm not interested in, like linking to my social networks and giving me a wakeup news roundup. And it has "go to sleep" and "wake up" functions, that involve playing music for a set period of time or gradually increasing the volume over a set period of time respectively.
I also tried wi-fi finder, which is pretty cool. It takes your current location and shows you where there are hotspots near you, and can be filtered to only show free ones. They display either in a list or as pins on a map. The only problem I can see is that it isn't going be able to give results to a wi-fi only device unless I'm already connected. So if I'm out and about, I can only find out if I'm near wi-fi if I've already got a connection, in which case I probably wouldn't need the app. However if I plan ahead I can look for hotspots before going somewhere (the app lets you search by address, city or zip code, as well as by your current location) which could still be useful.
The third thing is a web browser. I decided to give Opera mini a try. I haven't used it much yet, but I've heard good things about Opera generally.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Thursday, January 23, 2014
23 mobile things: thing 2
I've started thing 2, which is learning tips and tricks for using my device. I will probably be using more than one device for my 23 things--when I registered I said iPad, because my library has one and Dillon said we can use it for this. But today I've been looking up tips for my trusty old iPod touch (iOS 5.1.1) and I'm learning lots. I'm reading an article of tips and tricks for an iPad running iOS 4-6, and of course not everything that works on an iPod will work on a touch, but I'm going through the article and trying stuff out to see what I can do.
There's a lot, so I'm not going to get through it all in one go, but I will come back to it later and update this post with some kind of summary.
ETA: I finished the iPad article, and looked up another that was specifically about the iPod touch. The tips broke down into several categories: things I already knew, things I didn't know but only because I'd never gone in and looked at all the details in the settings, and things I would never have thought to try (like holding down a key on the onscreen keyboard to reveal other hidden keys). Overall, very helpful.
There's a lot, so I'm not going to get through it all in one go, but I will come back to it later and update this post with some kind of summary.
ETA: I finished the iPad article, and looked up another that was specifically about the iPod touch. The tips broke down into several categories: things I already knew, things I didn't know but only because I'd never gone in and looked at all the details in the settings, and things I would never have thought to try (like holding down a key on the onscreen keyboard to reveal other hidden keys). Overall, very helpful.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
23 mobile things: thing 1
Well, here I am. I created this blog as part of a project I'm doing at work, 23 mobile things. I'm hoping this will make me more knowledgable about, and more comfortable with, mobile technology. Right now I consider my tech literacy to be medium--lots of people know more than I do, and lots of people know less. I make extensive use of some of computer capabilities, and no use at all of others. I've done relatively little with mobile devices, which is the point of this project.
In a lot of ways I simply don't know what's available, and this project should address that. But a lot of the challenge is also changing how I think about doing things. Habits are insidious, and tech literacy requires new habits of thinking. To make effective use of apps, it needs to occur to me to use them. And familiarity should absolutely help with that.
I expect that some things I try while doing the 23 things will be things I'm not that interested in continuing once the project's over, but others will be right up my alley and I'll keep using them. Some of them will be relevant to my job, other less so. But I consider the process itself to be useful, aside from the specific apps I'll be playing with. Doing this project will teach me things I want to learn, and get me into new mental grooves that will continue to be useful for future learning.
In a lot of ways I simply don't know what's available, and this project should address that. But a lot of the challenge is also changing how I think about doing things. Habits are insidious, and tech literacy requires new habits of thinking. To make effective use of apps, it needs to occur to me to use them. And familiarity should absolutely help with that.
I expect that some things I try while doing the 23 things will be things I'm not that interested in continuing once the project's over, but others will be right up my alley and I'll keep using them. Some of them will be relevant to my job, other less so. But I consider the process itself to be useful, aside from the specific apps I'll be playing with. Doing this project will teach me things I want to learn, and get me into new mental grooves that will continue to be useful for future learning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)