I'm writing this post from my iPhone using the Blogger app from Google. I am a hopeless app addict. So, while I'd just as soon be writing these words on my PC's much larger and much easier to use keyboard, in a pinch I don't have to. I can whip my smartphone out wherever I am (bed, ball game, passenger seat, park, parking lot, etc.) and start blogging. Imagine what Shakespeare or Milton or T.S. or Dante could have done armed with such a tool. Imagine the observations and insights they could have relayed to us. Scary.
I've probably downloaded and experimented with 500 or apps and games over the years of owning first an iPod touch and then an iPhone. I also use apps regularly in Google Chrome and less regularly on the Wii and my Blu-ray player. Apps, for me, are the primary reason to own a smartphone. (I don't get that many calls, and the ones that I do get are usually someone under 18 who is asking for my permission to do something.)
My car breaks down on the road at night and I can't see what's going on under the hood? No worries. Take my iPhone out of my pocket, press an icon, and I have a flashlight. Don't know which road I'm on? No problem. Google Maps to the rescue. Need to find an auto parts store close by? No sweat. Launch AroundMe, and I'm golden. Need to past some time waiting for the tow truck to come? The New York Times is just a finger press away. So are hundreds of free classic books via Kobo.
My favorite use of apps is plugging my electric guitar into one end of a cord I picked up for roughly $30 and plugging the cord's other end into my iPhone's headphone jack. Open up Stomp Box or any other of about 10 apps I've run across for the guitar, and I instantly have multiple choices of simulated amps and effect pedals, all of which I can listen to through headphones so as to no wake the rest of the sleeping brood in my house.
Two of my favorite apps are Instapaper and Squrl. Run across interesting articles or videos online throughout the day but don't have time to read or watch? No sweat. Click a browser add-on installed in Google Chrome and there saved to my account. Later on when I get home, open up Instapaper and I'm reading those article. Open Squrl and those videos I saved are waiting in my queue for watching on the iPhone. Ultra flippin' handy.
My other favorites include TuneIn Radio, Instagram, NPR Music, and Flipboard. If you have an iPhone and don't have these loaded, you're doing yourself a disservice.
Here's the deal about apps, if I want to be a filmmaker for a day, I can make a cheesy 70s-era flick starring my kids with Super 8. If I want to shoot cool panoramic photo while on a hike in the park, I open DMD and I'm good to go. If I want to record my latest three-chord punk masterpiece or learn the chords to "Seek and Destroy" or practice with a metronome or learn a new scale or tune my acoustic guitar, I can. If my wife is working and I haven't seen her all day, I just launch Facetime and we're eyeball to eyeball. Get an idea for a book or new project, I open Evernote, jot it down, and get back to doing what I was before, knowing that when I want to return to the idea I can from any computer. Feel like watching a movie in bed or catching up on The Walking Dead, I open Netflix and start Flixin', as my man Daryl would say. Want to draw, I open Doodle. Want to cook, I open BigOven. Want to find a place to eat, I open Ness. Want a refresher on Article II, I open Constitution. Want to catch up on world news, I open NewsFlash. Want to be humiliated, I open Temple Run and watch my four-year-old proceed to kick my butt.
I like my smartphone, but I love my apps.
I've probably downloaded and experimented with 500 or apps and games over the years of owning first an iPod touch and then an iPhone. I also use apps regularly in Google Chrome and less regularly on the Wii and my Blu-ray player. Apps, for me, are the primary reason to own a smartphone. (I don't get that many calls, and the ones that I do get are usually someone under 18 who is asking for my permission to do something.)
My car breaks down on the road at night and I can't see what's going on under the hood? No worries. Take my iPhone out of my pocket, press an icon, and I have a flashlight. Don't know which road I'm on? No problem. Google Maps to the rescue. Need to find an auto parts store close by? No sweat. Launch AroundMe, and I'm golden. Need to past some time waiting for the tow truck to come? The New York Times is just a finger press away. So are hundreds of free classic books via Kobo.
My favorite use of apps is plugging my electric guitar into one end of a cord I picked up for roughly $30 and plugging the cord's other end into my iPhone's headphone jack. Open up Stomp Box or any other of about 10 apps I've run across for the guitar, and I instantly have multiple choices of simulated amps and effect pedals, all of which I can listen to through headphones so as to no wake the rest of the sleeping brood in my house.
Two of my favorite apps are Instapaper and Squrl. Run across interesting articles or videos online throughout the day but don't have time to read or watch? No sweat. Click a browser add-on installed in Google Chrome and there saved to my account. Later on when I get home, open up Instapaper and I'm reading those article. Open Squrl and those videos I saved are waiting in my queue for watching on the iPhone. Ultra flippin' handy.
My other favorites include TuneIn Radio, Instagram, NPR Music, and Flipboard. If you have an iPhone and don't have these loaded, you're doing yourself a disservice.
Here's the deal about apps, if I want to be a filmmaker for a day, I can make a cheesy 70s-era flick starring my kids with Super 8. If I want to shoot cool panoramic photo while on a hike in the park, I open DMD and I'm good to go. If I want to record my latest three-chord punk masterpiece or learn the chords to "Seek and Destroy" or practice with a metronome or learn a new scale or tune my acoustic guitar, I can. If my wife is working and I haven't seen her all day, I just launch Facetime and we're eyeball to eyeball. Get an idea for a book or new project, I open Evernote, jot it down, and get back to doing what I was before, knowing that when I want to return to the idea I can from any computer. Feel like watching a movie in bed or catching up on The Walking Dead, I open Netflix and start Flixin', as my man Daryl would say. Want to draw, I open Doodle. Want to cook, I open BigOven. Want to find a place to eat, I open Ness. Want a refresher on Article II, I open Constitution. Want to catch up on world news, I open NewsFlash. Want to be humiliated, I open Temple Run and watch my four-year-old proceed to kick my butt.
I like my smartphone, but I love my apps.
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