23 Mobile Things: Thing 8 (Social Media Management Tools)

I am very familiar with the Book of Face, and I am no stranger to linking in or twittering. I use the Facebook app (and its chat app counterpart) a lot to keep in touch with library school friends, to record travels, to share unsolicited (mostly political) opinions, to flirt and chat and converse with my sweet and handsome beau when I can't see him, and to post pictures of Zelda the cat (because, let's face it, the Internet is primarily for sharing cat pictures).

Social networking is an important part of many people's day-to-day lives, and, for some of our patrons (and maybe even some of our colleagues), it might be their go-to place, or only place, for news and information (and maybe even entertainment). Because the apps for Facebook and Twitter are so popular and so geared toward the mobile platforms, the formerly regularly-visited-in-browsers websites reflect that look.

One of the new (or, rather, new-to-me) social apps recently recommended to me by a fellow librarian friend is Saga, a "lifelogging" app. Saga tracks where you go and what you do and assigns you traits based upon your activities. (Think a friendly Big Brother that brags on you, or tattles on you (depending upon your perspective), to your friends.)

23 Mobile Things: Thing 7 (Content Saving & Sharing)

Confession: I have a love-hate relationship with Pinterest. My favorite active blogger in the whole universe, Jenny "The Bloggess" Lawson, was the person who introduced me to the twisted, hilarious side of Pinterest. I started a personal Pinterest account after being goaded by friends who got caught up in aspirational home and kitchen lifehack ideas, inspirational (or, often, gag-inducing) quotations, and arts 'n' crafts for people with way too much time and energy on their hands.

What happened? I went crazy: pinning all the things I wanted in my fabulous dream home that I will never, ever, ever be able to afford or maintain; pinning all the gourmet vegetarian things I wanted to eat but had zero intention of buying the expensive ingredients for and making; pinning all the places I want to go but am limited by my limited budget and my moderate social anxiety and my weird flying issues; etc. Then, I started seeing what other people were pinning -- trite and saccharine "inspirational" words written in "fancy" fonts imposed over stock photos of nature and ridiculously sculpted human bodies, tired jokes and cartoons, food crafts for kids, and all sorts of stuff that makes me cringe and hate the interwebs.

I lost interest in Pinterest.

So, I am trying again. I made a new bulletin board for Zelda, the adorable black-and-white demon-cat that lives with me, and I intend to pin all the things that remind me of her or that I would like for her. I have pinned exactly three things so far -- a treat-dispensing activity ball and two cute-looking collars that she would probably try to eat or destroy.

I have seen cool ideas from libraries' Pinterest sites -- book lists and read-alikes, fun bookish quotations, programming idea sharing. This is where I see that sustained spark in Pinterest and actually see practical applications for my daily (read "work") life. Another cool thing is being able to follow publishers and authors on Pinterest to get a better understanding of publishing trends and to have a lot more information to do better reader advisory.

Maybe I need to lose two hours creating library-related bulletin boards to help me in some of my job duties? Pin all the library/book/reading things!

23 Mobile Things: Thing 6 (Creating & Editing Docs)

What's up, "docs"?

My actual question is more Seinfeldian, though.

What is up with these "docs" on mobile devices?

For this Thing, I tried out CloudOn, which, in theory, is a really great, really useful tool for creating, accessing, and editing some of the most commonly used types of "docs" -- word processing documents, spreadsheets, and slide presentations. I say "in theory" because if one has a large enough mobile device (hello, tablet users), this app is not going to be difficult to use and may even be a preferred way to work with "docs" (yes, the scare quotes will stay on needlessly shortened and abbreviated words like docs and my new pet peeve -- "convo"), but if one is working on, oh, say, the screen of an iPhone 4, this isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be. For example, I still cannot tell if my file is saving at the time (slow connection and loading time), which makes me reluctant to do serious *work* work on this program. Also, it is a pain to type on a tiny iPhone keyboard with AutoCorrect trying to be helpful. I do like that the app is compatible with both Dropbox and Google Drive, both of which I use regularly.

I think part of the 23 Mobile Things experience is to get me to think beyond what I am used to. For example, when I did have a first-generation iPad, I also had the apps Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, which I used, along with Dropbox, to create and edit documents for work. Admittedly, that system is not as efficient as something like CloudOn.

23 Mobile Things: Thing 5 (Notetaking)

Evaluating notetaking apps feels like the grownup version of these notes.

Dragon Dictation - I was surprised how smoothly this worked. I was expecting it to be DYAC (BTW, colleagues, NSFW: "tasteless") for voice, but, when I spoke clearly, a bit more slowly than usual, and articulately, the app worked like a charm. Inserting proper punctuation can be a bit painful, especially if one does not know punctuation commands exist.

Remember the Milk - This seems like a good app for someone who needs extreme accountability for things like work projects and assignments. Contrary to its name, I didn't find this app to be as helpful as something like Grocery IQ for remembering to pick up milk.

Springpad - I like the idea of being able to make note of and compile an ongoing list of books, movies, etc., which helps me in my job capacity of reader/watcher advisory duties, but I found that if one already has a place that s/he has started collecting a gigantic list of have-read/-watched or to-read/-watch, the app functions more like "just another place" that a title on the tip of one's tongue might be. I like the functionality of a site and corresponding app like GoodReads for notetaking on books. (I haven't found its equivalent for movies, televisions shows, or music. My kingdom for that, by the way. Also, please note: I do not actually have a kingdom.) One of the features I like about Springpad is the ability to make a sort of all-purpose notebook that can be filled in with various things. For example, I can make a notebook of lists of potential gift ideas for special people in my life, but the format and functionality of Springpad seems much more limiting than something like Evernote.

*The suggested app Bamboo Paper was unavailable for my mobile device.