23 Mobile Things: Thing 10 (Sharing Photos)

Today, we learn . . . 

Instagram - I have a sometimes-used Instagram account, because I tend to share most (okay, all) of my pictures unfiltered through Facebook. (Seriously, have you seen my cat? She doesn't need to be filtered.) I find that Instagram, like some of the previously-explored apps like Flipboard, are for people who are strongly visual people, people who are visual learners, people who are visually literate, people who are visually artistic, and that's great. I tend not to be so strong in my visual skills, and I get easily overwhelmed with the onslaught of imagery on Instagram. However, that being said, I do like the effect some of the filters have on my pictures, and I like being able to share "artsy" shots back and forth with friends. This is my long-standing favorite of my personal Instagram photos:

I've heard of the new trend of "shelfies," and I have to say I'm rather fond of the idea for marketing library materials, especially read-/view-/listen-alikes.

Snapchat - Snapchat seems to be visual ephemera shared among friends. I use it to keep in touch with two friends of mine, Marie and Ryan. It feels a little like the e-photo equivalent of passing notes in school. I'm not the biggest fan of Snapchat, but I am a fan of both Marie and Ryan, so I'll keep using it. I have a feeling this is an app that drives people who are curators to their core absolutely bonkers.

23 Mobile Things: Thing 9 (Taking & Editing Photos)

Picture of superstar feline extraordinaire, Miss Zelda Miervaldis, taken by me but newly created with Aviary
("Dean" effect, "Grit" frame, two stars, and some text)

And, now, we've come to it. Thing 9 has provided use with more tools (and more excuses) to add to the vast collection of Internet cat pictures. (You're welcome, rest of humanity.)

Aviary - Fairly easy and straightforward to use. Unfortunately, no undo button as I could find. I am familiar with the filters through using Pic Stitch, which has the same filters with the same names. (I'll extol the virtues of Pic Stitch in a bit.) Here is another example of a photo creation using Aviary:

It's like micro-scrapbooking for techy (or lazy) people! 

LINE Camera - I had trouble creating and finding my first photo edit. This:

By this point, I was getting overwhelmed with possibilities for photo editing and manipulation, so I wanted to do something simple and create a collage:

LINE Camera is also straightforward and easy-to-use. There are plenty of opportunities to delete and reselect photos in the respective collage spots without having to scrap the whole collage, unlike Pic Stitch.

Pic Stitch - My friend Susan introduced me to this app, and it's maybe my favorite one because it combines filters and collages. I made a couple of mini-collages, complete with assorted filtered photos, from my library school BFF Gillian's and my vacation last year to Virginia Beach:

Did I mention photo editing apps might be great micro-scrapbooking for the tech-savvy or lazy? Definitely. 

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.

23 Mobile Things: Thing 4 (Keeping Up)

Or keeping up the appearance of keeping up with news and goings-on and such, using news-aggregating apps.

Flipboard - This is an interesting concept, but I feel it's like it's a somewhat limiting format. It's fun to flip through headlines and content, but, at least on my iPhone, I have no desire to actually open and thoughtfully pore over the "long reads" and in-depth analysis from some of my personal favorite content providers like the Atlantic, Bitch Media, Jezebel, Mother Jones, the Representation Project, Wonkette, xoJane, and many others that provide commentary, journalism, and or satire that I prefer to read (and respond to) on my laptop, so Flipboard seems to me to be a superficial way of keeping up. Perhaps I would feel differently about this if I had been using a larger tablet device.

Zite - From what I have seen and experienced, I like this app. However, my little iPhone 4 doesn't seem to process the app so well. It doesn't exactly freeze up so much as go into a perpetual waiting state each time I add an interest. The front page looks a little bit like a blog or a traditional newspaper, and I appreciate the non-gimmicky format for scrolling through titles. (Interesting bit of cynical librarian humor, the first headline on my personal feed as of Thursday, February 13, 2014, 8:40 a.m. CST, is Four More Reasons to Be Skeptical of Open-Access Publishing, copyright 2014 Elsevier -- hahahaha (Also, please note that my views do not reflect the views of my employer, my colleagues, or my profession as a whole.)). I'm still not prone to check out long reads on my iPhone. I'd rather make a note of the headline and bring it up on my laptop or desktop and read it on a larger screen. Still, I am finding some really great inspiring library stuff and other amusement.

The "keeping up" apps are probably great for people with tablets or people comfortable reading on phone and tablet screens, but I feel it's a superficial way of getting the news for me. Flipping through article headlines to get news is sort of like reading the scrolling headlines at the bottom of the screen on those 24/7/365 news/"news" channels.