23 Mobile Things: Thing 7

Content Saving

I've used Pinterest for a couple of years now,  nearly always for work.  It's great! Since local libraries no longer use the CSLP program, with its suggested activities manual, I tend to get stuck.  What does one do for Bookawocky? The term doesn't lend itself to inspiration. Pinterest to the rescue! I can troll it for ideas from others using the CSLP program, and have found great stuff that way. I've found lots of inexpensive or free things I can do with my teen patrons, too, critical given my small budget. I had a Hunger Games party and found ideas for that as well.  It's so nice for collecting items like this.  I really only have one board that's personal, and I use it for recipes.

I downloaded the mobile app.  I can't see myself using it much. Other than taking a bit to figure out how to get to my pins and boards, it looks much the same as the full app.  But it's that searching for content on my little screen, instead of a full one... I like multiple windows, too. And honestly, an 8 step procedure to pin a page on my phone is a bit much.  Since I use the site mostly for work, I do most of my work on it at, well, work!

23 Mobile Things: Thing 4

Keeping  Up

I started this thing pretty skeptical of the whole Flipboard app. And then I struggled a bit figuring out how it worked.  I finished setting my account up pretty sure I'd close my account after finishing this blog.  But now I think maybe not.

I found the instructions for Flipboard incomplete, both the ones on the 23 Things site and on the Flipboard site. Perhaps it's obvious to more experience users, but it took me a while to figure out the difference between creating my own magazine and subscribing to something.  In creating a magazine (at least the best I can figure it), you add articles of interest to a magazine about that subject. And nothing else gets added until you do it. When you subsribe to something, say a blog, it shows up under "My subscriptions" and you then receive new items as they come in. Once I got that straight, it all got a lot easier. It still took me a while to get the magazine part right, as I didn't realize you swipe up to get down to the cover to see your list of articles, so I kept thinking I wasn't adding anything.

I usually read all my work related feeds at, well, work, so having them available anywhere on my phone isn't a huge draw.  But in looking over my subscriptions today in preparation for writing this, I realized it's a pretty nice way to get blog content. I can sit and read it at work. And maybe somewhere else if I'm stuck in line... I took a look at the news feed, too, and found a couple of things of interest to me there, so I might continue looking at it once in a while.  The nice thing about the news feed is that, at least on the articles I looked at, it actually connects to articles of substance.  It's not the crappy one paragraph stuff you see on news websites or yahoo or whatever - it's really got some body to it.

Color me surprised on this one - I may end up a fan after all.

23 Mobile Things: Thing 3

Utilities

I went on vacation recently, and tried out two of the utilities suggested for this thing.  One I like and one I thought was pretty darn useless.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coit_Tower

The useless one? Google Goggles.  I know, it's hard to believe - a Google product not worth much.  But that's my experience with it.  I've read other reviews, and, while a number of people like it, just as many feel as I do. It looks easy to use, but it sure didn't deliver. In theory, you open the app, and point your device at whatever you want to identify or get more information about. The app scans across the screen and supposedly tells you what you're seeing, with links to related websites. We visited San Francisco on our trip, and I tried Google Goggles on both the Coit Tower and the Transamerica building. The program recognized neither of them. Now I'll grant you the Coit Tower, while very well known in SF, might not be well enough known to make Goggle's database.  I do know they've been to SF, as the Golden Gate Bridge is in their tutorial! But the Transamerica building? Even if you don't know the name, I bet you've seen pictures of it. It is to SF what the Empire State Building is to New York City. The best Google Goggles could do, and that was through the GPS on my phone, was show me where I was on the map.  Not quite what I was hoping for.


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transamerica_Pyramid_July_2007.jpg

I had more success with the RedLaser Barcode and QR Scanner. We also visited Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii.  I scanned the QR code at the steam vents and went to this page:



http://www.hawaiiso2network.com/havoalert.php

 

So why, you ask, does a QR code take you to this page? Well, this is a park with active volcanoes.  And volcanoes emit dangerous gases.  Those gases concentrate in different areas of the park, depending on the wind's direction. The park's public facilities were built with the prevailing trade winds in mind, keeping visitors upwind of the most dangerous gases most of the time.  One section of road is totally shut off since an eruption in 2008, as it's too dangerous too often - it's that serious.  And note I said most of the time. Winds do shift, and there can be dangerous levels of gases and particulates anywhere in the park.  Rangers actually carry portable detectors with them that will beep if levels rise out of a certain range.  Pregnant women and those with certain health conditions in particular must be aware of what's happening to protect themselves. Having QR codes scattered throughout the park  - much of which is far, far away from the rangers - allows visitors to make sure the air is still safe. I'm guessing this might be among the more unusual uses of this app reported here!

We've also used readers to get to calorie counts on restaurant menus - handy when you're trying to track your intake.  My library has a geocache that utilizes a code, and one of our other librarians created a code to get teens to a video book talk. I can see creating codes to lead patrons to information about upcoming programs, or to connect to more information about something we're doing.  It would likely work best for teens, who are comfortable with the technology and unafraid of experimenting.