Thing 12-Books, Books & More Books

I tried several apps and was not completely happy with any of them.  The first one I tried was Wattpad.  It supposedly had a complete copy of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars that a user had uploaded from a different site that she found.  I really didn't think this was legal so wasn't too impressed that it was possible.  I didn't read it and I haven't read the real one so I wouldn't know if it was the actual book or not.  This app contained a lot of fan fiction which I knew nothing about until recently when I read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  I wasn't  interested enough to look into any of the fan fiction that was posted on this app.  I personally don't see myself using this app but can see where teens and young adults might like it as a place to post their original material and connect with others.

Free Books was okay.  I found a lot of classics available.  I tend to read more contemporary items and have a list that feels like it is a mile long of  things to read so I probably won't be using this app either.  I will stick to my Kindle app and continue to check books out from my local public library because I can find the things I want to read and it is free  of charge to me.

I couldn't find iStoryBooks but I did find iStoryTime.  I didn't spend much time on here because all the books I saw cost money and I didn't want to pay for a book.  I can check children's books out through Overdrive at the public library and either download them to the Kindle app on the iPad or my daughter's Nook so I don't see myself using this app either.

Thing 11-Library and Reference

None of the libraries in my area have a mobile app so I tried the Anoka County Library App.  I would love to have one of these available for my personal use at the public library.  I think it would be great tool for the students at the college that I work at.  Most of them have smart phones and those seem to be their preferred method of communication and conducting business so having an app where they can check their library accounts would be great.  The MNPals library consortium has developed a mobile interface for the OPAC for it's libraries.  I did try that out for this "thing" as well.  It was nice because it is a cleaner interface and loads much quicker than the regular one does on mobile devices. I'm not sure how much it gets used by my students but it's nice to have the option if someone wants to use it.

I also checked out the mobile ELM site.  When I typed elm4you,org into the address bar in Safari on iPad it didn't seem to look any different than on my desktop though so I was a bit confused.

Thing 10-Sharing Photos

I decided to give Instagram a try for thing 10.  I don't know anyone on snapchat that I am aware of so wasn't sure who I would share any of my exciting photos with if I chose that app.  I've seen a few friends post on Facebook with Instagram so knew that I at least knew people using that app.  It was okay.  It was nice that you could share the photo you created on several different sites/accounts at once.  My main problem is I really only use Facebook and find sharing photos there is easy as well.  For that reason I don't really feel that I need Instagram at this point in time.  I did try InstaCollage because I was looking for something a little more exciting as far as borders and such.  InstaCollage had the option of sharing to Instagram which was kinda cool.  I created my photo collage in InstaCollage and then shared it on Instagram.  I had the option of also sharing it to Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Thing 9-Taking and Editing Photos

I tried 3 different apps for this thing.  I didn't have any experience with the apps suggested or any other photo editing apps either so this was all new to me.  First I tried Line.  The thing I liked best about Line was the ability to make collages very easily and there were many different layouts available for free.  I didn't like that the borders and stamps all cost money.  I would think they could give you a couple for free.  I found it very easy to deform a face while trying to "beautify" it.

I thought ColorSplurge would be my favorite but I ended up not really liking it.  The pop up ads were extremely annoying!

CamMe was kinda fun and a much better way to take selfies than trying to hold the phone or tablet far enough away to not get an extreme close up.  I thought the photobooth function was fun.

There are a ton of photo collage and editing apps available so I think everyone could find one that would work for what they wanted to do with it.  It might take a little time to play around with them and figure out which one you like best.

Thing 8-Social Media Management Tools

I have to start out by saying that I only have 2 social media accounts and I only really use one of those so managing them really isn't a concern for me.  But, since the assignment is to try new things I chose a couple to play around with.  The first one I chose was Friendcaster.  I tried to use this app for about 2 minutes.  It didn't seem much different than my Facebook app and since it just shows your Facebook feed I didn't really see the point.
The second app I tried was Tweetcaster since the two accounts I do have are Facebook and Twitter.  I thought it could be kind of convenient to be able to post to both simultaneously.  It did work and I do like that there is the option of selecting one or both that you want the post to post on because sometimes I may not want it to show up on both.  I don't know that I will really use this much personally.  I did however see where it could be useful if I had Facebook and Twitter accounts for my Library because then I would only have to go to Tweetcaster and it would post whatever info I wanted to share in both places.