- Thing 2 - I knew some of those tricks were things that I could do, but I had never bothered to learn how. It was good to have an excuse to slow down and get all of the little tips that make using your device easier.
- The BookLook on Buckham library's app
- Playing with making infographics
- The variety of apps that were listed in the course of the program
- Having the chance to recommend an app in Thing #21 (although I started to do this in some of the other categories too) - would it be possible for the organizers to gather all of these posts together in one spot for the rest of us?
Things that were less enjoyable:
- So many of the apps wanted you to create a user profile. And I'm not sure if I will use those apps again. It just felt like everyone wants to be the Facebook/Twitter alternative and have you share all your information (and friends' list) with them.
- Siri and Dragon Dictation seemed like they should be so easy - you just need to talk. But I found both fairly frustrating to actually use ... my pronunciation or the level of speech recognition software?
- I didn't start really working on this early enough and did it all in a big push over a couple of weeks. This had some positives as it let me compare my experiences more from one Thing to the next, but I would have liked to have had the time to try ALL of the listed apps.
- Filling my personal device with some apps that I probably will never use again. I did start taking some off, but for a while it was pretty full up.
Some things that surprised me:
- I hadn't really thought about the fact that apps go out of business too (particularly when they remain on your device). This was a surprise when I was going to write about my cool iFlow ereader.
- There was a lot less interaction between participants (including me) this time around - no comments on other people's blogs. Could this be encouraged more in a future round?
- My tourist-heavy town was not included in UpNorthExplorer. I did give the name of this app to our local chamber who also acts as the local tourism board; they plan to look into being listed as well.
Things I expected to learn about and was happy to finally have (and would have been willing to pay for):
- Cloud On from Thing #6 ... I was sure something like this must be out there and not as expensive as the other products that I'd seen.
- Some fun photo editing apps from Thing #9 ... I expected this would be included after the great online ones that were included in the first round of 23 Things.
- Haiku Deck from Thing #13 - Like CloudOn, I figured this was out there and just hadn't found it yet
- Duolingo from Thing #18 - I just wish (as I mentioned in that post) that it included more languages.
Apps that I don't understand the hype (I guess they just don't suit my personality type):
- Vine
- Audioboo
And, one more suggested app from me ... I couldn't find another good place to mention it along the way (perhaps utilities?). I use a little app on my iOS devices called "Convert Units for Free" more than I ever expected when I added it. Want to change metric to standard American units, this is your app ... does a huge variety of types of conversions ... and it's free.