Wednesday, February 6, 2013

anniversary thirsty re: smartphone apps

Today is the anniversary of the thirsty re: smartphone apps!  

Exactly one month!


There were lots of great suggestions.  I installed a few (apps, not suggestions). TurboScan was my favorite--which is like confessing that I have a favorite student.  It's true, though.  I seem to use TurboScan every day now.


I also have been addicted to USB Disk since last summer.


But that thirsty was posted in early January before most people's semesters had started, so some proffies missed it.  Or maybe there's some other crazzy reason why some blisteringly great new app has invaded your  iPhone/Android/Whatever phone.


Please share?  


Q. What's the app that's made your proffie life tolerable during the past month?


Be honest, dammit.  You can be boring or you can reveal that you've discovered how to use your iPhone as a virtual Hitachi Magic Wand during those curriculum committee meetings (or during your mind-numbing "creative writing" workshops).  The important thing is to be honest and reveal which app kept you from going postal during the past month--or else I'll put an image of a happy dancing man on this page every goddamn day from now until the end of time.

19 comments:

  1. I don't even have a smartphone. Wouldn't know what's out there at all.

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  2. @RGM: I don't know what the hell is going on with the font. Did I fuck it up? Change it, if you wish, however you wish, whenever you wish. I just want to spread the gospel of miserable smartphone apps. Amen.

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  3. Star Walk is so cool I can barely stand it. Sputnik! and GoSatWatch are also very cool. Last week, I used them to watch a flyover by the International Space Station. I should get some students to get pictures of it. But Maps talked me to a family gathering at a sibling's house across country, and just yesterday I used Weather and the Clear Sky Charts to hold the astronomy labs in the optics lab indoors, instead of outside in the bad weather. And of course, Safari let me log into my e-mail and diffuse a situation with a snowflake sniveling about something silly, before it got out of hand. I also wish I had Vaporize Snowflake, no matter that it'd go through so much battery power.

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    1. I also wish I had Vaporize Snowflake

      Just use Summon Bigger Fish.

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    2. @Frod: These are awesome apps. Do you endorse the NASA TV app? Or is NASA too 20th century?

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    3. I wouldn't use "20th century" as a derogatory term. They did repeatedly land humans on the Moon and return them safely to the Earth, something we can't do now, one reason being because we no longer have the brains to do it. Now that we trust machines to do so much of our thinking for us, it hasn't made us smarter. If you have any doubts, have a look at "2001: A Space Odyssey," and remember that's where in 1968 they thought we'd be over ten years ago.

      Admittedly, 20th-century morals weren't great. Can we claim that ours are so much better now?

      I do like NASA TV. As a college professor (loud sniff!), I never watch much TV of any kind, but I did watch the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory land on Mars. It was just as suspenseful as an Apollo flight, just like in the old days. Also, the flight control room looked much more like America, with women, people of color, old hippies, and a guy with a Mohawk, unlike in the old days.

      I still haven't seen the NASA TV app. I got my new iPhone 5 about a month ago, as a replacement for my Droid Incredible from two years ago. I liked the Droid, although most of the astronomy apps didn't used to run on it. Another problem the Droid had was its battery didn't last even one day, so I had to get a third-party battery that made it the thickest, heaviest cell phone I've had since my brick from 15 years ago. Whenever I had it in my pocket, all the girls thought I was happy to see them.

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  4. Hey Bubba, I looked back at the original post. Sorry I missed your earlier question re: Bookcrawler. Yes, you can manually enter information. And google Charlie Young beach cam for a nice, well, beach cam.

    My spousal unit and I are sort of house hunting. Realtor.com had a cool app. You can find real estate for sale in a given area, and it had a scout feature. If you're in an area, scout will show you what's available as you get near it. You can tap on a listing and get photos and details For big giggles, type in San Francisco and scout streets with a bay view. Another winner for long meetings.

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    1. @Annie: Thanks. I discovered how to use BookCrawler. Exploring the other apps now.

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  5. Plague Inc is also mildly entertaining. You are a virus, racing to kill off humanity before a cure for you is found. You cantu ate and add transmission methods.

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    1. I like the fact that "mutate" (I think) mutated here. Very appropriate.

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    2. Yeah, it's a real pizza chip.

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  6. "Be honest, dammit."

    Stop telling me what to do, Bubba.

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    1. @Monkey: I would pay $9.99 for the "Be honest, dammit." app. If there's a "Be honest, dammit LITE" for $.99, then I'll gift it to you through iTunes.

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  7. Lightsaber. It even makes the noise.
    Art history apps that go for free on occasion.

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  8. I like the "whip" sound effect app. I use it on my students as I am leaning over their desks, checking to see if they are on task. It usually gets them back on track.

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  9. I like Death Rally - a racing game; it appears to be based on Death Race 2000. Pure brain-checking-out goodness.

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