Must Have Apps for the Nook Tablet

With more people picking up the Nook Tablet (which is not to say anything bad about the iPad, I mean, that is the gold standard...and it is also quite expensive and some of us have other priorities), I wanted to share the apps that I fine invaluable.

Dolphin Browser HD
A very good web browser to use in addition to the mobile browser that is built-in.

Dropbox
Dropbox is one of those tools that if you do not have it already, I have to ask why not?

Friendcaster for Facebook
Since there is not a native Facebook app yet, this may be worth the $3. It is good but not great.

Lose It!
A great fitness and diet tracking tool.

Pandora
Like Dropbox, if you do not have this, what are you doing on the internet again?

Pocket Penguins
A live feed of the penguins at the California Institute of Science. Penguins are awesome!

Seesmic
A Facebook and Twitter client that is okay and usable, especially if you want to stay in one interface.

Stitcher Smart Radio
You do not know what Stitcher is? Really? *sigh*

The Oregon Trail
The classic game that a lot of us (if you are under 38) played in grade school. It is a great way to kill time and my nine year old son loves it.

Twitter
Like Dropbox, Pandora and Stitcher, it is Twitter. Do you really need an explanation?

Urban Daddy
Urban Daddy is awesome. The people behind Urban Daddy are awesome. This app is great, especially if you are looking for something fun to do in the cities that it covers.

ZMPP Free
Remember Zork? Ayup...Zork on your tablet.
Also see Six Must Have Apps for your Nook Tablet.

(Yes, I would love a native Facebook client as well as the Google Suite. Hopefully those will come soon.)

And yes, if you decide to root your tablet, you have full access to all the Android apps that are out there, and it is apparently easy to do, but this is a resource for people who want to use their Nook Tablet as they received it.

The Beer App You Need Now - BeerCloud

The folks behind GreatBrewers.com have a beer app called BeerCloud (iTunes store link but there is an Android app as well).

What does it do?

You are at a bar and instead of asking the bartender what an unfamiliar beer is like, you just type in the beer into the search function and you find out everything you need to know about it. This is not to discount the importance of the bartender. I know several that are incredibly knowledgeable about beer, willing to give tasting samples, and know my tastes well enough to tell me that X beer will not be for me. An app can never replace an excellent bartender.

Here are some screenshots so you do not have to take my word for it. For the purposes of this test, I used Ommegang's Three Philosophers.

And because some people do not drink "weird beer", they even list the macrobrews!

While the Android app has more social functionality, the developers promise that will be in the next version of the iPhone app. I look forward to it.

Download it now. You will be a better beer drinker for it.

Concentrating the personal brand

(Or more wanking...)

As many of you are well aware of, I use AFM as a clearing house, and also as a test bed. I have used it in the past to see what drives traffic, especially in the Albany area, and what people find interesting (parsing demo info is always fun, especially with the variety of tools that are available out there) so that I am better informed about what is...zeitgeistie...I guess.

I have been interested in app creation for a while and playing with the idea of creating my own, but...I am really bad a coding. Really bad. Scripting, I am okay at that, but I am not a developer and I never will be one. It is beyond my scope and I accept that.

So, I was looking for ways to create an app for AFM (which I admit is wanking of the highest caliber) and last week, while I was trying to figure out the easiest way to do it, I came across AppMakr.

What AppMakr does with very little effort is helps with a simple web interface app for the iOS platform.

There is also a wonderful app simulator so you can see what your app will look like before you submit it to Apple. (Oh, and you have to sign up as an Apple Developer as well and I believe the least expensive option for that is $99.)

Here is what my app would look like:

Not bad looking, right?

So...before I go forward with this, I would like to ask people to tell me if they have any app development experience and more to the point, are there better WYSIWYG app creators out there?

And...would you install this free app?

Here is how you should be wasting time - Qrank

For those of you who know me, you know that I am a trivial person (and you can take that however you would like to) and that I am sometimes obsessed with trivial matters (again, take that however you would like) and there is an app to fill that need.

That app is Qrank. Qrank is a daily trivia game for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (as well as being on Facebook) that questions you about a number of different topics, most of them "ripped from the headlines" (cue the Law and Order clang). There are now two different quizzes. One is general knowledge and the other is all sports questions.

Here is my suggestion to you:

If you have an iPhone (et cetera), get the app and start playing with me. (You can friend me by using my Twitter account. Speaking of Twitter, you should follow Qrank too.) Like Qrank on Facebook too.

Enjoy the trivial things in life.

A Bunch of Little Things

This is a complete mistake, and as Kempt points out, "while it’s not mechanically impossible to have sex while wearing a onesie, it does seem unlikely."

My father finally got his iPhone. I have suggested these apps for him.
1. Dropbox
2. PhotoShop Express
3. Darkroom
4. Google
5. Wikipedia
6. Urban Spoon
7. Urban Daddy
8. ESPN Score Center
9. CBS Sports
10. MLB At-Bat Lite
11. Mets Lifers
12. GL Golf
13. Slate
14. Atlantic Wire
15. Daily Beast
16. NY Times
17. HuffPost
18. Echofon
19. Skype
20. Google Voice
21. Hashable
22. Pandora
23. Public Radio Exchange
24. Words With Friends
25. Facebook
26. Foursquare
27. Qrank

Can you think of others?

In addition, as I was running around, I realized that I had forgotten my phone charger, and because I had been up since midnight, my phone was running down. I was able to find this. This is a great little device. It charges the iPhone quickly and no cords. I could see having this in my pocket or in my bag at all times and I could also seeing myself getting it for everyone I know who has an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Vulture has a great article about music at SxSW. It has a wonderful quote.

"This showcase isn’t the only thing that poses funny questions about age: There will be official panels, later this week, with titles like "I'm Not Old, Your Music Does Suck" (entertaining the possibility that there are reasons besides old-person grumpiness to feel like music has gotten worse) and "Hip-Hop Crossroads: Growing Up or Getting Old?," organized by the writer Dream Hampton."

Congratulations to England for their Six Nations championship. It was a very well played game, in this lay person's opinion.

Buying jewelry is always...interesting. I had not done it in years.

There is an event going on at Union tomorrow at the Nott Memorial to watch the NCAA Men's Hockey selection show. I do not know if I am going, but I am excited about it. Not making the tournament would be... devastating.

Finally, if you are going to go to a friends' birthday party, and you are drinking a lot on a common tab, it is not the responsibility of the birthday girl to pay for your drinks. That is rude at they very least, and it makes you an awful person.

That cute girl at the coffee shop

Have you ever been sitting in a coffee shop and have noticed that cute girl sipping on her coffee, and bopping her head to some music and you want to know what she is listening to because maybe it will "change your life." In some fictional world, Summer Finn or Sam will tell you that your music is awesome and it may be the start of a beautiful relationship.

But because real life does not work that way, and because you still want to know what the cute girl with the fun glasses and the quirky shoes is listening to, may I suggest a new smartphone app that shares your music with the world via Twitter and the interface (and soon there will be full Foursquare integration) with your music and location.

That app is PopToo. It is easy to use and very fun. I am looking forward to more and more people using it just so...well...that cute girl at the coffee shop can know that I am listening to awesome music as well.

App Suggestions

Does anyone have any app suggestions for the iPhone/iPod Touch?

Specifically, I am looking for a good crossword app as well as games that I can play with TEA.

Why am I looking for a crossword app? It seems like a good idea and I want to help with my Scrabble/Words with Friends vocabulary.

I would prefer turn based games as opposed to real time.

TEA and I have a game of Words with Friends going, if you are looking to make that suggestion.

(I am also looking for games that I can play with my father who is becoming an iPhone owner within the next week or so. Welcome dad, thanks for joining us.)

And I was behind the curve on this...

Remember last week when I raved about the food (especially the poached eggs on toast at the Pearl Street Diner) and provided a picture? It would have been better if I had a cool Hipstamatic-esque filter to make the diner food look wonderful and vintage. Yesterday, Gizmodo had an updated list of all the necessary apps(original List was from October) for the iPhone and while I was familiar with a lot of them, I had never heard of called Instagram.

Instagram posts instantly to additional sites, such as Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare as well as a couple of others.

I really like this, and I was shocked to see that there were other friends who were using in and they had never told me about it.

From this point forward, expect my pictures to have more of that wonderful classic look. You know the one that FAU hates so much.

The App that you need to have

Hey, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users.




The greatest App ever is available today.

Yes, it is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart App and it is free for now.

Quotes, videos, and general Stewartness.



Get it today!

Mobile Video Test

Testing an app that adds features to my phone for the purposes of
mobile video.

I hope it works.
Edit:
Apparently, it does.

The app is called iVideoCamera.