Who doesn't like dumb kids? They're so easily fooled!
I just hang out here to look smart.
I personally have an iPad, but I'm willing to generously extend the conversation to differently-abled technologists.
I recently got the (free) MixZing app, and it's made listening to music on an Android device mildly less annoying. (But I still tend to do most of my portable listening on an iPod Touch, so.)
In fact, this is an Android app that sounds awesome. It broadcasts frequencies that fend off mosquitoes,
For iPad specifically, I highly recommend Ticket to Ride. If you like cool board games anyway. Sadly not available on iPhone or Android.
For iPhone and iPad, Air Video is excellent for streaming video in pretty much any format from your computer to your device. Slightly less essential now that Apple has implemented AirPlay, but it means you don't have to convert the files into Apple-friendly format.
For Android, beyond the obvious Google apps, FeedR is a good RSS reader, London Journey is a handy interface for TfL's journey planner, and Arcade allows you to download and play most of Kongregate's browser games (yay Flash).
If that's the cost of doing business, I'm in.
The Dora Apps are big hits, as are the make a cupcake thing and Monkey Preschool. For iPhone, not Ipad, and I use these mostly as emergency timewasters. Just typing this makes me feel like kinda a bad parent.
From the user reviews of the App in 6:
Very high frequency made mice in my house intelligent. They now hold me and my fam. as slaves. Uninstalled.
Oh wait I thought you were asking about apps for kids.
Right, no, just anything. Don't project mommy-blogging when I'm being mainstream.
1: Children make the most desirable opponents at Scrabble, as they are both easy to cheat and fun to beat.
Rob, what's Monkey Preschool like? I haven't caved and gotten any Dora apps, but we have two Super Why (both letter games and coloring) and a Between the Lions Monkey Match game that all get a lot of use.
Monkey Preschool is AWESOME. Hawaiian Punch can zone out for like 20 minutes, easy.
The free frisbee game is double plus unsmart but reasonably diverting.
I don't think any of your apps will do anything meaningful unless they're guided by a theory of apps. What you need is to be able to put consistent pressure on the developers community or else they will never come out with anything you want, and instead you'll end up with a device powered by Windows, version Overton.
18: Threaten to Burn Bits Down!
My theory of apps states that, once you've identified what the app is to do, you can bring it about by writing program text and then compiling it for the platform of your choice.
I mean, I don't see what's so complicated here.
I started using an iPhone App called Livestrong (affiliated with Lance Armstrong) for tracking calories, exercise and weight. I just joined a gym so I'm trying to stay motivated by playing games with myself about how many calories I burn and how few I will eat in a day. Also, it's really helping me stay off the junk food because I don't want to think about how quickly those little m&m peanut packets add up. Each one is 90 calories! So when I eat five in a day...
The app is $3 but it has a huge catalog of entries for food and exercise so you don't have to figure that stuff out yourself. There's a free app called Lose It! that I saw recommended too.
I also use an iPhone app called Cyclemeter for tracking my work bicycling route. It's got a calendar feature where it displays how well you're doing on pre-defined trips. There's also a feature where you can compete with other people! I think it cost $5.
Also, yesterday I happened to attend a talk on the best mobile apps and the panelists were really excited about an app called Evernote that I think they said works on all applications. It certainly works on the iPhone.
It's supposed to be awesome for organizing your notes. For example, you can take pictures of things and tag them, then later search on the tagged words. The basic version is free but I think there are upgrades for adding functionality.
On my iphone now. Is this "Monkey Preschool Lunchbox" that we're talking about?
this is an Android app that sounds awesome. It broadcasts frequencies that fend off mosquitoes,
There are a billion of those for iphone. I haven't tried them so who knows if they work.
23 -- yes. 15 -- it's got a whole bunch of vaguely "educational" stuff and some flashing lights and noises, but is weirdly appealing.
I haven't gotten any "SuperWhy" apps.
My friend wrote 6x9 and a couple of things called SONUS (ONE) and (SIX) so I will put in a plug for them. No idea whether they're any good.
Yeah, Evernote is pretty handy. I wouldn't say it's worth getting really excited about though.
"MLB At Bat 2011" is a great platform on which to listen to the Orioles lose.
I also use an iPhone app called Cyclemeter for tracking my work bicycling route. It's got a calendar feature where it displays how well you're doing on pre-defined trips. There's also a feature where you can compete with other people! I think it cost $5.
I loved Cyclemeter until they updated it to the point that my old 3G iPhone couldn't successfully run it any more. If I get a new phone, I will probably love it again. You could set it to break in to whatever you were listening to every mile or so and tell you how fast you were going.
You listen to music while riding?!? Different world, bike paths.
RedLaser for barcode lookup and online vendor price comparison. free.
StarWalk for astronomy, costs.
iMapmyRide for GPS cycling and running, free, skippable ad link after you're done. Includes elevation.
DoodleJump. Totally rocks. Beat 15k.
My 10 year old really likes Monopoly on a handheld device.
Don't have it here, there's an OK go program for ipad, $10 or so. The driving games are fun too, I like Asphalt
I also started using Spotify for the iPhone last week. It's a music service like Pandora. The really cool part about their service is that with the highest-tiered plan ($10/month) you can download music for offline access onto your phone. So I've been creating playlists for when I run at the gym. Their catalog looks pretty good. So far they're only missing The Beatles and certain tracks from some artists.
31: Not music -- talky podcasts. With the volume fairly low, I can hear stuff going on well enough for safety.
You listen to music while riding?!? Different world, bike paths.
Ha, my first thought was, "Why don't you just look at your bike computer?"
In Santiago probably 9 out of 10 cyclists are wearing headphones. It creeps me out, especially when they're studio headphones.
When will the blindfold trend start?
Not an app, but clear evidence of my dumb-kiddery. I'm obsessed with the trailer of the upcoming John Carter movie (the movie version of Edgar Rice Burrough's Princess of Mars. I've watched it twenty times over the last week. The movie can't possibly be any good, but I'm hopelessly anticipating it anyway. Tars Tarkas! Dejah Thoris! The red Martians, and their anti-gravity-powered fliers!
Whirly Words is a pretty fun game. The NYT crossword app is expensive and occasionally a bit wonky. Some people really like the game Theseus.
OT: For kids dumb enough to be interested, I have been reading Thomas Sheehan's The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity. While I appreciate his attempted recharacterization of the Resurrection* (although I think that his disdain for what he calls the "legendary" position leads him to give oddly short shrift to what ought to be the heart of his work), I find his interpretation of Peter's denial of Jesus oddly weak. Sort of the way I've never found Elaine Pagels' work on the Gnostics very satisfying, as interesting as it is.
* Elsewhere, Sheehan has called the Resurrection a pons asinorum, which I can't believe he says in ignorance or dismissal of post-Kierkegaardian theology.
37: I drove past the enormous John Carter movie set near Moab, UT last summer. The area around Arches NP and Moab is pretty Martian-looking.
If the anti-mosquito app works, let me know. It might just be the reason to get an iPhone that pushes me over the edge.
I remember hearing about an app which tracked your heartrate for a night or two, and then became an alarm clock that would wake you up within a window of time when it would be easiest for you to wake up, sleep-cycle wise. That sounds pretty awesome for people not already sharing a bedroom with a baby and a two year old and being woken up before your alarm clock a hundred times by them.
I remember hearing about an app which tracked your heartrate for a night or two, and then became an alarm clock that would wake you up within a window of time when it would be easiest for you to wake up, sleep-cycle wise.
Huh? Is there a reason to believe this would be anywhere remotely near the time when you'd need to wake up (i.e., the time for which you're otherwise have set an alarm)? I mean, does everyone cycle through sleep-cycles every fifteen minutes, such that being woken up 5 minutes earlier or later could regularly make a big difference in terms of how easy it will be to wake up? If so, that's very cool, although that's not my understanding of how sleep cycles work.
I mean, to restate the point: if I was really free to wake up whenever it would be easiest for me to do so, sleep-cycle wise, I just wouldn't set an alarm.
41: I read about that too and I can wait to get one. Is it the one made by Lark? I want it because it tells you about your sleeping patterns. It wasn't available the last time I read about it so thanks for reminding me!
Army of darkness for the iPhone is fun.
@42: closer to 90 minutes, but I guess the idea is that if waiting 5-15 minutes would place you at a different enough point in your sleep cycle to make the difference between chirpily popping out of bed to throw open the shutters and groggily slithering out of bed to drown in your cereal bowl, that it's worth the imprecision in wakeup time.
And, fwiw, I don't think it measures heart rate but general movement.
Very simple, but Rush Hour translated well to the iPhone.
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OK, stop it! You can't do that any more to Lucien Freud.
(You were doing it to Lucien Freud? You're weird!
|>
48: As recently as yesterday apparently.
38.2: One consequence of being a mythicist is that books like that -- erudite within the horizon of their assumptions though I know them to be -- start to look uncomfortably like Jesus fanfic.
You were doing it to Lucien Freud?
Technically, I was doing it to myself.
You're weird!
Well, yes.
What about masturbating whilst looking at Lucien Freud's paintings? For the love of god, tell me I can still do that.
Are you asking someone to design an app?
53: Adele Lacks' works are better suited for a smartphone.
Never a big fan of Lucien Freud in the first place, so: that's too bad.
My theory of apps states that, once you've identified what the app is to do, you can bring it about by writing program text and then compiling it for the platform of your choice.
Apparently, the problem with this is that once you've satisfied the customers who want what your app does, you've undermined your own market position.
A proper theory of apps provides a coherent strategy for gaining market clout that is somehow independent of the merits of the apps you create.
...at least if I'm understanding the premise of the other thread correctly.
Hey, I once took (half of) a class with Tom Sheehan! Or rather, I audited it.
I'm pretty sure Sheehan is familiar with post-Kierkegaardian theology, given what one of his advisees* is writing about.
*with whom I am in total hearts
50 makes me wonder how much DS knows about Sheehan.
38: Some of us take our Jesus fanfic really seriously.