Welcome to the Mobile Learning Blog

This blog is the result of a summer project titled: Going Wireless: An Exploration of Wireless and Mobile Technologies. The general purpose of my project is to continue learning about new and emerging technologies that might better facilitate teaching and learning in general. This is the result of my work.

Archive for July, 2010

Top 10 Favorite Android Apps

Posted by Coop On July - 19 - 2010

Okay, someone asked, so here is my list of my top 10 apps. I’ve been rockin’ the Motorola Droid for about 7 months now. I love this phone, even though I covet the HTC Droid Incredible. But things just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t covet some piece of technology even when I have a pretty awesome phone already.

I use my phone everyday, so my picks here a based on that usage. There are many awesome apps available, but I don’t use them every day, so they are not on this list. First, let’s throw out the obvious. Yes, I’m addicted to social media, so Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook are a given. I use the native apps for all three. I use these three apps more than any of the others aside from Gmail. Another set of obvious picks are Gmail, Google Talk & Google Voice. Come on. It’s not called a Google phone for nothing. Okay it’s not really the Google phone, but close enough.

With the obvious out the way, here are my top 10 Android apps by daily usage.

Soul4real’s Top 10 Android Apps

9 total, 9 free (100%), 0 paid (0%), 7MB total size, $0 total price

  • Aldiko Book Reader : Great app for reading ebooks in the epub format. Organizes the books and has lots of features to make reading easier on the small device.
  • Barcode Scanner : Handy app for getting more information about something on the web. Just scan the bar code and the web page pops up. Great for downloading new apps.
  • Dolphin Browser : Great alternative to the native browser. Allows for pinch and zoom, bookmarking and more.
  • PdaNet free edition : Need to connect your laptop to the internet? This is the app for that. Works great. Connect via usb or bluetooth. Pretty fast speeds once connected. This is a must have app.
  • RunKeeper Free : Great app for tracking your athletic activities. Uses the GPS to track your every move and then creates a great map to review. Very accurate and keeps track of pace, distance, altitude, speed. Integrates with Google Earth too.
  • Pixelpipe Post & Upload Pro : Awesome app for posting to multiple social networking sites. Take a photo and send it to Twitter, Flickr and Facebook at once. Easy to set up pipes and easy to use. Integrates will with all services on the phone.
  • PRO Paint Camera : This camera app is far superior than the standard camera app. You can really tell the difference in quality, especially in bright areas. The picture viewer is really cool too once you figure out where it is.
  • Dropbox : If you need files from your computer on your phone, this is the app for you. It works great. Let’s you view just about anything you can put in your Dropbox. Must have app.
  • YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus : Replaced my Verizon voicemail years ago in favor of YouMail. The Android app works great. Records voicemails and then transcribes them (fee)and sends a notification and an email with the transcript. Excellent visual voicemail.
  • Car Home: This app comes standard on your Android phone (except for AT&T), so you won’t find it in the Android Market. It is very cool. Use Voice Search to tell it to navigate to McDonald’s and it uses the GPS to locate you and then finds the closest McDonald’s and gives you turn by turn navigation. When you arrive at your destination it shows a Google image of the front of the location so you know you’re in the right spot. Totally awesome. It does more, but that’s the coolest part for me.

View this app list on AppBrain

Nook eReader Simple, but Does the Trick

Posted by Coop On July - 16 - 2010

Earlier this week I noticed that Amazon had dropped the price of their Kindle to $189, and I said to myself, wow they’re getting close to my price point. My price point is the price I think a gadget should cost before I’m willing to buy it. And because ereaders are really one dimensional (used mostly for reading), I’m thinking they should be priced around $150 or lower. Turns out Barnes & Noble had lowered their price as well, and yes, it now costs $149 for the wifi only version. So I bought one.

Turns out the Nook as a few features that are better than the Kindle, but this is not a comparison. I chose the Nook because it was less expensive. But now that I own one, I really do appreciate the SD card expansion since I can listen to music on this thing too. I like that it has a replaceable battery and reads epub files, which all of my current books are in the epub format. And it has wifi, but I probably won’t even use that. But with a built in browser, you never know.

I love the size of the Nook. It really feels like I’m carrying around a paperback novel when I have it, especially with the leather cover I bought for it. It took a while to get used to no back lighting on the screen. I had to keep turning on lamps and sitting next to a light source. After read ebooks on my Blackberry, iTouch and Droid for the past two years, it was hard to get used to no light.

Getting the Nook up and running was a breeze. I wouldn’t say that this is a great tool for textbooks, as the notetaking and bookmarking features are a bit tedious, but for straight up reading, this thing is a winner. And with the use of Calibre, a free and open source e-book library management application, it’s easy to get your own content uploaded to the Nook. Calibre can convert files and send them directly to the device once it’s connected to your computer.

I’m happy with my purchase. My Nook will gets lots of use, but unfortunately with this new device and my Droid phone, I really have no use for my old iPod Touch. :(

Have a look at my new Nook: