Saturday, June 14, 2014

Thing #17: Connecting (or not) to Community

For Thing #17 I tried several of the apps, but was only really impressed with the one most related to my work: the MN Museums app.  I liked that you can put museums on an itinerary or to-visit list and that you can find museums by place, type, map, etc.  I have two hours to kill in [fill in the blank city], what are my options?  Or we're gonna drive to the North Shore, what might we stop to see on the way up?  I also liked that it has an already-visited feature, as well as info and links out to websites, contact info, etc.  All in all, this worked really well and I'll be actually using it going forward.

I had previously used the State Fair app (while on the bus to the fair last year).  I remember it working pretty OK to figure out event times and food locations and stuff like that, but that was early in my smart phone life and I haven't revisited it.

I also tried the Star Tribune Going Out and Explore MN apps.  The idea of each on was good and they seemed pretty nifty in concept, but the reality of functionality was just not there on either one.  For Going Out, I could see movies playing, for example, but not where or the showtimes.  I could see descriptions of shows/concerts/plays, but not locations, a calendar of times, or anything really useful.  It was sort of a tease.  The restaurant part seemed to work the best and I might use it again.  The Explore MN one was even more disappointing.  It literally never worked.  I couldn't get past the initial screens to get any real info.  Super lame!  

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