Thing three: Utilities

When I started to figure out which app I was going to try for Thing Three I have to admit I wasn't too excited to try any of them. I don't have a rear camera on my Nexus so using it for the RedLaser Barcode & QR Scanner was out. I have tried using other scanner apps in hopes I could make my front camera do the trick, but it was never successful. Due to the lack of a rear camera, it didn't make much sense for me to try the Google Goggles app either. I do I enjoy the idea of being able to take a picture of something and have search results display based on what it thinks I took a picture of.

Google search I had no desire to use on my Nexus because I already use it when I'm in my Chrome browser. Wi-Fi Finder and iHome Sleep also did not appeal to me. I never worry about being out of wi-fi range and sleep isn't a problem for me.

The StandApp I did take some interest in. For one of my jobs I do a lot of sitting and the idea of being reminded to do some stretching in theory seemed like a great one. When I first opened the app I enjoyed reading about why it was important to stay moving and how doing just a little bit of that a day would help extend my life. The presentation of the app really gave me some high hopes for it. I thought differently once I started to use it.

The first thing I noticed was that I couldn't set the timer for anything longer than 60 minutes. If I selected 90 or 120 minutes it would just start the timer at 30 or 60 minutes. I also could not pause the timer like it suggested I could. I decided I could live with this and tried working my way around the app. I was disappointed that I couldn't get to the separate videos unless I had a timer going. The videos were also not consistent. The explanation of the stretch would disappear before the person got through the stretch. If it was a multi-step stretch you couldn't follow the instructions with the movement. There was also no way to pause the video. This would have been helpful for those multi-step stretches.

Overall, I wasn't wowed by this app. I can see how it would be very helpful with a desk job. The stretches were not overly complicated and it showed that you could do them in a smaller area. Maybe once some of the kinks are worked out this app could be more helpful to me. As it is right now, I wouldn't continue to use it.