Top 6 iPhone Apps!

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Jackie

We live in a world where the majority of people have smart phones and the iPhone is one of the top choices of the people. As a matter of fact I am an Apple Fan Girl and absolutely love my iPhone & iPad. You’d be hard pressed to get me to trade it for something else.

But it isn’t just the fact that the device is awesome, it’s the apps that really make it fun. I love finding new apps and what I love even more is when they’re free (I’m cheap…) and on occasion you can find the paid for apps free for a short time too.

So what are my favorites? What are the top 6 iPhone apps that I think everyone should have? Keep reading!

I should let you know that these are in no particular order. I love them all equally and narrowing it down to just 6 apps that I adore is hard! I spent a lot of time looking at my phone and iPad trying to decide which ones made the list.

Drumroll please….

Find my phone – I don’t know how many times my son has taken my phone and set it down somewhere and I can’t find it. I call it but it’s on silent, I ask him and he doesn’t know, and I’m left to search the entire house until I find it. This handy app eliminates all the searching. All you have to do is sign in on another iOS device with your Apple id and you can locate your phone, remotely lock your device, erase personal data, and more.

Instagram – I think that just about everyone knows what this app is. I love it though! I can share images from my life… my kids, my work, my travels, and of course my food. With filters and frames I can make my pictures look awesome. What I really like though is that it gives us a glimpse into our friends lives and the world around them.

Snapseed – This app is awesome for editing photos that you’ve taken with your iPhone. It took me a while to really figure out and how best to use it but once I did… wow! I had a couple amazing pictures and there was even one that a friend thought a professional photographer took.

Feedly – With Google Reader gone I’ve had to find another to keep up with all of my favorite blogs and Feedly is awesome for it!

Netflix – I have this app on every single device whether it’s iOS or not! I love to be able to watch some of my favorite shows even when everyone else is watching something else. It’s also handy to keep littles ones occupied when you’re out shopping or in the waiting room at the doctor’s office.

8tracks radio – I love this new way to listen to music and best of all it’s ad free (when listening there are some on the screen)! You select the type of music, mood, feeling, or whatever and then it’ll give you mixes based on those. You can also create your own mixes. I haven’t created one yet because there are so many others that I like that I don’t have the need yet!

There you have it! 6 awesome iPhone apps that you must check out for your iOS device. Oh… and probably your Android too.

What are some of your favorite apps?

It’s Thursday and for something a little different and fun I’m linking up with Mama Kat for her Writer’s Workshop.

#iPPP ~ Just Dance

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Jackie

Over the weekend the kids wanted to rent Just Dance 3 for the Wii because I’m a mean mom and haven’t bought it for them yet (or any other Just Dance game… maybe for the holidays). Our big plans for the night were to hang out together and play video games.

This was the first time that I can remember both of my older girls setting the phones down, walking away from the computers, and really spending some quality time together. I really enjoyed it and I think that they did too!

Now, to protect myself from the laughter that would be heard around the world I won’t post any pictures of myself playing the game. It’s to scary and I deleted them and the video that my lovely children took of me. Honestly…. I can’t afford the therapy you’d all need either.

All the kids joined in!

Andrew thought that it was a lot of fun to stand in front of where his sisters were playing and dance! He spent a lot of the evening dancing away.

See the pic on the right... that's what happens when I don't pay attention.

Except for the time while I was playing and he decided to climb on the table. I guess it’s easier to play with trains that way.

So here’s the thing…. Just Dance is a serious work out and if you have no rhythm it’s even harder! It just looks like you’re flaying about! But it was a lot of fun and I think that if I were to keep playing I might actually lose weight and look good doing it! Then maybe… just maybe there’d be a picture of me playing the game (don’t hold your breath though).

I think we need to make it a regular family event… maybe even make it into a contest or something fun.

Have you played any of the Just Dance games yet? What do you think of them?
I’m linking up with Liz & KLZ for iPhone Photo Phun because well…. my iPhone is awesome and I take about a million pics a week on it! May as well share them!

How to unplug from social media…. or why I didn’t post Monday.

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Jackie

Every so often it’s nice to unplug from social media, blogging, and the internet in general. Then there are the times that we are forced to disconnect whether we want to or not and this is exactly what happened to me this past weekend.

Every so often throughout the summer we head up to the thumb region of Michigan where my parents spend their summer and we camp for the weekend with them. I love spending time up there with them relaxing and watching them interact with my kids (it’s amazing what they let them get away with). It really is a relaxing place to go since there isn’t a lot to do there and the closest city is about 45 minutes away.

I bet you’re wondering what this has to do with unplugging from social media and the internet. Well, this area of Michigan does not have 3G service and the service that I do get on my iPhone is so bad that I can barely use Tweetdeck, email, Instagram, or anything that requires data connection. Let me put it this way…. I posted 2 pictures on Instagram this weekend and one of them took me 2 days to successfully post! 2 days people! Checking my email was a challenge and half the time it wouldn’t pull in the new messages.

So because of the horrible service up there I didn’t post on Monday. I actually pondered it and was thinking that I could do it through my phone. But then as the weekend progressed and I fought to post a picture on Instagram I quickly lost faith that I’d be able to write a post with pictures and have it actually work for me.

What I did instead was use my phone as a camera for the rest of the weekend and was able to capture a few moments that are those that fond memories are made of.

There was a storm coming in off of Saginaw Bay & Lake Huron that you could hear for at least an hour before the rain actually reached us. As a matter of fact Andrew and I were heading down to the channel to check it out and my step mom told me to not get caught by the rain and to hurry. So as you can guess we got caught in the rain the moment we got down there.

In between down pours Andrew and grandma played in the puddles.

And when the rain got really bad we went inside and the kids made chocolate chip cookies with grandma. This was the first time that Andrew got to help bake and he loved rolling the cookies into the ball shape with help from his sister.

Andrew has this new fascination with brooms and loves to play with them. So he quickly set aside his toys and grabbed the broom that my parents keep outside to sweep off the deck with and claimed it for his own. It became his new ride around the campground after he swept the road.

Then we met a new friend, Ronald McDonald, and an old dear one, free wifi. I don’t know who enjoyed breakfast more… Andrew or I! I was over the top with joy with the fact that I could quickly check Instagram (I think I have a slight addiction)!

So if you’re in need of unplugging and really getting away for a while then find a place where there is crappy cell phone signal and no internet access. It’ll be hard that first day or so as you beg your phone to just let you upload one picture or send one tweet but eventually you’ll come to terms with it and sit back and enjoy the simple things.

How do you unplug? Do you ever do it?

I’m also linking up with Taming Insanity for iPhone Photo Phun since I took all these pics with my awesome iPhone!

iLove my iPhone – The Smart Phone Update

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Jackie

Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

A while back I shared my lament with you about why I needed a real smart phone. You were all very supportive and it was great to see that everyone agreed with me needing one.

Well, best of all the husband heard and this time he really listened. And I am the extremely proud owner of a shiny, new iPhone.

Yes, my Windows husband has moved over to the dark side (where there are tasty cookies) and is slowly becoming an Apple FanBoy. This is truly a remarkable thing if you’ve ever heard him talk about Apple… Windows… etc.

Alright so lets go back a month or so. My husband came home from work and asks me why I didn’t answer my cell phone because he’d been calling. I replied to him that my phone had not rang once and I even had the volume turned up (I’m notorious for leaving it on silent/vibrate). So he grabs the phone and is looking at it, pushing buttons and all that “pretending” to see what’s wrong with it this time. Now here is where I forgot the words that anyone spoke because my daughter (his sidekick in this charade) held up the holy grail… the iPhone box.

My phone didn’t work because he had transferred the number to my brand new iPhone. It was like Christmas but 100 times better. I wanted to stop making dinner, let everyone fend for themselves, and run off to play with is. I restrained myself though and we ate dinner, and then later I played.

Ahh… happiness. Or so you would think. But alas this is not where the story ends.

I being the lucky person that I am was the proud owner of a Lemon. Not an Apple. A Lemon.

My iPhone sucked! Big time. I was sad to admit that my old Windows phone was better. I know you’re all gasping now and I’m sorry if I’ve caused you to spit out your coffee at the screen. But it was really a crappy phone.

Let me list a few if it’s issues.

Apps crashed all the time… like every time I tried to use one.
Battery life was barely a day
The phone constantly rebooted itself
It would randomly get stuck on the Apple logo screen and stay there till you did a hard reboot
When I was on a call it would reboot and within 2 seconds I’d be on the call again… yea, it never lost the call. Just cut out while it went to the Apple logo screen.

I could go on and on about all the trouble that I had but I won’t bore you with all that. Instead I will share with you the awesomeness of the Apple store. I made my appointment, went in, told them what the issue was, and they gave me a new phone. No hassle, no discussion, nothing… they just said we’ll give you a new one if that’s okay.

They took the Lemon and replaced it with an Apple. They moved all my apps and set it up for me before I even left the store.

Ahh… life is good and I love my iPhone. It’s beyond awesome and I have no idea how anyone could live without one.

And what makes it so awesome you ask…