My most-used apps

Before getting an iPhone, I wondered if I would ever get used to it.   I had a Droid (I don't even remember what the model is or anything), but I didn't know if I'd like the complete touch screen.  Matt reminded me that I had already had a phone that was completely touch screen. Wait, I did? Oh, that's right.  I had the Dare before, which I loved a lot during the times when it worked! (I can remember my sophomore year, riding with Matt's parents from Ferrum to Longwood and my phone kept cutting off and I couldn't text Matt anymore. I started freaking out because it wasn't like the battery was dead or anything....my phone literally had just about had it!)

Anyway, back to where I was.  I loved my Droid, I really did. I liked having the option of the touch screen keyboard or having a slideout keyboard. I liked the different app options, and it's also the phone I got addicted to Angry Birds on. (Obviously, my current iPhone game addiction is Fun Run.)  Then, that sad, sad day last March, I remember getting ready in the early morning to help out with the SPED Ambassadors Spring Fling and I couldn't type one sentence in a text message before my phone froze up. Not "froze up" as in it took a few seconds for the phone to catch up with how fast I was texting. Oh no, everything just stopped, and the only way I could turn the phone off was to keep taking the battery out. That was very fun and convenient. Not.  Luckily, Matt and I had already planned on going home for the night that weekend, so as soon as I could, I texted Mom saying, "I need to go to Verizon. ASAP." iPhone, here I come!

Naturally, I had to wait a while that evening to finally get my new phone, but boyyyy was it worth the wait! I have had minimal problems with my iPhone and I love it!  I take WAY too many pictures & videos, because it's just so convenient at all times.  When I first got my iPhone, I downloaded the "usual" apps (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but I quickly loved what other apps I found to use on a regular basis! Today, I wanted to share what those are....and let me know if there are any apps you use that you think I would like! ;)

Like I said, Facebook was one of the first apps I got on my phone. While I love the convenience of being able to check my news feed while I'm on the go, I rarely type anything on Facebook via my phone. That's why I'm a terrible responder on Facebook---I'll check it on my phone and see people's comments and messages to me, but I want to wait until I'm on the computer to respond.....which is why most of my responses are like a day late! Oops.

However, I do get frustrated when someone uploads a photo album and I really want to look at it, because most likely, there will be a TON of pictures and I'm just not patient enough to wait for them to all load!!

Then, there's Twitter.  Another app I downloaded the same day I got my phone. If I'm bored riding in the car, I can always count on there being new tweets to read! It was especially nice to have when I was a Student Blogger for Longwood.  If I had just gotten out of class or something cool happened or I just saw something interesting, I could quickly whip out my phone and tweet about it (and get paid to do it! ;)

I blame this app for my lack of sleep second semester senior year.  Downloading this app may have been a bad thing on some occasions.  I remember laying in bed watching Friends with Megan every night, but on commercials, I would always be on Pinterest!! But then, I would get so caught up in looking through all the different categories of pins, that the late night hours would just keep on going by, and before I knew it, it was almost 12:30!! Time for bed!   On the other hand, I do enjoy having Pinterest at my fingertips whenever I want.

I'm so glad I got this app after Matt told me about it.  I had had a Pandora account before, but never really used it.  I would've only used it on my computer, but have iTunes, so I preferred using that to listen to music instead.  However, I love having this now. I mostly use it while I'm taking a shower.  You definitely read that right.  I open up the Pandora app, turn my phone's volume all the way up and set my phone in a cup on the counter.  Why? Because Pinterest taught me a tip--if you put your phone in a cup, it makes the volume louder.  Of course, when I told Abby about this great thing, she looked at me like, "um, duh, where have you been??" haha.

Another music app!  I love having iheartradio so that I can listen to Q94, K95, or whatever it may be while I'm just walking around the house.  I'll usually turn it on and have my phone in my back pocket while I'm cleaning, making numerous trips back and forth to the attic taking Christmas stuff up, etc.

It was especially nice to have when Lite98 was playing Christmas music 24/7 because then I could listen to all the Christmas music I wanted just while I was in my room!

Having this app probably makes me lazy (not the all of the others don't...), but I love having it! If I'm out and about and can't remember what time a show I want to see comes on, I can just open the app and look for it so I don't miss it! It's so convenient!

Or, I always fall asleep with the TV on. I've done it for such a long time that I can't really even remember falling asleep without it on.  Well, late at night, there aren't many good things on TV and I'd really rather not listen to an infomercial while trying to fall asleep, so I can just easily scroll through all the channels on my TV Guide app and find what channel I want!

If you've never seen this icon before, it's for the app Lose It.  After creating your profile, you can put in all of your exercises you've done for the day, what foods you've eaten, and it shows you your calorie input vs. output.  There's an option on that app that I don't use, where you can find your friends who also use the app to help motivate them.  Since I don't use this function I don't know much about it, but I would certainly hope that it doesn't tell you too much information, like their weight and such.  Maybe it tells you that they're down X amount of pounds or something? idk.  The one thing I don't like about it is that sometimes you can't find the foods you want.  So what I did was get the app Restaurants, as this is where I usually ran into trouble, and I could look up whatever I was eating out, go back to Lose It and Create My Own food and manually put the calories in myself.  Might be a little more work than some people want to do, but hey, I take the time every now and then to do it.

And finally, my favorite app: Instagram. I've used this app since before I had an iPhone!! How? Well, Matt had an iPhone at least 6 months before I did, and he didn't use Instagram back then, so he downloaded it for me (yay!) and I made myself an account on HIS PHONE. (I emphasize that because I'm not allowed to use his phone now, haha. No worries. lol) I love keeping up with people on Instagram and seeing what pictures they post, but I also follow random accounts, too. Like, I follow one account that just posts pictures of puppies all the time! haha. I just like to see the cute little faces!  I also do #fmsphotoaday and post a picture for whatever the day's topic might be.  I am so excited that I have [successfully] been doing this September.  I had tried several other months before but would get behind a day or two :( and just give up. Since starting in September, if I miss I did, I just make sure I still get it in, even if it is a couple days late! Like right now...today, I have to post a picture for yesterday and today! Oh well, I'll get it done!

{did anyone else notice that a majority of the apps I use either have a red or blue logo? weird.}