App Love: iPP Podcast Player

I love podcast. When I'm not listening to audio books from audible or the robot tone of my kindle 3rd gen, I'm listening to podcast. I have them for gaming and writing and self-publishing. If you are not listening to podcast, you are missing out.

The problem though was that most of my podcast were on iTunes, and I have an Android tablet and phone. Ugh! So, aside from loading my entire podcast folder onto my SD card (yep it's possible) and wasting all that space, I could only listen from my computer. Lame!

After searching for a way around this I stumbled upon an app called iPP Podcast Player. It searches though the iTunes store for the podcast you are missing on your Android device.

Simply type in the name of your podcast in the search bar and viola. Hit the bookmark button to subscribe.

Now go out into the world and listen to your podcast!

A short list of my favorite Writing podcast:

• Writing Excuses
• I Should Be Writing
• Grammar Girl
• The Self-publishing Podcast
• The Creative Penn
• Word Play

Calengoo

Life can get a little hectic, and for a gal dealing with fibro fog on a daily basis, I tend to forget important tasks. Seriously. My Mom and I joke that we are a couple of fish, because they have about a five second memory. Whenever we remember something we yell "fish!" If it weren't for my phone, I wouldn't know what day it was.

I've always been drawn to planners. The pretty stationary, the organized sleeves, the fancy pens, and the colorful tabs... Yeah, I have a slight problem with office supplies.

The only problem is either I don't have room in my purse/ huge bag, or like my journal, I just don't stay devoted to it. Folks spend hours keeping up with their perfect little planners. I don't have that much time to invest.

Then I got my Ellipses 7 from Verizon for Christmas. I searched the web and the Google PlayStore looking for something that would work like a FiloFax. I played with a dozen different apps. Finally I stumbled on a blog post about Calengoo. It was basically a FiloFax in app form!

Calengoo's number one feature in my book is that it syncs with your Google Calendar. I can easily add new events and tasks via the PC and it is instantly updated to my tablet, which I never go anywhere without. I have several calendars set up in my Google account for all the different aspects of my life. I have one for keeping track of my word counts/page counts/writing, I have one for house chores, one for appointments, and one for family events.

Another useful tool in the arsenal is the Task lists. I love to-do lists. Every morning I get up and plan my day. I don't like wasted time. Calengoo allows you to make several lists complete with check boxes, because who doesn't like checking things off the lists? Hooray productivity!

With Calengoo you can plan your day down to the very last second! And did I mention the widgets? Awesome!

After only a few weeks with this Bad-A little app, I'm totally in love. It's certainly moved to my top 5 can't live without apps.

It's available on itunes and Play Store, so head on over and give it a try.

Why I refuse to give up my Kindle 3rd Gen

The e-book revolution has evolved. I've been reading e-books for nearly five years. As soon as I discovered them, I had to have them, and it has been a happy obsession ever since. I was reading e-books before it was cool.

Now everyone is doing it.

Every year though our devices are upgraded. Now everyone prefers to read on tablets. Here's why that is a big nuh-uh for me. With the distractions of the social apps, and the mega eyestrain of looking at an LCD screen, it's hard to stay focused for more than twenty minutes let alone the hours that I prefer to immerse myself.

For reading, I still adore my little 3rd Generation Kindle.

I love it's lightweight, the easy to read e-ink pages, the long lasting battery (with wi-fi turned off it can last days), I can load my manuscripts and those of my critique partners on it, I can take notes and highlight,
and I especially love the text-to-speech function (you grow accustomed to the robo-voice.)

That last one is the kicker as to why I will never upgrade from my 3rd gen. I use the text-to-speech all the time. Take this week for instance. I just spent the last three days painting my house getting it ready to put on the market, and in that time I also read a book, cover to cover. My hands were busy, and my mind was occupied.

I've started to rely on the text-to-speech to read to me all through the day, and as a result, I'm making a dent in my reading list! Go me!

What is your favorite reading device and why?

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