A Day In My Life As Told By Apps


If you, like me, are a Minnesotan of a certain ilk, you woke up Wednesday with a bit of magic in your future.

I, however, started out the day not knowing I would make it to the mega-lineup of Bob Dylan, Wilco, My Morning Jacket and Richard Thompson. It wasn’t until I opened the email app on my Lumia 521 (why I am using a Windows Phone instead of an iPhone is fodder for a whole other blog post), that I learned Alli couldn’t make it to the show, and that her loss was my gain.

A Nokia Lumia 521

Email was far from my first app of the day though. I probably wouldn’t have woken up if it were not for my alarm app. After grudgingly rising from my slumber and nearly throwing my phone across the room, I checked the forecast on The Weather Channel app, caught up on national news with the New York Times app, saw what friends were doing with the Facebook app, and got the latest tech, marketing and transfer news from the Twitter app. Basically, the standard morning app experience. Really, I’m just waiting for an app that will make me coffee, too.

My e-mail accounts inexplicably all have different icons.

My e-mail accounts inexplicably all have different icons.

I have been a big fan of Flipboard, and it’s been tough to live without, but there was news Thursday that it too is coming to Windows Phone.

I didn’t, in fact, open my email until after I had boarded a bus bound for the North Loop. I knew when to expect the bus thanks to Nokia’s wonderful suite of Here navigation apps. That’s when I got the news I’d be seeing a great concert.

Of course I usually keep track of when and where all my favorite bands are playing with the Songkick app.

After getting through the morning’s work, it was time for lunch. Had I been in unfamiliar territory, I would have opened up the Yelp and Urbanspoon apps and compared notes before picking an eatery. But instead I just grabbed lunch at the same spot I had the two previous days, and upon checking in, Foursquare decided I had a sandwich problem and crowned me king, err mayor.

A few hours, and some more work later and I was headed for St. Paul’s Midway Stadium via a quick stop at Jörg’s house and a short walk. Upon entering the stadium, I lucked out by seeing a friend at the front of the craft beer line who was able to get me a brew instead of me waiting. In fact, I should probably send her an invitation to drink with me on the Untappd app.

Another Foursquare check-in revealed that I wasn’t alone at the concert; I even learned from it that my cousin was present and it was his birthday.

As MMJ took the stage, phones went up all around me, recording videos on Socialcam, Vine and Instagram. None of those apps are yet available for my Windows Phone, but that’s OK as I have grown quite tired of camera phones at concerts.

Later, Wilco, and then Dylan, had their turns at six-second social stardom, and as the night wrapped up the phones made their way back into pockets.

Not long ago, I would have needed local and national daily newspapers, some regional magazines, a couple cameras, numerous notebooks and a rotary telephone to even try to reach the level of connectedness a phone full of apps gives me today. It’s not that I’m not nostalgic at all, but you can have all that.

The times, they are a changin’, indeed.