Instagram, one of my favorite apps, just added a pinch to zoom feature after all these years. Hooray! It only works on iOS for now. Feel free to follow me on Instagram at my earthrobert account so you can zoom in on some of my photos. This feature makes me so happy. 🙂
If you are a fan of Snapchat Stories, then you will probably like Instagram Stories just as much (or maybe more). The concept has been recently launched, and it pretty much mimics how things work on Snapchat. You can post 10 second videos or post photos, the content is gone after 24 hours, you can add text, you can add filters, you can draw with a colored marker, and you can see who viewed your stories – but not who took a screenshot of them. Unlike Snapchat, there are no geofilters or facial-mapping. I don’t know how many Instagram Stories I will be posting, but you can follow me (@earthrobert on Instagram). I totally enjoy the stories that are being posted daily by the accounts that I follow. I am addicted to Instagram, and I may need to seek professional help at some point. 🙂
This is the story of a girl who takes the train to London almost every day. She has some interesting life circumstances. At one particular train stop along the way, she begins to watch a couple at their house. She sees something odd, and then the story gets more interesting. I enjoyed the novel, and it will soon be a movie – I can’t wait for the film version.
Twitter has added Stickers for your tweets! How fun is this? Begin tweeting a photo like you normally would. Then tap on the smiley icon to begin adding stickers to your photo. Add as many as you like, and then tweet it for the world to enjoy. And for the best part, you can tap on any Sticker in a tweet to see who else has been using that same Sticker. If you want to see all of the Smiley Sun Stickers that have been tweeted by the universe, you can do it. I might get lost in this search capability for a while…
I am feeling yucky for the past few days. Down with a cold and a nose that won’t stop running. What can you do but drink lots of fluids, take your vitamins, get some rest, and turn to Netflix to help pass the time. Wildlike is a film that resonated with me. It is about a girl, recently sent to Alaska to live with her Uncle, who can no longer trust anyone to look out for her best interests. It is a slow burn of a movie that gets you wrapped up in her predicament – not to mention the most beautiful Alaskan scenery. Check it out if you have the patience for an independent film like this.
I read this book written by Clara Bensen. I think I had high hopes based on the description from her website.
I had hoped for an awesome travel story, but instead got short descriptions of some of their adventures and long stories about their life philosophy. It seemed like for them, travel was a race across countries with the intention of annoying the native population as much as possible. And what great lovers of travel would actively look to cut their vacation short by actively seeking out a flight that leaves a day earlier than planned? Travel should be about marvelous experiences that show up unexpectedly, and not about being drug along by one of the most annoying people on the planet. I think for her next book she should travel alone and enjoy the little things that make other countries full of wonder.
If you follow my blog, then by now you know that I am a fan of the Periscope App. And it keeps getting more interesting. The latest edition provides for Periscoping directly from certain drone models, and the views are fantastic (sample screenshot above). There is also a new search feature that allows you to search for topics of interest, including a topic for “GoPro & Drones”. How cool is that for a relatively new App that just recently celebrated their one year anniversary? You can find more information on the Periscope Blog, and keep your eyes there for the next new feature that comes along. Oh, and can someone give me about one thousand dollars so I can buy my own DJI Drone starter kit for Periscoping? 🙂
The other thing you can do when you are not feeling so well is finish the novel you are reading. This time I opted for a classic western called True Grit. Probably almost everyone knows about this story from the movies that have been made. It is about a 14 year old girl from Arkansas who hires a Marshall to help her bring her father’s killer to justice. Read the book or see the movies if you haven’t already. They are all great.
May the 4th be with you. To celebrate Star Wars Day, I give you a few screenshots of my Star Wars Uprising character in action.
It looks like version 1.0 of the Tiësto App was launched on March 4th. Where was I? This App is awesome. There is tons of music, videos, podcasts (including the second hour which is available weekly), and the ability to save the podcast to your device for playback later. I tested that feature on my iPod touch in my car over the weekend while making trips to downtown Austin. Everyone in traffic was jealous of me and my groovy Tiësto podcast which was being played back at a most reasonable volume. 🙂
earthrobert 