OK folks, summer is half over and before we know it the snows will swirl around our feet as we go out for the mail. We’ll remember the sunny days of July and think, “Wow, they sure went by fast!” The lazy, hazy days of summer are a great time for relaxing and…exploring new uses for our digital devices. We at BoomerTECH Adventures challenge all of our readers to try something new during the remaining summer days. Here are a couple of suggestions:
- Explore a new place
- Try a new cuisine
- Delve into the world of blogs
- Create your own personalized radio station to listen to as you sit in your deck chair
- Travel from your armchair
Here’s how!
- Use your Maps or Google Maps app to lead you to a brand, new destination. They both have directions for cars, on foot and transit. Therefore you can explore a rural area or a part of a city you’ve never seen.
Here are two sites to help you learn how to use the map apps:
2. Download the free app AroundMe to find a restaurant you have never tried. Get adventurous and look beyond McD’s or Pizza Hut or your local favorite. AroundMe identifies the type of cuisine as well as provides Yelp reviews and the menu. Get adventurous—try Indonesian or Vegan or Moroccan. You never know what’s around the corner until you look!
Tease your taste buds with new flavors!
3. Social media allows everyone to publish their ideas these days. Not that you would want to read everyone’s opinion! However, if you have a special interest, checking out bloggers who share that interest might be interesting and informative. For example, just look at the following images of blog pages!
Stamp collecting, fine wines, fly-fishing, fabric art—there are blogs on just about any topic you can image. Widen your horizons and broaden your knowledge. To locate a blog just search blogs + topic and you will find multiple choices.
4. Love music? Don’t want to spend money? Pandora.com is for you. Set up your own personalized radio station and listen through your digital device any time and any place. Right now I am listening to the 60’s Oldies Radio and rocking out to “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” by Manfred Mann. Of course, I object that 60’s music is considered “Oldies” (Oldies should be my parents’ music—you know the Big Band era) but what are you going to do!?! When you go to Pandora.com you will be asked to to set up an account with your email and a password. To download a quick guide, click here. “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees is making my toes tap now—think I might switch to the Beach Boys station—feels like a California kind of day. Yes, you can have multiple stations. Here’s a FREE Tip Sheet to get started with Pandora.
Click here for your Pandora Tip Sheet
5. Sometimes circumstance keep us from leaving home. The power of the internet, however, is that we can go anywhere in the world from our armchairs. Google Earth and live webcams bring the world to us. Google Earth is a free app for digital devices or a download for a computer. Go to your app store or https://www.google.com/earth/
Here are two screen shots of Hong Kong when I visited via Google Earth–pretty cool. I learned that Hong Kong is surrounded by dense trees.
Live webcams are easy to find. Just type in webcam + topic or location. Here’s what I found when I googled African elephants + webcam.
If none of these challenges appeal to you, then find another one. Maybe Pokemon Go is for you! https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/22/apple-says-pokemon-go-is-the-most-downloaded-app-in-its-first-week-ever/?ncid=mobilerecirc_featured
Enjoy the rest of the summer! I am rockin’ on out to the words of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” on my Pandora station.
And don’t forget your FREE Pandora tip sheet. Just click below.
Click here for your Pandora Tip Sheet
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