Apps Weekly - Issue 24 - The magic of “getting bored”

My Two Cents...

A weekend unplugged has done wonders! 🏖

Before we get to the apps, I want to tell you about the last weekend where we instead went App-Free. Heck, we went nearly phone-less completely.

If this topic isn’t your jazz, scroll down to the News Bytes section. If you’re still curious... read on.

Val and I packed only swimwear in a small bag, traveled 2 hours north from Playa Del Carmen by bus, then took a ferry boat over to a little hidden gem called Holbox Island, Mexico.

It’s an adorable beach town island with no paved roads, no cars and only bicycles and golf carts to get around.

We checked into the amazing Aidea Kuka resort, lounged ocean and poolside, indulged in delicious food and beach drinks, rented bikes and rode up and down the sand, and just chilled out.

We barely even talked to anyone. We just simply unplugged, and enjoyed the environment around us.

There’s this concept that Val brought up a few months ago around the idea that it’s important to go and purposefully become bored. In doing so, you remove all the little things in things that fill the gaps in your life, like our phones for instance, and you give yourself a chance to empty your brain so fresh ideas have a shot at coming in.

That happened this weekend. For me it basically took all of Saturday to get to this brain purged state but it did eventually naturally occur.

What happened after is for Val and I only but the conversations and creativity that followed were something magical and we arrived back in Playa Del Carmen with fresh motivation and a clear picture of where we want to go professionally and how we intend to get there.

Story over... I’d like to know if you enjoy this little non-app blurb I share here.

Hit Reply and let me know. Cheers!

And with that... let’s talk about apps.

News Bytes

The dating app that’s only open 1 day a week... This is Thursday.

I find this fascinating. This dating app is only turned on, on Thursdays.

I feel like that creates a new thrill of “Who might I meet this week?”, and also probably cuts down on so much smalltalk and gets people meeting in-person faster.

I haven’t been on a dating app in ages but I see friends becoming addicted to it. Perhaps this is an innovative way to help people from themselves while accomplishing the initial purpose... meeting people to go on a date with.

Thursday App also requires government I.D. to join and there’s a 1-strike reporting banning policy. Perhaps that’ll encourage people to put their best foot forward.

Rumor has it Microsoft is looking to acquire the Discord App for $10,000,000,000... yes that’s Billion$

I always think of Discord as the “other Slack app”.

Discord is very popular amongst the gamer communities but it’s also used by many verticals for community chat.

GroupMe was acquired by Microsoft years ago and that’s like “the other WhatsApp”.

Is this a good thing for the big companies to scoop all these apps up or not? I’m not sure but the trend continues to happen all the time.

My App Recommendation

I’ve found a new favorite pre-bedtime game. This is see/saw

I loved this game so much I had to research the developer further to understand where this imagination derives from.

Kamibox is the brand of artistic genius Phillip Stollenmayer.

He’s also the artist responsible for last week’s recommended app, Bacon!

You can see his beautifully playful style in all his apps and I now know I’m going to have a ball trying them all over time.

”Phillip, by now I’ve reached out to you in hopes that perhaps I could have a short virtual coffee chat to learn more of your story... hoping you’re open to it as well.”

I just love when I feel like I’m playing a game where I feel like I’m immersed within the artist’s imagination. This is 1 of those special apps and it appears all the apps at Kamibox.de are like this too.

And Lastly...

Still seeking feedback from you on the app videos

As I close this newsletter, I want to plug my upcoming How to do cool things with the apps you use video series.

I’m trying to figure out what apps you use already and what apps you’d like to learn more about.

If you’d take a moment to fill out this 2 question survey, it would be most helpful.

Cheers to you all and I’ll see you next week with more fun info from the App’osphere.

See you later AppThusiasts!