I used to log into Google Reader and read though all my RSS feeds. Now, not so much.
Most of my "getting" is through apps on the go. Hands down my favorite for news/twitter/facebook app right now is Flipboard. This one app is worth the cost of an iPad.
I guess I am not alone.
In January over 3 billion apps, just in the Apple ecosystem, were downloaded since the creation of the app store. Incredibly, this amount more than doubled to 7 billion apps by this past month.
I thought I would dig through the mountain of apps this morning and download 7 apps somehow related to water and give them a testdrive.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority
While I don't live in Dubai, this app looked to be a good example. This utility provides a mobile app to its customers where a customer can check their bills, use a mapping tool to find closest place to pay bills, and even watch utility videos. Will all water utilities provide a water app in the future?
I don't think I would be interested in this type of app, until it can provide my water or electrical daily demand. Now that would be powerful.
This app calculates the volume of freshwater used to produce a product and was based on a poster designed by Timm Kekeritz. This is simple to use with close thirty food products, such as steaks, bananas and apples. You can input how many apples you are eating and it will tell you its waterfootprint.
Maybe its just me, but needing to know how much water is used for my delicious steak is not a recurring mobile need. Pass.
Waterprint
This app is similar to Virtual Water, but with more items. It even has a calculator so you can add up your whole meal. However, it is kind of clunky. Again, not sure about the pent up mobile need for this app.
Water Facts
Oh my, 89 water facts in one mobile app. My first thought was I better not have paid for this piece of junk of an app. You can shake your iphone and then it displays a small water fact such as “It takes X gallons to take a bath” This is beyond awful. Double Pass.
Drip Detective
Water: Environmental Quiz
CreekWatch.
This app was developed by IBM as a part of their smarter planet initiative as a possible way to “crowdsource” watershed data. A person can report on a particular waterway, use the app to take a picture and report how much trash or how much water there is. You can see contributions from other people on a map.
The Creek Watch App uses the following data:
1. The amount of water: empty, some, or full.
2. The rate of flow: still, moving slowly, or moving fast.
3. The amount of trash: none, some (a few pieces), or a lot (10 or more)
While this is a real app with the muscle of IBM backing it, it is only a start. What would be really cool is if they tied this crowdsource collected data with USGS gaging stations and other other online data sources. Give it a try.
Please comment if there are some other ones out there that are good.
