How smart phones have changed my blogging.

I've been trying out my first ever android phone the HTC One Mini on a Vodafone $50 Plan offering 4G. It has gotten me thinking how much smart phones have become an extension of blogging and a must have tool for every blogger.

When I started out blogging there was no social media or smart phones. I was actually a bit old school and a late adopter to the smart phone, it wasn't until a friend showed me the internet browsing that I was sold, this was maybe a year after smart phones came out. I'm a little internet obsessed and love being able to have fast internet. I've been on Vodafone's 4G network a few months now and already finding it so much faster.

Anyways I wanted to share with you my favourite apps that I use daily and favourite features of my new HTC One Mini phone.

Favourite Apps for Blogging

Instagram: was love from the beginning! I think pretty much everyone has instagram now and it has in a way become a form of micro blogging. I like to share designers I'm liking on instagram without having to do a whole post, or share pictures from an event I'm at with 4G I no longer have to get frustrated too at the slow loading of images, so much faster!

Diptic: I've been using this a lot more lately for fitting pictures into that perfect square proportions for instagram. Love adding the borders or putting portrait fashion lookbook images side by side.

Pinterest: instant inspiration at my fingertips!

bloglovin: favourite for flicking through blog updates.

Facebook & twitter: of course, although these days I'm finding I'm on them less and more on instagram.

HTC One Mini - Favourite features

Good photography capabilities has become a must in a phone for me and the HTC One Mini has some really cool editing features in their Zoe mode, like object removal, always smiling group shots and moving photo.

Zoe: Object removal! Seeing all the Paris Fashion Week photos in my feeds I wondered how people make it look like they are the only ones at the Eiffel Tower. Zoe has the ability to remove all the movement from a background leaving only your subject.

Another feature that would of come in so hand at my baby shower is the always smiling group shot editing. When taking a group shot in Zoe mode you can then flick through on peoples faces to pick the best face for everyone. Perfect for me who is always closing eyes in photos or pulling a weird face.

Also the 3 second moving photos clips I'll be trying out at the next runway show I go to. So hard to take photos that aren't blurry. The HTC One mini you can take a short clip and then select the best frame out.

BlinkFeed: - this is amazing!! instead of opening a gazillion apps and checking each one, like facebook, instagram, twitter, news the list goes on... BlinkFeed is like an aggregator on your homepage of all these feeds. Then all in one screen I can flick through the updates -(see the picture above for example). I think this feature is only going to get better with the adding of more services and ability to customise the feed more, so less of twitter say and more from instagram. I'd love bloglovin to be on there too and more news options.

BoomSound speakers: - With the speakers for the phone on the front you can watch video on your phone and hear much clearer. This was perfect when I was out to dinner this week and talking about a video on youtube I saw - the best of vine video (you have to watch it, sooo funny!!) I could get my phone out, play the video and we could all watch it and hear it! Normally I'm like "ill have to send you the link to watch later"


The HTC One Mini is available at Vodafone for $0 upfront on a $50 a month post paid plan offering 4G.


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