Daniel Bostic: What’s on my Start screen
The life of Daniel Bostic, actor, college student and self-proclaimed rabble rouser, is filled with classes, auditions, social media, and more. What apps does he find most useful on his Lumia 830?
You may have seen Daniel in our recent Vine series on #LumiaLove. He was also recently featured in this Microsoft “spotlight” story, photographed in Hollywood, on how he uses his Lumia 830.
The gregarious 22-year-old juggles classes at Anderson University in South Carolina with growing his acting/modeling career, staying up-to-date on politics, and interacting with his 141,000 followers on Twitter, among other pursuits.
His Lumia 830 keeps him organized and connected to his friends as well as helps him relax when he has some down time.
So, Daniel, what’s on your Start screen?
Here’s a sampling:
Cortana (available in select markets)
“I use Cortana all the time. I’ll wake up in the morning and ask her, ‘Do I need to wear a jacket when I go outside?’ She knows what I like. I don’t know what the algorithms Microsoft uses for news curation, but I can’t tell you how many times I look at Cortana [on my Start screen] and see headlines I want to read.
“Also, there was a certain stock I was interested in and I was looking at it on Bing and there was a button that said “add to watch list” and now Cortana tracks that stock for me. That’s so cool.
“And the accuracy with which Bing/Cortana can predict sports scores and political elections is astounding. Plus, she’s just plain fun to talk to. She sounds like a human and not a robot.”
“I cannot say enough good things about this app. My friends and I all use it to communicate. It is so fast. It syncs instantly with my computer, tablet, and smartphone. My favorite thing about this app is that it is privacy focused. This app encrypts all messages so that they’re more secure.”
Nokia Camera
“I love the Camera app. I’m not super into the manual controls, I have friends who are photographers and I can say, ‘I can give you DSLR camera stuff on the phone.’ It’s definitely the best camera app out there.”
“This app flows so well with the rest of the Windows Phone user interface. It does a lot of the same stuff that Telegram does. I have it on my desktop and on my phone so it’s really nice to be able to use it wherever.
“We’re just going through a website relaunch. I just hired someone and so we Skype all the time. Then we can go back and forth and he can send me attachments.”
OneNote and Office Lens
“Everything’s in OneNote. I have different folders in there for different parts of my life, like school and acting.
“I have a Surface Pro 3 and I handwrite all my notes on my Surface and I put them all on OneNote. If I’m cramming for a test, I’ll be walking to class and I can see all the notes both on my Surface and on my Lumia.
“I also keep to-do lists in OneNote, stuff like if I need to get my car fixed. I also use OfficeLens a lot. If a teacher has a huge equation on the board, I can just take a photo of it and it will be transcribed into OneNote. Amazing.
“It feels like I am always traveling and whenever I travel, I use Uber. With Uber, I have instant access to a classy, safe, and reliable ride. When I was in DC, I Uber’d all around the city. I can’t even remember the last time I used a taxi.”
Other games and apps that Daniel has on his Start screen include aa, a puzzle game; Trivia Crack; Aeries (“I’m a Twitter freak and this Twitter app has a ton of cool features”) and Duolingo, an app that makes learning language fun (“I have to take a Spanish class next semester, so I’m trying to get a leg up.”).
Want to learn more about what Daniel has on his Start screen? Follow and send him a line on Twitter, where he tweets as @debostic.