Doniree Walker, a blogger and social media consultant from Portland, OR, loves yoga and traveling. She loves to review foodie, travel, and social apps and has done 160 app lists on topics such as Oregon travel and apps in her travel folder.
1. Tell us about yourself – where you live, your job, things you like to do.
I’m a full-time blogger, freelance writer and online marketing/social media consultant. I’m based in Portland, Oregon (for now!), but my clients are all over since most of my work can be done remotely. My clients include non-profits, startups and small businesses. I also help other bloggers migrate or get set up on WordPress, as well as with their personal branding and goal-setting.
I say I live in Portland “for now” because I’m not sure how long I’m going to be here. I’m originally from Minnesota (Twin Cities), and have been spending the past couple of years moving around to cities I find interesting (my first stop was Boulder, Colorado, and I spent a year there). I’m nowhere near close to being done with that adventure! Here in Portland, I love going to all of the Farmers’ Markets and exploring the vineyards and wines of the Pacific Northwest, and in my free time, I like to practice yoga and am training for my first ever race – a 5K! I also travel a lot.
2. Which iOS device or devices do you own?
I own the iPhone 3Gs, and will probably skip the 4 to go straight to the 5 when my contract ends (and I can) next April. I also co-own (share) an iPad with my boyfriend. Three adjectives I’d use to describe my iPhone and/or iPad would be: multi-purposed, handy, and attached-to-my-hand.
3. Is there a particular category of apps that interest you the most?
I will almost always try the latest productivity and note-taking app, because they’re never NOT useful. I also really like apps of any genre that are extensions of services I use on the web – those are always the most useful to me and include Echofon, iMapMyRUN, PayPal, CorePower Yoga, Mint.com, and Harvest Time & Expense Tracker.
4. What are your top 3-5 apps and why?
Beluga – because it connects me to my friends here in Portland, specifically my girlfriends, and makes it really easy for us to keep up and make plans. We use it all the time to figure out when and where to meet for happy hour or movie night, who’s bringing what to potluck, and as a backchannel to just have girl talk on an ongoing basis. I also love this one when I travel to meet other bloggers for conferences or meetups. It’s a great way to coordinate hotel arrival and transportation, as well as just to keep up and make dinner plans. I wrote a guest post about Beluga for Appolicious.
PayPal – I manage a lot of my freelance income through PayPal, and love getting the push notifications to tell me when someone’s paid me! I also use the PayPal Business Debit card, and use the app a lot to find out how much money is in the account when I need to use it.
Echofon – Between personal, professional, and clients, I manage three different Twitter accounts on a regular basis. This app makes that really, really easy to navigate between accounts.
TripIt – See #6 for a full explanation, but it is truly the best travel app I have ever encountered, and I use it every single time I travel.
5. What apps are popular among your colleagues and friends?
Beluga, Facebook, Boxcar (though I’m not sold on it yet), Instagram, Bizzy, and foursquare.
6. Give an example of a time an app was truly useful to you.
I use TripIt every single time I travel, because it stores all of my needed travel information in one place. Hotel address and check-in time. Flight number, baggage claim carousel, delays. Maps of the cities I’m traveling to, and numbers for taxis. The best part is that you can forward your reservation confirmation emails to [email protected] and the app pulls out all of the necessary important information for you, so that you don’t even have to login to your account anywhere and manually enter anything. It’s truly the most useful app I’ve ever used, and I use it every single time I travel.
7. What other Appolicious member do you admire the most and why?
Elysa because she is a constant resource for not only the latest and coolest apps, but also the most useful. She’s also the first person I’d ask about an app if I had questions.
8. Do you have URLs you’d like to share?
blog : http://doniree.com/
food & travel blog: http://nomadicfoodie.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/donireedotcom/http://www.facebook.com/nomadicfoodiefans/
9. Anything else you’d like to share with the Appolicious audience?
I’m always looking for apps that make my life easier and manage information for me – if you have suggestions, I’d love to know what you can’t live without!
Check out doniree’s Appolicious App Library here.
