Today is a special day in the blogathon: we are supposed to blog about our favourite apps. But today I feel like my life is some new kind of app.

The rest of this week I’m attending MagNet2013, the national conference for Canada’s magazine industry. I’ve come to Toronto more lightly-encumbered than I’m used to traveling. In my luggage are: clothes to last until Sunday, my laptop, Smartpen and notebook, toiletries, meds, CPAP and distilled water, one knitting project, Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver and this phone.

This Samsung Galaxy III may be the most valuable item of all. I will use it to keep in touch by text, email and phone, take photos (I elected to leave my Canon at home), navigate, check my itinerary, record notes, and even blog as I am doing now using WordPress for Android. It is an experience learning to slide rather than type my words! I could even record audio and video if the learning curve doesn’t put my neck out of joint.

Writing this way forces me to weigh my words more carefully, because it’s costly to go back and edit. I wouldn’t want to do it all the time but I like the exercise. It’s a new kind of poetry.

It could hardly be called appropriate technology for survival. I wouldn’t want to become too dependent on this phone.

On the other hand it’s a fascinating new tool for interacting with the world. I expect it will change the way I experience the city of Toronto. Life is one big experiment.