My most used apps
Lets be clear. I’m a Apple nut. I love Apple products. My first purchase was a iPod photo 5 years back. I followed it with iPod Shuffle 3 years back. Then, 2 years back I made my significant purchase – iMac 27”. I fell in love with the machine, the apps. I just loved them. I didn’t want to leave this beast at home and go to office and work on the dull windows computers. Later that year, I purchased my MacBook Pro 15”. Another love affair. I type this post on that machine. And, finally, last year, I purchased a long delayed, much wanted iPhone 4. I’ve never loved gadgets as much as I loved my phone and macs; the ecosystem of apps they brought-in – changed the way I look at technology and enriched my life. Searching for apps, both for my iPhone and Mac became a hobby.
I’ve use my iPhone a lot for browsing and as a PDA that I sometimes forget its a phone. I see it as a mini-computer, a satelitte to my mac. So, how do I use my iPhone? What are the apps I have? How do I get my work done?
I love customizing my home screen. My most used apps reside here. I never stick to one arrangement of apps, the order keeps changing. So, I’ll not focus on the arrangement of apps, but more on what apps I use
- Reeder: This is the first app I open when I getup from bed. I catch-up with all the news from my favorite websites, and share them to Facebook, Evernote or Instapaper. The minimalistic UI is so good that all you focus is on reading the news without any distractions. I use the same app on my macs also. My only gripe is that there is no way to manage subscriptions from within the iOS apps.
- Kindle: I’m a book worm, and I’ve practically converted my phone to a e-reader with this app – I love to read physical books instead of e-books, but the ease of use, portability have changed my opinion a little. Moreover, iBooks is not available in India, and the only place I can buy ebooks is Amazon. So, I downloaded this app and go about my reading habit. One of my best time investments.
- Instapaper: I use this app to save any article for reading offline or when I’ve enough time. I use this to save articles which I’m yet to read and those which are favourites, to which I need access offline – all the others worth saving go to Evernote after reading. The UI is good, especially the full screen & tilt- scrolling features . Also, love the ‘feature’ feature in the app. It shows the best articles which have been saved to instapaper by others. Nice touch. Internet on mobiles is either absent or slow in India, so this app gets used quite a lot.
- Instacast: I’ve recently started listening to podcasts. And, always connecting to iTunes to download podcasts is a tedious way to listen/download podcasts. So, I bought this app and subscribing, streaming & downloading of podcasts is a breeze with this app. Not sure if theres a way to export downloaded podcasts to iTunes. If this feature is already not there, then this is one to be added.
- Due: This is the best reminders app on iOS. It uses the natural language parsing technology to input reminders/alarms. its quick to load and enter; saving valuable time, especially when in a hurry. Nasty alarm sounds make sure you see the reminder. Other notables: Notifyme
- Calendars: I sync my work appointments to Google Calendar, and, personal to iCloud, and “Calendars” is by far the superior calendar app I’ve seen on the iPhone. It has adquate features and has a minimalistic feel to it. It gets out of the way. Adding a appointment is easy and just takes a few clicks with the custom keyboard which pops up to add an appointment. The app also supports, google tasks in a seperate tab. Other notables: Calendars/Calvetica
- Things: I live in ‘Things’ inbox. This app gets used more than my phone and message apps. I use this app in sync with the “Things” mac app. Beautiful UI, lick-able icon & ease of use define this app. Excellent for GTD. It could use some work, add some featues like saved searches, timely reminders, sub folders, etc. But if you follow Mr. Allen’s advice, and do your weekly reviews, this app is more than enough. I just love this app. I can’t imagine not having this app by my side all day long. Addicted? You bet I am. And, no regrets. By, the way, it’s in my Dock. Other notables: 2Do, Omnifocus
- Drafts: This is one app I’ve been looking forward from the day I bought my iPhone. A quick, hassle free way to enter text. It pops open in 4 seconds to a new text window where you can enter text and forget about it. No need to save – its always there. Added to this is a slew of options to manage the text – save to dropbox, create a to-do in ‘Things’, send to email, copy to clipboard, etc. This one is in my Dock.
- Evernote: Internet is gaga over this app and its use justifies the hype. Its a online repository of any kind of information you would want to store. From web clippings to notes to scanned copies. Any kind of file can be uploaded to Evernote. The best part is the “search” in this app is so advanced that it can search not only through the headings but also through the matter in every document/post/photo. This is the best app to store all your digital research material. I hate the icon and teh UI is bad. These two features need work. If not for daily use, this app wouldnt be on my home screen.
- Byword: This is my favourite dropbox enabled text editor. I use its counterpart on my macs. I like to save any important notes in a place which is platform independent and “dropbox” is the best place to store your documents/notes. Byword not only stores notes in dropbox, but makes them available offline (unlike Evernote), and any changes after that will be uploaded when you are online next time (but this feature needs more work). The UI is minimal to non-existant. But, it differs from the desktop app in some ways – no dark mode, the UI of the mac app is just super good, but the iOS one needs some dark fonts. Its too light and hurts the eyes. Other notables: Elements
- Taskpaper: I use this app for writing outlines and making lists. I was not sure why I needed this app, but the minimal UI attracted me. At $10 this is a pricey app. But, it’s really great at making outlines. I take a topic, make it a project, and keep adding points below it (instaed of tasks). Once I’m done with it, I use its mac app to open and copy the points to Byword where I flesh it out to create a full blog post/article. Very nice app. I’ve stopped using this app to make lists though. I found it a little cumbersome to search all my lists. So, I moved that function to ‘Reminders’ app.
- Day One: I maintain a journal. and this is a best digital version. I use it in conjugation with the mac app. Beautiful UI, password protection, minimal distractions, focused on helping you to write are this app’s best features.
- 1Password: This is another app, I use with its mac counterpart. Though it lacks the functionality of its mac counterpart, its still the best way to store all your passwords and protect them with the best in class encryption. I dont know what I’ll do without this app.
- Facebook: the stock app of Facebook. Nothing great to talk about this, but good app. I guess the navigation panel introduced in this app, has been replicated in scores of other apps. Nice way to browse Facebook on mobile.
- Tweetbot: I have to confess, I’m not a twitter junkie and neither do I follow many in Twitter. Most of my friends are in Facebook and not in Twitter. But, I love to use this app. Its just beautiful to use. I use this app daily just to see the aesthetics. A very well designed app. if you are a twitter nut or a power user, look no further.
- Verbs: This is a beautiful IM client. This is a app Apple would include by default. It has a safari like interface to move between pages, to move between chats. But, it does not have push notifications and requires an in-app purchase to stay logged in for 7 days and enable push notifications.
- Moneybook: This is where I track all my expenses. Both recurring and daily. I’ve tried a couple of high tech apps from the app store, but the simplicity and beauty of this app won me over. Its been a part of my home-screen for a very long time. It backs-up data to its web client: mymoneybook.com, where it can be accessed.
- Quotebook: This is a new addition to my iPhone. I love collecting quotes. i’ve been maintaining snipetts of text everywhere, from my mac to dropbox to AwesomeNote. Its nice to collect all of them in one place. A personalised quotebook. Export to email option available.
These are some of the apps, I use on a daily basis. Let me know what you think of it and about your apps.
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