Ok, it’s the end of another year (wow, 2013 went by fast!), so it’s time for another look at what apps I actually used during the year. There are a ton of apps available and new ones are coming out all the time. Honestly I think I have app exhaustion. I just upgraded my iPhone and during the upgrade I took advantage of it to not bring all the apps I had before over to the new phone. Simplify my life a little.
I won’t say these are the best apps or even the coolest apps out there, but they are the apps I use almost everyday. For the iPhone:
- Evernote – Still my number one app. Evernote is a note taking app that sync’s notes between my laptop, iPhone and iPad. If you do not have it go get it now.
- Google Search – love the voice search mode, much better than Siri
- Googe Maps – was using the mobile browser version, but now they have a nice app
- Google Authenticator – please tell me you have 2-factor security turned on for your gmail
- Google Chrome – much better browser and it links up to my browser on my laptop
- Waze – free navigation tool, but I can say on my last few trips during the holidays Waze had issues connecting to it’s routing server so I ended up just using Google Maps. I missed out on the police notifications, but at least Google Maps worked.
- TripIt – can’t be beat when traveling
- Kindle – don’t like reading on my phone, but works great on my iPad
- Dropbox – online storage
- Box – online storage
- Skype – I have a remote team so Skype is essential for communication. With DC traffic I end up running late sometimes so I can just open up Skype and dial in (hands free of course) to the Skype call from my phone. I have learned it is better to have someone else start the call when I do this, just in case I drop the call.
- Keynote, Pages, and Numbers – I hate working on my iPhone, but I can and have in a pinch. Keynote, Pages and Numbers work well and I love them on my iPad and MacBook Pro.
- Twitter – cause sometimes you just have to share and Facebook keeps changing their privacy policies (I do not even have the Facebook app on my phone).
- Reminders and Calendar – these are the applications that are native to iOS. I was using apps for this functionality, but Apple has caught up and the native apps they provide more than meet my needs now.
- Rdio – I have all my music in the cloud (Amazon, Google and iTunes Match) but I still find Rdio handy for music I don’t own and I have been using it more than the iOS Music app lately.
And here are the apps I find I use the most on my iPad at work:
- Keynote – Apple’s version of PowerPoint
- Numbers – Apple’s version of Excel
- Pages – Apple’s version of Word
- Evernote – note taking app that sync’s notes between my laptop, iPhone and iPad. Again, go get it now if you don’t have it!
- Skype – IM and web calls
- Adobe Connect, joinme, and Fuze – online meetings for when we need to screen share
- Google Search – love the voice search mode, much better than Siri
- Google Chrome – much better browser and it links up to my browser on my laptop
- Kindle – I love the feel of a real book, but this way I always have my ebooks with me
- Dropbox – online storage
- Box – online storage
- Feedly – news reader
- BBC News – for news of course
And on my Mac I find I use:
- Evernote – sync’s note between all my laptops, my iPad, and iPhone (also works with droid)
- Google Chrome – best browser out there still
- Caffeine – let’s me turn off the auto sleep mode when I am giving a presentation
- Window Tidy – allows me to have screens side by side in an easy quick way. Honestly I haven’t used it much this year…
- Pocket – allows me to save articles I find to read later
- Skype – with our distributed team at work we are on Skype all day every day for IM and calls
- Box and Dropbox – again
- ClamXav – antivirus for Mac
- And I find I am actually using the native iOS Calendar and Reminder apps on my MacBook Pro now.
- Oh, you are using Grab (in the utilities folder under applications)for capturing screen shots, right?
If the apps I use aren’t what you are looking for you can find the Apple Design Award winners from WWDC2013 at https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/events/awards/ (and I agree Letterpress is addictive). And Apple has their best of 2013 up on the iTunes store now.
Hope the list is helpful. Happy New Year!