One of the things I am finding really interesting from the My Top 5 iOS Apps of the Week series of blog posts is the fact that it’s an exercise that’s helping me really evaluate how I eventually make use of either my iPhone or iPad, whether for personal, private use or whether for work, and I must admit that at this point in time there is just such a blend between the two types of apps that I no longer make a distinction for neither of them. To me, they are just apps with a job in mind to execute, and do well, and then move on to the next thing. And it’s intriguing, a fair bit, because when I was a salaried employee it wasn’t like that. I had a good number of folders, in each device, that would help me classify and organise the apps accordingly as to which ones were related to work or not. I am not too sure whether, somewhere along the way, I lost that urge to keep everything organised to the extenuation or, on the other hand, whether my freelance life has taken over helping me understand that one and the other are pretty much the same thing: me as a knowledge (Web 2.0) worker trying to remain productive AND effective while on the move!
Thus, here we go, once again, with the next blog entry in the series sharing along the different apps I enjoy making heavy use of from either device, whether iPhone or iPad. As you will be able to see for this week, there is a little bit of a blend between work and personal use related apps, so I’m hoping there will be a bit of everything for everyone. As usual, unless it’s specified otherwise, the app would work both in iPhone and iPad, so without much further ado here are My Top 5 iOS Apps of the Week – Week #4:
- Box: Yes, I know there are a bunch of file sharing applications and services out there with Dropbox, perhaps, being one of the most popular ones. Alas, for me, Box is the one that pretty much hits the nail on the head and for a good couple of reasons. As a starting point, I have got two different accounts making up to 60GB of disk space, which suffices my needs pretty well without having upgraded just yet and, secondly, it’s incredibly pervasive helping me work more effectively with my documents regardless of which device I may be using, whether iPad, iPhone or MacBook Air.
Eventually, all of my files and documents are in sync, so whenever I’m on the move I know where to find that particular document for that specific client presentation and right at my fingertips. It can’t get any better than that. Oh, hang on, it does! I love how Box keeps integrating with other third part apps, specially, Enterprise Social Networking tools which makes it extremely easy for everyone to work with documents while inside the ESNs themselves. It’s like an extension of the capabilities already offered but with a better opportunity of making sense of the documents you are currently working on, because that’s the only thing you can do with Box, effective social file sharing.
- Paper: With my iPad Pro and my Apple Pencil Paper is, by far, the single app I enjoy the most for a good number of different productivity related activities, going from Note Taking (Although I use a few other apps in this realm that I will be talking about over the course of time), to sketching, to doodling or just simply try to get out some of my crazy ideas into whatever the visual that comes along, if at all. It’s just such an amazing app that even I, someone who doesn’t even have a single skill for drawing anything, can get something done with it! With a bit of time, and tons of practice, it helps you get better and better by the day to the point where whenever I have got those idle moments where I’d want to jot down something Paper is the app I am, almost always, ending up in. But then again, upon watching in YouTube a number of different tutorials about how to make the most out of it, I can only realise I’m just getting started, but I’m loving it! Highly recommended if you would want to venture into the world of doodling and sketching with a superior user experience!
- MindNode: And talking about love, I love MindMapping, did I tell you about that before? I think I have been using MindMapping apps for over 10 years, if not longer, and during the course of that time I may have used several dozens of applications in a good number of computing devices, yet, the one single app I keep coming back to is MindNode. It’s, by far, one of my favourite MindMapping apps and while I know I will be talking about a few others over the course of time that may well be worth while checking out, the one I’d recommend using nowadays first would be this one. Most people may not know this, but I usually get to prepare my initial sketches for presentations in MindMaps where I get to develop different ideas, connect them, word them, and then start looking for some kind of order and visuals to go along with them. They are incredibly powerful and when thinking about writing down different ideas or list items there is no better way to make sense out of them all than using a MindMap. It’s one of those essential productivity apps I would definitely recommend everyone to take a look, even for personal use!
- CityMapper [iPhone Only]: Whenever I get to travel to a major city (They are currently listing over 200 of them at the moment!, if I recall correctly) and I happen to be lucky enough to be connected either via mobile data or WiFi, CityMapper is one of the main traveling & map apps I use on a regular basis, specially, when I may need to resort to public transport to get out and about in the city. It’s one of the most comprehensive and user friendly traveling apps I have used in years and one that becomes part of the survival kit when going to a major city in order to avoid getting lost. Of course, not all cities are available just yet, but you can either vote for your own city or for other potential candidates which means it keeps getting updated on a regular basis with more city maps. But, again, if you are going to a major city some time soon, and are connected to the Internet via your mobile phone, CityMapper is one huge assistant to help you not get lost in the process! It’s saved me a few times already in the last couple of years and just can’t take it off my iPhone at the moment.
- Spotify: I know there are tons of live streaming music services out there, going from Google Play, to Tidal, to SoundCloud or even Apple Music, but the one I keep coming back over and over again has always been Spotify. You see? There are a lot of things I quite like about Spotify itself, including as well the wonderfully inspiring capability of pretty much nailing it in terms of helping you build the playlists you know you’re going to enjoy the most (Discover Weekly, Release Radar and the Daily Mixes are some of my favourites). There are also a lot of things you can stream via Spotify that you may not even have heard about in the past to make it even more useful. It even claims that it knows you better than yourself. But the main reason why I keep coming back to Spotify to livestream music, or listen to it offline, is because the overall user experience is far superior, in all devices, to everything else, helping you focus on what you just want to focus on, i.e. listening to some really good music, versus trying to figure out how the app really works.
And to get all of what you get for the monthly prize of being a premium user, it’s just too tough to beat it. To the point where I eventually resisted the temptation of going elsewhere, as most folks may have done already, and decided to stick around with it. A few months later, still no regrets and loving it as if it was the very first day of listening to unlimited music in your own terms, at your own pace, while enjoying all the benefits. Plus plenty more!
And that’s it! That’s the next round of My Top 5 iOS Apps of the Week. Hope everyone gets to enjoy them and, like I have said in previous blog posts, if there is an app you would want to suggest, recommend I try out, let me know in the comments and I’ll be more than happy to and then report back on how I got along with it and whether it’ll be making it for good in my iOS devices over time. Who knows, there may well be a great chance for that to happen, because you never know what’s going to enhance your own productivity or even make you enjoy your mobile devices just a little tiny bit more!
That’s how we roll, right?
