Once again, it’s that time of the week where we dive into the My Top 5 iOS Apps of the Week series and recommend further along the next round of apps I think would be worth while exploring some more for iOS devices. This blog entry is going to be one about discovery, because two of the recommended apps I will be sharing across will be about two new ones I discovered myself earlier on this week and that they got me hooked up from day one since I started using them. So that should be interesting and perhaps worth while checking out for you folks as well, who knows… At the same time I have been thinking it is probably a good idea to include some keywords about where those apps would fit in, so that you would have an opportunity to figure out, earlier on in the post, what you may be able to expect. So in this week’s Top 5 iOS Apps we have got task management, process automation, podcasting and photography.
Thus, without much further ado here are My Top 5 iOS Apps of the Week – Week #5:
- Trello: There are a number of different task management apps I have been using over the course of the years. Some of them come and go. And others stick around for a while, even in between upgrading devices, and while I realise I will be talking about my favourite ones over the course of time, the one I’m currently using and enjoying quite a bit is Trello. There are a lot of things to like about this particular app to manage yours tasks, but the ones I enjoy the most are the reaffirmation that completing and managing tasks can well be a visually appealing activity to the point where it will hook you up from day one and you won’t be able to escape it that easily.
It integrates fully with a whole bunch of third party apps as well, which is a really nice capability to have, but the one that makes it even worth while on its own is the integration with Slack. It’s just gorgeous and worth while trying in case you may not have just yet. And, finally, the other one thing I really like about it is how flexible it is to the point where you can hack it to achieve almost everything you would want to with it, even to the point of organising your entire life! So when using Trello the only limit I can think of is just your imagination and how you put it to work getting the creative you out of the box. In terms of flexibility very very few apps are just as good as Trello is.
- Workflow: Now, I should state at this point in time that I am not very much in favour of automation per se, but you know there are times when you have got a number of different repetitive tasks or processes you need to take care of while in your iOS devices and knowing there is a superb option out there that could help out tremendously in this regard is a huge bonus. Well, that app is Workflow.
As I keep relying more and more on working mobile either with my iPhone or iPad Pro, I have developed the habit of using Workflow every time I repeat an action or a process three times, at least. That would confirm it is regular enough for me to want to automate it and save myself some time so I could do some other things. If you would want to know how the app works and how you, too, could build up those automated workflows, take a look into this short YouTube tutorial that explains how you can get things started and from there onwards let the play begin!
- Overcast: You know, there are tons of people who keep saying that podcasting is back, and with a vengeance, and I, actually, think they may well be right, because this year alone I’m listening to more podcasting shows than in any other previous years. I listen to them when I exercise first thing in the morning, during work breaks, or at the end of the evening when things start to quiet down a fair bit. And I am loving it, more than anything else because of the app I’m currently using that has got me totally hooked up. It’s Overcast.
It’s got a beautiful design, the ability to sync podcasts in between devices and a really nice user interface that makes it extremely friendly to use. Too easy, perhaps, even. Oh, and I can listen to podcasting episodes streaming them out, or downloading them ahead of time before I go offline for an extended period of time, like when on a plane, which makes the perfect combination, if you ask me. Yes, I realise most podcasting applications on the desktop do all of this already and, maybe, plenty more, but, like I said, I’m mostly on iOS devices nowadays, so having Overcast as my podcasting app is just all I need heh
- Polarr: Just the other day I was counting the number of different apps I’m currently using for various different purposes to process, edit, modify and enhance photos I take with my iPhone 6S Plus and it’s well over a dozen of them at the moment! Ouchie! Yes, I know, far too many! Well, that’s what it takes to go out there and start exploring all of the options, play some more and see what sticks around that fits one’s needs. I got an entire folder with just photography related apps and the list keeps growing on and on and on. So you can expect to see, in upcoming blog posts, an additional number of recommended apps around photography and how I get to tweak photos with them.
However, for this blog post, I’m going to start sharing across a recommendation for the one app I bumped into this week and which I have really enjoyed using so far, specially, on the iPad Pro. It’s called Polarr. It’s free, although if you would want to make use of an extensive list of really cool, fancy, filters and advanced capabilities you could buy those packages separately, but it’s totally worth it. The features and possibilities you have to tweak photos from applying filters, shades, colour, shapes, tilting, saturation, contrast, etc. etc. are just phenomenal, but what I like the most about the app is how easy it is to use and learn quickly about tweaking those photos, when, with other apps, a number of YouTube video tutorials were required by yours truly to make sense of some of their features. With Polarr, no need to, unless you are into the pro editing field. But if you are looking for an app easy enough to use to get some spectacular results, it’s worth while a try, for sure! And yes, no worries, in upcoming blog entries I will share some other apps I use when handling photos. Polarr itself is not the only one…
- The Roll: And, finally, off we go with the last recommendation for this week’s post. And it’s another photography related app I discovered earlier on this week as well and that I’m currently loving it, because it comes to fill in a void that even iOS 10 hasn’t been able to address to the extent I would have wanted it. And I will give you an example of what I mean … The Roll is a free app that allows you ‘automatically organise your camera roll’ and in a very effective manner if I may add. It will eventually apply some AI in order to categorise the photos from your camera roll in such a way that would make you go WOW! From Your Best Photos This Week, to Your Best Photos, it will just group all of your photos according to different group names which you can access through folders and within a matter of seconds, BANG!, you can find all of the photos in your iOS devices associated with one another where it may well be fit, according to those initial groupings. Like I said, just WOW!!
But, don’t worry, there is even more! Another really really interesting and pretty neat capability is that one where from the groups of pictures that it may put together it will tell you which one would rank the highest in terms of aesthetics that would then entice you perhaps to share it across in different media tools. Very much worth while a look, I tell you. If you are crazy about taking all sorts of photos across the board and then try to make some sense of them flawlessly I can strongly recommend you take a look into The Roll, because something tells me you will like it!
And that’s it! That’s the list of My Top 5 iOS Apps of the Week for this week that I think would be worth while having a look into and see if they can make it into any of your iOS devices as well and next week there will be some more. Again, trying to keep a balance between work related apps and for personal use ones, hoping there may well be something out there for everyone to play with. Hope you enjoy them just as much as I do and get ready for next week’s!
Ohhh, and, again, if you have got an app you would want to recommend and that would be worth while trying it out, let me know, as I am always very keen on discovering new cool apps that can help me work more effectively while getting the most out of these iOS devices. Remember, after all, 2016 is the year I, finally, went mobile!
(About time, too!)
