After having used several hundreds of iOS Apps over the course of the last 7 years, there is one thing I have come to appreciate a fair bit over the course of that time: that is, in this day and age of abundance (of apps, in this case) having a choice is, certainly, just as good as it gets. It’s no longer about having a single app to perform a specific task, but, in my case, it’s about having a handful of apps to choose from that makes all the difference, so depending on the context, depending on what kind of outcome, or result, I would want to aim for, there is a great chance I will no longer default to making use of a single app, but, instead, have multiple of them and use the one that would fit in my needs the best for that time around. It’s all about having a choice, really, why I heart playing around with different iOS apps to get work done more effectively when completing certain actions. That’s why, as part of this series of blog posts around My Top 5 iOS Apps of the Week, you will see me highlighting and recommending different apps in order to carry out a specific activity.
So it will then be up to you folks to decide which one you may give it a go first and see if it sticks around and, if not, not to worry, there are multiple other options you may be able to choose from that I will be adding further along over the course of time, which, I think, is a good thing on its own, but we shall see how that goes. For this week’s Top 5 iOS Apps we have got Blogging, Productivity (Meetings and Utilities), Photography and Learning. Thus let’s get down to it then:
- BlogPad Pro [iPad Only]: I know how a few weeks back I was recommending one of my favourite iOS blogging apps (Blogo), but there is one other that’s coming up pretty close that I’m starting to enjoy quite a bit as well. It’s called Blogpad Pro, and like the name itself says, it’s a blogging app for professionals, because next to a really nice and user friendly interface, it comes packed up with plenty of really nifty features to help you spice up your own blogging efforts, making it worth while taking a look into, if you are contemplating some other options. I tell you, on an iPad Pro, it’s just superb!
- Zoom: This is really an intriguing one, because on my MacBook Air I have got the tendency to use a number of different emeetings and web conferencing apps, but as soon as I go into my iPad Pro the one single app I almost always default to is Zoom and for a good number of reasons. The quality of the video footage is amazing, I mean, truly amazing, just like being in the same room! Then there is the user interface, which is a no-brainer, even if you have never used the app itself in the past and you are just starting to make use of it. It just works. I really wish other Web conferencing mobile apps were just as easy and effective to use as Zoom is!
- Forevery: A couple of weeks ago I talked about a photography app (Polarr) that was making an entrance with a splash by using A.I. elements to help us sort out the mess our camera rolls can become over the course of time. While I have been using it quite a bit to make sense of the several thousands of pictures I have got in my iPhone, it’s not the only one I am using at the moment. There is another one, Forevery, that I have been using for a lot longer and that I am enjoying as well, more than anything else because it’s way more responsive than Polarr is, but also because some the A.I. elements applied to it provide me with another perspective of the same camera roll pictures, which is really nice when you are not too sure which one to go ahead with and share across. Well, either Polarr or Forevery, they both come to the rescue time and time again, and I’m grateful for that.
- TextExpander: Now, I have been using TextExpander on my MacBook Air for a good few years already and if I were to judge all of the productivity apps I use it would certainly rank higher up within the Top 5. It’s helped me save several thousands of hours of typing further along by automating certain expressions I keep using throughout in my own writings. Or to use a couple of characters to then expand certain common phrases or idioms I use regularly that helps me not having to repeat them time and time again. But if there is anything I’m really grateful about from TextExpander is the group of snippets under HTML that allow me to write blog posts and comments using HTML tags to make them easier on the eye, and in most cases, without me not having to necessarily learn HTML per se, specially, for the more complex tags. So, as you can imagine, when TextExpander came to iOS I just had to install it as well in both my iPhone and iPad and since it syncs across from the desktop with my login credentials it gives me an opportunity to use the very same snippets regardless of what device I’m using at the moment. Talking about massive productivity apps! TextExpander is one that I would surely recommend you check it out, specially, if you need to do tons of (somewhat repetitive) writing!
- Duolingo: And, finally, how about a Learning app? In this particular case, Duolingo. An app that’s certainly helping me keep up with my language skills (for the 4 languages I speak) with enough practice and fancy exercises to make it all worth it on its own, to the point where I have tried a number of other different apps and Duolingo is the only one that is still installed in any of my gadgets. What do I like the most? Well, that you don’t have to download and install an app for each language you may want to learn or keep practising, so having it all in a single app where you can see the progress and switch between one and the other can be just that seamless, you know you are bound to keep coming back! And even though I’m not such a huge fan of gamification components towards learning activities, which is what Duolingo does, the ability to practise with bots is pretty neat. Why? Well, because contrary to real life, they don’t laugh back at you when you say something incorrect or wrong! 😂😂😂 You just keep on going! 😀👍🏻
And that’s it, folks, for this week! As you can see, once again, I made an effort to include in this week’s My Top 5 iOS Apps of the Week blog post a bit of everything, so that there is something out there for everyone, potentially. Hope you have got a chance to play with some of them, and, like I have mentioned in other blog posts, if you can think of an app I should give a try and then decide to include in this series of articles, let me know in the comments and I will be more than happy to check it out and let you know what my thoughts are and, more importantly, whether it’s an app that will remain installed and that I will use from there onwards.
Bring them on!
