Lists of smartphone apps are not unusual, but those appearing now do appear to have a few consistent entries; some apps that appear to appeal to just about everybody. We thought that it was high time that PIND jumped on this bandwagon and put a few thoughts down for readers about iPhone apps that are either essential for all, or something that we find particularly useful . . .All for One and One for All
Perhaps heading the list for iPhone users is one that seems to appear on most lists: Dropbox. Why? It's a simple way of creating a storage space (2Gb free for starters!) for the iPhone, and of sharing documents between your phone and your desktop device, whether that's a PC or Mac.
Another that comes high on the list of "super syncing" is Evernote. Generally promoted as a note-taking solution, this has a variety of software downloads for all platforms. Syncing your shopping list has never been easier!The Calendar app is a standard item on iPhone, of course, but it took me some little time to work out that I could sync it with my Google calendar (not Outlook - that is pretty straightforward, but we are not Outlook fans at all!). Google apps in general are an essential for many people, including Google Tasks, Blogger, Notebook, etc.
One further standard item is the Safari browser, but for those that get busy with their browsing or just prefer the tabbed approach with full screen working (and are not too keen to wait until iOS5 becomes common currency), we recommend taking a look at Atomic Web.Another piece of current software that will be replaced within iOS5 is Instapaper. If you haven't already got this package loaded [it used to be free of charge], it will now cost you real money, so you might want to wait until iOS5 does come along - it will be a standard feature in that version of the software. What does Instapaper do? It allows you to store web site pages as plain words and spaces for future reading. So far so good, but it also does that by actually keeping this info on board, meaning that you can still read the saved texts when you are out of wi-fi or 3G range (travelling on the tube for example).
Still just about in the "general" section, we would offer a couple of our favourite news sites. OK, everybody has their own preferences; these are just good all-rounders. Both of our suggestions are small and neat at first view, but easily expanded on if you want more detail, or have time for an extended read. Suggestions number 1: BBC News. Suggestion number 2: The Guardian. BBC gives you a good news overview with the opportunity to drill down to the BBC web site story, or you can simply click to go to a live News 24 television feed. The Guardian will now cost you £3.99 for a year, but that is still good value when you consider the physical newspaper cover price of £1 per copy.For those that Write
Those apps that we specifically use for writing based tasks are headed by our favourite: Simplenote. Most of this version of PIND was written in Simplenote on the iPhone 4 with a Bluetooth keyboard in our local branch of Costa. Sometimes its good to write something away from the noise of the office! Simplenote interfaces with ResophNotes on the PC, so that our coffee shop scribbles are transferred immediately back to our desktop machine. Text can then be simply copied and pasted into Word or straight into WordPress.
We could, alternatively, be seeking to update an existing document. Our office kit is backed up in a cloud environment via SugarSync. Installing the SugarSync app on the iPhone means that we can access any file that we have backed-up. By bringing that Word or Excel file into the iPhone app Office2 we can effectively adjust, correct or update the file we have stored. To transfer it back to the PC at the office, save the new file to Dropbox or the equally handy browser based Box.Net. This will allow fast updating of the file on the PC, which will then be backed up to SugarSync again from the desktop machine, completing the cycle.Other on the move favourites? Mashable for tech news; Currency for instant ££ to $$ conversions; iBooks for reading our favourite novels on the train; GoodReader, probably the best PDF reader; and of course GenesisNews, not really an "app" as such, but a bookmark stored on the iPhone home-screen.
You undoubtedly have your own specific favourites - why not mail us at PINDeditor@gmail.com and we will run some details in a future edition.Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 57. Details of our next edition will be added to this link during the course of the week. For an RSS feed of PIND, copy this link into your feed reader; and for the GenesisNews Print Daily, take a look at the link and take out a free subscription!
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