The 5 Apps I'd Rather Die Than Live Without

The 5 Apps I'd Rather Die Than Live Without

I'm basing this post on a post I recently viewed: The 8 Apps Robert Scoble Would Rather Die Than Live Without (don't forget to read the comments there).

More and more I'm using my iPad and iPhone consistently throughout the day. Though I don't have the exact same apps on each device, there's a lot of overlap.

The following apps are the ones that are definitely on both devices (the first three are also web-based and I use them on the web-platform daily as well). Although I think I could live w/o them,   they help to keep me organized and informed.

Gmail/Google (this link is to the Google search app which allows you access to all of your Google related services)

Pros: Gmail is my default email account for professional and personal. My university is using a Gmail platform for email and my primary personal account is Gmail. So having consistent access is important. And via the app, it's easy enough. And once I'm signed in to this, I can also utilize other Google services like Google+.

Con: Having two accounts can be a pain if you don't set it up properly in the mail settings. And remember, if you change your password on the desktop application, then you'll need to do the same for the app.

Evernote

Pros: I'm using Evernote for just about everything right now:

I have a few ifttt recipes that dump stuff into folders in Evernote.

• For example, when I post images to Instagram, a copy is automatically sent to Evernote.

I definitely host my 'to do' lists on Evernote.

I organize my conference presentations using Evernote
I take notes at meetings using Evernote.

I love the cross platform appeal: I use it on my desktop Mac in my office, on my Macbook Pro laptop as well as on the iPad and iPhone. Seamless.

Cons: My account's getting a bit messy in terms of organization. Also, there have been too many occasions when material/information did not sync in a timely fashion to the devices; that means I'm without some information that I thought I'd have available. Finally, when you overwrite information in Evernote, you can't retrieve the previous version unless you have a paid account.

Looking forward to incorporating on new Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskin journal too (though the journal costs the same in store as online, but the in store version had a pen; #justsayin).

Twitter

I love Twitter and I use it a lot.

Pros: Easy access to my accounts via the official platform; easy toggling between accounts.

Cons: Seems often that not all of the tweets load in when I'm searching a hashtag; that's annoying.

iMessage

I like iMessage for the ability to quickly contact my family. Since there's a 7 hour time difference, the message will be there when they wake up or whenever they check their devices. Great for sending quick pics too. Love the group messaging too (but make sure you don't reply all when you really just want to reply to one person in the group, otherwise, oopsy).

Con: There's no con here. Most of them have Apple devices and it works for us.

Zite

This used to be my all time fav app. Now, it's still at the top, but I've waned on my excessive love for it.

Pros: I like Zite for the ability to discover new information and sources of information that I find interesting and useful. The Zite algorithm is awesome. I like the 'thumbs up' and 'thumbs down' feature to help improve the source material. I like selecting the categories that are of interest to me. And most importantly, I used to like the many options for sharing material: Evernote, Instapaper, Twitter. They used to also have Delicious and they recently removed it in one of the upgrades. I've asked them about that. They responded, but mostly recommended that I reinstall the previous version from my backup. Fair enough; I'm working on that.

Cons: They changed too much in recent months/upgrades (seems since they were purchased by CNN). I don't like the recently updated app. The interface is too busy and not intuitive. Sometimes I liked giving a 'thumbs up' to a source or to 'block' a source. Not sure if you can still do that and if so, it's not intuitive b/c I haven't figured it out yet. I'm very unhappy about the lack of share options - or that I can't share on Delicious. I'd even like to see an option for sharing via Buffer, but no luck on that just yet. 

I don't like the new 'owl' as the logo for Zite. First of all, Hootsuite has an owl. Not that there's an exclusive rights on owls, but ... whatever. The previous clean font with the word Zite was just fine. Leave well enough along. You don't see Flipboard changing their image with every upgrade.

Apparently, I'm not the only one with strong feelings about Zite's recent changes: see this article in TechCrunch and just check the app reviews on iTunes.

I say all that to say, I'm still using Zite on a regular basis, but definitely not as much.

(click the image for image source information)