…for no other reason than I’d like to be able to throw this question back to you guys; today I’m going to share my top 5 most-used apps. Non-iPhone users, look away now.
It’s true that I’m addicted to my iPhone and it’s for one reason, and one reason only: apps. The range and breadth of utilities, timewasters and memory-makers is unparalleled and I’ve gone from someone who never even turned her phone ON, to someone who gets itchy fingers if I can’t plug it in beside my bed.
I’ve been using Boxcar for a few weeks and it’s become my all-in-one solution to keep me updated on my social networks, emails, and RSS feeds. It sends me push notifications whenever I get a new email, tweet or facebook message.
It even lets me know when someone comments on the blog or if the blog experiences any downtime. I have been able to turn off push notifications for all my other apps and consolidate everything into one, saving constant updates (from different apps) and resources. It even lets me set a ‘quiet time’ to ensure that I don’t receive any notifications when I’m sleeping! Love it. (£free but with an optional purchase to remove ads)
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of eBay and I use it to uncover all sorts of bargains. My favourite things to buy on the site are bargainous nail polishes from the U.S. (OPI, China Glaze and Zoya mostly), the ‘drugstore’ type products that we just don’t get easily over here (Wet n’ Wild, NYX etc), and pretty beauty-related things from Asia. With the app, I’m able to receive notifications when an auction I’m watching is about to end, I can bid directly from my phone and even complete the sale via Paypal. It makes my shopping habit mobile. A wonderful thing! (£free)
Where would I be without Twitter? A lot more productive I’m sure! There hasn’t been an app to date that has fulfilled everything I want but Tweetbot is as close as I’ve gotten to twitter/iphone harmony in a long time. It feels polished, streamlined and has an easy-to-use interface which is both intuitive and visually attractive. It has features that blow some of the other Twitter apps out of the water with the ability to “mute” users and filters (cough) and also provides full conversation threading. (£1.99)
I have a bunch of photography applications on the iPhone (instagram, snapseed, picframe to name but a few) but none is more important than the app I use to take the picture right? Camera+ builds on the functionality of the iPhone’s native camera app and returns increased usability with features such as the ability to set different area for exposure determination than focus. You can also use the apps built in self-timer, burst modes (great for shooting fast-moving action), and best of all? It loads up faster than anything else I’ve tried. (£0.69 on sale)
I work better when I’m up against the clock! I’m a dreadful procrastinator with a penchant for easy distraction and Timer+ forces me to concentrate my efforts into little bursts of productivity. It lets me visualise light at the end of the tunnel and breaks chores down into more managable chunks. I simply set the timer, assign it a task and away I go. I know that the iPhone has a built-in timer but this allows me to preset various timers for a number of tasks, allowing for minimal faffing about when it’s time to get some work done. 30 minutes housework? 3-2-1…. go! (£free)
I can’t believe I haven’t even touched upon any of the games, travel or photo-editing apps on my home screen! Alas, I strictly limited myself to five and for once, I will show some restraint!
What are your most-used apps on your phone right now?
My top 5 (excluding echofon for Twitter) are: My Fitness Pal for food & exercise tracking, Medi-Prompt which reminds me to take my medication but will also tell me when I’m running low and it’s time to re-order, Batch which allows you to create batches of pics from your photos for uploading to Facebook/Twitter, Flipboard for a one stop shop for magazines and interesting articles and Evernote for making notes and synching to the computer.
I also use a period tracker “P Tracker” which is brilliant but not everyone will see the need for!
eBay is one of my favourites for bargin nail polishes too. My fitness pal is great too for controlling my chocolate allowance. 😉
The Etsy app and Amazon app are good for a bit of window shopping. I like Flipboard for beauty and fashion blogs but not for anything else. I use Reeder for nail art blogs and everything else. Oh and recently I was impressed with OPIs nail app. it lets you virtually try on all the OPI colours and collections and has a feature for changing the virtual hands skin tone to match your own. It isn’t as great as a proper real life swatch on a blog but at least OPI really tried with this app.
I hadn’t heard of Boxcar so going to check it out. Plus Medi-prompt sounds useful. Thanks Long Tall Ally?
Oops didn’t realise I put a question mark at the end of my comment. It’s a typo, sorry!
Echofon for Twitter and Facebook are the most used apps, followed by the TVGuide app and Amazon. I’ve recently started using the Blogger app so I can blog at work and on the train. I also use iTorch4 a lot because the hallway & stair lights in my flat are broken grrr.
Pretty boring list but my iPhone is my life. I actually dreamt last night that it got stolen and I was so upset when I woke up. Like a saddo!
do you know what would be great??? I would love to know your top from e-bay with international shipment. You know best products, best prices and so on…I would love to know who and what you prefere because I love ebay but till know I wasnt brave enough to try it or buy something. And when I like something it is only in USA not internationally…so that would be really great post abou ebay cosmetics shopping!!!!:)
I don’t have an iPhone because I refuse to pay four times the price for things that begin with i (wanted to get an iPod but at over 200 quid I decided to go for a Sony mp3 player instead), but I do have a smartphone (cost me 120 quid with 100 quid credit included), so it’s pretty much the same I guess. I’m quite boring though and mainly just use the internet, Twitter, eBay, Facebook and erm, not sure what, the camera? I’m not an app addict, and this is the first smartphone I’ve ever owned (only had it for 3 months, so still learning), but I can see why people like it. 🙂 (God I sound like a grumpy old woman, don’t I? I guess because I AM a grumpy old woman, lol.
Like the sound of Boxcar. My most used apps are eBay, Kindle and Draw Something!
I use eBay app all the time, and purchase wet’n’wild that way (just bought the 8 pan palette from the seller you bought the lipstick from. Its so quick nd easy and with pay pal you don’t even need to input your card details. Which is bad for my bank balance, I guess :p
I love the Couch to 5K app, which makes the workouts so much easier since it times things for your and RunKeeper to keep track of my milage – both are free, at least in the US.
I agree with the above commenter that P tracker is great for tracking your cycle. There’s a free version, but I use the paid one (no adds).
I love Dropbox, though I use it more on my iPad than phone – but sometimes I want to download something to Dropbox from my phone, so it’s great to have it installed. Free.
I use Instapaper to save articles for reading offline later – like on an airplane. It’s paid, but Readability is free and basically the same.
Oh my God, your homescreen is so well-organised! Mine is about eight pages long now… My favourites:
1. KawaiiMegu – kind of like a Tamagotchi for the iPhone, cute little Japanese character who you have to feed, take for walks, clean etc. It’s seriously adorable (and contains lots of cute Japanglish) and weirdly addictive.
2. Lo-Mob – some really beautiful vintage-style filters.
3. MyFitnessPal – someone else has mentioned this, it’s really great if you’re on a diet. It knows the calorie content of practically everything I’ve ever put in, & you can enter your exercise too.
4. My Weekly Budget – does what it says on the tin. Very useful for keeping track of spending.
5. Dream:ON is quite an interesting new one, it’s part of an experiment by Richard Wiseman for influencing dreams! It senses when you’re in a dream state and plays music to you which is supposed to influence what you dream about.
I think I need an app to tell me which are my most used apps…LOL but I don’t count because I’m an Android.
Is it bad that I don’t even need to look at mine to know which my Top 5 are?!
On with the list:
Twitter, Facebook, Drawsomething, Words with Friends and Instagram.
I am assuming we don’t need to add things like messages or music as they come with the phone and therefore I feel they don’t count 😉
Very interesting to find out what everyone else uses and likes, might have to give a few of them a go.
The old ‘Period Diary’ used to be in my most used but then a friend discovered it and made it her mission to virtually impregnate me as often as possible and it had to be deleted!
I’m a Blackberry girl because I like buttons that move when you press them. I love the drivesafe.ley app (not sure if its available on Apple). The app will read text messages out loud when they arrive giving the name of the sender. I love this and have it on all the time because I was forever missing messages. I get a few funny looks when I’m out and about and my handbag announces a text message and then tells everyone what it is but I don’t care.