Tech Talk (For Non-Techies): What's Your Favorite App or Software?

John Stark

What is your favorite app or software for your computer, tablet or phone?  Something you could not live without.

Me?

Phone, Tablet and Computer (cross platform):  Microsoft OneNote (Productivity)

Phone: Rowi Twitter App (Windows Phone 8)

Tablet: Pulse Newsreader

Computer: Skitch for screen captures and basic image editing.

You?

 

Scott Alexander

Pretty simple stuff compared to you, Starkman...

IMDB. I know tons of useless crap because every TV show or movie I watch, I must IMDB (yes, 'to IMDB' is a verb now).
Shazam (also SoundHound). I also know tons of useless music crap, after multi-decades of DJing. If I don't know it when I first hear it, I'll Shazam it and remember it!
Amazon. Basically my shopping list.

Al Truscott

 

 I can't separate the medium from the message. IOW, I use my iPad at least 3-4 hours a day, maybe more. I have no smart phone.

Here are the catgories of stuff I use the iPad for, with multiple apps for each:

• Magazines - at least 6 different apps for magazines I have print subscriptions to, so I can read them before they come out
• Newspapers - apps for at least 5 different newspapers - two national, two local, and one for my other home in CO
• Radio/TV - an NPR app, so I can listen to whatever, whenever, and a news channel app, so I can listen to my favorite bloviators whenever i want, not tied to TV schedule.
• Video - I have a hulu app, and an Amazon Prime app, both of which can transmit all sorts of crap I mgiht or might not want to watch. Also, I grab Netflix videos from disc via Handbrake, and transfer them to the ipad so I can watch shows and movies not otherwise available. right now, I'm doing season 3 of Breaking Bad in the evening hours with nothing to do at work.
• TV - An app for my Dish network subscription, so I can watch via slingbox whatevers on my DVR, as well as whatever is currently on
• Books - a Kindle, app, as well as an unused Nook app. Currently twelve books sitting there, 8 read, 2 in process, 2 unread
• Odds and ends, like a bank app for paying bills, weather apps, "Living Earth" (real-time full globve satilitte view - way cool)
• Work - five different apps to data sources, magazines, in house intranet at work.
• Triathlon - training diary, which is linked via droipbox across the iPad, PC (which I have ONLY for WKO+ and CompuTrainer), and my mac laptop. I'm waiting for TrainingPeaks and Tacx to compete their iPad apps, which will halp consolidate things even more.
• My blog, which  I can manage on a WordPress app
• And all the standard iPad apps like browser, photo album, videos, iTunes, email (that's how I follow the EN forums), etc

So the ONE THING I can't live without - my iPad. Thank you, Apple, for making my life ever more complex.

Dino Sarti

Squarespace to blog
Strava to ride
iPad for everything (including this post)
Dropbox (all my platforms)
Flickr and it app for photo sharing

[Deleted User]

 I am so frickin' behind the times. There was a time in my youth when I knew all the hot stuff, and all the tech specs. Specs like wow and flutter. So, yeah, a while ago. Now? Dropbox? What the heck is that? It doesn't help that I'm a stay-at-home dad, not really out there keeping my thumb on the pulse of the world. 

I've an iPad but I know I barely scratch the surface with it. Favorite app? ForeFlight. It's a flight planning/charts app that is absolutely indispensible in the cockpit. Not so useful to the average Joe on the street.  I also have the Kindle app, which I love. I always have something to read, and I can listen to iTunes while I'm at it.

I'm not really into tv, so all the video stuff is kinda wasted on me.  At most I might watch YouTube videos, usually something to do with airplanes or flying. I have a bit of an aviation addiction problem.....

Dave Tallo

Ipod/Pad:
Zeo. Sleep is everything. I'm actually trying to get sponsored by them.
Ubersense. What can I say: I'm a form improvement junkie.

Tom Glynn

@Andrew, John and I are both stay at home dads and both use DropBox Time to read Al's post!



For me it's iPad products mostly.

Everyday use is Mail, Contacts, Calendar, FlipBoard as a news reader, subscriptions to WSJ and NYT.

TV replacement - I don't watch much but Xfinity app, HBO GO, Netflix.

Social is Facebook and EN forums

Love Ubersense for analysis. Have done swim, bike and run videos

Facetime to talk to daughter in college and other family members /relatives

Productivity is Dropbox and Evernote - my whole life is almost paperless!

Lastpass for password security is a great app

Music is mostly Spotify and some Pandora

Have some games that the kids play with but really discourage them from using my stuff

Use Zeo too!

John Stark

OK, since you all are going deeper than just your favorite apps I figured I would pipe in.

 

My hobby is tech gadgets.  I LOVE trying new software, apps, hardware, etc. and seeing if they make my life easier.  A couple of years ago I was "all in" with Android, the past year I was "all in" on Apple (sans iPhone) and currently I am "all in" on Microsoft and the Windows 8/Windows Phone 8/Xbox 360.

 

As you can see, I am not a fanboy for anyone.  I am a tech enthusiast and love it.

 

Also I wish I could get everything into one device like Al.  I tried hard to make my iPad my one device but without multi-tasking, the ability to add sofware (not just simple apps), print (without buying a special printer), plus many more constratints, I just couldn't make it work.

 

So . . . .

 

I have spent the past couple of months organizing my digital life as I had shit everywhere.  I have killed Evernote, GMail, Google Drive, Picasa, iCloud, Dropbox, Box and more.

 

Here is where I am at now

 

Cloud

I now exclusively have everything (docs, photos, spreadsheets, etc.) in SkyDrive.  I can edit docs, photos, etc all within SkyyDrive via Word and Excel Web Apps (Think Google Drive, but way better).  Everything on my PC's and Windows Phone reside in Skydrive.  I only keep specific items synced locally to my PCs or phone.  The rest stays in SkyDrive where I can access anything else I need on demand.

 

- This setup help me kill Picasa, iCloud, Dropbox, Box and Google Drive.

 

Productivity

One Note.  I use it for all my tasks and deliverables for family, EN stuff and other clients.  All this data stays in SkyDrive as well.

 

This setup helped me kill Evernote and Google Drive

 

Computers/Convertible/Tablet:

I LOVE the new Windows 8 multi-touch interface.  I have a 27" all-in-one PC that is my work machine and I use the touch screen 90% of the time.  I also have a Dell XPS 12 convertible laptop for my "remote office" (and play) that converts into a Windows 8 tablet.  I almost never use the touch pad or a mouse on this in laptop mode.  It is all touch.  I had a Macbook Pro but sold it after getting my W8 set-up cuz it didn't have touch and was annoying.  Think of it like having an iPad and only being able to use it with a mouse.  No way!  Once you have a PC with multi-touch using a non-touch machine is frustrating.

 

This setup helped me kill my iPad, Macbook Pro.

 

Phone

Lumia 920 Windows Phone 8.  It is amazing, fast, best screen and speed on the market and moves way beyond simple static icons on a grid.  Plus, I can edit documents, etc. and have access to everything via SkyDrive.  Not as an app, but it is native to the phone.

 

I have been using Windows Phones for a year now.

 

Email

Outlook.com - Again, full access to SkyDrive from within the email client.  

 

So . . . after all that the end result has been met.  My digital life is clean and efficient.  Everything in SkyDrive (my favorite "app") and synced to all of my machines.  

 

OK, time to watch some football.

 

 

 

 

 

tgarson

Honestly, there are very few individual apps that I cannot live without as much as there are core categories of apps that I require acceptable clients for on whichever platform I'm on.



On iOS it's basically:

Podcast app

AlienBlue (reddit client)

Tweetbot (twitter client)



On Android:

BeyondPod

BaconReader (reddit)

Falcon Pro (twitter)



On all platforms:

Spotify & SoundCloud

Kindle

Netflix



On PC or Mac there are of course some very domain specific apps I use for software development that I won't go into, however for everything else it's all about Steam and more interestingly, Chrome.



The evolution of Chrome and Chrome WebApps has been something that has slowly creeped up on me until one day I realized that it has become an integral part of my daily experience and the Chrome Web Store has become a very surprisingly diverse ecosystem. I have always found the concept of the ChromeBook laughably absurd, but I'm starting to realize that the concept of cloud-based browser apps is nothing to laugh about, and rapidly supplanting both the necessity and practicality of traditional client-installed applications.

John Stark

Trevor - Totally understand the Chrome/book thing. I have noticed the same thing.  And as HTML 6 becomes more of a standard those silly "apps" will go away as everthing will be standardized in the browser.  Then the operating systems will be (mostly) gone. 

Maybe 3 to 5 years?  But I am seeing it myself now and I use "apps" less and do more directly in the browser.  Not necessarily all Google stuff, though, for me.