IF YOU CAN'T ADD MONEY to your pockets by leveraging the tech you carry in your pocket, perhaps you should review your personal mobile technology on an annual basis.
There's no guarantee that the tech I love will be the tech that keeps our household ticking over, but I hold the following 15 apps in high regard since they are the ones I use at least three times a week.
1. Pocket Casts on iOS.
I use Pocket Casts every day. I paid for both the iOS and Android versions because it is the most intelligent over-the-air audio updating service I have ever used. It's especially helpful being able to annotate and share directly podcast episode segments directly from the app. The developers behind Pocket Casts have suggested they are working on a way to sync listening positions of segments between different operating systems. That would be magical because I could pick up on a podcast segment on my Android phone where I left off on my iPod Touch.
I'm comparing Pocket Casts to Dogg Catcher (a podcatcher I use on Android) and to Google Listen. The Pocket Casts crew are a generation or two ahead of anything else in the listening universe.
Tip: I often put the listening I enjoy the most onto my Huffduffer feed so if you like to share audio, Huffduffer is a good place to listen to work vetted by the community.
2. Hours Tracker on iOS.
I am trying to be more efficient by using Hours Tracker simultaneously on my iPod Touch as I do anything during my waking hours. I'm able to see gaps in my day that way and I've also become acutely aware of my inefficiencies. I need to get more things done. Hours Tracker is one way to activate a little voice in my head--the one that sounds hauntingly like my wife--to ask me, "Is anyone paying you for that then?"
3. Boxcar on iOS.
I enjoy getting notified by the sound of a cash till when someone marks one of my tweets as a favorite so I let Boxcar provide the audible sounds of notifications related to my social networking.
4. Evernote on iOS.
Evernote is smarter than I will ever be. Just learning how to leverage its power has helped me revise my lecture notes faster than any other process I've used in my working life. Its synchronicity is a major feat of engineering. I let Evernote listen to one of my laptop folders, knowing that when I tap the app on any of my four handsets, my most recent working material will be one foot away in my hand. This is a remarkable little application that all knowledge workers need to explore.
5. Calendar on the Lumia.
A bog-standard calendar, you say? Run it in conjunction with both Mail for Exchange and a Live account. You will be delighted at how it provides helpful colour codes that keep your personal, professional and darknet lives separate.
6. Xperia Arc's Google Plus.
I like tapping into the photos and reading the ones with the greatest number of comments. I also find the Android implementation of Google Circles to be an elegant presentation of information management. I can deep dive from information shared in Circles faster than I can follow links and cryptic information streaming into topgold on Twitter. I am http://gplus.to/topgold if you want to connect.
7. Lumia's Facebook.
Facebook looks nicer when presented through the Lumia's Metro UI than through any other presentation layer. The Nokia Lumia 800 lets me swipe through information faster than on any other mobile interface besides the iPad. I don't carry the iPad with me on a daily basis.
8. Nokia E7's Gravity.
I think Gravity is the best Twitter mobile app client on the planet. I manage four Twitter accounts with it, stream audio through it, and efficiently burrow into saved searches with Gravity. It is more useful than any other Twitter alert system I have used while mobile.
9. Nokia Lumia's Exchange services.
Thanks to Mail for Exchange, I am getting back in touch with e-mail. I don't like working e-mail because e-mail stifles my productivity. However, the Lumia lets me control my four mailboxes with different refresh intervals and that means I can ruthlessly delete scores of e-mails without opening them. I can also set up calendar items to all of my handsets when I accept a meeting invitation on any one of my handsets. Mail for Exchange is powerful, does not lag, does not crash and does not suck battery power when its refresh rates are tailored to available power.
10. Nokia Lumia's Wonder Reader.
This is the fastest RSS feed reader I have ever used on a mobile phone. I paid less for Wonder Reader than for several of the Twitter apps I tested in 2011. If you believe in the value of newsfeeds, you need an intelligent news reader that facilitates annotating and sharing.
11. Foursquare on the Lumia.
I get loads of travel tips from Foursquare and at least one offer of a free coffee, sandwich or venue pass every week. So I am going to continue using Foursquare by leaving behind tips, photos, comments and check-ins. The Lumia makes easy work of these creative tasks and as long as I continue getting freebies, I'll remain a Foursquare junkie.
12. Audioboo on iOS.
Audio is my friend. Audioboo on iOS is the best implementation of the app. I hope Audioboo comes to the Windows Phone Marketplace before Ireland gets the Nokia Lumia line in February 2012. You can hear my Audioboos through the free app or by subscribing to my Audioboo feed.
13. Nokia Maps on Nokia E7.
Free Nokia Maps are elegant. I have 80 favorites stored on my Nokia E7 and that's why I prefer to use that handset for turn-by-turn navigation, Trip Advisor details and booking information.
14. QR Reader on iOS.
I have learned a lot from QR codes and we are teaching QR codes in several modules. The free iOS QR Reader from Tap Media is faster than any other QR Reader that I currently use and the iPod Touch picks up QR codes on screens better than any other QR Reader that I use.
15. Clicky Touch on iOS.
Because I'm a stats fanatic, I like watching my web properties through Clicky Touch. I've already learned a few things that I will put to the test with affiliate marketing campaigns in 2012. If my theories are correct, I will get to the point where I can pay my annual web hosting fees through monthly online earnings. It's mad that I'm unable to accomplish that little goal after blogging for more than a decade.
Previously: "It's not worth getting sucked into an apps world", December 27, 2011.
