My Favorite iOS Apps

I have to admit that I probably spend more time on my iPad these days than I do on my computer. The bulk of what I am doing on my devices is checking email, reading twitter or doing some other consumption practice. For better or for worse I have also found that the specialized apps for different services usually offer a much better experience compared to the website or the applications on most computers, including my Mac. So with that in mind here are my favorite iOS apps that I cannot live without. 

Deliveries by Junecloud

This is my go to app for package tracking. I was surprised at how much I actually used this app, but with an Amazon Prime account it really comes in handy. It costs a $1.99, but is absolutely worth it. The interface is simple and clean and shows you the relevant information instantly. 


Mint

I admit that I was very skeptical of Mint's service at first. The idea of giving one company all of my finical log in information was a bit scary. For years I tried different methods of trying to keep track of financial information and while I had some successes, most of them just required too much work. The beauty of Mint.com is that you don't really have to do anything. It pings all of your financial information for you and can alert you about your spending habits or problems. The financial advice it has from sponsors is actually pretty good too. This is one of the apps and services out there that I would absolutely pay for if it was no longer free. 


Evernote

I live in Evernote. At first I had no idea how to actually use this app because it is an app that really can be used for anything. It is just bank pages that are stored in folders. It sounds simple, but it is deceptively powerful. I do everything in Evernote from bookmarking websites, to my vacation planning, to storing receipts and to even writing a book. The plugins that they have built for capturing content from the web or business cards or even paper files are just too powerful. I pay for the premium service on this tool and it is worth every penny. 


Omnifocus

About four years ago I got into the "Getting Things Done" methodology of organizing myself. The method is not for everyone but it works incredibly well for my thinking style. Omnifocus is a task management application that stores all of your "to do's" and projects that you need to work on. It is an expensive app ($20) and it is not a universal app from the iPhone to the iPad, and while there are several other "to do" apps out on the market I have found that this one just offers the depth of features that I need for my life. What makes this app so useful is that your work items can be classified in "contexts" (usually a location) and a project. That means for example that if you aren't sitting at your computer, don't worry about the tasks you need to do there since you can't solve those problems right now anyways. It is great for getting some of the stress out of your life and getting thoughts out of your head quickly and into a system. GTD doesn't require this app though and anyone who is a bit frazzled may want to check out the book "Getting Things Done".


AMRC

I am not going to lie. I spend way too much time on Reddit. I often wonder how productive I would actually be if I spent less time on there. Reddit is one of those sites that is perfect for browsing and their website has this minimalist but surprisingly functional interface that works really well. To my surprise it was not easy to find something that would replicate this on iOS. After much searching I finally found AMRC, which does a wonderful job of translating that minimalist interface to iOS in a functional way. One of my favorite features of the app is its ability to view images and then display the comments discussion directly below them for easy reading. 


Camera+

I have been a big user of Camera+ since it first came out. The iPhone's native camera has improved remarkably over time, but I still always go to Camera+ for its flexibility in tweaking photos after I have taken them. The iPad app has some real power to get some great shots out of it since you can stack the effects and editing inside and everything syncs between the devices using iCloud to make it seamless. 


Foursquare

I was a big fan of Gowalla over Foursquare when both of those apps came out. I liked Gowalla at the time because that app had some utility of showing me interesting places as opposed to just checking me in. Checking in, itself has never been that interesting to me. As Foursquare has evolved over the past few years though, it has become my goto destination for finding new and interesting places, especially restaurants. It has completely replaced Yelp for me and I find the tips in Foursquare to be much more useful.


Foodspotting

I am going to have to give my final nod of favorite apps to Foodspotting. This combined with Foursquare have become my goto app for finding good information on food and they have completely replaced Yelp for me.