Baby Want New Apps -- Don't Make Baby Throw A Tantrum, Which Is Code For "Fling Poo"
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It’s been a while since I did a fresh look for new iPhone apps. But, downloading the Netflix app yesterday (which by the way works like a mofuggin’ charm) reminded me that holy crap, apps are awesome. I should’ve been reminded when we were house-hunting, because apps like Zillow or Realtor or Trulia all did a nice job of giving us direction. But, hey, I have a brain like a sieve.
So, seems a good time to ask:
What apps you using and loving these days?
What apps are in regular rotation?
What can you just plain not live without?
I use a lot of apps for writing productivity — Evernote, SimpleMind mind maps, Google, dictation, stuff like that. Anything to help me take notes, plot a course, keep all my penmonkeys in a row.
Though, I’ll tell you what I’m really looking for, something I can’t find (and it’s downright ludicrous I can’t find it): a calendar / reminder app that actually lets me snooze my reminders. On every other phone I’ve had, I’ve always had a calendar that, when I got pinged by a reminder, I could snooze it — an hour, a day, a week, whatever. It’s nice because sometimes you get a reminder when you’re at the grocery store, or in the car, or fighting Sky Pirates above the cityscape of Johannesburg in their Velocicopters. And if you can’t snooze it, it makes the reminder a little less useful.
I need a reminder app that is equal parts “I’m going to bother you until you do this” and “It’s cool, man, you can’t do this now? I’ll be back in a couple hours, dude, see how it’s hanging.”
I look online, and a lot of users have lamented the completely bizarre lack of unsnoozeable reminder-slash-calendar apps, so if anybody has any secrets on this front, I’m listening.
Otherwise: any apps you got, I’ll take the recommendations. Time-wasters. Games. Productivity. Music apps. Social apps. Whatever you got, pitch it at my eyeballs, punt it at my chattering mouthparts.
As always, much love, big ups, and a fat sack of squirming thanks.
About The Author
ChuckWendig
Chuck Wendig is equal parts novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. He is the author of the novels DOUBLE DEAD, BLACKBIRDS, and MOCKINGBIRD. In addition, he's got a metric boatload of writing-related e-books available, including the popular 500 WAYS TO BE A BETTER WRITER. He currently lives in the wilds of Pennsyltucky with wife, dog, and newborn progeny.
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Tumblr – dashboard on the go. If you’re like me and use Tumblr mostly for some of the sweet photo blogs rather than posting yourself, it’s nice to have. Not great for looking at the huge charts, but such is life.
Good Reads – In a store and don’t know about a book? Look up its reviews and ratings. Plus, you know, Good Reads is the social network for book nerds.
Words with Friends – a little buggy, has a few server issues in the evenings, but a fun Scrabble-esque game. Play it with friends, play it with random strangers.
Open Market – a jailbreak app marketplace without actually having to jailbreak your phone. It works on the Safari browser. Just head to openmkt.com in your phone and it’ll give you directions. Lost of free stuff, mostly games. It’s fairly new, so new apps are popping up constantly.
Er … that last one should be Open App Market. And the url should be openappmkt.com
I can’t remember for sure, since it’s been a while since I’ve actually used it, but I think that Remember The Milk has the kind of snooze functionality you’re looking for. Since my workplace moved to an Exchange server about a year and a half ago, I haven’t really had a need for it, but that program integrates with a ridiculous number of free services. And it’s free!
I also recommend Logitech TouchMouse because it turns your iPhone/iPod touch into a great little touch pad mouse. I used this app a lot before I got a Magic Trackpad. I am a sucker for touchpads with gestures.
G4tv has a great little app that aggregates all of the goodies on their website into a convenient little mobile interface.
Pandora and LastFM have great apps. HiDef Radio is a pretty good one, too. It’s got a ri-goddamned-diculous number of Internet and streaming radio stations on it for every genre of music imaginable.
Stanza is my favorite e-reader app for iPhone since it has built-in access to the Munsey’s collection of classic pulp fiction books, including an extensive collection of Robert E. Howard’s more obscure works.
NetNewsWire is probably the best RSS reader available for the iPhone. I use it to pull in my GoogleReader feeds.
Words With Friends…a Scrabble-esque word game. I cannot count the lost hours of productivity that I have sacrificed to this game.
I cannot live without the Facebook app. I love reading about the minutiae of everyone’s daily life.
Other than those two, I have a ton of apps that I always thought I would use, but don’t for whatever reason.
Oh, last.fm gets used on the phone occasionally, but mostly I listen on the 360 at home.
Rory —
I don’t think RTM has the snooze functionality? It didn’t a while back when I checked it out, but it’s possible that it’s in there with updates.
– c.
Yeah, I don’t remember for sure, either. I suppose that it can’t hurt to look since it’s free and all. I agree, though, it’s really weird that you can’t snooze reminders on an iPhone. That’s one of the few functionalities I miss from my Blackberries. (That, and easy one handed use.)
All three of these http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/
Also use Dropbox, Instapaper, COED&T, Logmein, and Shakespeare apps regularly.
I’d love to find a good calendar app too.
Here are my favorite apps -
Games:
Plants vs. Zombies
Angry Birds
Traffic Rush
Words with Friends
Chess with Friends
Productivity:
Todo
Evernote (not sure how I lived without this)
Sheet Squared
Wordpress
Other stuff:
Still Tasty
Pandora
Netflix
ESPN ScoreCenter
At Bat Lite
Tweetdeck
Here are my work horses and time wasters of late… Explanations for those they may not be too common.
Things – Mac todo app that rocks; no snooze-ability though
Simplenote – Not as robust as Evernote, but its quick and gets the job done
Evernote
Lose It – free exercise and food tracker
Mint.com – finance tracker
Dropbox
DocsToGo
Flashcards – app that integrates with quizzlet.com
Instapaper
NYTimes
True Weight
RunKeeper
CardStar – place to store all my grocery store and store membership cards
Pzizz – nap app… can’t recommend it enough
Chess with Friends – words with friends for chess
Shredder – chess app with decent chess engine
Geocaching
Camera Bag
ColorSplash
Hipstamatic