Suddenly everyone has an iPhone and/or an iPad. As their friendly, neighbourhood geek, lots of people ask me for advice about what apps to get. So here are my recommendations. No links – just search for them in the App Store. What do you use? Have I missed any?
General stuff
- Kindle Reader – great selection of books, syncs with your Kindle
- RunKeeper – good tool for tracking runs (if you like that kind of thing)
- Evernote – keep track of notes and things. Personally, I use OneNote but unless you’re using that on a PC, it’s not as good.
- Flixster – what movies are playing and where
- TuneIn Radio – fantastic way to listen to your favourite radio stations (Me: Jazz FM, KCSM, BBC Radio 4)
- RingGo – pay for your parking in London from your phone and get reminders if you’re about to run out of time
- Ocado – shop while you go; save time
- FitBit and Withings – sync with my pedometer and scales to scald me on my phone about my laziness and overeating!
Eating out
- Yelp – get recommendations about great places to eat
- OpenTable – then book them online, instantly
Travel
- Tube Deluxe – get real time tube departure information and plan the best route to Mornington Crescent
- Travel Deluxe – like Tube Deluxe but now with buses too
- TripIt – indispensible if you do a lot of travelling, get the Pro version for real time SMS updates on flight delays
- Addison Lee – book mini cabs in London with a credit card or on account
- British Airways – book flights, check in and get your boarding card on your phone
- Uber – awesome limo-to-order service in various US cities
- Zenbe Lists – I use this to keep a packing list for trips and check things off as I pack them (I’m such a geek)
Work Apps
- DocsToGo – edit Word, Excel etc. on your device
- DropBox – easy, efficient file sharing between all your devices. A must-have.
- Keynote – I use this to do presentations on my iPad (you can just fold the case up and put it on a table in front of three or four people and no projector required).
- Keynote Remote lets me control presentations on my iPad and Mac using my iPhone. It’s very slick but fiddly to set up.
Reading
- Zinio – read all kinds of magazines that are not available via Apple’s store
- Economist – download editions quickly and read them easily online
- New Yorker – the best iPad magazine experience out there.
- Readability – save web pages on your PC and read them later on your iPad or iPhone. A great app. See also Instapaper.
- Reeder – the best RSS reader I’ve found for iOS. Syncs nicely with Google Reader.
Communications and social networking
- This sort of depends on what your addiction is but there are apps for LinkedIn, Google+ and Quora which I use frequently. I prefer TweetDeck to the native Twitter app. Skype is great on iPad and iPhone. I also use Counterpath Bria to get a softphone extension on my company’s VOIP PBX.
Maps
- TomTom – great in-car navigation. I have both Europe and North America and it’s great if you rent a car to have a familiar user interface for your sat nav.
- OffMaps – this lets you download maps of places you want to visit and then access them without an internet connection (and therefore avoid huge data roaming fees).
- Maplets – download little maps of airports, museums or town centres. Nice.
Flying (for pilots)
- Meteox – a website with a virtual weather radar for Europe
- Avbrief PDA – quickly look up TAFs and METARs on this website
- FlightFiler (from RocketRoute)– I filed a flight back from Calais on Monday in about five minutes, a job that literally took an hour when I first got my IR
- LogTen Pro – keep your logbook on your iPhone or iPad and sync it with your Mac. Great. (Full disclosure: LogTen Pro is an advertiser on Golf Hotel Whiskey).
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