Here’s a little diversion from the our black-and-white, 5-4 world: smartphone apps. What’s the best app you’ve installed lately?
Here’s mine: Mighty Text. This app is for Android, and it allows you to use your computer to send texts from your phone. Why? If you’re like me, you have a close circle of friends and family who text you when they want to get hold of you right away. Even though you’re in front of a computer for a good part of the day, you need to pull out your phone and reply (slowly) on the phone keyboard. Mighty Text lets you respond to texts using your computer keyboard, and it shows desktop alerts with the name of the person texting you along with the contents of the text. It’s free and has been flawless so far.
The Red Pen
Mighty Text sounds like there’s also a component for your desktop machine — or is it web based?
RossInDetroit
I believe it’s possible to compose texts to cell phone accounts as emails if you know the person’s carrier and phone number. I’ve done it in the past before my wife got a smartphone that could receive email directly.
The app sounds easier to use, though.
ETA: here’s a Sprint web page that will send txt directly if you know the carrier and cell number. You have to give them your own email address, though.
http://www.sprintusers.com/textmessage/
mistermix
@The Red Pen: It’s either web based or there’s a Chrome extension (runs as part of the Chrome browser). I use the extension because it does the desktop alerts.
Punchy
I would like an app that allows me to enter, like, 5-10 bands, and the app would alert me 2, 3, or 4 weeks in advance of a concert within a radius of “x” miles away. Im so tired of missing shows b/c I didnt even know the band was nearby. Anyone know of a similar app?
donovong
It may sound silly, but I just loaded the Walgreen’s app to my iPhone and it is da bomb. Instead of taking 5 to 10 minutes to order a prescription refill by phone, it takes about ten seconds with their app. The phone scans the barcode on the bottle and 5 seconds later I have confirmation of when to pick up the scrip.
gogol's wife
I guess this OT, but can anyone explain to me why every time I navigate to Balloon Juice I get a pop-up window asking me to sign in for something called sitemeter? And how can I make it stop?
donnah
I don’t take any regular medications, so when I had extensive dental work done a few months ago and had to take several prescription drugs at different times, I found an app RxmindMe. You type in your prescrition names and the times you’re supposed to take them, and it reminds you with a beep. It was super helpful.
Scott
@Punchy: Try songkick to track your favorite bands. I love it.
smintheus
Why not just tell people who own a telephone to telephone you when they want to reach you immediately?
ET
@gogol’s wife: I got that this when I clicked to see the comments for this post but it hasn’t happened to me before.
terraformer
@smintheus:
This makes me smile.
The Moar You Know
The Petersen Strobe Tuner app. I was a guitar builder for a decade or so back in the 90s, when I still had eyesight and working joints. Anyway, I still build a couple a year and do a lot of repairs. The old school Petersen strobe tuner (with actual tubes) costs around $400 for the entry level model and can go up to a couple of thousand.
The iPhone version is 10 bucks and is as good as the real one that was on my bench for so many years. From a cost standpoint, that app alone essentially paid for my phone.
scarshapedstar
Sounds like you need Swype.
Xboxershorts
I’m a big fan of PDANet…uses 3G/4G or plain old wireless to turn your smart phone into a free wired hotspot. I take my laptop into places that often have bad or limited wireless network availability (I record/stream live music in bars and such) and PDANet just plain works.
And it saves me the 20 bucks/GB that the Verizon Mobile Hotspot service tries to extort from me for the same connectivity.
fasteddie9318
mistermix, I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now, so thanks for posting it. I get terrible cell reception both at work and in my home office dungeon, so calling and texting are both problematic.
RossInDetroit
@smintheus:
Personally I hate talking on the phone and much prefer TXT. I can get information in a few seconds, in a permanent form that would take a phone call of several minutes to convey. And for people who have intermittent connectivity the TXT just sits in the system until a tower picks them up and transmits it. No need to wait and redial if they’re out of range. TXT is a boon for those of us who just don’t like tedious chat.
nitpicker
My android’s voice recognition software is very good. As long as I think ahead and avoid uncommon words, I can send texts that way in only as long as it takes to say something.
McConnor
@Xboxershorts:
PDANet has saved my butt a few times when my home internet has been zonked for one reason or another – I am able to work decently fast with it – even with VPN.
smintheus
@RossInDetroit: How is that better than email?
The Red Pen
@scarshapedstar:
Fixed.
Ben Cisco
ClockworkMod Tether – does same as PDANet mentioned above.
TouchPad Keyboard – came in handy when GO Keyboard quit.
Soonergrunt
@smintheus: Who the hell wants to use a phone to call people? What world are you living in? /smartass
RossInDetroit
@smintheus:
It’s better than email because it’s in your pocket on an ordinary cell phone and doesn’t requires a smartphone or a computer. Unlike us, many people don’t have smart phones or continuous access to email. The lowest-tech way of getting the written word to them in the shortest time is TXT.
Ripley
I just installed MightyText last week, and like it so far. It also notifies you when a call comes in, so if your phone is someplace else, you know someone’s trying to reach you. It’s a phone app / browser extension – works on Chrome, Firefox and I think they have an IE9 version, too.
Box just released OneCloud for droid. If you do a lot of collaboration and team review work, it has 50G of cloud storage and a well-rounded cadre of compatible apps.
Evernote, K-9 Mail, Wunderlist, Any.DO (todo manager). NQ Call Blocker, Dolphin Browser, Juice Defender (battery management), Where’s My Droid or SeekDroid,
burnspbesq
NPR Music. First Listen at the gym; need I say more?
Amanda in the South Bay
My own app,of course!
I’m working on a MUNI app that uses REST web services for Windows Phone 7.
Steeplejack
@The Moar You Know:
I have GStrings on my Droid, which, despite its name, can tune to any note, not just the six guitar-string notes. It will sound a note and let you tune to it, but it also has an amazing (to me) mode where it shows you a needle gauge that swings sharp or flat as you play the note and tune to the gauge. Cool. And it’s free.
J.W. Hamner
The only App that I use that I think has actually had any impact on my quality of life is GroceryIQ… great for making grocery lists that can be specific to particular stores and it allows me and my fiance to keep our lists synched so that nobody has an excuse not to pick up the toilet paper.
I might try the Mighty Text thing though since I work in a basement with no cell phone reception.
burnspbesq
What I really need is an app that will do text-to-speech on incoming text messages and speech-to-text on outgoing text message. My idiot spouse and child seem to only send me text messages when I’m driving, and even interacting with Siri is too much of a distraction in SoCal rush-hour traffic.
opium4themasses
I really like Google voice. I get voicemail and texts as e-mail when my phone is off, charging, in the other room. I thought about migrating my phone number, but did not. I talk to family enough that I want to keep the network discount. So sadly, texts directly to my phone do not come as email, but the voicemail is a dream.
burnspbesq
@Ripley:
Is Box really a viable option? Has it upgraded its security?
I chose Wuala over Box and Dropbox for my business because of what I saw at the time as much stronger security features. Documents are encrypted before they leave your desktop, stay encrypted in transit and on the company’s servers, and they don’t have the encryption key. In addition, their servers are in EU countries and Switzerland, which have more robust data protection laws. I feel like I’ve taken reasonable steps to preserve the confidentiality of attorney-client privileged materials, and I didn’t have the same warm fuzzies with any other service I evaluated.
Steeplejack
Another seemingly trivial app I use a lot is Insight Timer Lite (free). Basically it’s just a lightly customizable timer: one, two or three starting tones (temple bell or woodblock), one, two or three ending tones, and how long the duration. You can also set “interval tones,” although I have never used that.
I do use it for meditation, but it is surprisingly useful for setting timers on other things, mostly because of the pleasing and discreet sounds. It doesn’t jolt you with a “This is an alarm!” sound. It’s useful for things like getting up from the computer every so often to move around or reminding yourself to wrap it up with that client who likes to yak and yak and yak. And it remembers the last setting, so most of the time you can just fire it up and press Start. For me that’s three bells, 15 minutes, three bells.
One other thing: the timer bell still sounds when I have the Droid’s ringer turned off, so I don’t get blasted out of my cosmic meditation by an incoming phone call.
ETA: Can’t believe I wrote to much about such a trivial app. But that’s one of the things about the app world–and why a thread like this is so valuable: for each app category, e.g., “timer,” there are myriad choices, and it’s unbelievable how awful many them are. So it’s nice to find, or be pointed to, apps that work and work well.
meander
It’s not a recent installation, but I’m crazy about Evernote, a tool that keeps lists, information, images in some cloud and accessible from my phone, a web app, or a desktop app. So, when planning my weekend cooking, I have a note that I update from various places when ideas strike. When I have some task stuck in my head blocking real work or real fun, I can write it into Evernote on my phone or desktop computer, then it’s available on all of the platforms.
I also use it for blogging, as a place to keep drafts of content and ideas. I used to carry a USB drive and try to keep it synched, but that was a mess.
The free version has been working great for me. The premium version seems designed for super-super-users, people who are storing large numbers of notes every few seconds.
dave
Just downloaded Launch Center Pro for my iPhone. It is kinda’ awesome:
http://appcubby.com/launch-center/
RedKitten
I’ve been having some fun with Sherwin-Williams’ ColorSnap — you take a picture, pick a colour from the picture, and it gives you the RGB. It’s not flawless, due to lighting factors, but it was a huge help when creating wall art to go with SamKitten’s new bedding.
I also really appreciated OvuView when trying to conceive #2 (due in January). Much easier than regular charts and whatnot.
Martin
Doing remodels at home.
Houzz has been a lifesaver. It’s a remodeling/redecorating site that brings photo galleries from decorators and contractors as well as design items from various vendors. The utility of the app is that you can pick those photos, or upload/shoot your own and build your own galleries of design elements/colors/etc that you like. Then if you are meeting with a contractor or going to the store, you can pull your iPhone/iPad out and show what you are looking to achieve. It’s free and very nicely done.
Measures lets you take photos (iPhone/iPad) and trace out lines and dimensions on the photo. Really handy for transferring a bunch of dimensions from around your house to either sit down and decide how much of something you need to buy, or in my case, to just transfer it to the garage to do the cutting.
And all of my old favorite computer games are re-emerging on the iPad – Spaceward Ho, Bards Tale, etc. Fun replaying them.
smintheus
@RossInDetroit: What I’m pointing to is the crazy proliferation of overlapping means of communication. People now seem to be spending increasing amounts of time, and money, keeping up with other people on an expanding spectrum: phone, txt, email, on line, chat rooms, twitter, skype, social media, list serves, and on and on. This is better than relying exclusively on carrier pigeons, but where will it end, what’s the cost, and is it really a convenient way to manage one’s life? When it’s just a matter of interpersonal messages between people who know each other, isn’t it mostly a question of how urgently the message needs to be shared? Or maybe whether viva voce or not. So why do people tie themselves down to an expanding array of formats that they have to keep checking and working within, when a very small number will suffice?
burnspbesq
@smintheus:
Because they don’t agree with your value judgments about what “will suffice.”
Ripley
@burnspbesq:
According to the info in the app, everything is encrypted through the entire chain, but I’m not sure to what level. They just released the Droid version, so I don’t imagine there’s much feedback yet.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Zombies, Run! That app is making jogging fun, which is something I thought was impossible.
Chris
iPhone apps…
Runmeter
(i find this the best running/cycling app, gps maps run, integrates with Wahoo bluetooth heart rate monitor wirelessly, full data, splits, coach in ear, and the social aspect is option i.e. you don’t need a web account, it dumps run data into my iCal.)
Agenda
(very attractive, minimal calender app that works off the inbuilt calendar and also synchs with Due, a nice to do app
TuneIn radio
(just awesome streaming radio app, i use this all the time)
Peterson guitar tuner, as above
Robick
(awesome, beautifully designed app for studying music, slowing down, pitch change, looping ie Capo but better and cheaper)
SloPro
Shoots beautiful 60 frames a second slow mo footage off the iphone 4s
Skyview, and Planets
Astronomy app, using the inbuilt GPS to name items in sky and track them
1Password
Mac/iPHone password and wallet keeper
Skype
Readability
for reading attractive formatted articles later or synched to other computers
Paper Camera
awesome cartoon/sketch effects, oreviewed in viewfinder before taking the image
Photosynth
Microsoft’s stitch panorama views, is awesome
MLB At Bat, Bill James Baseball IQ
baseball
Expensify (freelance expense recorder, works with the IRS
Hailo
If in London, just awesome black cab summoner
Goodreader PDF utility
Feedly, Flipbook, Dropbox, Camera+, Airfoil speakers, BBC iPlayer, Skyscanner (airfares), Simplenote text app to synch with all computers
Larryb
@gogol’s wife: enable cookies in your browser?
Larryb
alpinequest – awesome offline mapping and navigation app
mac
Wordament for Windows Phone (and Windows 8.)
Best. Wordgame. Ever.
allan
I just downloaded Dark Skies (for iPhone) and it’s awesome. Incredibly accurate near-term weather forecasts for your particular location — like, “It’s going to start raining in 35 minutes”, rather than “40 percent chance of rain in the next 12 hours”. It’s very helpful for me right now since I happen to be traveling in a thunderstorm climate! Pretty radar renderings, too.
debg
Scanner for Zotero. I spent a whole summer back in the early millennium setting up an Access database for all my bibliographic refs–partly because I’m borderline OCD, partly because I kept buying the same books over and over, partly because I wanted to keep insurance records of my personal library. Then along came Zotero and did everything I wanted to do, better and more elegantly. The Scanner app lets me scan a book’s barcode to add it to my Zotero library. Just a few seconds holding the phone over a book’s back end, as opposed to typing.
If y’all don’t know Zotero and have any need to store bibliographic info, get to know it. It’s amazing and free until your storage gets above a certain point.
scarshapedstar
@The Red Pen:
I’m just not a fan of tapping anymore. Makes me feel like I’m using an iPhone… :P
mike S.
I just discovered a “holy cow!” kind of app: Airdroid allows you to wirelessly manage your droid from your browser. SMS text messaging, file transfers, the whole nine yards. Absolutely essential on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which doesn’t let you mount the sdcard as a USB block device.
Jim
My favorites:
Go Launcher, Go SMS, Go Dialer: Somehow these Chinese developers have totally sold me with their stylish offerings.
Camera360: Best camera app I’ve tried out of about a dozen. Cool effects and many of them use a general enhancement filter that’s just stellar.
(My favorite shot, “B&W Visual Storm” effect, taken with my dinky old Dinc)
Pure Messenger, Pure Calendar, Pure Grid Calendar – Three indispensable widgets. Messenger is a little window that aggregates your email (both gmail and imap/exchange), sms, and phone calls on your home screen. Calendar is a nice agenda, Grid is a full weekly or monthly (or whatever you want) block calendar. I have Pure Messenger taking up the top 2 rows of my homescreen and Pure Calendar taking up the bottom three – lots of at-a-glance info.
Android Pro Widgets: Really I just use this for the combined Facebook/Twitter widget. It’s just like the one in LauncherPro, but since I stopped using LauncherPro, I really started jonesing for a replacement… here it is.
TooManyJens
Zombies, Run!
Among other things, it made the last three miles of my recent half-marathon bearable. That was a minor miracle in itself.
ding
@opium4themasses: I like google voice, too
bad dad
Lose It!
I read about it first at Crazy Andy’s site and have used it for about four weeks. I’ve dropped 13 pounds this month sticking to a 1700-1800 calorie a day diet. The program tracks calories and exercise and has an extensive library of foods (grocery and restaurant) and activities for calorie tracking. It even uses a bar code reader for you to input your food as well.