Marketing

iPad - Recommend Apps

Back in November last year, I wrote a blog post about my favourite apps and thought it would be interesting to see, a year on, whether I'm still an advocate of the same apps.  Clients, friends and family often ask what I'm using so I hope this blog will act as a useful reference point.

A year on, I would say that my usage of the iPad has overtaken the iPhone and laptop exponentially, and the development of iCloud has been indispensable to ensure my devices sync with each other easily.  As our lives seemingly get busier we should embrace technology to make us more efficient, less stressed and helps us to organise ourselves (and others!)  Surely it’s everyone’s aim to spend more quality time with family and friends; doing the things we enjoy rather than running around like a headless chicken with that awful feeling of ‘what have I forgotten?’!

Organisation

Most used app award has to go to Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/). Think of it as a virtual filing cabinet that houses all your scanned documents, notes, photos, useful web pages and ideas with the ability to categorize and tag everything; organising your life into separate notebooks. It just gets better and better with each update and I'd be lost without it!

The web clipping tool is particularly useful when browsing the web, simply click on the icon and it automatically saves it to Evernote. Many other apps work with Evernote and the ability to 'share' notebooks with others is very useful too.

With the newer version of iOS and the addition of 'Reminders', I no longer use any specific To-do-list apps. I can't say I think that Reminders is great but it does the job and the fact it syncs to my work's Outlook is very useful. In fact, I also use Evernote for more 'ad-hoc' to-do lists.

Work life

Interestingly, Dropbox and Camscanner+ are still probably my most used apps for business, as they were a year ago.

Dropbox lets you bring all your photos, documents, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones, tablets and even the Dropbox website.  This makes sharing files super easy negating the need to save and email different versions.

Camscanner+ turns your phone/tablet into a portable scanner enabling you to scan almost anything.  For example, you can scan business cards, whiteboards, receipts and invoices and even create PDFs. You can email, fax, upload or send to other apps such as Evernote or Dropbox.

Quickoffice This is a new addition to my iPad app arsenal which enables you to create and edit all Microsoft® office documents, spreadsheets and presentation formats as well as view PDF files on the go.  Flipping open your iPad is so much easier than waiting for a laptop to fire up, logging in and then opening a file.

iAnnotate PDF A relatively recent new find, this iPad app enables to you to view, annotate and collaborate your PDF files.  Finding it hard to explain what changes you want made on a document?  Use this app to highlight, draw and add sticky notes to clearly show what you mean.  You can even add voice recordings and photos – über useful!

LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook apps work well individually but I have now swapped from Tweetdeck to Hootsuite to centrally manage all my social media accounts.  To be honest, I can’t remember my reason for changing; perhaps I was drawn to the owl?!

 

Percentages Admittedly, mental arithmetic isn’t one of my strong points, so when dealing with the book-keeping or analysing statistics, this little app is my friend.

Homelife

Still on my list is Ocado which quite literally takes the stress out of grocery shopping.  There is an amazing choice of products, they do price matches with Tesco on branded products, their customer service is fab, their own branded products are cost effective and good quality and the app itself is really easy to use.

My friends poke fun at the fact that I plan out my meals for the week but since I’ve started doing this, we’re eating better, we have less food waste and we’re spending less.

Packing Pro I haven’t really used this to its full potential yet but I really like the idea. This app enables you to create packing lists for all your travel requirements to ensure that you never forget those useful items ever again.

Day one, previously I listed Momento as a great diary/journal app but I’ve now upgraded to Day one.  It’s a fab tool to document events, photos and musings and also a great form of self-therapy!

 

Nigellissima I think Nigella Lawson is hysterical.  To begin with I found her irritating but I’ve come to love her and her saucy connotations! Her recipes are easy, causal and tasty and the app is beautifully designed; check it out.

 

Enjoyment

Pinterest at the moment I mainly use Pinterest for personal use but plan to integrate this into what we do at Blue Horizons in the New Year.

For those of you with an appreciation for aesthetics, you’ll love this app. Think of it as a virtual pin-board where you can ‘pin’ images, videos, web pages and other items onto boards.  Be warned, it’s strangely additive browsing through other’s pin-boards; there is some beautiful stuff out there.

Art Set both my daughter and I love this app.  The app is a beautiful work of art itself and even if you’re not the greatest artist, you’ll feel a creative wiz using different materials and effects to create.  And the best bit – no cleaning up afterwards!

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