Earlier this year I took the big step of letting go my old Nokia to acquire my first smart phone ever. I was ready to go for a Samsung Galaxy but they were out of them in the store so I ended up with an iPhone 4 which I liked a lot anyway.
It’s been valuable in several ways. It allowed me to stay in touch easily over email or calls at any time or place (this is key if you are leading an important Project). Worst drawback probably is the addictive substances that tend to push you to devote insane amounts of time using the phone. I don’t want to get into philosophy now I leave that between you and your conscience. I leave you here with the apps and tricks I've been adding through the year and that I find add the most value to my daily life. All of them are free.
Waze – Waze is by far the app with the greatest impact on my daily life. It is a social app developed in Israel which provides real time traffic info and best route advice. It has saved me important amounts of time but also put an end to my marital disagreements on the road. I do not have an embedded GPS on me as my wife does. Now I have Waze! After the first few days of questioning, she came to agree that the app indeed provides good advice. Interesting to note that there is a local company in Costa Rica that sells its own devices with this type of service at a US$200+ cost.
Grocery Smart – this is a shopping list app out of hundreds that are out there. It is simple and allows us to do what we need done: create and manage the household shopping lists and items. We used to have a PDF file printed to do this. It has saved us time and paper. Besides you can mark things as you put them in the cart or dismiss them. It has a cool feature that unfortunately is not of use yet in Costa Rica: it can scan the bar code of a product and add it to the list if it finds it on its database.
iBac Móvil – this is the banking app by BAC San José and as far as I can tell the only existing app by a financial institution in these latitudes. It is simple and intuitive and allows me to do the most basic banking transactions like payments or transfers anywhere I am.
Flashlight – have you ever used your cellphone screen as a flashlight? This app does just that but using the light embedded in the phone instead of the screen itself. Very handy and able to match any small battery lights out there.
Genius Scan – this is a scanner app on the phone. It allows you to take a picture and convert it to a PDF or image file. It is extremely handy when you come into a magazine article you like while waiting for your doctor or when you are required to send a document by email while on the road.
RunKeeper – this one allows you to keep track of your jogging without the need to buy any additional device like you need to do when you use some other apps. Its website allows you to design your own route maps and keep in touch with your fellow joggers if they have the app as well.
iBrevary – this one is very cool if you are into meditation and Catholic devotions. It allows you to download the daily mass readings, rituals and prayers in an easy to use format.
If you had to pick the top apps on your phone now, which ones would you choose?
I encourage you to share them with us in a quick comment to this post!
- Sergio Calvo.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comment is more than appreciated. Feel free to share more!
Su comentario es más que apreciado. Siéntase libre de compartir más!