Read It Later

Still one of my favourite applications. Such a simple concept of being able to tag web-pages to ‘read them later.’ A new update has just been released which see’s the app take on a new look and feel. The app also seems to run faster and smoother than before.

WordPress

The wordpress app was rendered useless once I move over to a self-hosted wordpress platform. This was because the self hosted API did not allow for the remote access that the app needed to mange the blogs from the iPhone. A recent update to wordpress now allows remote access and now this app is back in my good books. I am able to manage and reply to comments, fix spelling errors and even write an entire blog post should I wish (although my html skills are not that great so hyperlinking and rich-text editing becomes a problem.)

Hootsuite

Hootsuite as a web-based application has grown leaps and bounds in 2009. Starting off as a way to update Twitter and schedule tweets the software has now extended to faceook, linkedin, ping.fm and a host of other services. The only thing missing (for me) was the iPhone app. Today I installed the app, and although it only allows access to updating twitter accounts for now it is great to start scheduling tweets on the fly. This has already become a time saver for me.

Shovebox

My new found software friend is Shovebox. Shovebox allows you to shove you ideas into a box for use at a later time. Ideas come to me at any given time and it great to be able to store them in an organised fashion for use at a later time. An example is when I have blog post ideas – I can shove the ideas for another time when I am lacking inspiration. Of course the iPhone addition to this Apple software make my life even easier.

Things

The most useful application I have ever used on the iPhone. It’s desktop counterpart is also the most used software on my mac. Things is the best task management system simply because it allows for complete flexibility, task scheduling, and the classic GTD inbox used to make sure you don’t forget the little things. The iphone app has also seen numerous upgrades in 2009 and has allowed for more and more control over task management straight from the phone. I have actually got to the point where I no longer need to take my laptop into meetings because of this application.

News24

A direct feed of collective news in South Africa. The application allows you to customise your news feed choices and saves you having to buy a newspaper to stay up to date. In addition the app has included sharing links on the news items which brings News24 into the social media realm. Big thumbs up to the News24 team.

Tripometer

An easy to use and intuitive application that keeps track of my milage. I can control both the personal and business milage and there is no guessing the distance as it calculates the milage by using the odometer readings. What would make this app the best, would be if it could calculate your milage without inputting any data and simply measuring the distance in a GPS manner. One can dream can’t he?

Wikipanion

This app is more useful than google because of its focus on providing information rather than general content. Google search will bring you the most relevant webpages in its results, but wikipanion will link to directly to ‘encyclopedia’ type info. I also find that the addition of the ‘wiktionary’ has rendered all other dictionary applications useless.

Remote

This is the most convenient application when I am entertaining at home. I often set my laptop up to play music in the background through my home sound system. With the Remote app I can control the volume and choice of songs from anywhere around my house. Saves me getting up all the time to turn the music down when we start eating etc. Plus it always gets attention when people see it in action.

Spend

Still a great application that helps manage my budgeting needs. I have been able to keep better track on my financial status since using this application.

Logos

A recent introduction to my iPhone. Logos is a bible application that has a stronger search and study function than Bible (the app I was using previously). Logos also includes sharing fuctions to twitter etc which makes life easier in sharing thoughts with my twitter channel @onthingsabove

Look out for the next post outlining my top applications on the iPhone for social media!

There are however a few useful and even life altering applications for the iPhone. These are the applications we should all be making a fuss about. So with this in mind here is my list of ‘Top iPhone Apps’ for 2009 on Version2.

1 ) Things

“Things is a beautifully focused and amazingly intuitive task manager.” I run all my tasks from here including complex projects at work. ” Other task managers either oversimplify or are too difficult to use. Either way you are not getting stuff done. Things instead has the right balance between ease of use and powerful features. You can even sync wirelessly with the desktop version of Things using Wi-Fi.” Read more…

2 ) Bloomberg

I use Bloomberg to keep up to date on my stock prices and charts as well as to research new stock options. The app design has used the iPhone strengths well by creating automatic chart views whenever you turn the phone sideways on a stock detail.

3 ) Bible

This application feeds from the website youversion.com. It feeds bible text directly from the website in a variety of bible versions including the NIV. Bible also allows for limited offline bible versions to be downloaded to your phone. Youversion has a unique concept of allowing users to comment and share thoughts on scripture and the application provides easy access to these contributions. The app also includes ‘email to friend’, bookmarking functions and a daily reading plan.

4 ) News24

A direct feed of collective news in South Africa. The application allows you to customise your news feed choices and saves you having to buy a newspaper to stay up to date.

5 ) Spend

This is most likely one of the most important apps I have. I use Spend to run all my budgeting. I have been able to drop my complicated excel budget spreadsheets and use a simpler, more intuitive interface for managing my budgeting and expenses. I now know exactly where I am in my spending all the time.

6 ) Pingle

A great application – simple because I use ping.fm to manage my status updates in the social blogosphere. Now with the Pingle app I have been able to update more regularly and more effectively to my various ping.fm update options.

7 ) WordPress

Using WordPress to run this blog means that an iphone application that allows me to stay up-to-date with comments and posts on my blog. I have found it a great way to load new post ideas as and when I think of them.

8 ) Remote

This is the most convenient application when I am entertaining at home. I often set my laptop up to play music in the background through my home sound system. With the Remote app I can control the volume and choice of songs from anywhere around my house. Saves me getting up all the time to turn the music down when we start eating etc. Plus it always gets attention when people see it in action.

9 ) Delicious

Gain access to you delicious boookmarks at anytime. This app is extremely helpful in the weirdist situations.

10 ) Tripometer

An easy to use and intuitive application that keeps track of my milage. I can control both the personal and business milage and there is no guessing the distance as it calculates the milage by using the odometer readings. What would make this app the best would be if it could calculate your milage without inputting any data and simply measuring the distance in a GPS manner. One can dream can’t he?

I am very deadline orientated and often need to know exactly where I am with each project I am working on. I have often tried different task management systems but found that every system didn’t provide for the flexibility I needed in managing my tasks.
The other thing to remember is that I moved over to the Mac Yuppie lifestyle about 2 years ago so i needed something that would compliment the apple logic.

Things provides the ultimate flexibility in task management while keeping to a GTD process that does not allow for things to get lost.

The Inbox
Throw all your tasks into an “Inbox” and then batch your task management time. Once your tasks are collected in the inbox you are able to re-assign them into ‘area’s', projects and even scheduled and recurring tasks.

Tagging helps batching
My favourite aspect about things is the tagging system, this could be because I enjoy and frequently use applications like del.icio.us. By tagging items with specific keywords I am able to batch all similar tasks across multiple projects together which saves me set up time and searching time for similar tasks.

Example: Every project that I complete needs to be invoiced, by tagging each task that involves invoicing the client, I am able to search the tag “invoice.” With those search results I am able to see every client that I need to invoice. So I only have to open my accounts programme once, instead of a few times a day for separate projects.

Check it out!
But don’t let me tell you more. See for yourself on the Culture Code website.

PS: iPhone
Oh, and they have developed an iPhone app which just makes my life even easier and I can add to and assign my task list / inbox from anywhere.