Home Screen: Sam Spurlin

Lately, I've been reading Sam Spurlin's blog. (Website) (Twitter) Sam has some great content and I like his voice. Sam's also got an iPhone and some definite thoughts about his home screen. So Sam, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

My hands down favorite app right now (and has been for a long time) is Instapaper. I'm a Ph.D student so I spend a ton of time reading things for class and research which means I don't have a lot of time to sit down and read other, fun, things. Instapaper is almost single handedly responsible for keeping me a semi-rounded individual. I'm very good about throwing interesting articles I see into the app and I love that I can use weird snippets of time to work through a personal reading list. I've also really been enjoying Circa for kind of the same reason, actually. I like how well summarized and broken down the articles are. You can tell there is some serious thought and care taken to do that well. The app is also just really well-designed and fun to use. (D-Nice find)

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Probably Facebook at this point. It seems to be one of the main ways my classmates like to communicate so I'm obligated to keep it around to some degree. It's also a good way to stay in touch with my family on the other side of the country. It has become much more bearable ever since I unfollowed almost everybody who I wasn't "real" friends with. Now my News Feed is (mostly) filled with updates from people I actually care about. I suppose my other one is the NHL's video streaming app, NHL GameCenter. I'm a huge hockey fan and it's nice to be able to catch a Red Wing's game if I'm stuck in a lecture...I mean, not near my computer for a completely legitimate reason :)

What is the app you are still missing?

This is where I make a corny joke about an app that will write research papers or do my homework, right? While I love Mendeley for PDF storage/citation management on my Mac, the iPhone app is pretty terrible -- to the point where it's basically missing. I eventually plan on getting an iPad or iPad mini and at that point I'm going to have to figure out an app or system of apps to keep the PDFs I read and annotate/highlight on my computer automatically synced with my iOS devices. I'm sure there is something out there that will work great but I haven't spent the time to figure it out, yet.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I have an iPhone 5 and I love how thin it is. I upgraded from a 3GS so the difference between the two was striking. My phone is the hub of much of my productive life (Fantastical, Things, and Evernote being the main trifecta) as well as much of my leisure time (Instapaper, Reeder, Twitter, Comixology, Letterpress, etc.). Being able to always have it in my pocket and not feel oppressed by its size or weight is important to the way I use it.

Anything else you'd like to share?

I don't remember where I originally read this or if it was some kind of original thought, but I try to use my home screen as inspiration. I look at my phone many, many times every day and I decided that I want the apps that help me be a better person or create something new in the world to be what I see most often. That's why I keep WriteRoom, Drafts, and Ink where I do. Instead of turning on my phone and being greeted by a bunch of games or mindless social networks I wanted to see apps that require me to engage with them on a little bit more intellectual level. Even if I'm not turning to my phone to draft an article or sketch a picture, keeping those apps front and center help me keep my mind on the fact that this phone can be a powerful tool if I decide to engage with it properly. I'm obviously getting away from this somewhat (see Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, etc.), but it's something I try to be mindful of.

Thanks Sam

Home Screens: Marcelo Somers

I first met Marcelo Somers (Website) (Twitter) several years ago when he organized the Syndicate ad network. These days Marcelo spends his time as a user experience consultant and writing at Behind Companies. So Marcelo, show us your home screen.

Chrome

Until recently, I was a devout Safari user. It wasn't until I forced myself to try out Chrome that I understood it. Google is absolutely killing it with their apps on iOS. The physics of how you interact with tabs and the single omnibox is brilliantly done. When I'm back in Safari, I find myself craving the horizontal swipe to go between tabs, or how easy it is to open in a new tab behind the existing one.

It's a little bit of a nuisance that links open in Safari by default, but I use Jon Abrams' bookmarklet to send a page from Safari to Chrome. What's interesting is that my bookmarks menu in Safari has really become like a second share sheet. The simple bookmarks interface is the one feature I still like better in Safari.

Listary

I'm an OmniFocus user for my day to day task management, but for basic lists like Groceries, Listary gives me a clean simple interface that's exactly what I need. The Simplenote sync lets me share lists easily with my wife, and do bulk entry on my Mac. I have two wishes for the app: Dropbox sync and URL Schemes. The developer has shared that Dropbox sync would prevent list sharing, so I can understand that, and URL Schemes are supposedly coming in a future update.

1Password

I won't beat the 1Password horse here, except to share one pro tip that hasn't seemed to make the rounds yet. 1Password 4's big update added the url scheme to open pages in the app. I wanted an easier way to do it, and Federico Viticci of Macstories obliged with this bookmarklet to send pages from Safari to 1Password. It's 3 steps easier than manually adding 'op' to the beginning of a URL, and I use it constantly.

Maps

I've bounced back and forth quite a bit. I gave Google Maps serious consideration after it came out, and like Chrome they are doing an amazing job on iOS. However, I find myself coming back to the beautiful maps from Apple. The turn by turn interface is much more realistic with perspective. I do keep Google around though for the occasional time that mapping data isn't correct. Waze is my 3rd wheel that I'll use to check what is going on with traffic if I'm stuck in my commute and Maps and Google don't help.

Mail

I hate email, but I'm a devout Mail user. I've tried Mailbox and all the other alternatives, but I keep coming back to the simplicity of Apple's client. I have a simple approach to email: things in my Inbox need to be dealt with, once they're dealt with they get archvied. No complicated folder structure or filing system, and I still haven't found a better app for it on iOS.

I'm of the opinion that if you are constantly on the hunt for an app to fix your email problems, your approach to email is really what needs fixing. An app isn't going to do it for you.

Calendar/Fantastical

Much like Mail, I still haven't found a better iOS calendar app than Apple's own. With the iPhone 5 and the additional appointments visible in Month view, it got even better.

With that being said, Fantastical is incredible for creating appointments. I use it much more devoutly on the Mac. I love the interface, but the iOS version just isn't quite a fit for me for general calendaring. I like the Daily/Monthly view in Apple's app.

Forecast

I was thrilled when the Dark Sky team released Forecast. It's a web app, but it's perfect. It gives me just the data I want with data visualizations that make sense.

Drafts

I've just started down the path of all the amazing URL Scheme actions that Drafts can do, but I love the idea of quickly opening the app to jot something down.

Launch Center Pro

Like Drafts, I'm still exploring the world of URL Schemes with Launch Center Pro. I've found a few key uses for the app. My biggest is keeping groups of contacts I reguarly message together (my parents, my in-laws, etc.). LCP makes it super easy to message them together without taking the time to select multiple contacts. My wife and I are expecting our first baby this summer, and I've even created a very large group to easily message updates when the time comes.

I also keep commands to Text my Last Photo, Place my last photo on the clipboard, send my wife a canned message that I'm on my way home, and some reguarly used app actions like taking a photo of a business receipt with QuickShot (via Shawn Blanc).

Instagram

I keep this on here as my "guilty pleasure". I was a huge Gowalla user back in the day but never fell in love with Foursquare after the Gowalla team went to Facbeook. Instagram took that spot for me, and it all clicked when Josh Williams (Gowalla's Former CEO) described the "M. Night Shyamalan moment":

They made their own rules. They called it Instagram.

That whole see the world through the eyes of their friends thing? Turns out Instagram did a pretty good job of this.

While we were busy playing tug-of-war over check-ins, someone else found a path to the goal with less friction.

Other Apps I love:

OmniFocus (MailDrop) - I love the voice capture coupled with Daniel Jalkut's Reminders Plumbing. However these days I find myself using MailDrop far more often on iOS.

Gmail - I keep Gmail around for searching my archive. Once again, they're killing it.

Dropbox - I moved to David's own Paperless system last Christmas when I got a Doxie. Dropbox lets me access all my records on the go, and I love it. It's also saved me many times when I needed to share a work file on the go without a laptop.

Amazon - What a simple, but delightful shopping experience. I love using the app's UPC scanner to compare prices when I'm out shopping, and they make it far too easy to one click purchase something I think I need. A large percentages of my shopping on Amazon is now done through mobile.

Dark Sky - It's not used often living in Texas, but it's so damn magical to get a push notification that it's about to rain. It's also saved me several times when I was going to forget an umbrella.

What am I missing?

There aren't really any apps I desire, but what I want to see in iOS 7 is better inter-app sharing of content. URL Schemes are great, but they have their limits, and it'd be great to have it be more accessible. I also want better photo/video backup. I'm currently using Dropbox (which requires manual opening of the app). With my first child on the way, this becomes even more crucial. Also, more free space on iCloud for device backups. It gets tough to fit it all with a 16gb iPhone and iPad.

Thanks Marcelo.

If you've got an interesting story and home screen, let me know.

Home Screen: Eddie Smith

It's been a long time since Eddie Smith first showed his home screen here on MacSparky. I thought it was time for an update so he shared one. In case you don't know them already, Eddie writes the Practically Efficient blog and is one of my best nerd friends. We even wrote a book together. So Eddie, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Every app on my home screen is a favorite in some way. They range from really sophisticated task managers like OmniFocus to single-feature gems like Lighty. In fact, Lighty, my favorite flash light app, is one of the most important apps on my phone. I use it all the time, and it's probably saved me real dollars in the foregone cost of replacing batteries in little flash lights around my house.

Productivity Apps:

One notable trend on my iPhone in the last year is the inclusion of more and more Google apps. Until the last year, I felt like Google intentionally avoided putting development resources into its iOS apps, but that seems to be changing.

I tried very hard to use the default Apple Maps app that debuted with iOS 6, but I've found the search in Google Maps (Google's response to the new Apple Maps) far more intelligent. Given that I use maps apps primarily for location and phone number searches, the Google Maps app is a better fit on my home screen.

I use Google Voice as my voicemail solution—partly because it provides a convenient text transcription of voice messages and partly for the entertainment value in how poorly it often transcribes those messages.

Google's Gmail app really sucked until version 2.0 came along. It seemed like a slow, laggy mobile version of the full Gmail web UI. 2.0 is much better, and while I've tried using the default Mail app, Mailbox, and others, the Gmail app suits me best the way I use email on my phone—which is mainly to process incoming mail and search for archived mail.

Another notable Google app I'm using (that isn't on my home screen) is the new Google Drive app. For the first time, I feel like I can reliably edit Google documents and spreadsheets from my iPhone and iPad. In fact, I think the spreadsheet interface in Google Drive is the best mobile spreadsheet interface I've seen so far.

Enough on Google.

If the Gmail app is my favorite app for pulling email, Drafts is my favorite for pushing email. In fact, I'm composing more and more of all kinds of things in Drafts. I just love the simplicity of having a single point of entry for text on my home screen. I think of Drafts as a more natural human way of entering text—more like a sticky note in the pre-digital world.

While most digital interfaces for text entry—from email clients to task management systems—encourage you to "title" something and choose its destination first, Drafts encourages you to get the message or content down first, then choose its destination. I would love to see this design concept bleed into other mobile and desktop interfaces.

Day One, Evernote, and Notesy give me access to most of my personal information. I love tracking simple goals in Day One. Evernote is like a paperless filing cabinet in my pocket. Notesy gives me access to all of my plain text notes in Dropbox.

Soulver is my favorite calculator app, not only on the iPhone but on my iPad and Mac as well.

For task management, I mainly use OmniFocus. The OmniFocus iPhone app is really useful for capturing inbox items. I've starting using Drafts to send things to OmniFocus instead of starting with OmniFocus, though.

I use the built-in Reminders app for short-term but important reminders that I want pushed to all of my devices (e.g. "Put jeans in the dryer" when I really need to remember to do that.)

I'm glad this is a home screen post because I would be embarrassed to show you how many weather apps live elsewhere on my iPhone. Today is my current favorite for checking current weather and daily forecasts. The new Forecast.io and Dark Sky, however, both get a lot of use, too.

While we're talking life management, it's worth noting that I have two calendar apps on my home screen. I really like Fantastical's natural language entry system, and I use it a lot—mainly in situations where it's not appropriate to speak aloud to Siri. I can't bring myself to remove the default calendar app because I really like having today's date displayed on my home screen.

Entertainment:

I prefer to read on my iPad, but I actually read way more on my iPhone because it's with me all the time. I've really been digging Newstand in the last year. Marco Arment has done a great job with The Magazine, which lives in Newstand along with the New York Times app and The Economist. The Times app is easily the best news app I've ever used. If they would get rid of ads in the paid version, it would be even better.

Tweetbot, Reeder, and Instapaper live in my News folder. Tweetbot lets me capture important links on Twitter, and Reeder is my favorite place for following RSS feeds. And Instapaper, of course, my favorite place to read the articles I find in Tweetbot and Reeder.

I listen to a lot of audio through my iPhone. Virtually all of it comes from Instacast, my favorite app for following podcasts, and Pandora.

What app are you still missing?

I'm really looking forward to see how Google's killing of Google Reader will change the way we subscribe to websites. I would like to see someone develop web services and apps that make it easier to not only follow newly published information but that also make it easy to subscribe to archived information. For example, I wish there was a way to browse older content more easily when I find, say, a blog that's already been active for years—kind of like working through a box of old Life magazines.

Anything else you'd like to share?

Thanks for having me back. It's always a pleasure working with you, reading you, and listening to you.

Thanks Edddie.

Home Screens: Rene Ritchie

This year at Macworld I finally got to meet Rene Ritchie (Twitter). Rene publishes iMore, one of the best sources on the web for Apples news, rumors, and tutorials. Rene does an amazing job of sleuthing out details for future Apple products and iMore does some really great tutorials. (Just this week they did a nice piece on iOS message archiving). So Rene, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

Tweetbot and Twitterrific for Twitter. I use Tweetbot to triage @mentions and DMs and respond quickly while I'm out and about or working, and I use Twitterrific for reading the unified stream and linked content when I'm relaxing.

Launch Center Pro is the first third-party app to get on my Dock and stay there. It's ability to launch actions instead of apps makes it an incredibly fast way to get everywhere I need to go, and do a lot of the basic things I need to do, without the mental overhead of hunting for a specific app, contact, or feature each time.

Fantastical for iPhone lets me enter events into my calendar with incredible ease and speed. It uses natural language, like Siri, but with text instead of voice, and that lets it parse and create stuff literally at the speed of type. Downside: my calendar is now fuller than ever. Jerks.

Dropbox stores my entire Mac documents directory and having it on my iPhone means I'm only ever a network connection and a few taps away from getting to all my stuff, at any time, any where.

1Password is the only way I can mediate the constant battle between convenience and security. My database lives in Dropbox so I can have strong passwords at home and while on the go.

Elements is how I edit text on iOS. It stores in Dropbox so it doesn't matter where I am, I can pick up and keep working. I can even use Dictation to input ideas on the road. It's my memory alpha.

Screens lets me VNC into my Macs from my iPhone or my iPad. That it works at all is magic. That it works in so simple, elegant a way is more than magic. (Science!)

The iMore app, self-serving as my including here may sound, is something I use constantly to keep track of the site I run and interact with my community I serve.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Letterpress. That damn Loren Brichter has stolen more hours of sleep from me this year than any other developer. He also did it with yet-another trend-setting design, a delightful experience, and a system that doesn't feel like it's gouging or conning me.

What is the app you are still missing?

Whatever is next! I have a ton of great apps, many of which are incredibly clever ways to solve incredibly common or complex problems. But imagination is limitless, and I'm always on the lookout for even better apps that do things in even better ways.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

Nearly constantly! When I'm out, I'm looking at it all the time, and when I'm home, it's still how I glance at notifications. I might need an intervention. Not that I want one.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Simplicity. It's beautifully yet unobtrusively designed and it powers fantastic software and services that are highly discoverable and accessible and have changed the way I live my life.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I'd like to see the next generation of user interface. We -- every user of every device by every platform owner -- are stuck in an era of pull data where we have to hunt down icons or widgets or apps to find our data and act on it. It's time to jump ahead again. It's time to go to push data. It's time for our data to come to us.

I want actionable notifications where I can respond to messages inside the alert, or reset counters, or play/pause music, without switching apps or control schemes. I want inter-app communication so the stuff I need follows me where ever I am. I want a unified view of all my messages, regardless of whether they're SMS, email, Twitter, or whatever, and all my schedules/reminders that are easy to get to and act on. And I want a simple, unified gesture navigation system to help me get around even faster. Demanding much?

Anything else you'd like to share?

Yeah, my Home screen is almost completely stock. Hi, I'm Captain Default, have we met?

Seriously, though, I have a bunch of devices for testing a bunch of different things, I restore them often, and I frequently use them to screenshot help articles. Default is the easiest way to always know what's where.

Now if MacSparky ever asks for second screen shots...

Thanks Rene

Home Screen: Thanh Pham

This week's home screen comes to you courtesy of Thanh Pham (Twitter) from AsianEfficiency. I've long been an admirer of Thanh's and his excellent content. I was fortunate enough to meet him this January at Macworld and found out that in addition to being a really smart guy, he's also a really nice guy. Also, remarkably, he lives in the same county as me and we've never had dinner. We're going to fix that. Thanh, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

1Password

This app is a must-have. I almost browse more in 1Password than I do in Safari.

Air Playit

I have a lot video courses on my Macbook that I want to access with my iPhone and iPad. Instead of syncing the video files (which can be big) I like to stream them to my iDevice. So whenever I'm in bed or on the couch, I can pull out my iPhone, pick a video, stream it onto my iPhone and continue learning.

Habit List

I'm always experimenting with my habits. Sometimes I'll add or change multiple habits at the same time so having an app to track my progress is great. Over the years I've tried many different ones but I like Habit List the most.

OmniFocus

Do I really need to say more? It’s the best task manager out there. Period.

Downcast

I'm pretty new to listening to podcasts and I've found that Downcast appeals to me the most. Design is really important to me and this app is the best designed out of all podcast apps (just play with a couple gestures to see why).

Instapaper

I do a lot of reading so Instapaper is a must-have. Whenever I get a chance, I like to catch up with my articles in my inbox.

Drafts

This is my go-to app for capturing. It's fast, simple and you can easily store your notes in the right places. I'll often use this too for dictating my thoughts because it's so easy afterwards to get it stored in OmniFocus or Evernote.

Tweetbot

Simply the best twitter client out there.

Weather+

A gorgeous weather app that gets the job done. I mostly use this app just because it's so beautiful.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Kingdom Rush

It's not on my home screen for a good reason. If you want to throw productivity out the window, this is the tower defense game you must have. You have been warned.

What is the app you are still missing?

I've tried a bunch of fitness apps for tracking progress, nutrition and measurements but none have really won me over. There are a lot of apps that excel at one thing but there is no app that does it ALL really well. I just want to easily track my progress, know how many calories I had today, track my weight, body fat and water weight without much effort. Integration with Siri would be really nice to have so I can just say what I did and ate, and have it all processed for me.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad? During the hours I'm working, maybe once an hour. I try to hide my phone whenever I'm engaged at work. However, as soon as I take a break or call it a day, I'm constantly on my phone.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad? I really like Siri. I use this feature a lot for sending texts, starting a timer, weather forecasts, reminders and directions.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change? I would like the idea of "charging your phone" to be non-existent. It's something you shouldn't have to think or worry about.

Another issue is iOS. I got an iPhone the first day it came out and I have never used another phone since then. However, with the lack of iOS innovation sometimes I feel like I've been using the same phone for a decade. There are a lot of opportunities for iOS to be even better, e.g. customizing the look and feel, lock screen utilities, customizing gestures and much more.

Anything else you'd like to share? Thanks for having me! I really love your home screen series because I get to see how other people use their iDevices and I always learn something new. I hope I did the same for someone else.

Thanks Thanh

Home Screens: Katie Floyd

In April 2009, I started a podcast with Katie Floyd (blog) (twitter) and over the past (nearly) four years it's been nothing but fun. This week I asked Katie to come back to share her updated home screen.

What are some of your favorite Apps?

The Replacements:

I’ve replaced many of the default Apple Apps with third party replacements. For example, Fantastical has become my Calendar replacement, Evernote my notes replacement and Calcbot my Calculator replacement. I feel all these apps offer benefits far above and beyond the built-in Apps. As I’ve spoken about several times on Mac Power Users, Evernote has become my paperless filing cabinet, my pin-board and so much more. I love Fantastical so much on my Mac, it was a natural fit for the iPhone, the ability to enter (or dictate) appointments using natural language is like magic. Although I originally bought Calcbot for the iPad, it was such a great calculator, I figured why not use it as my default on the iPhone?

Favorites:

Lose It! - Keeping with the theme of our Geek Fitness show - Lose It! has become an essential part of my nutrition and exercise program. Logging my food intake is the difference between having an on-track week and a wasted week. This App has to be on my home screen where it stares at me each time I unlock the phone and reminds me to log my food.

1Password - How many more good things can I say about 1Password? I have no idea what any of my passwords are to any services because they’re all in 1Password. It’s absolutely essential to my workflow. Version 4.0 is fantastic, I especially love the additions of being able to generate passwords within the App and the improvements to the web browser.

Day One - Day one has become my professional journal that I use for logging my work activities, meeting notes, conferences etc. I’ve never really gotten into the idea of a personal diary, but a professional one has stuck. It’s helped me keep better track of all the random notes at the office, improved my billing by keeping a log of my activities and helped communication with my staff because I can export and send them a day or an entry. Day One on the iPhone means I can log tasks when I’m out and I don’t have to remember to enter them when I’m back in the office.

OmniFocus/Reminders - I’m not sure what else I can add here that hasn’t already been said other than I think there’s a place for both. I use Reminders as a place for quick lists I don’t want cluttering up OmniFocus (grocery lists and the like) and OmniFocus for managing life tasks and projects.

Drafts - This is probably the App I want to integrate more fully with my workflow. Right now I’m just using it as a quick entry point to send information to other places like Dropbox, Evernote or Day One. But I know it’s capable of so much more. I really want to dig further into this App and the possibilities. For now, it’s enough to earn a spot on my home screen.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I’ve never been into gaming, you won’t find a single game on my iPhone. But I love Twitter and of all the Apps I’ve tried Tweetbot is by far my favorite. While I don’t post much to Facebook, I do use it to keep up with whats going on in the lives of friends and family. So both apps have earned a spot on my home screen.

I do have an “Entertainment” category of Apps on my second screen which primarily include audio and video apps like ABC Player, NBC, 5by5 Radio, Songza, Pandora and Amazon Instant Video.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

Constantly. It’s in my pocket, my purse, my briefcase or sitting on the desk next to me. If I get more than a few feet away from my iPhone I start to go through withdraw. That’s not a problem, right?

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Having my life in my pocket. It’s my communication device, my research assistant, my secretary and entertainment hub all in one. It’s only been six years and I can’t imagine my life without it.

Anything else you would like to add?

When I sit with my Muggle friends and family I’m shocked to see how many aren’t using some of the basic features of the iPhone and are putting their data at risk. MacSparky readers understand the importance of activating services like iCloud backup, automatic passcode lock, Find My iPhone, Photostream and sync with cloud services. The general population just doesn’t get this, so do a good deed and educate them. Or, do what I do sometimes and just turn these services on when they aren’t looking. They’ll thank you later.

Thanks Katie

Home screens: MacSparky

I was looking at the wealth of home screen posts going back to December 2009 and it occurred to me I've never posted my own home screen. Well gang, here you go.

On The Dock

Calendar

I need a calendar app in my dock because I often need my calendar. I've got this on-again off-again relationship with Apple's calendar app. I know there are better solutions but at the end of the day I'm pretty scatterbrained and having the date in my dock is useful.

Drafts(App Store)

I've written about Drafts before. Plenty. Drafts is the ultimate text capture tool but does so much more. I use it with the keyboard and Siri all the time. Moreover, Drafts just keeps improving with an increasing number of export and automation features.

OmniFocus (App Store)

My precious OmniFocus.

Phone

Well … it is an i"Phone".

On the Home Screen

I love my iPhone 5 but I also love having a little empty space on my home screen. I emptied out the bottom row a few months ago and now I'm used to it that way. I'm also very specific about App placement. The Camara is always top right, Email is always top left. I've played with alternative camera apps but the launch speed of the native app trumps their additional features.

Tweetbot and Netbot (Tweetbot App Store) (Netbot App Store)

There are a lot of great Twitter apps but Tweetbot is my favorite. I like the little delightful bits of the interface and the way everything syncs across Mac and iOS.

Calcbot (App Store)

Calcbot is another great Tapbots app. It's a friendly calculator with great sound effects. Yes. I said that.

Reeder (App Store)

RSS feeds are my dirty habit. I try to keep the list small but I still find myself checking it several times a day. For this, I use Reeder on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Instapaper (App Store)

I know there are other read-it-later services but I love the way Marco Arment sweats all the details. Instapaper is, for me, a triage of sorts where articles get routed to Evernote, OmniFocus, Reading folders, and the trash. I also pay the monthly $1 subscription.

WriteRoom (App Store)

I have an ongoing battle between WriteRoom and Notesy for syncing my nvALT text files from my Mac. Currently I'm using WriteRoom because it is so damn fast at syncing. (As an aside, sometimes I'll also run an instance of Notesy just syncing to my current Field Guide files through Scrivener on my Mac.)

Byword (App Store)

Byword is where I keep anything I'm currently writing on. I love the iCloud sync and the simple UI. It just works.

Downcast (App Store)

I originally used Instacast. I paid for the app and the in-app upgrades but they made changes to the UI and I never got used to it. Moreover, the icon was about the same color as the Music and Reader apps, which led to me sometimes hitting the wrong one. (I know how ridiculous that sounds.) So I tried Downcast about six months ago and it stuck with me, immediately.

Music

I know a lot of nerds put the Music app on a second page but I really love music.

1Password (App Store)

Agile's done such an amazing job with version 4. I use this app probably more than I use Safari since it logs me in so efficiently and the in-app browser is so good.

Setting

I'm a fiddler with iPhone settings so I keep it handy. It would be nice if I could use Siri to do some of the most common tasks, like toggle Bluetooth and WiFi.

A Word about Badges.

I don't like them. It feels like my iPhone is yelling at me. I turn badges off on just about every app that has them. I even turn them off on the email client. (Actually, I especially turn them off on the email client.) I've deleted apps that made too much a chore out of turning off their badges. In OmniFocus, I turn off all badges except "Due". If OmniFocus lights up a badge, I know I have troubles.

The Second Page

I do seem to collect apps. My second page is a group of alphabetized folders with apps that I occasionally use or am trying out.

My Lock Screen

I rather like my lock screen. The image was created by a friend of mine, Gabe Wilson. You can download it with the below link.

Make me a Pirate (download)

Home Screen: Mike Rohde

This week's home screen comes from my pal Mike Rohde, (Twitter) (Website), the father of Sketchnoting, founder of the Sketchnote Army, and a recent guest on the Mac Power Users. So Mike, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite Apps?

I have many favorites, not all of which are represented on my home screen, so I'll talk a little about my home screen first and then mention a few standouts used more occasionally, but still useful when needed.

Safari & Mail - both stock apps which work well and seem to be the glue of my workflow on the iPhone. I'm either viewing or sending information with these two, unglamorous as they are. Still, they are great, workhorse tools for me.

Instapaper - This is where I send many of the longer reads I encounter on Twitter, in Reeder or in email. It's a great reading environment and has been a staple on my home screen for a long time now.

I will admit to having no organization in Instapaper whatsoever. It's a means to an end, really - if I like something there, I might Pinboard or email it to someone, or tweet it out. So I don't spend any time with folders. But I love this app. Reeder - Five years ago I spent all of my time reading RSS feeds on the Mac, using NetNewsWire. When I moved to the iPhone for reading RSS, which was a slow transition, I eventually settled on Reeder, after trying some other apps out. I appreciate the minimalist UI of the app and how I'm able to move articles around in Google Reader, Instapaper, Twitter, email and Pinboard. It's great to have the synchronicity with the iPad and Mac apps as well — something I appreciate in a few apps I use.

Tweetbot & Netbot - I keep these together as I spend time in both pretty regularly. Right now I spend more time in Tweetbot because of my book release late last year — sharing info about the book, responding to readers and also heavy commentary during the NFL season on my team, The Green Bay Packers and other teams too.

In that specific instance, the Tweetbot feature of being able to follow a specific list as your main stream has become invaluable. When I watch and comment on a game, I switch my timeline to the Football list I've built, which shows people I've marked as interested in or commenting on NFL games. It works great.

As for my followers who could care less about NFL tweets, Tweetbot has a nice mute feature which I am aware of, but have never used. Still, it's good to know this feature is available.

I've appreciated the features in Tweetbot to the point that when I tried to use the stock Twitter app, I get frustrated. I've removed that stock app from my iPhone because it got so little use, once Apple integrated Twitter accounts into iOS.

Finally, I like the gestures Tweetbot and Netbot offer. I probably use a fraction of what is available, but for what I use, I like those options.

Listary - This is a simple app that uses the Simplenote database and plain text files to create to-do lists. What's even better is the sharing feature that lets me share a shopping list with my wife and the copy of Listary on her iPhone.

I can load up items I need through the day and then pick them up — my wife can add to them as well. I've even seen her add items while I was at the store shopping. The lists are just Simplenote files and can easily be edited in Simplenote as well.

Maps - I actually like Apple's mapping, though I only occasionally use them. I do miss the Google Maps transit maps — those have been incredibly handy when I've used public transport in other cities. I'm a fan of the Apple turn-by-turn UI and feature, and have used that more than I would have expected. Fortunately it hasn't sent me into a river yet. :-)

Now that Google has a standalone app, I'll likely use that when I need to travel by bus or train in other cities, or until Apple adds a transit option.

Messages - Useful for the everyday texting I do with my wife, father and work colleagues. Like Mail it just does the job. Recently I've sorted out Messages on the Mac and really like having access to messaging wherever I am.

Camera - With the iPhone 4S, I've switched back to the stock camera app, because it's become so quick. I do have Camera+ on the phone and sometimes use it to process photos, but felt it had become too slow for quick images.

I also like the stock camera app because it drops an original in my photo collection and photostream and if I use the image in Flickr, Camera+ or Instagram, I always have the original shot to fall back on.

1Password - This is a great tool for mostly occasional use on the iPhone, typically for logins when I'm on another machine, key codes for door locks and things like that. I don't use it here as heavily as I do on the Mac, but I love that the key database syncs via Dropbox.

Flickr - This is the newest addition to my home screen, replacing Instagram in the same spot. I wasn't pleased about the licensing and rights issues around Instragram recently, and have been a Flickr guy for many years now. I was excited to see the app updated and the ability to both share my photostream and sets and see others' work as well.

I've moved the most recent Instagram shots over to Flickr and will eventually move them all over, and find it fun to play with the editing and filtering features in Flickr.

Instacast - I am a huge podcast listener, with a 25 minute commute into work and often 35 minutes back home, Monday through Wednesday. I've got a backlog of podcast right now, as I've recently added some new podcasts to my queue and am in the process of shifting and settling on a new list of regulars with a few stalwarts that will never get removed.

I also listen to podcasts when I walk the dog, when I shovel snow or mow the grass, wash dishes or even on my Jambox while I give kids baths. It's great to have such a wide variety of voices and content available these days.

Day One - This app is a recent move to the home screen, ever since the iOS and Mac apps were updated to include photos, weather, location data and other features. I love that these all sync between devices (iPhone, iPad and Mac) so that I can start an entry with a photo on the iPhone in the morning, and finish the entry at night on the Mac or iPad.

I'm still not as regular with my diary entries as I wish I were, however, this app has made me much, much more regular in my day capture than before. I love the app.

Nike+ Running - This is an app I've been using for walking my dog at night. I'll fire it up and the app tracks my "runs" which in this case are walks — I really love the GPS tracking that identifies the route taken and even uses a heat map style color coding system to show where I walked quickly, slowly or was stopped.

The data is synced to my Nike+ account, so I have access on the web, though most of my use of the data is right on the phone. I can see how far I've walked, how fast my mile is and it tracks goals and gives badges for achievements.

Eventually I am looking at a Fitbit Flex or Nike Fuelband, but for this purpose the app works just fine for my simple needs and it seems to motivate me to walk.

OmniFocus - Super productivity app that I really like and am using more this year. I primarily use it on the Mac, though it's handy to have with me on the iPhone for entering tasks or adding new ones as I think of them.

The iPhone app's Forecast View is especially helpful for looking ahead quickly and seeing what's on the horizon. I'm hoping this feature gets added to OmniFocus 2.0 for the Mac.

Phone - Basic phone app that works fine, but nothing super special.

Simplenote - A great app I find more useful every day. I use it in conjunction with JustNotes on the Mac, where I track all sorts of stuff — Sketchnote Handbook reference, press mentions, reviewer name and addresses, along with thoughts I have on the go, recipes for food I like to prepare, and whatever else I need to quickly store.

It also provides a database for Listary to work, which is a great symbiotic relationship.

Fantastical - This is also a recent addition to the home screen, replacing Agenda. I really like the natural language feature for adding events and integration with Siri as well. The Week View bar up top is also a great way to look ahead - reminds me of Forecast in OmniFocus.

Other apps of note:

iA Writer - Great app for writing on the iPhone in a simple, focused environment that also has a corresponding iPad and Mac client.

Quotebook - Wonderful app for capturing quotes I get in email or see on Twitter.

Pandora - When I want to get into a groove for creating, I like to fire up a station in Pandora and just let it roll. Last year I upgraded to Pandora One and love commercial free mixes.

Squarespace - Nice little app for checking stats and approving/replying to comments. I've done some posting from this app on the iPhone or iPad, but prefer the keyboard on my Mac.

Pear Note - Handy note-taking app on the iPhone and iPad, with audio recording and sync capabilities that also connects up with my Mac's version via Dropbox or iCloud.

Dropbox - More useful than I would have expected for viewing and sending files.

GoodReader - My go-to PDF reading app on the iPhone and iPad.

Bloom - Coffee timer I use for AeroPress, Pourover and French Press.

Mention - An app that I track mentions of The Sketchnote Handbook with. Service is web-based and has a Mac client so I can see what mentions have come in anywhere I am.

ooTunes - I use this to tune into terrestrial radio streams for sporting events.

Square Register - Just picked up a Square reader and this app on the iPhone and iPad so I can sell copies of my book when I travel to events.

Tripit - When I travel, this app combined with the TripIt Pro service is invaluable. Keep track of my flights, hotel and in-between travel, along with maps of cities and airports.

Minimal Folio - Great app for giving presentations from on the go.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Casual gaming, which when it happens is either Letterpress, Angry Birds or Armageddon Squadron, an old WWII fighter pilot game on the iPhone.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I use my iPhone constantly through the day — email, Twitter and Reeder in the morning, podcasts or music for the drive to and from work, and other uses all day long.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

My favorite feature of the iPhone and iPad is the portability and power in an elegant package. I'm sometimes shocked at the power I now have in my pocket to do so much — the version of myself from 20 or even 10 years ago would be dumbfounded to learn that the future me would have a phone more powerful than the Mac I was using to design logos with.

I learned how valuable the iPad could be through the process of writing The Sketchnote Handbook. I used it to write the manuscript with a Bluetooth keyboard, for reference as I sketched the book, to edit scripts and as a teleprompter when shooting the book's videos and as a testing device when I loaded the final PDFs for review.

Probably the secret, underlying feature that makes them most valuable is the long battery life, particularly on the iPad. It's become a serious creating machine for writing and concepting because I can spend a day traveling or at a cafe and never think about battery.

Anything else you would like to add?

David, thank you for making a space with the home screen series where users can share how they apply these amazing machines we have in their own lives. I've subscribed to the series and will look forward to reading back and seeing new pieces appear in the future.

Thanks Mike.

Home screen: David Chartier

As I prance through the Internet, I keep noticing that articles I particularly enjoy have David Chartier in the byline. David (Web) (Twitter) is a freelance writer who frequently contributes to some of the best tech sites, like Macworld and Ars Technica. David also does work with AgileBits, publishers of my beloved 1Password. David, I believe, is also the first guest to share his iPad mini home screen (though I suspect he won't be the last). So David, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

How much time do we have? Let's see, Evernote, Flipboard, Tumblr, Drafts, Day One, TextExpander, and Writing Kit off the top of my home screen. If I can diverge from the iPad for just a second, I also have to mention KitCam for iPhone. It feels like the epitome of everything we've learned about and want from a mobile camera for photos and videos.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Right now I'd have to say Angry Birds: Star Wars. I know we're all probably sick to death of them, but adding the Star Wars characters created some fun new game mechanics that I am fully prepared to admit have convinced me to in-app purchase all the levels.

What is the app you are still missing?

A to-do app for things and places. I have Things, I might switch back to OmniFocus, but I want an app for collecting books, movies, music, places, and other types of things that I want to try. This app needs to understand and display metadata about the thing I want to try. I want album art, movie ratings, Foursquare-like photos of the European city to which I want to travel with my wife… not just a list of names and checkboxes. Good idea David.

Springpad is a kitchen-sink Evernote competitor that works some metadata magic. It's close, and its iOS apps are great and getting better so I might try it again for what I'm talking about. But I would prefer an app tuned for this specific purpose, and ideally not supported by advertising (or likely to be). Recall for iPhone is getting there, and Done Not Done adds some light, social smartness to that whole thing. But I still feel like my Moby App is out there… eluding me. Taunting me.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

Is this a trick question? Ok, I should probably break it down. My iPhone? Constantly. I keep it with me as a scratchpad for ideas (Drafts, Evernote, and Things), or to limit my social media usage when I really need to hunker down. Or simply as a flashlight to get around the house at night and to take the dogs out since I am often a night owl, my wife is a light sleeper.

When it comes to my iPad, it's different. I've grown to love the portability and simplicity of iOS for many of the tasks for which it suits me, like reading, writing, outlining, basic sketching, researching (thanks to Writing Kit's built-in browser), and more. That said, I'll admit my Mac is still better for some tasks and situations, so I'd say my general work day is split about 80/20 Mac and iPad, maybe 85/15. But when it comes to after hours or anything that doesn't absolutely require a Mac, I reach for my iPad more and more these days. Walking out of the house with nothing but a small, incredibly light satchel containing an iPad and maybe my Logitech Tablet Keyboard is incredibly liberating.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

That it can become any feature. The iPad and iPhone are designed to be blank canvases, from the first line of code to the final line drawn by Jonathan Ive. Whether I want to write, or tinker with my music and singing hobby, or dust off the drawing skills of my multimedia design degree, my iOS device becomes entirely devoted to that purpose with a single tap. It's been five years and I'm still impressed by this aspect of the experience and platform that Apple built, and the immense creativity developers show in harnessing it.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would iterate iOS faster and add a layer for power users. As much as I love iOS, parts of it really do feel like they've stalled or fallen behind. iOS releases have become one major X.0 release per year, a couple of security fixes to follow, and then nothing until the preview of the next big X.0, then the release of said next X.0.

I really do think there is room for some kind of a "pro user" layer to iOS. Maybe it could be a giant red button, buried deep within Settings.app, which warns the user that they forfeit all software support for the remainder of their device's warranty (but total hardware failure could still be covered if you have AppleCare+). The details are negotiable.

But utilities like TextExpander, Pastebot, and everything else handicapped by sandboxing and other iOS rules are incredibly useful. There has to be a way iOS can be safe and secure for the vast majority of users, yet offer the extra power for users that can knowingly harness it.

Anything else you'd like to share?

Thanks a ton for inviting me to this series. Be excellent to each other.

Thanks David

Home screens: James Coleman

James Coleman (blog) is a friend and local with me here in Orange County. James is owner and founder of TechRoom, an Orange County California based technology service business that has expertise in both Windows and Mac, and is also an Apple Authorized Service Provider. I first learned of James when an Apple Genius told me to take my sick Mac to his shop. So James, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

My favorite apps are either really innovative and solve some major problem for me or are well designed, or sometimes both. The absolute best ones are rock-solid services that integrate forward for the iPhone owner via a well-designed app. Box.com comes to mind. I use Box.com’s Enterprise service for business, and also for personal use. Box.com as a tool is part of my paperless strategy. Their app on the iPhone and iPad is great, and the app ensures that my iPhone is my portal to all my documents from anywhere in the world.

I’m an Omnifocus junkie. To me it’s probably the best app on the iPhone, period. I could live without everything else, but I won’t go a day without Omnifocus. I have a lot on my plate being a husband, a father, a business owner and an entrepreneur (mostly in that order). I get a lot out of the app because I spent a lot of time getting my personal operating model in order (years). In fact, once I really experienced the actual yield of time and effectiveness back to my personal life, I spent a few months crafting a game plan to use Omnifocus as a business development and business management tool. I tried Salesforce.com out but their system forced me to do things their way, and it didn’t integrate with anything else.

I really dig Line2. When I’m in the US, it means I have two phone numbers on my iPhone, so I don’t ever have to worry about personal versus business. And when I’m over in Japan – like I am right now as I write this - my US iPhone rings right through onto my Japanese iPhone, even if I’m on 3G, and the voice quality is awesome. The interface could be better, but Line2 got the back end network right. For $10/month, it’s a really awesome service made possible by the app.

I love Wikiamo. I’m old enough to remember sitting for hours in front of my dad’s Encyclopedia Brittanica, and spending my summers in libraries going from aisle to aisle, connecting dots as one book triggered interest in another topic. Now I can look up almost anything via Wikipedia, and Wikiamo is a great, super clean interface.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I had to think about this question quite a while. Every time I discover a really amazing new app, I keep telling myself it’s good living in the future. I’m still waiting for my RocketMan jetpack and self-driving car, but I’ll take what I can get.

My guilty pleasure is my Japanese app. During my undergraduate degree I carried around a Kanji dictionary that must have weighed two pounds. It was a huge hardback book designed to help you look up characters by their parts (called radicals). The electronic versions were really useless to me, being a foreigner without a Japanese background. Now I have Japanese, which is awesome in that I can handwrite characters and it will automatically look them up. I went from a two pound book to about 200 megabytes. Isn’t it great living in the future?

What is the app you are still missing?

What I think I’m missing is a really good image recognition app that would provide a similar functionality to Google’s “search by image” capability. It would be awesome to integrate that kind of capability into an app like Wikiamo. In fact, yesterday I was having trouble with one Kanji and it would have been great to take a picture of it and have it return a hit for me. The various Goggles apps out there currently don’t do a good job of this.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I really like the form factor. I’ve decided I’m not getting cases anymore. Apple did a great job engineering the iPhone 5 well enough to take a reasonable level of daily use, including the occasional small slip and drop. I do use a screen protector, because it’s still too susceptible to scratches. My next favorite feature, as small as it is, is the reversible lightning port. Imagine how many millions of hours of time have been spent fussing with cables because the inventors of the USB 2 and 3 ports didn’t execute on a little detail like that.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

  1. The absolute first thing that comes to mind is a data restoration verification. I think there should be a higher level of accountability for iCloud backups.

  2. I want a display that has the same durability of sapphire crystal. I think a touchscreen with the same resistance to scratches as my Omega Seamaster would rock. The current display scratches way too easily. To me, this is a major weakness of the iPhone, including the 5.

  3. I would get rid of AppleCare+ and simply do what Bose does exceedingly well: Offer the customer a replacement and upgrade program for the life of the phone without having to buy an option to replace.

  4. I would leverage Apple’s power in the market to influence its channel of cell phone service companies to stop some ridiculous and often punitive practices. For example, even though the new Verizon version of the iPhone 5 is unlocked and referred to as a “world phone”, some cell phone companies Apple does business with pretty much ruin any chance of the consumer benefiting from it.

Home screens: Don Southard

Writer and programmer Don Southard (Twitter) is someone to watch. He recently released his Watermarker App and I really like his writing at MacStories. Today Don was kind of enough to share his home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

When it comes to iOS apps, I am addicted to the Productivity category in the App Store. You won't find many games on my phone. As of writing this, the only game currently on my phone is Kingdom Rush (an insanely hard Tower Defense game). I am pretty sure I have tried almost every todo app available and a part of me has loved every one of them. However, only the best ones stay on my iOS devices and I have no qualms deleting apps that don't make the cut. Some of my favorite apps include OmniFocus, Drafts, Pythonista, and Launch Center Pro. I use Pythonista for scripting simple actions like uploading images to a web server and I use Launch Center Pro for quickly launching those scripts. OmniFocus and Drafts have also become reliable staples in my iOS workflows. I have an IT day job in addition to my blogging and software development projects so I almost always have a lot going on, OmniFocus is my trusted system that keeps me on track. Drafts is my go to solution for text notes. At one time I tried to keep every note and sync them back to my Mac with Dropbox. I quickly realized that I didn't care about these scraps of information long term, so for me, Drafts app was a perfect solution for working with quick one-off notes.

Despite the amount of work I can get done on my phone, my most used app is more of a distraction. It is a wonderful Twitter client called Tweetbot. No matter what I am doing on my phone, it is a guarantee that I will check Tweetbot at least once before setting it back down. I truly love being apart of the Mac community and our connection is primarily through Twitter so having a reliable client that I enjoy using is very important to me. Tweetbot fulfills my every requirement of a great client.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure would have to be Rdio. I enjoy being able to stalk my friends music habits which is both fun and addicting. I have found some really great albums through Rdio's social integration. Music helps keep me motivated while I'm working, I even have a specific playlist just for when I'm writing code. It is a great service that allows me to keep music locally and in the cloud, yet it stays synched across all of my devices.

What is the app you are still missing?

In a perfect world, the one app I would love to see on iOS is Alfred. I have no idea what that would look like or how it would function but no other app has changed the way I work like Alfred has and I would love to have that experience on a mobile device. I know Apple has strict rules in place that would prevent a powerful app like Alfred from running on iOS but a guy can dream right?

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I wish the iPhone had some way to measure that because I would love to know, The number would likely be astronomical. I am constantly checking my phone, responding to emails or iMessages. Even at home on the couch, my iPhone is never further than my pocket. My iPad on the other hand, rarely gets touched. I am one of the few that have yet to find a good use for the iPad that isn't better suited for either my MacBook or iPhone.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

My favorite feature, without a doubt, is the Verizon LTE in the iPhone 5. I was a long time AT&T customer until I jumped ship to Sprint with the promise of unlimited 3G data. I had such a horrible experience with speed and connectivity that I lunged at the opportunity to be on Verizon's LTE network when upgrading to the iPhone 5. It is really quite amazing to have a device in my pocket with Internet speeds twice that of my home Cox Cable Internet. Also, the Retina display and AirPlay are two very close runners-up.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would personally change the "cold shoulder" attitude that Apple has been giving to power users over the past couple of years. I would focus some of Apple's resources towards revitalizing both the Finder and Terminal. I would extend Applescript, not deprecate it. I would revert Apple's stance on sandboxing Mac apps but still maintain the Developer ID program. I am a Mac nerd at heart and I would bring that characteristic back to the Mac platform if I had the opportunity to run the company.

Anything else you'd like to share?

I would just like to thank you David for inviting me to share my home screen and for letting me talk about some of the apps I use everyday.

Thanks Don.

Home Screens: DaisyDisk's Taras Brizitsky

As we enter the new year, I'm going to be posting these home screens more consistently. This week I'm featuring Taras Brizitsky (Twitter), one of the smart fellows behind my favorite Mac drive management app, DaisyDisk. So Taras, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

There're many… 1Password (version 4 looks incredible), Deliveries (I rely on it for tracking packages from eBay), Buy Me a Pie (the best grocery list I've used), Panamp (music), Light (yes, it's a flashlight app; I also have a good "hardware" one), Verbs (IM), Partly Cloudy(weather forecast), Fantastical, Chrome, Tweetbot, Reeder, Sparrow…

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Letterpress (you won't tell anyone, right?).

What is the app you are still missing?

I'm still looking for good music and video players which are not chained to iTunes. I just want to listen to the music on the go, not sync, re-sync or move my music collection to iTunes (which doesn't play well with NAS).

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

None to every few minutes, that really depends on what I'm working on. Sometimes I prefer to leave all my gadgets on a shelf.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Pocket-sized Web browser. Seriously, this covers most of my needs. My iPhone is mostly used as a web browser, news reeder, mail checker. And yes, it can make calls (killer, app, huh…). iPad works as a book and news reader and a portable game console. I tried using these devices for writing short texts or drawing and still prefer paper and good old iMac.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

App switching. Current solution (icons) is even inferior to one of Palm's webOS. Notification Center. Either you do have widgets (weather/finance, anyone?) or you don't. Camera app. It's now incredibly cluttered. Lock screen. Another design abomination… Siri. She's unbelievably slow, stupid and useless. iCloud. There's a lot of space for improvements. App integration. Let's just face a simple fact: files need to be shared between apps. And, most of all, iBatteryLife. No complains about iPads, but hey, I don't need a razor-thin iPhone, I need it work longer.

Thanks Taras

Home screens - Oliver Breidenbach

Every year at Macworld I enjoy reconnected with my international Mac friends. One of those people is Oliver Breidenbach (Twitter) from Boinx software who makes the trip from Germany every year. Boinx makes some of my favorite software applications including FotoMagico and iStopMotion (Mac and iPad). Moreover, Oliver has some great insight about the relationship between Apple and iOS developers. So Oliver, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

I don' t really have favorite apps. The thing that got my attention about iOS was at an education event the summer after the iPhone was introduced. A teacher brought a couple of students who presented the cool video stuff they were doing. I had an iPod touch and was playing around with it. I downloaded a VNC app and used it to remote control the Mac OS X servers used at the event. The kids saw me doing it and I had never seen demonstrative boredom turn into utter fascination so quickly. I knew then that this was the next big thing.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Is Email considered a guilty pleasure? ;-) (From David: Umm. No.)

What is the app you are still missing?

There really is an app for almost everything. The big gripe I have is that Apple does not allow them to collaborate with each other. Adding a soundtrack to my iStopMotion movie is a major pain. Why can't I create a soundtrack in Garageband on the iPad and simply send it to iStopMotion? If I need to change anything, why can't I send it back to Garageband? I am sure that people who get paid billions should be able to work that out.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I am not so much using my iPhone a discreet number of times but rather constantly. I don't use the iPad nearly as often, some days not at all, mostly because it is missing the collaboration between apps which makes it unusable for my daily work.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

When I was at the education event I was talking about earlier, I got really excited about these new post-PC devices, more excited than about anything that happened in the 15 years before in IT. The immersiveness of a touch UI is still very fascinating. But that excitement has worn off a little as I am getting disappointed with the lack of progress the platform has made in terms of using that great power to improve our daily tasks. It certainly was a smart move to get people to use it for leisure activity first, but I think it's about time that we get to use it for serious creative projects as well.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would definitely drive the platform towards collaboration. Both apps and people want to collaborate. It is necessary for being creative. Imagine how useful the iPhone would be if you couldn't dial the phone numbers in your Address Book but would have to note them down on a piece of paper and type them in again in the phone app. Yet this is exactly what you have to do with most other content. The dream was to have small apps that do one thing really well, but with the current environment, every app needs to do everything. For example, instead of focusing on the task of keeping my passwords safe, 1Password also has to be a web browser so that you can actually use the passwords you stored. An HTML code editor also needs to be an image editor, an FTP/SFTP client and a webserver. To be able to make a complete movie, iStopMotion would need a video editor and an audio editor built-in. This seriously hinders innovation as we developers have to spend too much time and resources reinventing the wheel.

Also I think the business environment needs to be improved. Apple likes to point out several times on their iPhone 5 website that apps are what makes the iPhone great, and yet most apps don't seem to make enough money to even cover the development costs. Apple also likes to point out that "many of the apps are free", causing consumers, who happily just spend $500 on their new iPad, to expect that they don't have to pay for the apps. That is a big issue threatening the success of iOS in the long run. Developers need to make a living and eventually will have to look for other opportunities.

But closing on a more positive note: The iPhone and the iPad really are magical devices, making technology much more accessible and usable to a much broader range of people than the PC ever could and I really hope that we see this eventually replacing our desktop/laptop computers with their broken metaphors from the 1970s.

Thanks Oliver.

Home Screens - Myke Hurley

Today is the first anniversary of the 70 Decibels Network, which hosts some of my favorite podcasts. In honor of this celebration, this week I'm featuring Myke Hurley's home screen. Myke (Twitter) is the co-founder of 70 Decibels, the host of CMD+Space, and an all around swell guy.

So Myke, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

I consider Tweebot to be the best app ever created on iOS. I use it multiple times a day, basically living inside the app when I'm away from home. Even when at home I use Tweetbot on my iPad as my main client. I basically have my iPad set up as a second screen at home. Day One has also become a new favourite of mine, it's easily one of the most beautfiully designed apps I've used and the recent addition of being able to add photos has made the it important enough to replace the phone app in my dock! I'm also a massive fan of Instacast. In my opinion it's the only way people should listen to Podcasts on iOS. And trust me, I've tried every app available.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I think Instagram has become a guilty pleasure of mine. It has recently made it's way to my homescreen as I have been using it more and more every day. I enjoy posting silly pictures of not very important things and I like to see similar updates from my friends.

Other guilty pleasures of mine are games. I have a folder on another screen full of games like Jetpack Joyride, Peggle and Angry Birds (among others). I am always on the lookout for other games to add to this list.

What is the app you are still missing?

I am a Podcaster in my free time, and I'm still on the lookout for an app that will allow me to record, edit, add shownotes and post by FTP to a podcast host—all in one. Garageband can do some of this stuff, but not all of it. Basically, the only person that would be able to create an app like this would be a Podcast producer, as they'll know exactly all of the steps needed. But it's such a niche market, that I doubt I'll ever see it.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I think I could easily lose count with my iPhone. At my day job I have to use a Windows PC and I have very limited access to what I can install. So my iPhone remains as my connection to the online world. It's where I'll check twitter, listen to music or podcasts, read RSS and check email. All day, every day. I dont use my iPad as much as I tend to leave it at home, but it will be in constant use during the evening.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The apps available for iOS are what stops me thinking about switching to a competing platform (for any of the reasons there may be). The developers on the iOS platform churn out absolutely top quality apps, that are lovingly designed and often solve problems I didn't even know I had

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I think I would extend the background capabilities of third-party apps. It would be great if I could have Reeder update itself, or Instacast download all my new shows, without me needing to prompt it. I think it's about time Apple gave a little more capability to devs and trust that they will implement these features efficiently, practically and transparently.

Anything else you'd like to share?

In case anyone is interested, my background image is from the colour edition of the comic Scott Pilgrim vs the World. The image is of the character Ramona Flowers

Thanks Myke.

Home Screens: John Siracusa

John Siracusa (Twitter) is one of my favorite people on the Internet. In addition to his legendary Mac OS reviews, John writes for Ars Technica and his podcast, Hypercritical is on that short list of shows where I never miss an episode. John's insight is just too good to miss. John also blogs on his own Hypercritical Tumblr site. So John, show us your home screen.

Q: What are some of favorite apps?

I spend most of my time in iOS in three apps: Twitterrific, Safari, and Instapaper. While reading tweets, I send interesting links to Instapaper for later reading. I use the Gmail web interface in Safari to read my email. I actually prefer that to the native Mail application. It feels like it loads my considerable volume of email faster.

Q: Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I feel somewhat guilty every time I play Words With Friends and see the embarrassing, persistent bugs and the annoying in-game come-ons to purchase more stuff. I tried the official Scrabble app, but it was even worse. I'm sure there are other, better alternatives, but Words With Friends is where my friends and relatives play, and it's hard to dislodge them.

Q: What is the app you are still missing?

I'd really like a native iOS email client that works great with Gmail and feels faster than the Gmail web interface. Google's own Gmail app for iOS is just the web UI in a fancy wrapper. I have it installed, but it isn't drawing me away from Gmail in Safari. I had high hopes for Sparrow, but then Google bought them and stopped development.

Q: How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I don't actually have an iPhone (though my wife does). I have an iPod touch and a retina iPad with 3G. I use the iPod touch several times in the morning and during the day. I gravitate towards the iPad at night, for reading longer items in Instapaper and watching video—usually in the HBO GO app, which stubbornly refuses to support AirPlay.

Q: What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

My favorite feature of the iPod touch is how thin it is. My wife's iPhone 4S feels like a bar of soap compared to my iPod touch. My favorite feature of the iPad is its battery life. I go days without even thinking about charging my iPad, even when watching hours of video every night.

Q: If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I'd add iPad-style cellular data support to the iPod touch and update its internals to match the best in the iPhone (camera quality, RAM, CPU/GPU, and so on). I'd also make a cheaper, lighter, smaller iPad, and I'd start thinking about a larger, more expensive iPad.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

Even on an iPhone 4S or a retina iPad, iOS still feels slow to me. I hate waiting for apps to launch or for web pages to render. And I really hate it when an app is killed in the background due to RAM constraints. I can't wait for iOS hardware to get a couple of times more powerful than it is today, so things like browsing the web, reading email, and checking Twitter can all comfortably happen simultaneously without any heroic resource shuffling efforts by the OS.

Thanks John.

Home Screens - Fraser Speirs

Fraser Speirs (Website) (Twitter) is one of the foremost authorities on using Apple technologies in education. Moreover, Fraser is really smart. (Fraser’s Future Shock Post is one of the best things I’ve ever read about technology.) Fraser was nice enough to share his home screen.

What are some of your favourite apps?

Evernote is rapidly becoming the hub of my workflow and information storage system. Early iterations of the iOS clients were quite weak compared to the Mac client but recent updates have dramatically improved it. Evernote is the destination for all my travel documents, my scanned receipts (Canon P-150 scanners rock!). I’ve also recently started using Pocket as my “read later” service after being an Instapaper user for many years. Pocket can also send pages to Evernote for safekeeping. I’m a huge fan of Flipboard, which has totally replaced traditional RSS readers for me. I just love its relaxed playfulness. It didn’t click for my workflow, though, until they released the iPhone version.

I’m also a fairly recent convert to Tweetbot; again since they released their iPad version. I was a Twitterrific die-hard for years because of its unified timeline design but Tweetbot won me over firstly by integrating push notifications and, more recently, various powerful options for muting people, clients and keywords.

For my truly ‘core’ apps, I want them on the iPhone and the iPad.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Kindle. It’s way too easy to spend money on ebooks! I was an early enthusiast for electronic books - I bought the international version of the Kindle 2 on the first day it was available (and I miss being able to buy ebooks in US Dollars!).

Recently, I have moved entirely to ebooks and will only buy paper if the title is not available electronically. Even then, I find myself dissatisfied with paper books because I can’t get my highlights into Evernote. I guess I could photograph the pages!

What is the app you are still missing?

A phone version of every app I care about that’s iPad-only. Apple has shown the way with their own apps. Think about it: iWork and iLife ON A PHONE! They’re not just toys either - they’re full working versions and I spend more time between Keynote on my iPhone and iPad than I do in Keynote for Mac these days.

I would also really like to see a version of iBooks Author for iOS. Two years ago, I was constantly wishing for a version of Apple Remote Desktop for iOS to administer my school Macs from my iPad. Today, two years into being a 1:1 iPad school, administering the Macs is such a small part of my life that I hardly think about it any more.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

Both are constant companions and my primary computing devices for my teaching and consulting work. I would not be surprised if I unlock my phone a hundred times every day.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The touch keyboard is taken for granted today but it is still a fantastic piece of technology. I think my favourite feature of the device itself is GPS. Having things (photos, Evernote notes) geotagged without any effort at all is fantastic

My favourite iPad accessory in school is AppleTV. I’ve been talking about the massive potential of AirPlay in the classroom for 18 months or so and people are starting to really get it. So exciting and important.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

As I remarked recently on Twitter: “If you can’t imagine what Apple might add to iOS 6, you don’t spend enough time on iOS”. Most broadly speaking, I think there’s a serious need for a mechanism to round-trip a piece of data from one app to another and back. For example, if I have a PDF attachment in Evernote and I want to mark it up using PDF Expert I have to: copy it out of Evernote into PDF Expert, mark it up there, get it back into Evernote and then delete the duplicate copy in PDF Expert. I’m a massive fan of the abstracted filesystem in iOS but there needs to be much stronger generalised data interchange between apps. For an example of how this might work, look at the way Tweetbot and Camera+ integrate to capture photos and edit them.

A corollary to that first feature request is that Mobile Safari really needs to be able to download files from the web and, more importantly, upload files to the web. This is a real showstopper in some education settings. Often, I find that the only reason I’m cracking open my laptop is because I need to upload a file to the web.

There is a serious and ongoing problem with passwords on the web. The only thing that keeps me sane is 1Password but, on iOS, it’s not as easy to use as it is on the desktop. The AgileBits team have done a stellar job getting the app as useful as it is on iOS but I’d like to see Apple add limited support for extensions into Mobile Safari - just so I can get 1Password working in there.

iOS needs some kind of generalised “wrist protection” APIs so that all the handwriting and drawing apps can implement this in a consistent fashion that doesn’t interact badly with the multitasking gestures on iPad. I’m not a big fan of a stylus but I see kids in school trying to do a quick sketch of something and getting a bit flummoxed.

Some low-hanging fruit that’s annoyed me recently:

I would add support for video to iCloud Photo Stream The ability to sync album structures in the Photos app between devices.

Add the ability to set a system-wide quiet time for notifications

FaceTime over cellular - we’re paying for every byte we transmit over these networks now, let me choose how to use them.

Stop the iPad home screen icons reflowing from a 4x5 grid into a 5x4 grid when you rotate.

Add a few high-level system control widgets to the Notification Center: Bluetooth, WiFi, Cellular Data Roaming, Personal Hotspot, AirPlay and A/V controls.

We have deep Twitter integration in the OS and the rumours are that we’re going to get similar for Facebook. I would really like Evernote to be the 3rd service but now I’m just asking for the moon on a stick!

Finally, I would use my leverage to negotiate lower international roaming rates for iPhone users. For heavy smartphone users, people who depend on their offline brain, being connected isn’t just a matter of fun or even productivity. It can be a matter of safety. When you’re abroad, you need fast and easy information in your own language more than ever.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I was a very early advocate of iOS and the iPad. When we decided to deploy it 1:1 in our school, we made a bet that the platform would succeed and grow. I’m writing this on the day that The Omni Group just shipped their final iOS port of their Mac apps - OmniPlan for iPad. It is remarkable and astonishing the extent to which the platform has grown in capability in that short time. I have never been more excited for the future.

Thanks Fraser.

For more home screens clicky here.

Home Screens - Jeff Carlson

I’ve had a few speaking gigs in the last year that gave me the chance to get to know Jeff Carlson (Twitter) (Web), a technology writer with many fantastic books from Peachpit Press and other publishers. Most recently, Jeff wrote The iPad for Photographers and The iPad Pocket Guide, Third Edition. Jeff is also a senior editor at TidBITS, a columnist for The Seattle Times, and a frequent contributor to Macworld and Photoshop Elements Techniques. Okay Jeff, show us your home screen.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

Dozens, at least. Both devices are almost always with me. I use the iPad more for reading than the iPhone, but the iPhone gets plenty of use getting caught up on Twitter and email.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

For the iPhone, it’s the general capability of having so much access and processing power in such a small device. I can’t imagine buying a phone now that does nothing but phone calls.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

My iPhone’s home screen is a little deceiving: The order here hides the chaos of the rest of the home screens. Part of that is having lots of apps, but mostly it’s because I can’t convince myself to organize everything on my iPhone. It would take too long — which is funny, because my iPad is neat and tidy.

So here’s a brief rundown of my main home screen:

I’m a little surprised that I still have many of the default apps visible, but they’re tools I use regularly. I’ve tried replacements for Calendar but find I prefer the original; it’s simple and works well.

The Comm folder holds a variety of communication tools, of which Messages is by far the most used. But it’s helpful to have Skype and Messenger to reach certain people.

I’ve flirted with other Camera apps (lord knows I own too many of them), but keep coming back to the built in Camera app because it starts up quickly. I find myself using it most often these days from the lock screen, where you can swipe up to get directly to the camera. (From David, me too.)

The App Store is still here because it’s the gateway to app updates.

I use Remote with my Apple TV often enough to keep it handy on the first screen. The same goes for the Sonos app, which I use to play music on a Sonos Play5 I recently bought for our living room.

PlainText is currently my text editor of choice, which I also have on my iPad. It’s great for storing notes, writing short articles (like this one, actually), and all of its documents get stored on Dropbox, so I can open them using BBEdit on my Mac easily.

Clear is a recent addition, my millionth attempt to bring order to my life. I wish it could sync to other sources, but I respect that it’s trying to be simple. I keep a few to-do lists there, but mostly use it for trying to figure out what to do today, and knock things off the list.

My Dock is standard-issue except for Twitterrific, my Twitter app of choice. I use Twitterrific on the iPad and Mac, too, because it supports the TweetMarker service: no matter which client I view, a marker keeps track of the last tweet I read, making it easy to get caught up.

The Utilities folder is a mishmash of things I like to have close at hand: Boxcar for presenting alerts (whenever I get a direct message in Twitter, an email from apple.com, or email from my editor at the Seattle Times); 1Password, because it’s essential; PCalc Lite, because I’m a stereotypical writer/English major who too often needs help with calculations; and Flashlight to turn on the iPhone’s flash when I head for bed late at night.

Not included on the Home screen are two apps that I use often, which are stored on the second screen. In fact, I’ve grown so accustomed to their placement—leftmost icon in the third and fourth rows—that a recent icon shuffle threw me off until I could reposition them. I use OneBusAway to track bus times in Seattle, and Lose It to count calories while I’m dieting (like now).

Thanks Jeff

For more home screens clicky here.

Home Screens - Tim Stringer

Not so long ago, I linked the video The Omni Group produced about Tim Stringer (Twitter) and his journey with technology. Since then, I’ve got to know Tim a bit and he’s agreed to share his home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

The iPad is a marvellous learning tool. I use the DK HumanBody app to learn more about my inner workings and Star Walk to help find my place in the universe.

What is your favorite app?

If I had to pick one I’d choose OmniFocus. Having mobile access to my projects and tasks helps me keep my GTD system current and my mind clear. Honourable mentions go to Tweetbot, one of the most thoughtfully designed apps I’ve ever used, to Due for faithfully reminding me of time-sensitive events (and helping ensure my tea isn’t over-steeped) and to my favourite writing app, Byword, that comes complete with iCloud, TextExpander and Markdown support.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I admit to being a bit of a podcast junkie. I recently started using Downcast to listen to audio podcasts on my iPhone and to watch video podcasts on my iPad. I appreciate the flexibility this app provides, most notably the highly customizable Playlists feature. For example, I have a Playlist called “Favourites” that automatically lists unheard episodes from my favourite podcasts, including Mac Power Users.

What is the app you are still missing?

I’m still waiting for the ultimate visual search app. For example, I’d like to be able to point my iPhone’s camera at the leaf of a tree and be provided with details on the tree in question. The possibilities are endless.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

This varies dramatically depending on my current situation. My iPhone and iPad tend to get used more heavily when I’m out and about and serve quite different purposes. My iPhone fits easily in my pocket and gives me quick and convenient access to everything from bus schedules to weather information. My iPad becomes my primary computer when I’m on vacation and takes the place of a physical notebook when I’m travelling on business. Most of my reading is done on the iPad these days and the outstanding battery life it provides allows for an entertaining diversion on even the longest of trips.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I’ve always been rather picky when it comes to displays, and I appreciate the gorgeous Retina displays on my iPhone 4 and my new iPad.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would add an background update feature to iOS that would allow users to give specific apps permission to update their data in the background. For example, OmniFocus could automatically sync and Instapaper could pull down the latest batch of articles without it being necessary to manually launch each app. To address power consumption concerns, there would be an option to disable background updates when the iOS device isn’t plugged in.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Both the iPhone and iPad have the potential to be a major source of distraction. I make a point of going through the Notifications options in Settings with a fine tooth comb, fine-tuning the settings so that I’m not, for example, pulled away from reading an interesting book each time someone references me in a tweet.

When I received my new iPad last month I decided to start from scratch — installing apps on an as-needed basis and eliminating any past cruft in the process. I put general-purpose apps, such as Camera and Calendar on the Home screen and Dock and all other apps were placed in folders based on their related activity. When I have time set aside for reading I open the “Reading” folder and all the other apps fade into the background. Similarly, when I’m in work mode I open up my “Productivity” folder, bringing the focus to my productivity apps.

Thanks Tim.

For more home screens clicky here.

Home Screens - Robert Lloyd Lewis

This week’s home screen features Robert Lloyd Lewis (Twitter), producer of Dexter, the most loveable serial killer in the history of television. Robert, among many talents, produces a popular television show, builds apps, and loves his Apple technology. So Robert, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

Air Dictate, which let’s me use Siri to dictate to my Mac. Unfortunately Apple yanked it, but I’ve still got it! I also love FaceDialer, which allows me to create one-touch-dial apps with a photo as the icon. I also like YouMail, which emails me my voicemails.

What is your favorite app?

OmniFocus. Yes, it has a learning curve (and thanks David for your invaluable screencasts), but my life would be chaos without it. It also has the most reliable cloud syncing of anything out there, including iCloud. OF’s cloud syncing…just works.

On my iPad:

I love Pear Note, which records audio while I’m taking notes and associates the two. That way I can easily find any part of the audio by clicking on the text I was typing at that moment.

I also can’t live without iAnnotate, which is better than Good Reader. I’ve got all my Dexter scripts with annotated notes, highlights and scribbles on it.

My browser of choice is ‘Grazing Web Browser’. Much better than Safari.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

My own app, of course! Vowel Movement is a word game in the vein of Scramble and Scrabble. Shameless plug!

What is the app you are still missing?

A reliable way to add todo’s into Omnifocus through voice/transcription. The OF workaround is unreliable. So, my most useful app is not an app at all. It’s on my home screen as ‘Quick Entry’. It’s a trick that opens a text-ready inbox todo in OmniFocus with one touch. Find it here.

I still haven’t found the perfect headset. I’ve tried tons. My current fave is the Jabra Stone 2.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

Whenever I’m not by my Mac, my iPhone/iPad batteries are draining.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

My iPhone let’s me carry my whole world on my hip. Since it’s always with me, I have every piece of data I ever need at my finger tips. Also, a good idea never slips into the ether since I have a place to store it quickly.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would add a drop down with which I could easily toggle on/off bluetooth, location services, airplane mode, and wifi all in one page without drilling down endlessly. (I think Android has this feature). I also wish I could restrict Siri to the iPhone mic. It connects to my car’s built-in bluetooth mic and doesn’t understand a word I say. Frustrating!

Anything else you’d like to share?

Thanks David, for your awesome blog, and keep those screencasts coming!

Thanks Robert.

For more home screens clicky here.