This week’s home screen comes from Hardik Pandya (Twitter)(App.net)(website), a consultant, student, blogger and photographer from the Netherlands that writes about technology and other issues of interest. So Hardik, show us your home screen.
This has to be one of the most used apps on my phone. I have started logging my life for last year now and I have about 500 entries. I use Terpstra’s Slogger tool and even make hand-typed entries twice or thrice a day. This one is for the lifetime.
Kind of a no brainer for everyone. I wrote my whole Masters thesis in this app and managing documents has been so much easier. A hat tip to Evernote Essentials from Brett Kelly too!
Perhaps the easiest to use music manager for my huge music library. Always on on my MacBook Pro.
The best App.net client out there. Developer Bill Kunz is almost always present on App.net and is a nice guy. Plus the experience of the app is super sleek.
The mandatory weather app on the home screen! I actually like their interface and multiple location handling. Plus hour by hour forecast is all I need so this one is fine.
Did someone roll\ his eyes? Yes I still keep Simplenote on my phone because it’s fast, their sync is not bad at all even though those problems in the past. Also, it works perfectly with my huge nvALT notes database on MacBook Pro.
For all those little chores that might get slipped through the cracks and who do not deserve the prestigious OmniFocus project/task status.
I recently started using Pinboard.in and I love it. The tagging feature, speed of use and it’s support across the apps is just amazing. Using it on iPhone is made simple and easy by this app.
Mail: I use FastMail for my personal email and have ditched Gmail over suggestions from Marco Arment and others. FastMail only offers IMAP and not a lot of apps support FastMail at the moment. I have decided to stick with the native Mail app from Apple. It works great and serves the purpose.
1. What are some of your favourite apps?
I love to listen to podcasts and I get my source of weekly nerdery from there. That is why I love Pocket Casts – my favourite podcast manager. Another one of my favourite has to be Reeder. Lovely interface with continuously enriching functionality and easily the best source of news for me every morning.
2. Which app is your guilty pleasure?
I think Flipboard has to be the one for me. That is why it’s hidden in the news folder there. If I see it, I have to open it and I just get lost in the flow of content that is available inside. Sometimes it’s too much. But I still love it.
3. What is the app you are still missing?
I publish my blog via Squarespace. Their apps are not up to the mark. When I see the polish of the apps for WordPress publishing (e.g. Poster), I really miss that functionality in Squarespace apps. They are not bad but they do not offer everything. I have at times lost whole blog posts due to draft syncing issues. They could work on it a bit. So that is the app I miss the most.
4. How many times do you use your iPhone?
I am writing my thesis at the moment. I do that in Evernote. I get my news through RSS and Twitter/Flipboard. I listen to podcasts (almost 2 a day) and I communicate via WhatsApp etc. I manage tasks through OmniFocus and Due. So you can say I have my iPhone with me all the time. Apart from when I go to take a shower of course!
5. What is your favourite feature of your iPhone?
My favourite feature of my iPhone has to be the amazing touch experience while typing. I have used Android and BlackBerrys but have never experienced the same level of polish on the touch screen. This almost works silently in our daily lives but saves us countless hours on mistypes and double taps.
6. If you were in charge at Apple, what would you like to change?
I would make the cross-app integration of data/files much simpler and easier. That would immensely increase the value of the apps and attract the developers to integrate more and more sharing services in their apps.
Thanks Hardik.