Dr. Drang (Twitter) (Blog) is one of my favorite people on the Internet. He is a working stiff, like me, yet still makes time to write up some really useful, nerdy stuff while creeping me out on a nearly daily basis with his psychopathic snowman avatar. So Doctor, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps and how have they changed over the years?

So many changes since the last time. In particular, what was my (admittedly self serving) favorite app in 2011, an iPhone-formatted homemade weather webapp that still works, has since been banished to a nether screen in favor of Apple’s built-in Weather app, which been greatly improved over the past couple of years.

My old stalwarts, Notesy, Tweetbot, Reeder, Due, and PCalc are still there and still in the same positions. I use them all every day. Fantastical has taken over the calendar spot from Agenda, and not only because of its renowned natural language input method; I really like the compact but thorough way it presents the list of my upcoming events.

To me, the most interesting changes have been these:

1. My recognition that I text more than I talk, so Messages should be in the Dock and Phone shouldn’t.
2. The way podcast listening has become important enough for Downcast to displace the iPod (now Music) app in the Dock.
3. The rise of Drafts (an upDraft?), as both a quick way to enter notes and, through the x-callback-url system, a way to dispatch text off to other apps. I now do most of my note-writing in Drafts; Notesy is more for reading.
4. The inclusion of Pythonista. I’m continually surprised that the “locked down” iPhone has such a capable programming environment running on it.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Last time I said I was too old to feel guilty about my pleasures, and that still holds, but if I were to feel guilty, it would be for the time spent jumping from word to word in Terminology. Too often I’ve allowed it to change from a productivity app to an anti-productivity app.

I thought I was the only Terminology word surfer. Also check out Wordflex. It will ruin you. -David

What is the app you are still missing?

I’m currently on the hunt for an app to share shopping lists with my wife. There are probably hundreds of list-making apps available, but I’m very particular.

• I need the process of making and sharing lists to be absolutely transparent for my wife, because she won’t put up with the fiddling that I would tolerate.
• I need to be able to make and add to lists from my computer, because when I’m at my computer I want to type on a real keyboard.
• And finally, we need to be able to print a decent looking list from the app via AirPrint. It’s all very futuristic to swipe or tap checkboxes on your phone, but for real efficiency, there’s nothing like a printed grocery list—you don’t need to scroll, you don’t have to worry about dropping it as you reach for the milk, and it never goes blank to preserve battery life.

The top candidate at the moment is 1Writer. Its list-making is almost automatic, and it produces nicely printed lists. It syncs via Dropbox, which is great, but it sometimes needs prodding to upload additions to a recently edited list. It should sync automatically as soon as you dismiss the keyboard.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

Not so much during the day when I’m in the office and at my iMac. Constantly when I’m out of the office.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

I have a computer connected to the internet in my pocket, ready to be used at any time—a device that’s smaller and more capable than any of the computers imagined in the science fiction I read as a kid.

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

We desperately need inter-app communication in iOS. In the 6+ years of the iPhone, it has raised our expectations of what a phone can do, and I don’t see how those expectations can continue to rise without a sanctioned and fully supported means of moving data between apps. I applaud Greg Pierce and every developer who supports the x-callback-url protocol, but that’s a workaround, not a permanent solution.

Thanks Doc.

This week’s home screen features Moisés Chiullan (Webite) (Twitter), one of my favorite 5by5 hosts with shows includingGiant Size, The Critical Path, and Screen Time. So Moisés, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

I can’t live without 1Password, to which I have recently converted in a literally religious manner. I say prayers that I added something to it when I desperately need it. I’m dedicating part of this weekend to dumping all my remaining passwords into it. Combined use of TextExpander Touch, Drafts, Squarespace Blog, Launch Center Pro and Screens is the only reason I can keep up with posting content at ArthouseCowboy.com regularly (or at all), especially with the LayoutEngine integration in Squarespace’s new app. Things is the simple, straightforward, (finally) cloud-syncing to-do app that gets what I need done. The only reason I like Apple’s Mail app is that I can flip switches on or off to hide accounts that movie industry publicists send hundreds of distribution list emails to daily (thanks SXSW!), except for when I need to find a specific one.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

A tie between two games: Letterpress and vConqr (no longer available but you can get RISK). The former is great when people don’t resign or disappear on turn three, and the latter is a really basic ripoff of RISK that gets my brain back into tactical action mode.

What is the app you are still missing?

A podcast app that I don’t want to cast into the darkest corners of hell. Instacast is only there until I export my OPML data into Castro.

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

Too many and not efficiently enough. You should have asked my wife. She’d have just said “lost count”.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Over the air data sync and intra-communication of apps as implemented by third-party developers. Technically, I guess that means a wellspring of talented, smart third-party developers who are always trying be miles ahead of the curve. I wish Apple made app-to-app interaction work better from the user perspective.

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

I used to work for them, and respect NDAs even when I never expect to work for someone again…however I can say it’s inexcusable that listening to audio on my phone drains the battery completely in under a half day. If I could change one thing, it would be the 20-year-olds at the Genius Bar assuming that I have Push enabled on all my apps, a dozen Exchange accounts, and that I’m a liar and/or an idiot. Apple Stores have gotten more like sneering, cattle-wrangling hipster hangout joints and less like the oasis they used to be.

Extrapolating that as a general note, they need to focus on reinvesting into the businesses they’re in across the board before they “redefine” anything like TV and further water down their standard of “it just works”, which is now down to “it generally does what an unspecified significant amount of people will tolerate”.

Anything else you’d like to share?

In addition to The Critical Path, where I’m second banana to the inimitable Horace Dediu, I host two other podcasts on 5by5. Screen Time is a panel show that looks at all parts of the video media ecosystem, from production to consumption.Giant Size is a panel show where John Gholson and I guide new, veteran, and lapsed comics readers through characters, creators, and stories worth reading. We want to make getting into comics less intimidating. Both of them include interviews with people from across the entertainment world, from Guillermo del Toro, Peter Weller, and Star Trek designers Mike and Denise Okuda to Stan Lee and Kelly Sue DeConnick. I also recently did a pilot for a new show about the world of customer service called Thank You For Calling!, and as of this writing, it’s available as 5by5 Special #23.

Thanks Moisés

One of my favorite people to connect with every year at Macworld/iWorld is Serenity Caldwell (Twitter) (Website). Serenity is a regular contributor at Macworld, roller derby badass, and an ebook wizard. She knows more about creating epubs in her pinky than I know in my entire body. So Serenity, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

I absolutely can’t get by without Tweetbot, Fantastical, Dropbox, or iBooks; and the other apps on my home screen all play vital roles, too.

My Twitter interactions are almost solely on my iPhone, so I need a client like Tweetbot to handle the load. (And the lists support! I love lists more than I probably should.) Fantastical keeps me organized, and it’s so easy to use. I even got my mother using it over Thanksgiving!

Dropbox… what can I say about Dropbox that people haven’t already said a million times? Thanks to the app, I always have the documents I need, even on the go. I’ve been knitting a lot recently, and Dropbox’s offline support is perfect for tiny knitting patterns.

iBooks is just a godsend for reading on the go. I used to be a huge book nerd growing up, and I’d always travel with at least one (if not two) books in my bag. The iPhone makes my habits a little less cumbersome, and though I seem to be one of the few, I really love reading on the Retina screen; were it not for iBooks, I don’t think I would have read half the books I did last year. (Also, it incentivizes me to read a chapter of a book while waiting in line instead of just vacantly scrolling through Twitter.)

Moves is my favorite tracker app, though I also have Pedometer++ for a more week-by-week overview. I love the way Moves tells a story with your map data and your walking patterns—it’s almost like keeping a daily journal without having to write down all the particulars. I find just following my map from a given day sparks those memories: “Oh, right, I went and ate sushi with my teammates here, and there was that terrible lounge singer…”

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

You know, I really kind of love playing with Hatch. I’m not usually a big virtual pets person, but the Hatch animations are super cute and very clever, and it’s just an incredibly well built little app.

I’ve also started using Level Money a whole lot to try and better track and curb my spending—though it was hard, during the holidays! I like the attitude it takes, though, and it feels almost like a little game: “Try to see how much money you can avoid spending throughout the week.” I wish it were a tad more flexible about being able to tag income, though—if your income changes on a given month—do a freelance gig, for example—you have to go in and manually add that to your monthly projected income, rather than have it adjust spending totals automatically.

What is the app you are still missing?

I’ve yet to find a fitness logger (for more than steps) that really catches my fancy, though I’ve got a bunch to try that I’ve recently downloaded. (FitStar and Argus, to name some.)

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

Many times. Probably too many, to be honest. One of my 2014 tech goals is to be a little less glued to the screen, a little more cognizant of the world around. It’s hard to detach, though.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

Even though most folks (including me) rarely use it as a telephone, the iPhone is still a great communications tool. I love being able to instantaneously chat with friends and family all over the globe via text messages, pictures, social networks, FaceTime… it’s incredible. I’ve taken FaceTime calls at ball parks and on (grounded) airplanes before. It really makes the device feel magical.

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

Ha ha. Gosh. Well, as a book nerd and epub enthusiast, I’d love to see more work put in on the iBooks app. Apple has taken the ebook format so far in some ways, but support on the iPhone is lackluster compared to the iPad and the Mac. I want to see active work put in on supporting iBooks Author books on the iPhone, and Apple should continue to incorporate the forward-thinking work done by the Webkit team into iBooks’s .epub and .ibooks formats.

Amen sister. Thanks Serenity.

This week I’m featuring my friend Thomas Borowski (Twitter). Tom lives in Bavaria where he makes and sells the GroovBoard and, appropriately, produces the ThinkMakeSell podcast. So Tom, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Reeder

I switched to Feedly back when Google Reader was shut down and I originally used the official Feedly app. But it had the habit of always forgetting my reading position when I switched back to it, so when the new version of Reeder came out, I switched. I actually like the Feedly app’s UI better, but Reeder is more stable.

Tweetbot

No-brainer. Looking forward to the iOS7ified version for the iPad. The old UI looks really stale now.

Drafts

The number of features in Drafts is almost insane. I use it almost exclusively for sending myself reminder emails. I used to use Captio for that, but Drafts looked so interesting I had to give it a try. I still mean to explore its features more, but for now I’m happy with just the ability to send out a quick email to myself.

1Password

Another no-brainer. It took Agile Bits a while to get everything lined up, but now there’s 1Password on the iPhone, iPad and Mac and it’s all syncing through iCloud flawlessly.

Editorial

Editorial has more or less replaced Nebulous Notes for me. I haven’t even gotten into the workflow features yet, but I love Editorial’s look and feel and the keyboard swipe cursor is genius.

Textastic

Still the best iOS code editor out there. It’s no TextMate or Sublime Text, but as iOS editors go, it’s very powerful.

PlanBe

An apparently not so well-known calendar app. Very clean design, natural language input, great week view, multiple fonts and themes, … It’s weird that this app isn’t mentioned more. I think it blows a lot of calendar apps that are reviewed everywhere out of the water.

This one’s new to me too. I’m going to try it. -David

TaskPaper

I used to be an OmniFocus user but I realized that my task management needs are actually very simple and that the GTD methodology doesn’t really work for me. So I switched to TaskPaper: One simple list per project, plain text format (very Markdown-like syntax), notes and links, has versions for iPhone, iPad and OS X and syncs through Dropbox.

TextTool

Great tool for automating text manipulation. Auto-capitalize or -camelcase, trim, wrap, sort etc. Nothing else like it. Supports x-callback-url too, so you can send text from another app to TextTool, let it do its magic and then send the converted text back to the source app. Stuff like this (and apps like Editorial) are what makes me completely giddy about the future of iOS.

Prompt

Best SSH client out there. I use this to log into my web server and, with an external keyboard, I can use tmux, vim, etc. on my Linode just like at home on my desktop Mac.

MindNode

I don’t use mindmapping all that much (I usually go straight to a list or outline), but when I do I use Mindnode. iThoughts is great too, but I prefer the lightweight UI of Mindnode. Very minimal, let’s me focus on the mindmap instead of fiddling with buttons.

CarbonFin Outliner

Again, I prefer this to OmniOutliner (which I also own) because it’s simpler. OmniOutliner is certainly more powerful, but it’s overkill for what I need. Plus I prefer to use Dropbox rather than OmniPresence. I don’t want to have a dedicated cloud account for every app I use.

PocketCasts

When I deleted Apple’s Podcasts app this is what I switched to. I think it’s the iOS podcatcher with the cleanest and most well thought-out UI (they also featured my podcast, Think, Make, Sell, in the app; gotta love that). It syncs playback positions and subscriptions via iCloud too. Sadly, there’s no Mac client, but I’m moving my podcast listening away from iTunes anyway, so I just use PocketCasts on my iPhone or iPad and send it to my stereo via AirPlay or to a Bluetooth speaker.

Penultimate

Great sketching and doodling app. NoteShelf is also great and allows you to add real text by typing, but I prefer the simplicity of Penultimate and it syncs to Evernote.

Evernote

I wasn’t an Evernote user until just recently. My Anything Bucket of choice used to be Yojimbo. But Yojimbo still only has a read-only app for iOS and the (yet another) proprietary sync solution currently only works between Macs and you need to pay for a subscription. So I’m currently in the process of moving my stuff from Yojimbo to Evernote. I’m still not 100% happy with this solution. But the only other serious option would be DEVONthink To Go, but that currently only supports Wifi sync to the desktop app (Dropbox sync is apparently in the works though).

Calca

I’m a math dunce and regular calculators creep me out. Calca is like an app version of back-of-the-envelope calculations (it’s actually called a “symbolic calculator”). You can mix natural language with variables and operators and have Calca do all the complicated number mangling. Soulver is another great tool that works in a similar fashion, but Calca let’s you use Markdown to format your calculations, which is a nice bonus.

Boxie

Dropbox should buy Boxie and throw their own app in the trash. Can’t wait for the iPad version, so I’m actually using the iPhone version in 2x mode on my iPad. Not pretty, still beats the official Dropbox app which can’t even rename files.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

In general, any kind of board game. Carcassonne, Catan, Ticket To Ride…the iPad is just perfect for those types of games. I love Time Management games like Airport Mania, Burger Shop and the like. I still occasionally play Flight Control HD and if I want to get really hectic, Boost 2 and Super Hexagon. Also, Letterpress. But I could quit anytime if I wanted to.

What is the app you are still missing?

I’m really looking forward to Scrivener for the iPad. Writing in a Markdown editor like Editorial is fine, but for more complex writing projects (even longer blog posts) I want to be able to organize my writing, add metadata, research, attachments, etc.

I’d also love to see iPad versions of Pages and Numbers that are as powerful as those in iWork ’09 on the desktop. The 2013 versions are toys by comparison.

How many times a day do you use your iPad?

I’ve had days where I got by using the iPad exclusively. I used it for email, research, writing a blog post and even tweaking the design of one of my blogs. When I’m at my desk, I don’t use the iPad as much during the day. In the evening I’ll almost always do some reading, play a game or watch a movie.

What is your favorite feature of the iPad?

I think what I like most about the iPad is that it has rekindled my passion for computers in general. I’ve been using desktop computers since 1991 (Macs since 2002) and while I still like my Mac and can appreciate the power of a full-fledged computer, the whole desktop computing thing has become a bit stale for me. Despite all its flaws and limitations, the iPad has me excited again, especially when I try to imagine what iOS and apps will look like 5 or 10 years from now.

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

There are several things, but I’ll pick two. Allow me to geek out for a minute.

I’d add more RAM to the iPad, at least 2 GB. The iPad Air has so much raw computing power, yet its true performance potential is hampered by that one or two seconds it sometimes takes for an app I’m switching to to be ready for input. When you’re switching to an app and that app was previously kicked out of RAM because it was in the background, iOS is effectively showing you a screenshot of that app’s last state while it loads the app back into memory. The user thinks the app is there, taps, but nothing happens. It’s a frustrating experience. Doubling the RAM probably wouldn’t completely eliminate the problem, but it would surely make it happen a lot less.

The second thing I would change is to let third-party developers use Nitro, the accelerated JavaScript engine Mobile Safari uses. Because alternative browsers like Chrome and iCab or the browser built into 1Password have great feature sets, but they have to use a UIWebView and that can’t use the Nitro engine. So these apps are noticably (up to five times) slower than Safari, especially on JavaScript-heavy sites.

Anything else you’d like to share?

One of the reasons I still love using Apple stuff is that I really enjoy being part of the Apple community. I love the care indie developers put into their apps and I love exploring new ways to get stuff done on the iPad. I use Windows and Linux too, and I’m not religious about operating systems or brands; they all have their place. But the people who use Macs and iOS devices are, by and large, the friendliest bunch of geeks and regular people I have ever met.

Thanks Tom.

This week’s home screen features Bojan Dordevic (Twitter) from Alpha Efficiency. Did you know that AlphaEfficiency now has a magazine in the App Store? It is a great read and premiered this week. So Bojan, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

All the apps you see on my homescreen are either the apps that I really use frequently, or the apps that I aspire to use more often. The way I see it, is out of sight, out of mind. If your app is not on my homescreen (or in my Launch Center Pro), than I won’t be using it most likely. As such, I don’t have a particular app that I find as a favorite, but I have favorites based on the functions: organizational, gateway, consumption and publishing apps.

Regarding organization I have my two personal favorites: Evernote and Omnifocus. Two apps that redefined my whole approach to computing, as well as my personal productivity. They have URL schematics that work well within each other, and because of that, they work extremely well together. My recent addition to this group would be Lift, which salvaged a large chunk of my repetitive tasks from Omnifocus, and allowed me to track my habits, with a layer of added social component, for accountability and extra layer of motivation. Pure genius of an app.

Gateway apps made my life way easier, and allowed me to create simple workflows, that otherwise would be completely impossible, as your previous guest, Mike Vardy, I am a big fan of Drafts and Launch Center Pro.

Consumption apps let me access my media. For a long while I was struggling a battle between Instapaper and Pocket, and Instapaper won, because of the design. The other consumption app would be Reeder, which lets me scan what am I going to read next. Also important in my market leadership, as I buffer the most important productivity news to readers of Alpha Efficiency.

Listening is one of the most important aspects of my iPhone, and for that purpose I use Pocket Casts and Music. All of my podcast consumption is exclusively done on the iPhone, mostly during my commutes. Native Music app became a de facto standard since iRadio was introduced. My relation to music is quite deep, and over the course of the day I spend 4+ hours listening to music while I work or commute.

Publishing apps are Byword and Pressgram, that are completely integrated with my personal blog, which I aim to completely substitute my social networking efforts. With my recent trip to Paris, I became very motivated to shoot and publish amazing photos. Pressgram coupled with Snapseed lets me edit my photography works, and quickly share them with the world on my own terms.

I second the nomination on Snapseed. Amazing app. -David

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Since I am a big fan of App.net it would definitively be Netbot, despite not being featured on the homescreen. It is lurking hidden in the Launch Center Pro, in hopes and aspirations that I will use it less (which I probably do), followed by Tweetbot, which I use less often.

What are the apps you are still missing?

My iPhone is pretty topped off. Writing a productivity blog, got me covered with review copies of most apps that I was truly aiming for. Those that didn’t reach me as a review copy I bought off. But I do miss some Omnigroup’s children on my iPad. In some time I plan on getting Omni Outliner, as I believe it will enhance my writing workflow.

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

Far too many to admit the number. For a “productivity” person, I fidget far to much with my iPhone.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Being the geek that I am, I must admit I nurture the passion for URL schematics and what they can do. I am very well aware that I am not using these features to their fullest potential, but I like to know that as my needs grow, URL schematics can save me quite some time.

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

I’d let pro users do what they want. The lock down of Apple ecosystem often led me to jailbreak my device in order to experience it’s raw power. I like what they are doing for the regular users, but I think their restrictive nature is hurting me as a power user. I understand that some people would tell me to go Android, but that doesn’t make any sense. Jailbreaking community has been responsible for the development of the iOS that we see today, and gets no credit for it. For example the “newest” control center, has been a feature of jailbreak for years now for jailbroken users, since iOS4.

I’d like to see “jailbreak” for power users, as a function and not a hack. It could be hidden or enabled for developer and experimental community. I wouldn’t mind, even if I had to pay for it.

Anything else you’d like to share?

We are in the middle of the launch of Alpha Efficiency Magazine, it is designed for people who want to get the most out of their personal productivity. We aim to blend your brain power and technology, and make them work in sync. Magazine is Apple centric, and features prominent names in productivity field, starting with Daniel Gold and Augusto Pinaud.

Thanks Bojan. Good luck with the magazine.

 Mike Vardy (Twitter) (website) speaks and writes about managing your time better. How appropriate then that Mike released a book this week about how we use our calendars, The Now Year, A Practical Guide to Calendar Management. In addition to being prolific, Mike’s a really kind fellow and agreed to share his home screen. So Mike, what’s on your home screen?

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

One of them is 1Password because I’m actually using it as my main browser app now. It has all of my passwords stored in it, and the new version sports a much better browsing component. I rarely browse the Internet on my iPhone, but when I do (other than when it comes from a prompt within Dispatch, which defaults to Safari), I use 1Password.

30/30 is also an interesting choice because while I use it sparingly, it’s nice to have it there when I want to use a modified version of The Pomodoro Technique. If it wasn’t on my home screen I’d probably not use it as much.

YNAB and Neat are there for the same reason. I want to keep on top of my finances and my scannables, so having these apps front and center really helps. In fact, most things on my home screen are there because of that. And if the Reviewables folder (where all of my beta testing apps are) then I’d not put the apps through the paces nearly as often…or as well.

What is your favorite app?

Drafts, with Dispatch being a close second. I’m a big fan of “gateway” apps — apps that allow you to get in the door with something and then place that thing where you need it most with as little friction as possible. Drafts and Dispatch (along with Launch Center Pro) are the best gateway apps I’ve come across. They’re the reason I am getting so much more use out of my iPhone than ever before.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I’d say that’d be the Untappd app. I don’t use location check-in apps other than this one. Untappd is essentially a social networking app for beer drinkers, and ever since I started getting into craft beers (I’ve even started cellaring them and have been using Evernote to help out with that process) I have been using Untappd to indicate when I have a beer and what beer I’m having. Other than listening to the Mikes on Mics back catalog, it’s the only other way I track the beers I’ve had.

What is the app you are still missing?

With Drafts, Dispatch, and Launch Center Pro in my arsenal, I don’t really find myself wanting for any particular app. What I think is missing is the fact that I can’t choose to change my default mail app from the stock app to Dispatch, or the stock browser to 1Password if I want. I understand why that’s the case (or at least I think I do), but that doesn’t mean I have to like it, right?

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

Far more often than in the past – I’d say upwards of 10 times per day since I’m actually using Dispatch as my primary email app (yep, even over the one on my MacBook Air). The ability to quickly capture and shift things to where I need them to be (email tasks to OmniFocus or Asana, email information materials to Evernote, quick capture of ideas to Drafts, etc.) is what makes iOS (and my iPhone) the operating system I’m using more and more these days.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

I’d say the new Control Center feature introduced in iOS 7 is my favourite. I love that I can quickly swipe up with my thumb and activate Airplane Mode, open the calculator, and fire up the flashlight. It’s a small thing, but it’s a classic example of great UI and UX – something Apple knows a thing or two about.

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

Other than the ability to choose my own “sensible defaults” — hat tip to Patrick Rhone for that phrase — not much. That said, the default thing is pretty important (but I don’t see it changing anytime soon).

Anything else you’d like to share?

If you’re not using Drafts, Dispatch, and/or Launch Center Pro do yourself a favour and start. Any of these apps (when you take the time to set them up to meet your needs) will really change the way you use your iPhone.

It’s been several years since I featured the home screen of my friend and New Orleans Attorney Jeff Richardson (Twitter). Jeff writes the iPhoneJD blog and is a leading voice the community of Apple-using attorneys. So Jeff, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

I typically have lots of different meetings, phone calls, etc. every day, and I like the way that Fantastical displays my entries in a list format. It is also much faster to enter new appointments in Fantastical. Having said that, I still use the built-in Calendar app enough to keep it docked to the bottom of my screen.

Twitter has become one of my top sources of news — both news from the “real world” and iOS-related news that I keep track of for iPhone J.D. Tweetbot is my favorite Twitter client, and I use it so much that I moved it down to the dock a few months ago. I also use Feedly to keep track of my RSS feeds, mostly for iOS-related news, and the Feedly app on my iPhone is quite useful.

When I am driving, I typically listen to either podcasts, using Apple’s Podcasts apps, or music. When I listen to music, I use FlickTunes because it makes it easy to swipe the screen to change songs. FlickTunes hasn’t been updated in a long time — it still is not formatted for the longer screen on the iPhone 5/5s — but it does the job.

I use 1Password all the time — on my PC at work, my Mac at home, my iPhone and my iPad. Obviously I use it to store usernames and passwords (which, thanks to this app, are virtually all complex passwords). I also use it to store other confidential information.

And I frequently use LogMeIn Ignition, a quick and easy way to access my PC or my Mac when they are not in front of me.

But that just scratches the surface. There are 425 apps on my iPhone at current count. For example, I have a set of apps that I use all the time when I travel, including Apple’s Passbook app (I love using a digital boarding pass), TripIt, FlightTrackPro, GateGuru and the Delta app (that airline I fly the most). For just about any app beyond the first screen, I don’t pay much attention to what screen the app is on and instead I simply search to find and launch the app. I’ve grown to really prefer the iOS 7 approach to Spotlight because it is faster to flick down from a screen then to navigate to the first page and then swipe to the left.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

This changes all the time. Last week, for example, I enjoyed playing the new version of Dragon’s Lair for the iPhone, but that has more to do with me still feeling that sense of wonder from when I used to play and watch others play that groundbreaking arcade game in the 1980s. For a while, my wife and I would play Letterpress all the time.

What is the app you are still missing?

As a lawyer who writes documents in Microsoft Word every day, I’d love to have a full-featured Word app for the iPhone and iPad, one which includes a track changes redline feature and doesn’t mess up the formatting in my documents. The Office Mobile app released by Microsoft earlier this year is a start, but it needs more features. In the meantime, I use many other apps to fill the gap including Apple’s Pages app and the DataViz Documents to Go app, among others.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

What key do I hold down on my iPhone’s keyboard to get the Infinite symbol? Seems like it should be the 8 but that’s not working… 

Jeff…try Control+Command+Space in Mavericks. -David

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

I often think of my iPhone as being an extra brain. Thanks to a number of apps including Reminders, 1Password, Vesper, Notes, and Calendar/Fantastical, my iPhone remembers everything that matters to me so that I don’t have to worry about forgetting something. And thanks to a number of apps including Safari, Siri, Maps, Messages, and Mail, I can use my iPhone to quickly get answers to things that I need to know. Thus, I can devote my pre-installed brain to analyzing and acting upon that information.

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

I’m intrigued by the idea of wearable computing. I’d love to have a virtually invisible, wireless earpiece that can tell me information about the world around me without me needing to look down at my iPhone screen, such as reminding me of a person’s name and other key information as soon as I see them, letting me listen to podcasts or music wirelessly and without any distracting hardware, etc. If Apple were to take something with the promise of Google Glass, give it the polish and ease-of-use that Apple is famous for, and then make the whole thing unobtrusive so that it is easy to wear and you don’t look ridiculous doing so, Apple would have a real winner on its hands. The signs that Apple is currently working on some form of wearable computing are undeniable, which is exciting because at some point I suspect that Apple will produce something similar to, and at some point far beyond, what I’m imagining.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I work at a large law firm, currently over 300 attorneys. When I started in 1994, we were one of the few large law firms to use Macs, but for a variety of reasons including lack of law-related software for the Mac, we switched to PCs in the early 2000s just like every other medium/large law firm. Today, thanks to the iPhone and the iPad, almost every attorney I know is now using an Apple device for both work and play, something that I never would have predicted a decade ago. Indeed, the device that sits on my office desk might have the title of “personal computer” but my iPhone and iPad are easily as sophisticated as any computer and are far more personal. I am thrilled to once again have well-designed, Apple-quality hardware and software in my life, I am excited to see where Apple takes the iPhone/iPad in the future.

Thanks Jeff. 

This Sunday, the Mac Power Users will publish a workflow show with Ben Carter (website) (Twitter). Ben started a law firm and is now doing a short run podcast on it called, “Let’s Start a Law Firm”. It’s a great little show and useful to a lot of people running small service-based businesses. Ben was telling me about some of his favorite apps so I decided to make it official.

What are some of favorite apps?

My three favorite apps that your readers may not be using are:

1) Deli Radio allows users to create custom playlists of musicians that are performing in or near a specific geographical area within a specific date horizon. For example, I have a playlist that plays indie rock bands that are playing within 50 miles of Louisville, Kentucky in the next month. It’s a great way to discover new music and support live music. Also, one of my best friends is their general counsel. It is also a web app, so you can listen at your desk.

2) Songza offers users pre-made playlists that may be appropriate for certain activities at specific times of the day and week. It tells you: “It’s Wednesday morning. Do you want music for: a) waking up happy, b) waking up with energy, c) rolling over and hitting snooze, etc. etc.? It will then present you with six or so genres of music. After choosing a genre, you get to pick one of three playlists. I’ve found some great songs on Songza and love all of the new ways we have to listen to music. In another life—if I do this one well—I hope to come back as a musician. Songza also has a web app for at-work listening, but I mostly use Spotify at my desk to explore some of the bands I’ve found using Deli Radio and Songza on my phone. I pay the 99 cents a week for the ad-free version of Songza. Worth it.

3) Avocado is a really fun app that I use with my girlfriend. Designed as a kind of social network for two people, Avocado is basically a beefed-up text messaging app with a few awesome twists. When I started dating my girlfriend, she was living in Manhattan and I was in Louisville, so a lot of our relationship was in text messages. Very early in the relationship it occurred to me how much of the inside jokes and meaning-making was evolving in text messages that were trapped on our phones, so I began to look for an alternative that might allow me to export our text-exchanges and found Avocado. It allows you to use your photos to set custom emojis for certain emotions (I have a fist bump, a look of dismay, and a high-five emoji), create and update shared lists, and share, caption, and draw on photos. It’s a really fun app that (again), has a web component. So while I’m at my desk, I can text her on her phone using my computer keyboard, which is really nice.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Facebook. I wish I didn’t like it so much, but I do.

What is the app you are still missing?

I don’t really feel like I’m missing apps so much as I feel like I’m missing some functionality in the apps I already use. I use Sparrow as an email client even though I know I’m living on borrowed time following its acquisition by Google because it has a “Send and Archive” feature. I love “Send and Archive”. More email clients should offer it.

Also, I wish Songza made it possible to save songs to playlists that I could create rather than only offering me their playlists. Instead, I’m snapping screenshots of good songs and adding them to Spotify playlists.

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

I run my law practice through my phone. My iPhone is my office phone. I use Soulver to calculate mileage, balance my books, and double-check the math that loan servicers have performed when offering or denying my clients loan modifications. I track my time when I’m on the run using Rocket Matter’s iPhone app. I navigate to rural Kentucky’s courthouses using Google Maps and listen to Roderick on the Line on my way there using Downcast. Even when I’m standing at my desk, I’m just as likely to log on to check my bank balances on my phone as on my computer.

So, is “constantly” an answer?

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

IT IS A COMPUTER. IN MY POCKET. I feel really lucky to be old enough to remember computing in the mid–80s and hope I never stop feeling grateful for the nerds that make this all possible.

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

I practice consumer law, which basically means that I’m representing people who have been duped, defrauded, or otherwise misled/screwed by a business. I wish there were an easier way to export text message exchanges. In a surprising number of my cases, text messages are going to be evidence in a trial. Screenshots? Come on.

Anything else you’d like to share?

If you’re a guitar player, I really recommend the ultimate-guitar.com app for iPad. I use it on my Mini and it really makes finding, storing, and playing music easy and fun.

Thanks Ben.

This week I’m featuring my kind and patient podcast partner Katie Floyd (website) (Twitter). Katie and I have been partners on the Mac Power Users podcast for four years now and she still (usually) answers her phone when I call. That makes Katie special.

What are some of favorite apps?

Since the update to version 2, OmniFocus on iPhone has become my favorite place to interact with OmniFocus throughout the day. When I’m entering or organizing a long list of new tasks I’ll still use the Mac App, but the new forecast view allowing me to see at-a-glance everything I need to get done today has been a game changer.

I keep Reminders on my home screen because I use it for different things. Reminders has become my default App for lists. I keep shopping and related lists in Reminders. I like Dr. Drang’s recent tip to create reminders to look at the shopping based on location. I also have my default Reminders list dump into OmniFocus so if I need to enter a quick series of task to process later, I’ll usually enter them in Reminders, or possibly Drafts and export to Reminders. With background processing OmniFocus will now regularly pick them up and move them to the OmniFocus inbox.

Downcast is probably my most used App after Mail. I made the switch to Downcast a couple months ago after their Mac app was released. I was just so fed up with the state of the Apple Podcasts app and syncing. I caved in and bought an armband for use at the gym and I hate it, but I really like having a great podcast app. Of course, now I hear the Apple Podcast app has been updated and actually syncs so maybe it’s time to look at it again.

Evernote is where I store “everything else” and it got a really nice update with iOS 7.

Drafts is the App that I use to start notes, ideas or other ramblings, then shoot them off to the respective apps for storage or to finish later.

What’s changed on your home screen since iOS 7?

Like David, I’m using Twitteriffic now on iOS. I really like the Twitteriffic interface with iOS 7.Tweetbot is my preferred application from a feature and functionality perspective, but since it hasn’t been updated yet (I hear an update is coming soon) I was finding it a pain point to use. I hope to be able to go back one day. (You’ll notice I still keep Tweetbot on my 2nd screen).

I also got rid of Pastebot and Calcbot. Pastebot never quite worked properly for me in iOS 7 and hasn’t been updated in years and was time to go. CalcBot was obsolete in part because I have quick access to the calculator through Control Center. In fact, features like Control Center and Siri have allowed me to move a number of apps off my home screen (Calculator, Clock, etc.) and I think the next time I’m looking for space on the home screen for an app, the Camera app may be the next to go since I have easy access to it already via the lock screen or Control Center.

What is the app you are still missing?

A great calendar app. Fantastical is the best so far but it hasn’t been updated for iOS 7. I hear Fantastical 2 is due out soon. I’m hoping that fits the bill.

Page 2

My home screen is setup mostly with folders, with a few one-off Apps that are more frequently used. I like that since iOS 7 I’ve been able to add more items to folders which means I now only have one “Productivity” and one “Utility” folder. For years, I’ve always tried to keep my iPhone down to two screens, my iPad I have down to one.

What feature would you add?

I use Siri all the time and I have bluetooth built in my car. However the microphone in my car isn’t as good as the microphone in the iPhone and as a result Siri isn’t nearly as accurate. There’s an option to toggle Siri to use either the car bluetooth or the iPhone, but you can’t mix and match. When Siri’s connected to the car, she doesn’t understand me as well, but gives great feedback (because she reads everything on screen for eyes-free mode). I wish there was a way to use the iPhone’s microphone for better recognition but the car’s speakers for better feedback.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Overall, I’m really enjoying iOS 7. Great update.

Thanks Katie. 

I thought it would be fun to post my home screen again, since it has changed quite a bit with iOS 7

My Home Screen Apps

Apple Mail

I’ve been working with a lot of third party mail apps lately. I really like Dispatch but I keep coming back to Apple Mail, which got some nice improvements with iOS7

Camera App

The Camera App’s new features with iOS 7 and the iPhone 5s make it my default camera application.

Logacal

I’ve been tessting Logacal out as a quick way to get lists of appointments. I’m not sure yet whether this one will stay but there is a lot to like about it’s simple layout. I do wish it was smarter about scrolling the list more. As it stands, it defaults to the today view with the first morning appointment even when I’m opening it in the evening.

Byword

Byword (iOS App Store) (Mac App Store) remains my most used text editor. I love the way it displays markdown text with syntax highlighting and I love the way the iCloud sync works. I keep about ten active text files in it at all time and peck away at them on my Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Notesy

Notesy is what I use to sync my Dropbox text folder. These are the same files that sync to nvALTon my Mac. I keep switching between WriteRoom and Notesy for this purpose. It feels like WriteRoom syncs faster but Notesy looks really great in iOS 7.

Twitterific

I’m currently using Twitterific on iOS and Tweetbot on my Mac. There are some features I prefer on Tweetbot but I really like the way Twitterific displays tweets on my phone. This one is a running battle for me right now.

Sonos

Yes. All of those emails, tweets, and comments got to me. I’ve now joined the Sonos cult. I’m not in too deep yet but I can see where this is going.

Instacast

I switched back to Instacast when they released the Mac app. I listen to podcasts as much when I’m doing busy work on my Mac as I do when driving around so this was a good move for me. I know for some, the choice of podcatcher is a holy war. Instacast is working for me. For now.

Audible

I’ve been an audible subscriber for three years and have a nice collection of primarily fiction that are great doing errands. I treat that entire third row as my audio stuff. My fifth row is for remotes.

Hue

I’ve got a set of Hue lightbulbs that are a lot of fun. My kids and I rotate the light colors. The neighbors think we’re weirdos. I can definitely see a future where these things get cheaper and way more common.

WeMo

We also have a few WeMo switches. One of my favorite uses is a lamp in our front room. When we come home at night, we turn on the lights in the house before entering. WeMo has added a lot more devices including additional lights and wall switches. I haven’t tried those yet.

Reeder 2

I’ve been a huge fan of Reeder since it first released. Version 2 is great. My only complaint is the way it puts Feed Wrangler smart collections at the bottom of the screen instead of the top.

Remote

The Apple TV is used more than ever in our house and I spend so much time with the Remote app, that I finally decided to just put it on my home screen.

The Dock

My dock holds some of my most beloved apps, including OmniFocus and Drafts, that I’ve been writing about here for years. I’m sticking with the Apple Calendar app for now because the way it displays today’s date. I’ve been noticing, however, that I don’t actually look at it for the date often so I’m in the process of going through my calendar apps again (I’ve bought ~10 of them over the years) to pick a new one.

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Another nice thing about iOS 7 is that folders have multiple pages so I am able to put all the rest of my apps neatly an alphabetized set of folders. Yes. I’m that guy.

What Feature Would I Add?

I do a lot of dictation. I’d really like the iPhone to display my words as it interprets them rather than making me dictate everything before showing me any words. This is one feature where Android is ahead of Apple

How About That Background?

It is a simple blue gradient I created with Grad.