This week’s home screen features Michael Tsai (Website) (Twitter). Among many other talents, Michael is a smart Mac developer with some great Mac apps like SpamSieve, EagleFiler, and DropDMG. So Michael, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

I really admire Fantastical and Weather Line. They provide basically the same functionality as the built-in Calendar and Weather apps, but the information is presented in a much better way.

Timer is like this as well. It’s both easier (single tap for common times) and more powerful (names, multiple times running at once).

I use the Camera app all the time. It’s amazing how much the quality has improved since the first iPhone. I rarely carry a real camera anymore.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Tweetbot and Overcast. Both are very useful, of course, but I spend more time in them than I probably should. I feel a bit guilty using Overcast because there are always new podcast episodes, and so I feel like I’m not making enough time for music anymore.

What app makes you most productive?

OmniFocus is the most important app that I use. From the iPhone, I use it to collect ideas and notes throughout the day, which I usually process on my Mac. TextExpander touch is a great help here; I don’t have it on my home screen because I pretty much always use it from within OmniFocus. Of course, I also use OmniFocus as a checklist for the things I’m doing.

1Password, Editorial, and Readdle Documents are great for accessing my account information and files of various kinds.

Rain  also makes me productive by helping me to sleep.

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

I have Workflow installed but haven’t had a chance to do anything with it. I should probably install Pythonista.

I’ve been entering my weight into Health but otherwise haven’t done much with the app.

I definitely could spend more time reading with the Instapaper and Kindle apps.

What is the app you are still missing?

For years, I’ve wanted f.lux to be in the App Store. That’s not possible, but Apple is adding Night Shift in iOS 9.3.

I want Apple to make the Videos app much better or add APIs so that third-party developers can make an alternative, the way I can use Ecoute instead of Music.

I’d like a camera app that can lock the HDR feature on. I’ve tried lots of alternatives to the built-in Camera app, but they all seem to be slower and/or harder to use.

Of course, I’d like to bring SpamSieve and EagleFiler to iOS.

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

I don’t know. I wish iOS were more open so that it would be possible to write an app to answer this question, e.g. like RescueTime on the Mac. There are lots of interesting software ideas that don’t really fit into iOS’s idea of apps.

What Today View widgets are you using and why?

I have not found that I use Today View very much now that Touch ID is so fast. Right now I’m using Fantastical and Apple’s Batteries and Find Friends widgets.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

Well, I think the magic is in the combination of features all in one device that fits in my pocket. So maybe the size, if that is a feature.

Otherwise, in terms of hardware features: the camera, GPS, and Touch ID.

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

I would put more of the software focus on fixing bugs.

I would make lots of changes to the App Store: trials, upgrades, faster and more consistent App Review, a way for customers and developers to communicate. I’d also allow sideloading of apps that aren’t in the store.

I would make iCloud and iTunes backups more granular, so that people could, for example, restore the data for a single app without overwriting everything else on the device.

I would make the iPhone thicker and less rounded–more like the iPhone 5s shape. The iPhone 6s is just not comfortable to hold without a case, and cases are bulky and sticky in my pocket. If I’m going to thicken my phone to
make it easier to hold, I’d rather thicken it with a larger battery than an inert case.

Do you have an Apple Watch? Show us your watch face tell us about it.

No. I like not wearing anything on my wrist. I think if I had an Apple Watch I would still be reaching into my pocket all the time because the iPhone is faster and can do so much more.

What’s your wallpaper and why?

My lock screen shows a photo that I took of the fire tower on Mt. Cardigan. That was the first image I chose when I got the original iPhone, and I haven’t seen a need to change it. I added a transparent overlay at the bottom that has instructions for how to access my emergency contacts and health information (by swiping right on the lock screen).

Anything else you’d like to share?

I have both Overcast and Downcast installed because Downcast makes it easy to play ad-hoc audio files that I’ve downloaded or created myself (e.g. by extracting the audio from WWDC sessions or YouTube videos).

Similarly, I have both Instapaper and Pocket installed because I like having two separate buckets for saving links. Instapaper is for articles that I want to read on my iPhone, whereas Pocket is for marking links from the iPhone that I want to process on my Mac. I only ever use it from action sheets in other apps, so it’s not on the home screen.

Thanks Michael.

A few months ago I started corresponding with Garren Rose, an IT student at Arizona State University who is using the heck out of his iPad Pro. Garren was nice enough to share his iPad Pro home screen and explain some of his favorite apps. So Garren, show us your home screen.

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What are some of your favorite apps?

I’ll admit, when I got the iPad Pro last month, I went a little nuts in the app store. My sister gave me an iTunes gift card to get me started, and then I spent the next few days in a blur of pure joy and reckless financial ruin. After the dust settled, I ended up with some great new favorites, and I’ve barely even scratched the surface of what’s available:

Pixelmator – I rushed to this app first because I’ve been a big fan of the desktop version for a long time and I was excited to be able to sync my projects between devices. What I did not expect, however, was how crazy-intuitive, racked with new features, and FUN the iOS version would be. I used it right away to touch up my family’s holiday card and it couldn’t have been easier. 

Korg iMS–20 – I’m a big synth nerd and I’ve been waiting years for Korg to release a reliable, non-crashy version of this app. I’m happy to say, the wait is over! The UI looks intimidating because it is designed to look exactly like the real Korg MS–20, but it’s incredibly user-friendly and comes with fantastic documentation. I port it into Garageband when I’m on-the-go so I can save my little synth hooks to use in bigger Ableton projects on my Mac later. 

MacID – Every time I use MacID, I feel like a straight-up wizard. This piece of software is seriously genius. It gives paranoid (security-minded) people like me the ability to lock and unlock their Macs securely from an iPad, iPhone, or Apple Watch. With Touch ID enabled, the process becomes ridiculously simple and fast. Now, I don’t ever have to waste time pecking in my gibberish password 20+ times a day. The iOS version also lets me control iTunes on my Mac, in case I want to rock out while I lock out.

Screens – This app has saved me two grand by keeping me from needed to replace my aging (but functional) Macbook Pro. I commute far to school and lugging the 15” Macbook Pro Retina every day was starting to take a serious toll on my machine. With Screens, I can leave my Mac safely at home on my desk and access it remotely from my iPad Pro whenever I need to grab a small file or work in any of my desktop software. One downside for iPad Pro users: if you use one of the smart keyboards, you’ll have to disconnect it and use the normal touch keyboard while logged in to your Mac. Hopefully Edovia has an update for us in the pipeline.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure app is BaconReader, a reddit client. I spend far too much time on it—it’s my go-to “I’m bored right now” app. I’m referred to as a “lurker” on reddit, which means I soak up all the interesting things that other users post, and in return, contribute nothing to the conversation. I am a terrible redditor, admittedly. But it’s addicting.

I’ve tried all of the big reddit clients out there, including their own homegrown Alien Blue, but none have been as easy to browse or operate as BaconReader. 

What app makes you most productive?

There are two apps that tie for me in the productivity department: 2Do and LastPass.  

2Do is my task manager and my calendar, combined. It is a phenomenal task manager; it syncs seamlessly over CalDAV via the Reminders app to all of my devices, leaving me with no excuse not to get those tasks checked off every day. If you’re someone who needs a ton of customization options in your task manager, consider 2Do. It’s packed with more features than you’d ever need so that you can find a combo that suits your lifestyle.

LastPass is my password manager of choice. From what I hear on MPU, it seems to have a lot of the same features as 1Password, but without the added “Team” element. It was reasonably priced for a year of premium, so I went for it, and I have had no complaints whatsoever. The UI is slick, organized, and consistent across every platform I’ve needed it on. I can’t believe how many passwords I used to carry around in my head all the time. Additionally, the app recently added action support, so accessing my passwords in any iOS browser is cake!

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

IF and DO Button (IFTTT apps) – I jumped on the Wemo train this year and purchased some components for my home. I’ve had a pretty good experience so far; it’s nice to not have to get up to flip the lights off while I’m working or watching TV, but I would love to incorporate more automation into the setup. I’ve read enough about IFTTT to know I could be living that sweet fully-automated life if I just sat down and messed with it for an hour. 

What is the app you are still missing?

I just want to see more apps that implement VR headset technology like Google Cardboard. Despite the old stigma, VR is not a novelty anymore and it’s certainly not going away. Look at the incredible following and praise Oculus has already drummed up! I say Apple should go all in and get to work on the iHolodeck. 

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

Between work, school, and wasting time, it’s got to be in the hundreds. I have them on me constantly!

What Today View widgets are you using and why?

QuickSwitch – QuickSwitch is an alternative app to control Wemo devices, but I bought it specifically because it includes the widget element, whereas the official Wemo app did not. Now it’s just one simple swipe down and I can toggle or adjust all of my devices.

2Do – The little 2Do widget can be customized to display whichever lists the main app that I designate, but I like to keep mine set to only show overdue tasks that I’ve tagged as “important,” but still haven’t completed. When my alarm wakes me up in the morning and I want to roll back over to sleep, that’s when this widget really shines. My workflow is simple: swipe down to access the widget, glance over the ultra-crucial tasks I didn’t do yesterday, panic while imagining the consequences, and just like that, I’m up! Carpe diem!

MacID – From this widget, I can lock/unlock my Mac, start a screensaver, or send the iPad’s secure clipboard data to the Mac—all with just one swipe down and one tap. 

Evernote – I love how Evernote is all about accessibility. This widget acts as a launcher for creating/adding new Evernote elements on-the-fly. It can also search through my indexed notes and preview my most recently viewed ones for quick access. 

What is your favorite feature of the iPad Pro?

My favorite feature of the iPad Pro has got to be the screen real estate, especially
when combined with the split screen multitasking technology we got with iOS 9. I use this feature all the time to quickly respond to messages without interrupting my workflow. I can’t imagine ever going back!

What’s your wallpaper and why?

My wallpaper is a digital painting by my incredibly talented girlfriend Megan. She made it on her iPad Mini 4 using the Paper 53 Pencil.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I just want to say thank you for all the guidance and encouragement you give to Mac nerds like me, and that it’s a huge privilege to contribute to Home Screens!   Oh, and I’ll give a shout out to the fantastic ASU Polytechnic School IT Program. Go Devils!

I love meeting fellow nerds on the Internet but I also like meeting them in real life. Recently I went to see a screening of the Steve Jobs movie with some friends and was introduced to Eugene Gordin (website). Eugene is a structural engineer and passionate about his Apple gear. I love to see how smart people use their technology and Eugene is no different. So Eugene, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Hands down (see what I did there), I’d have to say Reeder and Tweetbot. When on my iPhone, I pretty much live in those. I use Tweetbot mainly for information consumption – I rarely actually tweet unless its to a specific person. With Reeder, I’ve been a big fan and loyal beta tester since before 1.0. I’ve tried every RSS reader out there, and always come back to Reeder.

I’m not a big social networker, but I do like sharing photos of my son with our extended family. We use a service called Lifecake, which despite its weird name is geared toward this very use. It has some very creative features, and although development seems to have slowed since they were acquired by Canon, its still one of my favorites on my phone.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Thanks to your recommendation, I’m now playing Alto’s Adventure. I’m not at all a gamer, but that game is highly addictive. In addition to beautiful graphics, its got a very gradual learning curve. I’d say I’m hooked because I’m also a snowboarder, but the game has little in common with actual snowboarding. It’d be nice if backflips were that easy.

What app makes you most productive? 

1Password – without a doubt. It seems like all day long I’m logging into things, and 1Password on the iPhone is so incredibly useful, beautifully designed, and with Touch ID, its blazingly fast to use.

Other than that, I’d have to say Mail. When on the go, responding quickly, or triaging incoming email is so easy. The iPhone Mail experience feels desktop class, so much so that I’m always surprised that I see people with signatures that say “Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse any typos.” In my experience, unless you’re not proofreading, there’s little reason why an email from an iPhone would have more typos. 

We use Daylite in my company so that’s definitely nice to have on the iPhone as well, particularly when I need more information about a certain project, client, or company. I’m an Omnifocus user for tasks, although I’ve really tried to simplify my to-do list as much as possible in order to stick with it.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

I’m so glad there’s no way to check. If you ask my wife, she’d say too many. I’m on it all day, and with the battery life that iPhone 6S Plus gets, I can do that without worrying much about running out of juice.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

It’d be a toss up between Touch ID and 3D Touch, both of which significantly improved the iOS experience. While the lock screen is where I use Touch ID the most, it is also a great timesaver for apps like 1Password and Amazon. Touch ID feels like the future, each time I use it.

3D Touch has changed how I use my phone – I use the “peak” and “pop” gestures all day. It will be even better once more developers add 3D Touch integration. The latest update to Reeder (3.0) added support for 3D Touch, and it is much appreciated. 

What’s your wallpaper and why?

My lock screen wallpaper is a cropped version of Brock Davis’ Broccoli House. Why? Broccoli always reminded me of little trees, and this photograph was just so perfect. Also broccoli is delicious. 

Anything else you’d like to share?

One app that I haven’t seen recommended anywhere is Kinohunt, which monitors the iTunes and Amazon video stores for sales. I’m rarely in a rush to buy a movie, but I do have ones I’d like to buy. Kinohunt lets you make a list of movies you want to buy or rent, and it will notify you when they’re on sale.

This week’s home screen features You-Tuber Lon Seidman (YouTube) (Twitter) (Facebook). Lon does video reviews of technology products and he loves his iPhone. So Lon, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

I spend most of my time using the Inbox app for managing my Gmail accounts, OmniFocus (of course!) for managing my life, the YouTube creator app for my channel’s analytics and engagement, Downcast for listening to Mac Power Users and many other podcasts, and a bunch of social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

These days it’s Pac-Man 256 – a Pac-Man endless runner that’s probably the best retro inspired game I’ve played in a long time. And I will admit I look at Facebook quite a bit too. But it’s smart enough to know I am only interested in seeing pictures of dogs and babies.

What app makes you most productive?

Google’s Inbox app. It’s similar in some ways to Mailbox from Dropbox, but it does some things better like bulk categorization of mail for easy sortation. So unlike the lousy Gmail tabs, the Inbox method is to display those bulk categories into inline groupings that expand within the inbox stream. Really slick and very easy to quickly review messages.

The app works great across all of the many platforms I use (including the web) and has really helped bring some sanity to how I go through my email box. The workflow is so efficient that I can pop in quickly and keep things neat and tidy throughout the day. It also lets me create custom groupings based on specific tags.

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

I am sure I am not alone in saying Workflow is tremendously underutilized on my iPhone. I am starting to find more and more uses for it which is great but I know it can do a lot more than what I’m currently tasking it with.

What is the app you are still missing?

That’s a good question. I wish I was smart enough to think of the app that I’m missing so I can invent it and have a very profitable exit!

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

My iPhone constantly – especially because I can “tend the garden” of my three email accounts very quickly and efficiently while waiting on a line, etc. The funny thing is that since I bought my iPhone 6 I am using the iPad less. The larger screen on the 6 vs. the 5s it replaced was just enough to take some tasks away from the iPad.

What Today View widgets are you using and why?

I have never been much of a widget guy so my today view isn’t something I look at often. I do find the Plugshare app’s view of nearby electric car charging stations really useful. That’s primarily what I use the today screen for if I’m traveling and looking for some free juice for my ride.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The first thing that came to mind with this question was Touch ID. It has probably saved me hours over the course of the year by not having to type in my passcode over and over again. Every time I test phones and tablets on competing platforms it’s the first thing I miss having.

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

I would be less restrictive with the things users can do on the platform. A great example is comparing something like the Android-based Nvidia Shield TV to the Apple TV. Google is much more flexible in allowing apps like game and computer emulators, and other apps that do things to help third party apps work better together or with the underlying OS.

It would be nice for Apple to treat iOS like the Mac and give users the option to install apps from sources other than the app-store eco system. I know they are mindful of security but there are a lot of fun things I can do on Android that I can’t do on Apple without jailbreaking.

Do you have an Apple Watch?

I do! It’s funny I didn’t think I was going to use the Apple Watch much but now it’s part of my routine. I like the small conveniences it provides as well as the fitness tracking. Apple Pay on the watch is amazing and I use it all the time.

I recently switched to a traditional watch face after using the modular one for awhile. My daughter always requests the butterfly version so that’s in rotation too.

I should have opted for the sapphire face vs. the glass as I already have a gash in mine :-(.

What’s your wallpaper and why?

My wallpaper is a picture of my daughter I took the day she was born. It’s the best photo I’ve ever taken which also happens to be of my favorite subject :).

Anything else you’d like to share?

I am continually in awe of my 2012 Macbook Pro Retina. It is in use helping me work probably 12–16 hours a day. It’s my primary desktop computer for my day job (plugged into a Thunderbolt dock) and is what I use for editing all of my YouTube videos. I have never owned a computer that’s been this useful for so long since my Apple II from the 80’s. I will likely replace it when the Skylake version comes out as I am starting to do more with 4k video.

While I’m usually featuring someone else’s home screen, with the release of iOS 9 and a few other developments, I thought I’d share my own home screen today. So, here goes.

My home screen is always in motion. For example, the Notes app is currently in my dock because I’m still testing it as a potential full-time notes solution. Camera is likewise in the dock because the 3D touch buttons on the Photos application icon make keeping the app on my home screen suddenly relevant again. Audible is another example. I don’t usually keep it on the home screen but I’ve been listening to James Corey’s Expanse Series so I want quick access.

Drafts is still a thing for me. Even with iOS 9, I like the ability to start dictating text with one press. I also admire the way Drafts keeps evolving to take advantage of new iOS features. It’s now 3D touch-friendly.

Unread is under new management but still manages to hold onto the whimsey that makes it my RSS tool of choice.

About two months ago, I got tired of looking at Tweetbot on the iPad and switched over to the native Twitter app. About the time I started figuring out the official app, Tweetbot released its new version with much better iPad support and I went back without thinking twice.

1Password is another application that I like to keep on my home screen. I’ve got so much data in there and want easy access. Secure notes are a great feature in 1Password if you want to keep something important behind a separate security wall.

I haven’t decided if the App Store deserves to be on home screen but with all the post-iOS 9 app updates, it’s going to stay there for at least the next month.

The strangest development is that my home screen is now my only screen. Katie Floyd made the suggestion in a recent episode of Mac Power Users. She split all her additional apps into just 4 folders. I tried it and was skeptical at first but I think I’m sold. The folders are Productivity, Reference, Utility, and Fun, I’ve put the most frequently used apps in each category in that first page and I can now get to my favorite apps without swiping away from the home screen.

My wallpaper is another thing constantly in motion. The current one is a picture of a gray brick wall that I like (for now).

If I were in charge at Apple, I’d continue to give iOS more power-user features. I understand how they want to keep things simple but as iOS evolves, the operating system needs more power tools. 3D Touch is a great start. It’s easy to use and easily ignorable. More of that please.

Brian Sutich (Twitter) is a huge Apple guy who writes over at TheAppFactor.com and Sutich.org. Brian’s a man of many hats as a dad, musician, and audio engineer. So Brian, show us your home screen.

My homescreen is a little crazy, but it has a method to its madness. I try to put my most used apps where I can reach them, and I use Spotlight search so much, that it almost doesn’t matter where the icons are at this point.

What are some of your favorite apps?

I’ve installed 1Password on every device I own, and that coupled with TextExpander are auto-installs I couldn’t live without because of how much time they save me.

Speaking of time-savers, Slack came out of nowhere and now I’m subscribed to multiple channels. I enjoy it a heck of a lot more than email, and I’ve met some great folks through using it. 

I left Spotify this year for Apple Music, and I haven’t had any of the problems yet (fingers crossed) that people have complained about. I love Apple Music because of their catalog, Beats 1, and the curation. I have big hopes for the app as it gets updated. 

For photography I use a combination of Obscura to take photos, and Pixelmator to edit them. Those apps are so powerful at this point, that they truly feel desktop-class. 

For journaling and trying to figure life out, I’m using Day One. I love the design on both iOS and OS X. I try to journal as much as possible and I’ve found it has had a huge positive impact on my life. 

I’m also using Paprika for collecting recipes I’m looking to try and cook. I haven’t burned anything yet!

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

It has to be a tie between Tweetbot and Overcast. I check Twitter more than I’d like to admit and Tweetbot has been my favorite client on iOS and OS X. I’m subscribed to tons of podcasts in Overcast (so I can listen to alllll the great shows), and some months I listen to more podcasts than I do music. I can’t wait for the update to Overcast, but I also have my eye on what’ll happen with the new version of Castro.

What app makes you most productive?

For getting stuff done, it’s a combination of Fantastical, Todoist and Due. Each app gives me something different for long term, medium, and short term tasks I have to get done. 

On the writing side, I’d say it’s a combination of Editorial, Blink, and Clips. All great apps that help me put together an article right on my iPhone.

Finally, Nike +, Pedometer ++ and Get Moving have all helped me in my quest to get in shape. I just finished my first 10K this month! 

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

Definitely Pythonista. I know it’s a powerhouse, and I’m trying to learn the language a bit every day. Slowly but surely I’m using it more and more. I need to read more Dr. Drang!

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

Quite a bit. I love my 128 GB iPhone, and I guess you could call me an app hoarder. At the time of this post, my installed app count was nearing 700 apps. I’m always looking to try something new to see what sticks.

What Today View widgets are you using and why?

I’m using a bunch. Some of my favorites are Launcher, which I use to launch directions to home, Shazam a song, open Apple Music and more. I also use Carrot Weather, which has a detailed and good looking forecast. I use Clips and Drafts to manipulate text. I use Shipments to track anything headed to my house, and I use Today Steps to see my step count info.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

My favorite feature is that it truly has become a mini computer that allows me to do just about anything. While the iPhone and iPad haven’t replaced my Mac yet, they’re not far off from being able to handle anything you throw at them.

What’s your wallpaper and why?

It’s an amazing Empire Strikes Back movie poster zoomed in. It combines both my love of Star Wars and the color orange. (Two gold stars to Brian! -David)

Anything else you’d like to share?

Apple devices have literally changed my life. It’s so great we can share what makes us productive and happy. Thanks so much for having me, it’s an honor!

Thanks Brian!

This week’s home screen features geek and jazz pianist Bob Karty (Website). I’ve been corresponding with Bob via email for some time. For years, Bob has been a sideman, playing with some of the best jazz acts in the San Francisco Bay area. Bob is now running this Kickstarter project to fund his own album and I thought it would be a great opportunity to look at Bob’s favorite music apps. So Bob, let’s see it.

I’m a professional jazz pianist and a music teacher, and I use my iPad a lot every day.

I use play-along tracks both for my own practicing and with my students. The tracks are in my iTunes library, which is stored on a Synology DS212j network drive. I play the tracks via Synology’s DS File app on my iPad, and the audio streams to a Marantz AV7005 pre-pro with built-in Air Play. It’s wonderful to have instant access to not only the play-alongs but my entire music library.

For casual listening, I use Synology’s DS Audio app.

If a play-along track is at a tempo that’s too fast for a student, or if they’re playing a song for which there’s no commercially-available play-along, I use an app called iReal Pro. iReal Pro consists of chord charts and a MIDI playback engine which reads the charts and plays them back using drums, bass, and piano or guitar sounds. You can instantly change a song’s key and tempo. The playback engine includes a mixer, so pianists turn off the piano track and practice along with bass and drums.

Most of the bands I work with have their own printed music charts of original songs. But if someone sits in and wants to sing a jazz standard I don’t know, the charts in iReal Pro come in handy.

In teaching Afro-Cuban/salsa/Latin jazz piano, I have students play along with rhythm accompaniment from an app called Salsa Rhythm. Originally designed for dancers, it’s very useful for musicians too. Pianists need to learn how to fit into the complex grooves in a very specific way, and this app is a great aid to that process.

Another app I use frequently is the Yamaha Metronome. There are many metronome apps, but this is my favorite – simple, straightforward, and accurate. You’d think a metronome would be accurate by definition, but I found one that wasn’t true, despite claims by the developer that it was “the most accurate” in the app store.

For students of music theory, I often recommend the Interval Ear Trainer module in an app called Tenuto. Tenuto contains drills and exercises for learning theory, while its companion app, Theory Lessons, covers the lessons. The Ear Trainer plays a musical interval, and you tap on the screen to identify it. It’s customizable to adapt to different skill levels, and students have a lot of fun with it.

A couple of brief mentions of clever and useful apps for audio engineers: Speaker Angle helps you set the toe-in angle of your monitor speakers, which helps improve the sound. Stereo Mic Tools uses the iPhone or iPad’s camera to help you position microphones in stereo recording configurations, which require precision positioning in order to capture the sound accurately.

This week’s home screen features Chelsea Cook. Chelsea is an impressive young woman. She has a physics degree from Virginia Tech, has given her very own TED talk, and happens to be blind. Chelsea enjoys astronomy, reading, and creative writing. Her ultimate goal is to become an astronaut who writes poetry in space. Chelsea also loves her iPhone. So Chelsea, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Wow, that’s hard, as I’m always downloading and trying out new ones. I like Downcast and ooTunes for audio, FlightView for tracking flights and gates at the airport (sometimes faster than the airlines and mitigates having to ask gate agents if you know the airport), and Check the Weather because it tells you the weather forecast so precisely without having to swipe through a bunch of information. It also includes “feels like” temperatures, which is important in the high humidity-environment of the east Coast.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Definitely iAssociate 2. The developer has made a great effort at making the game both VoiceOver-friendly and fun to play. I bounce back and forth between different games to help me get to sleep, (another one is 2048) but I always come back to this one. When I’m in the mood for something humorous, I’ll pop open the Cracked Reader. 

What app makes you most productive?

Sometimes it’s more the general features of the iPhone. When I got Siri, my productivity went way up, as it was just easier to add something to my calendar or make a reminder by voice than by typing. Siri helps in my homework as well by looking up astronomical conversions for me that I just put into a calculator as she reads them back. If I had to choose an app, though, I’d say… Mail. Before the iPhone, I was chained to my computer for email, and that was not very convenient for picking up things on the other side of campus. Now, I plan my day around my inbox in real time. Mail helps me manage the deluge, but also is a quick way for professors to communicate with me if they’ve gone out for coffee and I can’t read the note on the office door. I always hated carrying cash until I got the LookTel Money Reader; I didn’t want to carry around another device just to read bills, and this app is quick and accurate. My iPhone is with me all the time, so my currency reader is with me all the time, too. (I LOVE ApplePay for so many reasons, but the convenience and privacy can’t be beat anywhere else.)

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

For sure: Workflow, 1Password, and blindSquare. Touch ID would probably make 1Password a whole lot easier to use. I like Workflow a lot, but have to be creative and spend some time actually thinking up things to do. And blindSquare is a multi-featured GPS solution that, combined with AppleMaps, has a lot of power and a lot of layers.

What is the app you are still missing?

The iPhone has opened up the world of apps so that as the device gets better, the apps get better; most of the specialized devices I used to carry around in a backpack now fit in my pocket. I still think the touch screen has huge potential to display mathematical content like matrices or graphs in a way that can be spatially understood by someone who is blind, similar to how you know where the icons on the home screen are. I know this is not an easy thing to code, but a VoiceOver-friendly graphing calculator or matrix manipulator would be awesome!

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

Almost all the time. iOS is so powerful and has so much potential. I use my iPhone when I’m out and the iPad when I’m home or traveling, because of that long battery life. I love having a charged phone to get me to my destination after a long drive or flight. My poor MacBook air is usually relegated to the tasks of “heavy duty”, “long session”, or “needs hardware keyboard”. 

What Today View widgets are you using and why?

Today view is one of those underutilized features for me, because I don’t want it to get too cluttered. I mainly use Calendar and Dropbox, to see if events and assignments have appeared yet. I find the interface to be a bit clunky for some apps, and spend more time in there than I would like.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Easily the versatility of these devices. I’ve always hated carrying around many devices (worrying about charging them, losing them, not having the right one for the job), so have been firmly entrenched in that “one device to rule them all” camp. Need a GPS? iPhone. Book reader? all different books in one place on the 128 GB iPad. So for me, it’s not one feature, but all of them, nicely wrapped up in a single, shiny package.

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

Another loaded question. I’d demolish and rework iTunes on the Mac—but that’s for another post. I wouldn’t sacrifice performance or features for thinness, particularly in some of their machines. An iPad or a laptop makes perfect sense to be thin and light; a desktop Mac does not. (Can you tell I miss the SuperDrive in the old iMacs?) I would also want desperately to fix the television interfaces, or at least unleash the content from cable providers, especially their audio-described content. I know there has been a general trend (in both blind and sighted communities) griping about apple’s software lacking in quality, and I am glad to see that they are addressing it, so hopefully my small software pain points and bugs will go away.

Do you have an Apple Watch? Show us your watch face tell us about it.

My AppleWatch is growing on me, as I figured it would. When I’m having fun or feeling geeky, I love showing off the astronomy face and entertaining questions about our universe. When I want to be practical the rest of the time, I find the Modular face for me to be a good balance of information, provided you choose your complications carefully. I can’t wait to really take the appleWatch for a walk in a big city and release the power of maps. Oh, and add “tactile way of telling the time!!!” to the Apple changes above. I love having access to Siri on my wrist for things like quick texts and cooking timers. This device has been a long time coming, and it can only get better.

What’s your wallpaper and why?

I changed it when iOS 8 dropped, so don’t exactly remember which is my home screen and which is my lock screen anymore, but I always put in the space or astronomy-themed wallpapers. Something to do with galaxies this time around.

Anything else you’d like to share?

When I say iOS devices have been life changing, I’m not understating that. I can go to a new city and navigate independently. I can take pictures of money and documents without having to ask someone to read them to me. I can use the Internet and apps to collect all kinds of information that was previously unavailable or very hard to find and I can connect to a community who really cares about interfaces and experiences. I believe all those things, and more about the iPhone. Thanks, David, for giving me this opportunity.

Oh, and if people want to find more about my work, they can watch a TEDX video of me playing with 3D math shapes.

This week’s home screen features Maury Hill (Twitter). Maury spends most of his time developing CRM tools for Windows at MetaStock but also happens to be a big Mac nerd. As Maury explained to me, he does Windows development from his retina MacBook and iOS devices via Jump Desktop. Go Maury! So, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

OmniFocus, Drafts, and iThoughts. My brain could not relax without the ability to get things off my mind, view them when necessary, and just plain lay things out before my eyes. I also love using Overcast to discover all things Apple from MPU. 

I have to mention Due and the harassment it delivers, helping me to get the easy to ignore, day to day things done. What would I do if I forgot my pills or laundry?

I also have to confess I’m having an affair with Siri. I talk to it all day long on all of my devices, including the Watch. 

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

TweetBot and Reeder. I spend far too much time in these apps. Reeder is essential to stay up to date, but Tweetbot lets me peer into the lives of other geeks like me. I can also complain to app developers. 

Honestly, I wish there were Desert Golf scholarships when I went to school. I just need to delete that app. 

What app makes you most productive?

This is on the verge of becoming an OmniFocus review. I have to get things off my mind to stop thinking about them. Along with Siri, this app makes it easy. OmniFocus shows me tasks when I need to see them and thanks to Review mode, which I have never found in similar apps, I can prioritize projects and focus on what’s important now. 

Continuing to regurgitate others’ posts, Drafts is also wonderful. I love it’s widget, which allows me to dump the clipboard into a new draft and use it in searches or even for processing queries in DropBox files by one of my SQL Servers, returning query results, opened via its widget. I use Hygia to accomplish that. It is “Hazel” for Windows. 

The Apple Watch helps me stay off my phone and focus on what I should be doing, which is writing more bugs. 

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

Workflow, Hazel, and Editorial. I read so much about these from MacSparky, MacDrifter, and Viticci, but I just never find the time to explore them. I think the fault rests on the shoulders of the awesome newborn boy my wife and I adopted last year. 🙂 [That’s a pretty good reasy Maury. -Sparky]

What is the app you are still missing?

Not an app, but more Siri integration. I would like VoiceOver to be more reliable for reading out notifications, and I would love to tell Overcast to play specific podcasts, or have Workflow run specific tasks with my voice. 

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

My wife could give you an exact count. I don’t think the phone leaves my hand. I’m definitely an addict in need of a disconnect.

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

I heard somewhere that only 20% of the features you release are used by 80% of your users. It certainly is true of the fruits of my code, so I cannot blame Apple for not adding “power user” features. But I wouldn’t mind if the track pad feature for the iPad came back for the iPhone and if Hey Siri were accessible even when not on power. 

I’m a grown up Apple. Let me drain my battery at light speed and fumble the cursor around. Just have a setting to disable it for everyone else!

Thanks Maury.

This week’s home screen post features Jaco Muller (Twitter). Jaco is a MacSparky reader and Mac Power Users listener. Jaco is also the guy that wrote this script to use my TextExpander script in Outlook. So Jaco, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Overcast must be one of my current favorites. I subscribe to 9 podcasts, most of which have episodes longer than 80 minutes. Before Overcast I couldn’t get through all the podcasts in a week’s commute time, but now it’s a breeze. I also use Mail, Omnifocus, Evernote, 1Password and Whatsapp many times during the day.

I also think Wunderlist is absolutely fantastic. It does one thing only – managing list(s) – but does it very well. My wife and I use it for a shared shopping list and it does the job much better than Evernote. The key is that each entry on a list is being synced as a separate item, as opposed to an entire list being synced. The result is that individual entries made from different devices are updated immediately without sync errors.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Twitter, Reddit and Facebook, but they’re not on my home screen because they are distracting and time consuming. I also check into Meerkat and Periscope from time to time, because I believe they can possibly evolve into apps that can change how breaking news spreads in future.

What app makes you most productive?

I use Omnifocus mainly to view the current list of tasks and to tick them off once completed. However, the simple process of adding a task into Omnifocus means that I can ‘forget’ about it and focus on the task at hand. This simple ability to add something ‘on the go’ and trust the system behind it is probably the single item that adds most to my productivity. I rarely use it for more complex purposes like reviews, adding context or details etc. to tasks.

Drafts is a close second. The ability to open it and start typing immediately works well in real life situations where one’s focus is supposed to be on something else, i.e. during a conversation or on a phone call etc.

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

Workflow. I know it has the potential to eliminate a lot of mundane tasks, but I haven’t sat down and spent time with it to understand it well enough. Perhaps some basic documentation or an FAQ would help – i.e. I have some unanswered questions about how variables are passed on during a workflow.

What is the app you are still missing?

Not an app, but a feature that I think may make iOS more user friendly to me, is the ability to ‘auto arrange’ apps, based on usage, time of day, etc. Of course one should be able to pin a few apps to remain static, but at the same time leave a few spaces available for dynamic auto arranging of apps. I’d just like apps that are being used more, to gravitate towards the home screen by themselves.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

I work in an office on a mac, but whenever I get up to walk somewhere, I grab the phone and catch up on social media etc.

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

It would be great if Apple could somehow use their purchase power to loosen the grip that content owners have on the distribution and licensing of content outside of the US. For those of us living outside of the US, it makes less and less sense that a movie or series is being released in the US while we only get to see it (legally) much later. In many cases it’s not even available to purchase online at all. For example, a proper online music streaming service like Spotify wasn’t available in South Africa where I live until Apple Music became available with the release of iOS8.4. I’d like to see the same happening with movies and series.

Thanks Jaco