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iPad/iPhone App Round Up
I love going through people’s app lists, so here is mine! I had intended to do a “Both” list, then iPad only and iPhone only – but it’s taking me too long to bother doing the iPhone apps (my iPhone lifechangers are: mapquest, newsrack, itweetreply, css cheatsheet, THI trainer, habit factor, stick it, shazam, code reader, , sleep cycle and fourquare – there I did it!).
Both:
Notes on “both” – some of these are iPhone only but I run them on my iPad anyways.
- AudioNote ($4.99): Records audio while you take notes. Type or draw.
- WordPress: Hook up to multiple hosted WP blogs. Create/Edit posts, pages. Manage comments. ESSENTIAL APP if you WP.
- Google Analytics ($6.99, iPhone only): Annoying that there are different versions for ipad and iphone (aka two purchases), but who can live without analytics? I’m running the iphone version on my ipad, in protest.
- Facebook: Beware, it’s not iPad-sized yet. #FAIL
- Google: Didn’t come installed by default on iPad, but Google is life so I installed it on both.
- Evernote: Essential. Especially with our photocopiers at work, I scan all notes and email them to evernote. Zero paper files = heaven.
- Dropbox: Essential. Because you have files in more than one place.
- Twitter (formerly Tweetie): I find it the most satisfying twitter client on either device so far.
- IM+ Pro ($9.99): Hook into Twitter, Facebook, MSN Messenger, and Skype all in one place. I run with 2 MSN accounts. I’ve opted out of Twitter because it isn’t reverse chronological and there are better Twitter apps out there. I upgraded to Pro so that I could add my Skype account.
- Words with Friends Free (iPhone only): Social scrabble /w chat. Fun!
- RDP Lite: Remote Desktop Client that has been a staple since week #1 with the iPhone. Free.
- Personal Assistant: The only financial app that has been able to link to both my credit cards as well as my CDN bank account. Very very handy. Alerts me to large transactions, payment due dates. Can do much more, but that’s all I’ve set up. Free.
- YellowPages: A key resource.
- Amazon Kindle: Picked it over Kobo, not for any particular reason. Just seemed like it was the stronger player, would go further.
- Note on iBooks: So far, it has not had any of the books that I have wanted to purchase. Kindle FTW!
- DocsToGo ($9.99): Open and EDIT Microsoft Office files.
- Kijiji: Can’t stop, won’t stop. Love this app/website.
- iWatchr ($0.99): Keeps track of my weight watchers points
- Skype: Redundant thanks to IM+ – Zing!
- Newsrack ($4.99): Testing as replacement to Google Reader – not sure yet. It’s got the same #FAIL as Pulse, but doesn’t have an open in Safari option, so the Note in Reader work around doesn’t save it.
- TweetDeck (iPhone version, iPad version): One of the strongest multi platform, multi account aggregators. It’s my fall back twitter app … I tend to stick with Twitter/Tweetie or Hootsuite. Very pretty on iPad.
- PayPal (iPhone version only): Essential for managing money in this account. Also, can Bump to give money to another user.
- Eventbrite: Awesome check in application – can have multiple gates each with an iphone or ipad all scanning in attendees and checking them into the database.
- LinkedIn: Because sometimes I use it. I wish it supported groups …
- iTweetReply ($1.99): Twitter push notifications, opens tweets in program of choice. Tweetdeck and hootsuite aren’t choices, so I go with Twitter/Tweetie.
- Bump: Novelty. Amazing. Exchange contact details with a bonk, exchange twitter contacts, exchange money via PayPal!
- Flixter: Reviews, trailers on every movie ever – in theatres and on dvd.
- Zinio: Magazine app. This one is gaining steam. My pile of magazines is a) not on the floor anymore, b) with me everywhere I go, and c) favourite pages/recipes are now screenshots/pictures instead of piles of ripped out pages
- Mapquest (iPhone version only): Spoken directions/navigation. Basically a GPS for free. (More so than Google Maps)
- Hoosuite ($2.99 iPhone version, Free HTML5 website for iPad): Great multi-account/tracking/team twitter tool.
iPad Only:
- iMockups ($9.99): kind of awkward, but i eventually got the ivey web template drawn in and duplicated for fancy ipad wireframing
- Memeo Connect: Gorgeous interface for google docs. they promise to make editing possible soon.
- Quick Voice: Because the ipad doesn’t come with a voice recorder.
- Pulse ($3.99): Sucks in your Google Reader feeds and lays them out like a pretty digital magazine/dashboard. Fail: no way to mark “shared” back to Google Reader, which is how I archive useful articles. Fix: Added a Note to Reader bookmark to Safari.
- Jumbo Calculator: Because the iPad doesn’t have a calculator
- iBooks: Comes with the ipad. Will be more useful when it handles PDFs as promised today by Steve Jobs.
- Popplet Lite: Great mindmapping tool – very pretty.
- Dictionary: Seems good to have.
- Files HD ($2.99): Crazy fast file upload from dekstop/laptop browser to iPad app. Redundant to GoodReader and Dropbox. Not sure which one I will stick with.
- textPlus+: Free text messaging via wifi – works fine. Will have to wait for the bill to see if the reply number is international (costing people money to reply to me)
- Noterize ($2.99): Another note taking app – haven’t put it through its paces yet, but very interested after seeing it on @pscheyen’s ipad
iPad Fails:
- ClipTwin: Thought it would be a good way to ship pictures from iPhone to iPad. It’s not. Took 5 minutes to send a single photo.
- Bluetooth Phone: hasn’t yet successfully found my iphone …
Tim Horton’s – Like us on Facebook!
You would think that I have a passion for email, what with how often I drop examples from my inbox into this blog!
Here’s another one – nothing much to say, but I wanted to capture the treatment/push to Facebook in the bottom corner. What do you think?
Win the World: Air Canada Flash Contest
Received an email campaign from Air Canada today inviting me to “win the world” (aka 6 flights to my preferred destinations). The campaign was stunning visually. Usability was a bit low – almost every field of the entry form was required, more than 15 fields. Also, when it came time to “win the world” I was supposed to click one of the fluttering pieces of confetti flying about my screen – which was officially impossible because the flash slowed my mouse down and the confetti’s were moving too fast anyways. On the plus side, the game was triggered if you clicked anywhere – not just on a confetti, so I was still able to enter.
As usual, once you enter you are presented with the opportunity to fork over your friends’ and family’s contact information in exchange for additional ballots in the contest. I don’t usually fill these out – sometimes because I don’t want to be a jerk, and other times because I just don’t have anyone’s email addresses memorized.
Rather than asking me to type in contact info, if the site had offered to send me an email that I can send to others – or if they had just followed up with a “thanks for entering, now forward this to others” email – it would only be a few clicks for me to shoot it out to as many friends as possible – I would already be in my email program with contact list in hand.
Anyways, I am hoping to visit family on both sides of the country in the next year – so cross your fingers for me that I win!
PS wouldn’t it be neat if I’d been able to publish a link to my twitter and facebook saying “I just entered!” – with the motivation that for each time my status was clicked I received extra ballots? If that had been offered to me just now, this contest would have just reached slightly under 1,000 additional people …
Display Different Content for Fans & Non-Fans on Facebook
Just noticed this today, the Bud Light Facebook Page is running a contest for fans of their page. If you navigate to the UFC tab of the Bud Light Facebook Page, different content is shown to the user depending on whether they are already a fan or not.
Why care? Conversion is going to be much higher because all the user has to do is click “like” and then fill in the form presented to them. The alternative is saying “Please click the button to ‘Like’ us and then navigate to this link http://www.facebook.com/somerandomlink and fill out the form that you can now see because you are a fan.”
Also, previously you have been able to define different landing pages for fans vs non-fans (do we call these likers vs unlikers now?) but in the end both audiences could see all your content. Now, we seem to be able to have content exclusively for each audience – great for targetting, hitting home.
 What you see if you have not yet "liked" the brand |
 What is shown to those who "like" Bud Light |
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