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Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:24 pm
by moda0306
I'm kind of on an app craze lately. A few of these are my favorites to use:
1) 10bii Financial Calculator
2) Sleep Cycle sleep tracker
3) My Fitness Pal calorie tracker (This is by far my favorite)
4) Kindle for books
5) Audible (Not really... haven't used it yet but I love Podcasts and have heard this is a great app for audiobooks)
6) Pandora for streaming music in tons of categories (I like this better than my iPod as I get songs I've never heard)
7) Songster for guitar tabs

Google Maps (turn by turn is FAR better than crApple Maps)
Anyone have any other suggestions?
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:40 pm
by dualstow
Air Droid for file transfer
Binary calculator - everything from base2 to base20
Chrome Browser
Pixlr by Autodesk
Shazam
Stocks - by Goldfish Labs, the one with the bull icon. Nice and clean.
Trucaller - caller ID and spam blocking
Weatherbug
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 7:23 pm
by GT
Walmart "price catcher" app - Scan a Walmart receipt. If a local competitor has a lower advertised price,
you get an eGift Card for the difference.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 7:38 pm
by AdamA
JotNot turns your phone into a scanner/fax machine.
FunGolf serves as GPS for most gold courses.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:21 pm
by Mountaineer
For iOS, main ones I use more frequently than the "play with" apps:
Dark Sky and/or SeasonalityGo for weather
RadarScope for weather
Fantastical for calendar
Evernote for multipurpose notes
Day One for journaling
Dropbox (primarily only if you use it on the laptop or desktop)
iBooks and Kindle for books
Tunein Radio for radio and limited podcast ability
Downcast for podcasts
Various airline site apps for travel
Flight+ for tracking air tickets, flight tracker, schedule changes
Walgreens for pretty much all things Walgreens
My Verizon to track cell usage, bills etc. for Verizon wireless
YouTube
Flipboard or Zite or Reeder for a news aggregator
Numbers, Pages and Keynote for office apps
Scanner Pro for scanning
AppAdvice to get tips on best apps
Yelp and OpenTable for restaurants
Navigon for navigation - mainly useful if you go somewhere that does not have cell service
PCalc for calculation if you need more than the basics
Translate by Google
... Mountaineer
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 10:24 pm
by dualstow
Mountaineer wrote:
Tunein Radio for radio and limited podcast ability
I forgot to mention tune-in. Greatest app on both platforms. Dial up a radio station from anyplace that streams. So great.
The Sirius satellite radio app is terrible and full of bugs. Tune-in is free and works!
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 10:16 am
by hoost
Flixster
Lastpass
Soulver (ios)
Mvelopes
SigFig
OurGroceries
Authenticator
OSMAND+ (android offline gps)
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:00 am
by Xan
+1 for OurGroceries. If you have more than one person in the household, it's indispensable.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:06 am
by hoost
Xan wrote:
+1 for OurGroceries. If you have more than one person in the household, it's indispensable.
Yes, the biggest headache is getting your spouse in the habit of checking it while at the grocery store!

It's great too if you use the last of something...just add it to the list right away and it automatically syncs.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:17 am
by Jan Van
Android:
Press - rss feeds
Pocket - save articles for later
LastPass
Authy - Google Authenticater substitute
Twitter
Pocket Casts - podcasts
FlightRadar24 - see what flights are zooming above you
StormFly - Live Weather Wallpaper
Here Maps and Viago - maps apps with offline maps
Financial:
Billguard - check credit card charges
Level - budgetting
Acorns & Betterment - investing
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:22 am
by hoost
Jan Van wrote:
Android:
Press - rss feeds
Pocket - save articles for later
LastPass
Authy - Google Authenticater substitute
Twitter
Pocket Casts - podcasts
FlightRadar24 - see what flights are zooming above you
StormFly - Live Weather Wallpaper
Here Maps and Viago - maps apps with offline maps
Financial:
Billguard - check credit card charges
Level - budgetting
Acorns & Betterment - investing
I have heard good things about HERE maps from some of the folks on the motorcycle forums. Is it out of beta and on the play store now? How big is a typical map file? I have almost 20GB of maps for OSMAND...entire US vector maps, hillshade, and contours, but still have some room on my SD card.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:59 am
by Jan Van
hoost wrote:I have heard good things about HERE maps from some of the folks on the motorcycle forums. Is it out of beta and on the play store now? How big is a typical map file? I have almost 20GB of maps for OSMAND...entire US vector maps, hillshade, and contours, but still have some room on my SD card.
It's still Here Beta, but is now available in the Google Play store. Nice thing is, you can download per state or the whole continent. Biggest state is California at 520.1 Mb. North Carolina is 311 Mb.
More map sizes:
USA: 4,970.8 Mb
Netherlands: 349.7 Mb
Africa: 1,666.5 Mb
Asia: 7,638.6 Mb
Australia/Oceania: 851 Mb
Europe: 9,474.4 Mb
North and Central America: 7,119.6 Mb
South America: 1,819 Mb
I also have Viago with a couple offline maps I had to pay for, and it has some more nice extras like Lane Assist, which is really handy. Unfortunately I have had problems a few times where Viago didn't want to start up when I was out of an internet signal. Kind of defeats the offline maps purpose I'd say. Here maps helped me out one of those times...
Viago: USA without Alaska = 1.6G, USA & Canada = 2G, Western Europe 2.5G, can't download individual states or countries (but sometimes smaller areas, like Benelux & France 734Mb!
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 12:14 pm
by Tortoise
For long driving trips or long commutes, I like Waze. It tracks real-time traffic conditions based on other people using Waze, so its turn-by-turn navigation automatically re-routes you if necessary to avoid sudden traffic jams, accidents, sudden road closures, etc.
If you like craft beer, a fun app I recently started using is Untappd. Even if you don't use it for the silly social aspects (checking in to pubs/restaurants, earning "badges," etc.), it's useful for searching for certain hard-to-find craft beers in your area--or any place you're interested in. You just type in the name of the beer or search for it by brewery, and it'll list all the locations where Untappd users have found that beer.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 12:26 pm
by Mountaineer
One more iOS suggestion that I use several times per day. I really like the seamless integration with TouchID on the iPhone:
1Password
... Mountaineer
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 2:11 pm
by hoost
Jan Van wrote:
hoost wrote:I have heard good things about HERE maps from some of the folks on the motorcycle forums. Is it out of beta and on the play store now? How big is a typical map file? I have almost 20GB of maps for OSMAND...entire US vector maps, hillshade, and contours, but still have some room on my SD card.
It's still Here Beta, but is now available in the Google Play store. Nice thing is, you can download per state or the whole continent. Biggest state is California at 520.1 Mb. North Carolina is 311 Mb.
More map sizes:
USA: 4,970.8 Mb
Netherlands: 349.7 Mb
Africa: 1,666.5 Mb
Asia: 7,638.6 Mb
Australia/Oceania: 851 Mb
Europe: 9,474.4 Mb
North and Central America: 7,119.6 Mb
South America: 1,819 Mb
I also have Viago with a couple offline maps I had to pay for, and it has some more nice extras like Lane Assist, which is really handy. Unfortunately I have had problems a few times where Viago didn't want to start up when I was out of an internet signal. Kind of defeats the offline maps purpose I'd say. Here maps helped me out one of those times...
Viago: USA without Alaska = 1.6G, USA & Canada = 2G, Western Europe 2.5G, can't download individual states or countries (but sometimes smaller areas, like Benelux & France 734Mb!
Those file sizes for Here sound about like the ones I have for OSMAND+. Looks like the vector maps are 7.2GB for the entire US including AK and HI. CA is 570MB. I may download it and give it a whirl. Although, jogging my memory, I don't believe it has the ability to import GPX files...maybe that's why I didn't download it before. I like to preplan my route before I go out so that I can avoid busy roads as much as possible on the bike.
Viago sounds like the file sizes are a bit too small to have all of the roads. Maybe that's why it still needs an internet connection.
Tortoise wrote:
For long driving trips or long commutes, I like Waze. It tracks real-time traffic conditions based on other people using Waze, so its turn-by-turn navigation automatically re-routes you if necessary to avoid sudden traffic jams, accidents, sudden road closures, etc.
I've heard of people using Waze, but didn't realize that was how it worked. Sounds like it's worth a download.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 3:34 pm
by WiseOne
Great list!!!
Here's mine (iOS):
TinyScan (scanner...must be a lot of these programs around, this one is great and syncs easily to dropbox)
Papers - syncs from my research article library on Dropbox but also is a great pdf reader
Pandora (of course)
Kindle
Ally Bank & Mint apps
Feedly (for browsing journals)
Amazon instant video + airplay + Apple TV + Amazon Prime = no need for netflix
Uber
Wazhack - awesome game for subway rides
thinking about YNAB
Will be adding a few more soon!! :-)
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 5:07 am
by frugal
ANDROID:
- Keep for notes
- Calendar
- Vivineo for wine
- Snapseed for photos
- Pixlr potos
- Clean master utility
- Runkeeper for running and bike
- Viber phone
...
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:41 am
by Jan Van
hoost wrote:Tortoise wrote:
For long driving trips or long commutes, I like Waze. It tracks real-time traffic conditions based on other people using Waze, so its turn-by-turn navigation automatically re-routes you if necessary to avoid sudden traffic jams, accidents, sudden road closures, etc.
I've heard of people using Waze, but didn't realize that was how it worked. Sounds like it's worth a download.
Isn't the traffic rerouting also integrated in Google Maps now? I think they use the info from Waze. Same problem as GMaps though, you need an internet connection, else you're out of luck.
Both Here and Viago have a traffic component. Can't say how effective either is though.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 12:14 pm
by hoost
Jan Van wrote:
hoost wrote:Tortoise wrote:
For long driving trips or long commutes, I like Waze. It tracks real-time traffic conditions based on other people using Waze, so its turn-by-turn navigation automatically re-routes you if necessary to avoid sudden traffic jams, accidents, sudden road closures, etc.
I've heard of people using Waze, but didn't realize that was how it worked. Sounds like it's worth a download.
Isn't the traffic rerouting also integrated in Google Maps now? I think they use the info from Waze. Same problem as GMaps though, you need an internet connection, else you're out of luck.
Both Here and Viago have a traffic component. Can't say how effective either is though.
I have had GMaps reroute me before, saying the new route was faster, so you may be right. Although as I understand it, Waze gives you various alerts as to what's ahead, and I haven't seen GMaps do that. I will have to play around with it.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 1:26 pm
by Mountaineer
For what it's worth, the Navigon navigation app has traffic info, red light and camera info, and does not need either cell or internet service for the navigation with turn by turn voice guidance and the lane guidance part to work, just GPS. I have noticed that when driving in the Seattle area, the traffic congestion information and the rerouting options worked well - you can program the app for "fast", "short", or "optimal" (not exactly sure what the optimal setting does). Some of my travels are in the Cascades in WA where there is no cell service. That is why I paid the $$ for Navigon vs. the free apps. It also has a compass, altimeter, etc. that I don't use much and point of interest info (e.g. gas, hotels, restaurants) that I've used some.
... Mountaineer
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:02 pm
by Jan Van
Mountaineer wrote:...Some of my travels are in the Cascades in WA where there is no cell service. That is why I paid the $$ for Navigon...
That's why I bought Viago with a couple of maps, only to have it freeze on me when I was out east somewhere without cell service...

Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 9:54 am
by MachineGhost
Wow, timely topic! I'll have to check this stuff out. The Adnroid app ecosystem is not very impressive, so not holding my breath.
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:17 am
by MachineGhost
Mountaineer wrote:
Navigon for navigation - mainly useful if you go somewhere that does not have cell service
Very impressive, but its $30!
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:42 am
by MachineGhost
Jan Van wrote:
Here Maps and Viago - maps apps with offline maps
What the diff between Viago and Navigon?
Re: Best iPhone Apps (or Android)
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:53 am
by MachineGhost
Jan Van wrote:
Financial:
Billguard - check credit card charges
Level - budgetting
Acorns & Betterment - investing
You and some others seem pretty comfortable having all your financial account accessibility data available on a relatively insecure phone. Why?