by Mike L and
Ashleigh the Animation Master
As we launch into
the new financial year, this is our look back at ten worthwhile
mobile applications, five for Android and five for the
iPhone.
Android
FlipBoard
FlipBoard is
essentially a news-feed aggregation service. FlipBoard provides you
with neatly organised sets of up to date articles from around the
world, grouped by topic of interest. Makes it easy to access the news
that you are most readily interested in day to day. Like a hundred
electronic newspapers at your finger tips – I have never read
through all of the articles in one day.
There is also the
option to set up “Smart Magazines” based around common topics of
interest, you can invite friends on FlipBoard to follow your Smart
Magazines and enable the sharing of articles (good for members of
clubs, students researching, and others with shared interests), and
if you find that you are short on time and want to come back to an
article there is the option to park it in a Read later collection.
An excellent way to
take the news that matters to you with you on the road –
particularly if you use public transport.
Easy to use, easy to
navigate through. The articles have ads within them, but they are not
overloaded with them.
StackExchange
Many geeks and
tech-heads will be familiar with StackExchange for its technical
queries and how-to answers, but StackExchange covers more than just
the world-technical.
StackExchange is an
aggregation of Q&A (questions and answers), covering many topics
technical and non-technical from all over the world. With a free
account you can post questions, and suggest answers for the queries
of others. You can gain status within the StackExchange community
with members being rewarded for their honest participation, and
points awarded when others vote-up your answers.
PodBean
PodBean is a free to
use podcast application, allowing access to a wide range of podcasts
from the world-over.
Podcasts can be a
great way for the self-driving commuter to get their daily news
spoken to them as they drive, but the range of topics do not stop at
the news-desk. It is possible to access podcasts related to specific
events, learn a language, catch the latest gossip on your favourite
entertainment stars or have a good laugh with some decent comedy.
Simple to use,
PodBean allows you manage the podcasts that you follow, and to
download and manage episodes. Straight forward and easy to use.
Evernote
Evernote is a useful
productivity app for those engaging in research, projects, or just
general scrap-booking of articles and information. Users have the
option of free or paid accounts – the restriction being upon the
amount of data transferred to the account per month, and the number
of devices that connect using the Evernote app (2 per free account).
Other devices can still share the same account but are limited to
using the web interface.
It allows for the
organisation and management of ‘notes’ within notebooks, so that
related notes can be kept together. It also has handy features for
tagging notes with search terms and sharing notes with others.
The strengths of
Evernote include the simplicity of use, and the features. Options for
recording notes include capturing pictures through the camera on your
device, handwriting notes on supported touch screens, typing text
notes, and recording sound captures.
Evernote have also
made it easy for third-party developers to create extension and
plug-in apps that further increase the functionality of Evernote –
such as Evernote Webclipper, a plugin for most browsers that allows
the user to capture part or all of a webpage and copy it into a
notebook in Evernote.
Trello
Trello is a
light-weight task and project management tool. Suited to tracking
many activities including shopping lists, planning for parties, group
assignments for school and agile projects with a kanban-style
approach. Sign up with Facebook or Google is an option. Project
boards can be shared, tasks allocated with due dates set, and
notifications sent as tasks become due.
With the right
practice and discipline Trello is a very handy project management
tool.
Apple
News
Instead of
downloading multiple apps as news sources, you can get news of your
choice all in the one app from multiple worldwide news companies e.g.
CNN or Channel 9. It is easy to use and has a clean layout making it
a breeze to navigate around.
Pages
Apple’s Pages app
has a clean design, making a snap for composing documents from you
iPhone. In the same productivity space as Microsoft Word and Google
Docs, providing the user with on the go word processing. Storage is
via the iCloud and its features can be accessed through the iCloud
account too. Integrates with Numbers and Keynote.
Keynote
Keynote is Apple’s
competitor to Google Slides. It has a clean design making the
compilation of presentations a cinch. Integrates well with Numbers
and Pages as you might expect of part of an office productivity set,
and an office collaboration tool. Works with the Apple pen too.
Numbers
Easy to use
spreadsheet application. The data can be shared easily to Pages or
Keynote, and files are easily accessible across devices via iCloud.
Apple Health
Easy to use health
and fitness tracking app with many features built in, and a large
number of extra features available when paired with compatible apps
and devices.
Apple Health will
help you to track you daily physical activity across various exercise
categories, including the step count. It is also capable of tracking
dietary intake – foods eaten and what their constituent vitamins,
minerals, proteins and carbohydrates are.
