It’s that time of the year and everybody, yes everybody is busy making lists of the stuff they liked, loved, hated and abhorred in the past year. When I sat down to jot a list for you all, the thought was make the list different from – 50/100/500 best apps of 2014.
In the list, I have made a conscious effort to include the famous, ubiquitous apps to the minimum and add the lesser known but useful and beautiful apps that I recommend you should definitely check out.
So here we begin.
The unbiased list of 5 most useful apps of 2014
There are some apps, no matter how low your RAM is, you would keep them in your smart phone. Presenting 5 of my picks from those:
1. CamScanner: It is not a new entrant; in fact it was featured under 50 best apps, 2013 by Time magazine. The point that draws attention is; it still draws registrations by thousands per day!
The UI looks great and is easy to use. While the free version of app is good enough for a high quality scanning and saving a PDF of it on your device, the paid version gives you the facility of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) which can extract text under images for future editing.
2. Pushbullet: This is a browser-to-mobile app. This is not just another browser-to-mobile app. The thing that sets Pushbullet apart is – it does what it says! Yeah, while you could find many apps who claim similar stuff but Pushbullet actually does them.
By the hassle free installation of the app, you can see notifications on your computer, reply to most of them there itself. The universal copy-paste and almost a real time collaboration makes Pushbullet a compelling android app and hence make a cut in the list.
3. Smart Phone Lock: An app to save your phone from mischievous kids, nosy friends and compulsive pranksters. The Smart Phone Lock is so smart because it practically changes your lock pin every minute of the day. The way it does this is by setting your lock combination in tandem with the time that your clock shows.
For example, if it is 4:15 pm in the phone’s clock, the passcode would be 1615. There is much more than this to the app and I suggest you have a look at it on the play store.
4. Google Keep: I was a dedicated Evernote user and I loved the app but it became bulky and too many features remained unused for me. I switched to InkPad, NotePad, ClassicNote, Drafts and a flurry of note taking apps, till Google suggested me Keep.
The beauty of Keep is the simplicity and usability of the app. You can save anything and almost everything within seconds and still it won’t eat up half of your devices memory. What’s more beautiful is that your notes get automatically synced across all your devices, including your computer.
I practically use it for making lists, saving thoughts (voice), adding notes to pictures and also as a reminder tool.
The features are not very out of the world; but I can say from personal experience that you’ll fall in love with the app, once you use it.
5. IFTTT: If you have used or known Tasker, IFTTT would not be a very novel concept. What is new about this app is, it lets you create conditions and justifies its name – If This Then That.
You can create ‘recipes’ that unlock entirely new ways for your services and devices to communicate with each other. For example a recipe can be ‘If tagged on Facebook, then Upload pic on Dropbox.’
The possibilities and recipes and endless in number and nature. The community has already created many and you are always free to create new ones for yourself and others to use.
The unbiased list of 5 best designed apps of 2014
Essentially, all great apps on the app store have great designs (barring Facebook, I do not like the design personally, but we’ll talk about it later.) I The following 5 apps have been on my mobile because I often like to look at them, for no reason apparently:
1. Any.do: Don’t get me wrong, Any.do is a great app when it comes to usability but why it features in this list is; I downloaded the app for its utility but have kept it for long, just for the design and delight it offers every time you use it.
For people who don’t know, Any.do is an immensely popular app who helps you make lists of tasks you need to do and also helps to collaborate by adding other people into those tasks.
2. Wire: Wire is a lesser known communication app by immensely known founders of Skype. The Skype co-founder Janus Friis ventured out to make an app which would represent his idea of a present day Skype.
Skype is even today a hugely popular app for communication, but it runs on technologies that are comparatively older – thus Wire.
Wire has not get the response Skype got and still has some bugs that need to be addressed by the developers but still the ‘look and feel’ of the app sweeps you off your feet.
3. Eye In Sky Weather: There are a gazillion of weather apps available on Google Play and most are useful too but I mention Eye in Sky for the beauty of representation. The app includes 14 of the best weather icon sets available, with the ability to add your own icon sets. Four widgets and an expandable notification are available which are highly customizable and also has a DashClock extension.
4. Kayak: The app has more than 1.5 million users on all platforms combined and that is not its USP. While you must have guessed that it must have an awesome design to feature in this list beating the worthy competitors like TripCase, TripIt etc and it certainly does. The simple UI with pleasant orange coloured icons on a white background, makes it feather light on eyes. I like the minimality the design has to offer and the utility the app offers, keeping the minimality intact.
The discover feature on Kayak makes your yearning for Trip Advisor a notch lower and works as good as any trip suggestion mechanism out there.
5. Google Inbox: Google has a way of doing things and Inbox is the latest example. Everything from the launch to the final version has been disruptive for Google Inbox. The app is aimed to be Gmail’s replacement, eventually. As of today, it has already replaced the Gmail app on my phone.
Inbox is the most organised email app out there with a close competitor in Dropbox’s Mailbox.
Google has been a pioneer of simplicity in designing. The Inbox is an epitome of it. Bundling of items, The ‘Done’, ‘to do’ and ‘remind me’ flags, make your sail through the mail deluge a lot easier.
The Biased (My Favourites) List
This list is completely biased and contain my favourite apps; those apps who could not (and consciously did not) make the cut in the above two list. They belong to different categories but are there because they are mostly fun to use.
1. BroApp: If you have a girlfriend, I suggest you to stop reading this post right now, open the play store and download the app. The app is the best virtual bro you could have. It saves your girlfriends number and on pre-decided times, it sends your selected messages to your girlfriend while you party, drink or just plain sleep.
2. Invisible Girlfriend: While BroApp is to keep your girlfriend happy, that is; if you have one, this app gives you a girlfriend if you don’t! The app collects your data and the kind of girl you’d want to date, creates a persona of her and a back story to provide credibility and then you can text your invisible girlfriend whole day and show off to your friends and better; foes.
The app is still in its Beta version and an ‘invite only’ condition but has been already featured on Business Insider, Buzz Feed, Time and Wired among others.
3. PhotoMath: Last week I came across this app through a discussion on Quora and the first reaction was – Why didn’t we have smart phones back then at our school? The app takes a photo of your math problems and solves them for you; step by step!
Though there are many other apps who promise to do the same but PhotoMath delivers almost every time.
4. Foodspotting: Foodspotting is an App which allows people (foodies) to share where to find their favourite foods using photos enabling other people (foodies) to find whatever they’re craving, see what’s good at a particular restaurant and discover new foods wherever they go.
The app is my favourite because I am a foodie. Enough said.
5. Sky Map: Yeah, I am a backyard astronomer. The app is a knockout for anyone with an interest/passing-interest in astronomy or stars. The app uses your phone’s GPS, compass and accelerometer to get accurate stellar information so you can turn the device in any direction or lock in a position and scroll through.
Excites the kid inside you, doesn’t it?
So, this was my list for apps which I will be carrying in my smart phone when I enter 2015. If I have missed some great apps that you use and would like to share with us; I can always edit my post and include it in there.
Wish you a great year ahead!
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