10 best smartphone apps

I’ve lost track of how many acquaintances, colleagues and people I know have dumped their shiny new smartphone (or iPad) in front of me and asked: “What apps must I get?”

It’s a difficult question to answer.

Earlier this morning, I posed a similar question of Twitter. The responses were telling. There were a few non-negotiables, but with each batch of answers came apps very specific to that person’s interests or career (and that’s the way it should be!).

I’ve whittled that feedback and my own can’t-live-without apps into a list of ten. It is by no means exhaustive and is highly subjective. It also excludes built-in apps like mail and the browser.

And a further qualification: its been compiled from the perspective of an iPhone user. All of these apps are available for Android devices, and most of them for Windows Phone and BlackBerry, especially BB10.

WhatsApp

The default instant messaging app. Its cross-platform, which means it’s basically BBM (which we were all addicted to not too long ago), but for everyone. The group chatting functionality (up to 30 people) makes it a great productivity tool (of course it helps keep in contact with groups of friends too). Mobile operators hate these over-the-top (‘OTT’) services, as it eats into their high-margin SMS revenue.

Evernote

At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2013 in Davos, I was amazed by how many people used Apple’s built-in Notes app to make notes of sessions and briefings (practically everyone). There are tons of better options, and Evernote is easily the best of these. Your notes are seamlessly synced between your phone, tablet, computer and the web. Notes in Evernote are also location-aware (it remembers where you made them), and you can add pictures and record audio with them. Once you switch, you won’t look back.

Dropbox

Dropbox has become the default cloud storage service. Think of it as your network drive at the office, but accessible everywhere, from any device. Its sharing tools, where you can share specific files or folders with specific people, are increasingly useful as we shift more and more storage to the cloud. Think of Dropbox as iCloud, but done right.

Google Maps

Chances are your default mapping app isn’t as good as Google Maps (unless, of course, you’re on Android which means that is your default). Apple still has some way to go, so too Nokia Maps, and BlackBerry’s offering for its upcoming BB10 platform.

FNB Banking (or Standard Bank or Nedbank if that’s your poison)

It’s crazy to think that two years ago we were doing cellphone banking via pretty complicated (and limited) USSD (*/#) menus. In late 2011, all that changed with the launch of FNB’s app. I use it almost daily, and more often than not it’s an easier, more convenient way of transacting than internet banking (even when I’m in front of my laptop). Standard Bank and Nedbank have mostly caught up, and the jury’s still out on Absa…. But a banking app is simply non-negotiable on your smartphone.

Bloomberg

You’re reading this on South Africa’s top finance site. In terms of business news apps, Bloomberg is the clear market leader. The videos as well as market and share data are unrivalled. If you’re not interested in finance and business, you could probably safely ignore this recommendation.

Kindle/Instapaper

There are two top reading apps, depending on what type of reading you do. Amazon’s Kindle is well-known. The app syncs between devices, and if you’re obsessed with your Kindle, you won’t be able to live without this app. Instapaper, by contrast, lets you save long web pages for later. This app presents a stripped-down, beautifully legible version of whatever you’re reading. It also has offline mode, which is great when you’re travelling. We find so much to read daily; Instapaper makes it simple to collate all of this for easy reading when you have time.

YouTube

This is another no-brainer, and one of the better-designed apps from Google. We’re all consuming more and more video. This app makes it easy to watch things, to share them, and most of all discover stuff to watch.

Flipboard/Pulse

There are a number of these types of social magazine apps. You select your interests, plug in some of your social networks, and it presents a digest of content tailored to you. Think of either of these as being the newspaper for the 21st century. (I’ve suggested both because they offer different experiences, and because I’m still torn between the two!)

TuneIn Radio

“Listen to the world” sums it up nicely. If you listen to a lot of radio (I do), then this app is unbeatable. It has all the local stations and a massive selection of overseas content (especially useful to listen to some of the BBC’s programming).

Beyond these ten are the default social-network apps, like Facebook, Twitter (and other clients), Instagram and LinkedIn. I’m not going to bother including any of these, because their importance depends solely on whether you’re on (and use) any of these social networks.

What are your must-have apps?

*Perhaps even scarier than people asking me to “get them apps” are the many who’ve handed their iPhones to me and wondered why they can’t use iMessage or iCloud, for example. After some poking around, it turns out they’re still on iOS 4 – an operating system that’s more than two years old.

iPhones (and to a limited extent Android devices) need to be updated often… They want to be updated often. Apple releases one major iOS version a year, with multiple smaller updates after that. Keeping up-to-date is critical. With iPhones, do it yourself by plugging your phone into your computer and updating through iTunes (from iOS 5 onwards, you can update wirelessly on WiFi). If you couldn’t be bothered, back-up your phone on your computer (also through iTunes), book a visit to an iStore and they’ll do the update for you.

Hilton Tarrant contributes to ‘Broadband’, a column on Moneyweb covering the ICT sector in South Africa.

Source: Moneyweb – 10 must-have apps for your phone

More smartphone app articles

App rewards children for doing chores

Personal assistant app for busy digital life

22seven iOS app out “soon”