This is a list of all the apps and services I use, how I use them and for what. I made this list to give you a glimpse into were used in helping me do my work. This list will be constantly updated as I start using new apps. I hope you find it useful!
Calendar
I use Agenda by Savvy Apps to access my Calendar on my iPhone, Fantastical by Flexibits on the Mac, and I barely use Calendar on the iPad, so the stock Calendar app is where I go on the iPad. For creating events, I mostly use Agenda Mini, but I sometimes use Fantastical for it’s natural language input.
I use Mail.app and I’m happy with it. I didn’t like Dispatch and while Triage is nice, I don’t have a use for it, since I don’t archive messages and I rarely delete them. For my personal Gmail email, I use the official Gmail app.
Weather
I use the Today view weather forecast if I wanna know what today will feel like, and If I need more information Or a forecast for a different day in the near future, I use SOS Weather - Swimsuit or Sweater?, a web app I made based on a script by Dr. Drang.
Calculating Things
I used Calzy as my calculator and Amount for unit conversions and avoided using PCalc because I thought I don’t need all of it’s extra features…. until I actually tried it. It is simply the best calculator out there, It’s Samurai theme looks really good (and is also customizable with different colors!), it has some sweet animations and offers great features like a history tape 1 with gestures to undo and redo actions, unit conversions (with support for custom units), functions and even support for Binary and Hexadecimal numbers, It’s everything I could ask for from a calculator. The link above sends you to the full version of it, but there is a free version you can try here.
Navigating
I use Waze in the car and for walking/public transport either Google Maps or the stock Apple Maps app - depends on the place 2.
Journaling
I use Day One and Ohai for all my journaling needs.
Photo Management
All of my photos are on Dropbox and Picturelife and to edit them I use Instagram, Camera+ by tap tap tap, VSCO Cam, Snapseed, iPhoto, Analog Camera by Realmac Software and the stock Camera app. For it’s Smart Albums feature, I use Photowerks when I want to find a photo quickly.
Browsing the Web
Chrome on the Mac and Safari on iOS is what I use. I think Safari (especially on iOS 7) is the best browser on iOS, but on the Mac, Chrome has a feature I use all the time - Drag and Drop Text. I can drag and drop text on a new tab to search that text in Google and I can move text between tabs by dragging and dropping it. No other browser I know of on any platform has this feature, and it’s why I use Chrome. While I use Safari as my go to browser, when I need to download and upload files on the web I use iCab Mobile and when I need Adobe Flash I use Puffin.
Money
For dealing with money, I have my bank’s app, my credit card company app and the PayPal app.
Languages
For all my translation needs I use iTranslate. When I want to learn a new language - I use Duolingo.
Cooking
For recipes, grocery lists and all other cooking needs look no further than Paprika (iPad Edition), It’s the best.
Social
Messaging
iMessage, WhatsApp, Viber, Tango, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Whisper, hi - text, TextMe and TalkBox are what I use for keeping in touch with friends and family. TextNow is what I use for messaging and calling abroad.
Tweetbot by Tapbots is my Twitter client.
App.net
Felix on the iPad, Felix and Riposte on the iPhone, Whisper for messages, I haven’t decided what to use for storage. Either Orbit or Passport. On the Mac, I use Kiwi and Orbit.
Other
For Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and the rest I just use the official app.
Audio
Podcasts
Instacast is what I use.
Streaming Music
I use both Rdio and Grooveshark. Rdio is great and it has superior social features and stations, it also has an app for Mac and iOS, but there is a feature it’s missing - support for uploading songs not in available on Rdio (or playing songs not available in Rdio alongside my Rdio Collection) - If Rdio accessed a folder of music in my Dropbox and allowed me to play them with songs on my collection. It would be perfect. Grooveshark has this feature, it lets me upload songs to it, a lot of other people I know use it and I like it more but it doesn’t have an app and it’s HTML5 site doesn’t support playing songs consistently so I use Rdio on my iPhone, iPad and Mac, and Grooveshark on the web. When I want to hear all my songs (those that are in Rdio and even the ones that aren’t) I use Dropit in the Dropit app (Coming Soon). If you are looking for an app to use with Dropit until the app is available, I suggest you use Instacast.
Lyrics
For all my lyrics needs, I use the great musiXmatch.
Other Audio Files
Everything else goes into Pod Wrangler.
Video
YouTube
For just watching a video, I use the official YouTube app but if I’m looking for something specific, or something from my playlist, or other more specific usage I use FoxTube.
Other Videos, TV Shows and Movies
All my other video and general media needs are synced across all my devices with Plex. With Plex Channels I also watch shows and movies.
Ideas
Text ideas
All ideas in text form go into Vesper.
Sketches
Sketches for the design of my apps are either drawn with pen and paper and then captured into Ember or drawn with Pen and Paper and then sent to Ember. For annotating my sketches and sharing them I use Skitch.
Inspiration
Articles and Pictures I love are clipped into Evernote.
Reading, Writing and getting things done
Reading
You can find all about my reading habits in my article about Unread, an RSS Reader for iPhone. Before Unread, this is how I read: For Reading, I use Feedly and Feed Wrangler with Reeder, Mr. Reader and ReadKit. Reeder is configured with 3 services - Feedly, Feed Wrangler and a Local RSS Feed. Feed Wrangler is reading for writing, it’s where I read the latest news, get ideas for articles and links and where I read what fellow writers and developers write. Feedly is for leisure, when I’m not writing but wanna read the latest news. It’s a lighter version of my Feed Wrangler account with less subscriptions. I use a Free Feedly account. And lastly, I have a Local feed set up with only 11 subscriptions including some of my favorite websites like MacStories, 512 Pixels, Brett Terpstra, Shawn Blanc, Marco.org, Daring Fireball and more. I use this feed for when I’m short on time, for quick reading. I also occasionally read some Flipboard.
Read Later
My Read Later service of choice is Pocket. It’s just great.
Pinboard
Everything I read and like I send to Pinboard and to manage my Pinboard on iOS I use Pushpin and a variety of Editorial workflows.
Taking Notes
All of my notes, ideas, thoughts or things that don’t yet have a place go into Vesper.
To Dos
My Writing To Dos are saved in a file in Dropbox and I access them in the app I’m writing from. To Dos not related to writing and that don’t have a due time go into Clear by Realmac Software and To Dos that have a due time go into the stock Reminders app. For location based To Dos and reminders I use Checkmark 2.
Writing
I use Editorial on my iPad and Byword and 1Writer on my iPhone. I have detailed how I write in my My Writing Workflow(s) article. A great tool that helps my writing (and also allows me to enjoy my Editorial snippets in Byword) is TextExpander. Another helpful tool is Clean Links, which cleans shortened URLs so I can link to the full link without a redirect. After publishing what I wrote, IFTTT takes care of letting the world know about it.
Documents
For accessing Office documents on my iPhone/iPad I use Apple’s iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) and CloudOn. For scanning files I use Scanner Pro and PDFpen Scan+. Scanner Pro is great because it gets all my scans to Dropbox, Evernote, my FTP server and Sl’s Cloud(my WebDAV server) and Scan+ is especially useful for it’s OCR feature. I can scan documents and then use their text in Editorial or other apps which is really amazing. Scan+ can also import scans from all the sources Scanner Pro uses. To edit PDFs look no further then PDFpen, it’s great and it’s integrated with Scan+ so you can directly edit your scans. For dealing with all sorts of files, downloading and accessing my FTP and WebDAV files in iOS I use Documents - It’s great.
Automation
For automating iOS, getting things done faster, moving files between apps, and improving every aspect of my work I have 3 tools: Drafts by Agile Tortoise for text automation and Launch Center Pro by Contrast and Pythonista by Ole Zorn for all other automation needs.
Password Management
For managing all of my passwords I use 1Password.
Apps
For keeping tabs on what’s been updated on my iPhone and iPad I use AppShopper.