Clattertron

[dc]I[/dc] had the honor of being asked to speak at the Lansing chapter of the Michigan Technology Network (MITN)’s There’s An App For That 2.0 event on Tuesday evening.

The skinny on MITN Lansing, from their website:

The Michigan Technology Network (MITN) is a statewide organization driven to enhance the development of technology professionals through education and networking events with a focus on community involvement.

The purpose of There’s an App For That was for presenters to share some of their favorite smartphone and/or iPad apps. My presentation focused on productivity and creativity, as well as management of WordPress and social media.

A bit of trivia: Of the six presenters, I was the only one who used an Android phone. I quickly became envious of the iPhone’s video-out function, as I had to use a document camera to project my smartphone’s screen.¹

Here’s the list of apps I presented and my reasons for using each. All of these apps are free, but most feature premium upgrades.

 1. Astrid – Task Lists and 21^st Century Honey Do’s

The TL;DR: Astrid is a simple task management app, which took the place of Wunderlist on my phone after an upgrade² made that program practically useless. Tasks are viewable on astrid.com too.

Why I Use the Astrid App: I joked in my introduction about being productive and creative at the same time is like herding cats. I function better with a to-do list. Astrid lets you create multiple lists, which comes in handy for separating tasks. You can also create lists with no due date, allowing me to have a catch-all Open list for random things I need to do eventually.

Astrid also lets users assign tasks to each other. Stephanie and I use this feature, with tasks ranging from ‘buy milk!’ to ‘get addresses for Christmas cards.’ I made a joke here about the days of finding darling, handwritten notes from Stephanie on the fridge are gone, and now I get cold, impersonal emails and alerts.

The Astrid feature I use the most is the screen widgets—my Today task list and my Open task list are always the first thing I see.

2. Evernote – Writing Down Ideas

The TL;DR: The Evernote app lets a user create notes, which is then backed up to evernote.com.

Why I Use the Evernote App: As I told the audience on Tuesday night, “You can’t trust your memory.” Inspiration is like Batman, you never know when it will sneak up and punch you in the face. Ideas come to me at random times, and I don’t always have my trusty notebook to write stuff down—and these days, it is more socially acceptable to type on your phone in front of others than to jot something down in a notebook (in certain situations, mind you).

Plus, notebooks get filled. Evernote doesn’t. I have a note that is a ‘steam of consciousness’ list of ideas, jokes, or thoughts. Write stuff down, throw away gags or random ideas can then be fine tuned later.

3. Hootsuite – Social Media Management

The TL;DR: The Hootsuite app allows you to manage several social media accounts from one spot, just like hootsuite.com.

Why I Use the Hootsuite App: I can post to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, the Clattertron Twitter account, and the Clattertron Facebook Page. I could hit all of them at the same time if I wanted (I don’t, the most I ever do is my Twitter and Facebook at once). Hootsuite’s real value comes in its ability to schedule updates hours or days in advance. Do you have a traffic bump around 9PM everyday? Schedule an update for that time to one of your accounts.

The Hootsuite app also has a handy link shortener, which makes sharing URLs from your phone’s browser more social media friendly (especially on Twitter).

4. WordPress – Manage Your Site on the Go

The TL;DR: The WordPress app grants you access to the backend (stop laughing) of your WordPress site.

Why I Use the WordPress App: Simple—on the go management. Clattertron runs on WordPress, and the app lets me make edits to posts from my phone, such as those extremely rare smelling errors. While I have typed up posts with the app, the user interface for doing so is rather clunky. However, if you just need to fix a spelling error or something minor, it is just fine. You can also change the publish status of a post and edit tags or categories.

I mainly use the WordPress app to manage comments on Clattertron. It is easy to approve comments, reply, or mark a comment as spam.

5. Goodreads – A Portable To-Read List

The TL;DR: Each presenter had one ‘fun’ app, so I picked Goodreads. The Goodreads app syncs to your account on goodreads.com.

Why I Use the Goodreads App: Like I said with Evernote, “Don’t trust your memory.” Say someone recommends a book–I can add it to my To Read list on the Goodreads app. The next time I’m at the library or bookstore, I have the list at my fingertips. I’m an avid reader, and I love suggestions from others—especially books that I may not normally read.

Are there any smartphone apps you love?

–
1 Regarding the Android vs. iPhone debate: I have an Android because iPhones weren’t available through my provider at the time. I might switch over when I get a new phone, but honestly I don’t have a big desire to do so (other than to play more games, maybe).

² This was months ago, so it is possible the bugs are fixed. But, I like Astrid much more–it does things I wish Wunderlist coulda done.

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