Not that long ago, telephones were used for making calls and sending texts, but not for a whole lot more. The functionality of today’s smartphones has miraculously changed all that.
As a practiced
smartphone user myself, I would like to recommend 20 of the most essential apps
I have on my iPhone 5s, ones that in my view justify the price of the phone.
Productivity and
business apps
Calendars 5
Calendars 5
by Readdle organizes your daily schedule and costs $6.99 on AppStore. You might
ask why you need to buy a calendar app if you already have the free,
pre-installed iPhone Calendar app. But Readdle wins with a language-recognition
function. For instance, you can type “Gym training at 6 p.m. every Monday” and
it will automatically place gym training as a weekly recurring event. Calendars
5 also has a convenient task manager function, so that you can prioritize
things on a to-do list and never forget about items on your grocery list.
Facebook Pages Manager
This is a
great, free app for managing your Facebook business pages. Any social media
marketing specialist will find this app to be a lifesaver. You can get
notifications on how many ‘likes’ you get per day. You can review stats on post
views, new followers, ratings, and comments. It is also possible to set
promotion parameters and pay for it through the app.
Google Apps (Gmail, Google Translate, Google
Drive, Google Maps, Google Docs)
Gmail is the best mail manager ever. Even though you
do have a pre-installed Mail app on your phone, Gmail offers synchronization
with other Google family apps. My favorite features are uploading attachments from
email directly to Google Drive and managing multiple Gmail accounts. Gmail is
free on AppStore
Google Translate helps with translations, from a single word to
5,000 characters. It offers the same functionality as the desktop version, but
the app offers easy navigation. The translations are not always accurate, but they’re
fast. Google Translate is also free on AppStore
Google Drive is a perfect way to store documents and access
them anywhere in the world (as long as you remember your Gmail account password).
This makes memory sticks obsolete. 15GB of online cloud storage is offered for free,
and if you need more, you can buy 100GBs of extra storage space for $19.99 per
year.
Google Maps is a free navigation app that gives directions,
by transport and by foot. It also offers travel-time estimations. A fast
Internet connection is required for this app to be its most effective.
Otherwise, you may end up waiting forever only to find out that your
destination is just a couple of blocks away.
Google Docs is helpful if you need to access the documents
on your Google Drive quickly and without going through all of your other files
and folders in Google Drive. Google Docs is free on AppStore
Printer Pro
This app
enables you to connect the phone to a printer and print out any document
without transferring the file to a computer. I usually use Printer Pro to print
out hotel booking confirmations or travel tickets. It saves a lot of time, and
since time is money, the app’s price of $6.99 is probably worth it.
Slack
This is a
useful tool for organizing small events and projects. It enables team
communication: you can create separate conversations on different topics
without placing long discussions in a single thread. There is no guarantee that
some ideas won’t get lost among Slack conversations, but at least event guests
and catering can be discussed separately.
Travel apps
Airbnb
The Airbnb
app provides free and fast access through your phone to private rental
accommodations in more than 34,000 cities worldwide. As a traveller, I have
found this app to be very convenient. It is possible to view photographs of accommodations,
as well calendars to check rental availability.
Skyscanner
If you are
not a fan of business-class flights, Skyscanner is a free app for you to find
and compare the cheapest flight offers among different airlines. This is one of
my favorite apps: I never surf the Internet for flights, but go to this app
instead. After you pick a flight, it links you to a travel agent or airline
website, so you can make a direct purchase.
Trip Advisor
Out of
thousands of apps dedicated to making travelling easier, I think Trip Advisor is
the best in its category. You can browse hotels, restaurants and even flights
through it. I choose to use Skyscanner for finding flights and Trip Advisor for
finding hotels and restaurants. There is feedback about every hotel. If someone
has ever found a cockroach in their hotel bed sheets, then you’re going to know
about it.
XE Currency
This free
currency-converter app is a life-saver for those of us living in Ukraine, where
currency fluctuations are rapid and not for the faint of heart. This app is
also useful when you calculate costs for vacations abroad. It offers historical
charts for many currencies. If you’re so inclined, you can watch how the hryvnia
has devaluated in relation to the U.S. dollar since September 2014. A more
advanced version, XE Currency Pro, goes for $2.29 and offers a wider range of
international currencies and is ad-free.
Food & drink
apps
Settle
Settle is a
free app that saves me time in the mornings. With it, I don’t need to worry
about standing in long lines to get my morning Americano in my favorite café. I
pre-order through Settle and pay through the app linked to my bank card. When I
get to the café, I simply pick up my order and leave in a good mood. It is also
possible to book tables in restaurants with this app, to pick up food and drinks,
and pay for it all.
Social Networking
apps
Skype
Skype for
iPhone enables you to call people on Skype ID, just as you would call on their
regular phone numbers. The only thing you need is a good Internet connection.
There is no need to use headphones if you use Skype on your phone. The app is
free on the AppStore.
Viber
This is another
free app for free calls. No ID is required, just your phone number and fast
Internet. With this app, you can also send photos, videos and messages, and you
can create group conversations.
Music apps
8tracks
8tracks lets
you search for playlists, not just for songs. It saves me when I am tired of
all the music in my music player and I want to discover something new. I type
tag words that describe my mood, anything from “party” to “despair,” and the
apps shows dozens of playlists that are featured by the tag words. 8tracks is
free on AppStore.
Shazam
Have you ever
heard a really cool, but unfamiliar, song in a café? And after you get home you
can’t remember it? Shazam, freely downloadable on AppStore, can save you. When
you open the app and tap on a big blue button in the center of the screen, it
starts to “shazam” the song. Or in plain
language, it identifies the song and names it and its artist. It then offers
you the chance to buy it on iTunes.
Entertainment apps
Looksery
On those
rare occasions when you are completely bored, Looksery lets you shoot a video of
yourself in different appearances. While filming in real time, the apps can
enlarge your eyes, change their color, or transform your face into the head of
a cat, lizard or a creepy beast from a horror movie. For those concerned about their
beauty, it can make your appearance leaner or heavier, tanned or pale. Looksery
is available for free on AppStore and works as video messenger as well, so that
you can send the videos to your friends.
Books apps
Goodreads
Goodreads provides
millions of book recommendations and reviews. If you register on Goodreads
through your Facebook account, it will automatically link you with Facebook
friends already using the app – and this way you can look at what they’re
reading. Unfortunately, the app does not give access to the books themselves,
so you have to look for them on Amazon or elsewhere. But you can compile your
own to-read list through the app, so that next time you are in a bookstore you
don’t get confused.
Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
