Comments on: iPhone apps help reduce clutter and improve productivity

By: Becca

Becca — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:06:51 +0000

I use GroceryIQ on my iPod touch, which helps me come up with my shopping list for the grocery store, and helps me remember what I usually buy. It organizes things by aisle and allows me to check things off as I find them, as well as to take notes on individual items and mark quantities. It’s awesome, and I believe it’s free!

By: Michael G

Michael G — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:32:18 +0000

I am a big desktop OmniFocus fan for my To Do stuff. I am liking the iPhone version now that it is syncing smoothly. It was a bit of a rough start out of the gate. I’m am hoping for Omni to come up with a version of Omni Outliner for the iPhone that synchs with the desktop. I’ve tried out all the web based apps, and I think they are headed in the right direction, but none of them worked smoothly and predictably. There are other things I’d like to have notes on than To Do stuff, that I’d like to be able to synch so I’m still waiting on that.

I still think that the voice recording apps could use improvement too. I like the idea of Jott, but for some reason around here it often takes forever for the notes to be transcribed. If it did that quickly in a consistent way, I would love it. Incidently OmniFocus also has a voice recording feature where you can leave a note on a next action. Helpful, but I still dream of a nice synching voice notes program. I do love the feature on Jott where touching the screen ANYWHERE starts or stops recording. Now that makes sense for the car, which is the only place I need voice notes.

Love the iPhone though. Wouldn’t want to go back.

By: Matthias

Matthias — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:50:10 +0000

A major drawback of Evernote is that it does not allow do edit notes. The Goole app seams to be a great app. But for an unknown reason it is not availble in the German store.

In my opinion, the need of tools like OmniFocus is depending on your job and the resulting complexity of your projects. For project managers simple note could not be enough.

By: Albert

Albert — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:46:03 +0000

The photos option for membership cards sounded familiar. I posted about it a while ago (http://www.tisgoud.nl/blog/200.....Phone.aspx).

Instead of using a camera I used a scanner to produce the images.

Great use of Evernote BTW.

By: Erin Doland

Erin Doland — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:30:35 +0000

@Brandon — To be a little more technically correct, it’s not an app. It’s a webpage with an icon on my home page of my phone. The page link is here: http://www.google.com/reader/i

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:37:03 +0000

You mentioned that you used a separate Google Reader app on your iPhone.. I wasn’t aware that there was one? Could you please share what app it is you are referring to? Thanks!

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:07:28 +0000

I “sync” Notes by emailing them to my Gmail account. My Gmail account has filters to handle the sent Notes.

By: dap

dap — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:26:18 +0000

Why note stick with your Google app’s and try Google Notebook? http://www.google.com/notebook/m you can follow this link to learn about its use with a GTD approach too:
http://lifehacker.com/software.....256844.php

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:19:53 +0000

Another vote for Zenbe. The ability to sync via wireless is very nice!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:42:51 +0000

I love Jott, too, but I find the iPhone app nearly useless, since it doesn’t allow you to send email reminders of the transcribed text — instead, you have to go to their website (or the app on the iPhone) to see the note you sent.

I think this is a big oversight on the part of Jott, and I hope they’ll fix it — until they do, I’ll just keep Jott’s phone number in my Favorites list, and the iPhone app won’t take up valuable screen real estate.

By: Erin Doland

Erin Doland — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:24:59 +0000

I hadn’t heard about Zenbe until today. I’ll give it a try.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:05:58 +0000

I agree about Zenbe over Notes. The biggest problem I have with Notes is that I can’t write them up quickly on the computer, I have to type them in on the virtual keyboard, which is very slow by comparison. I type up my lists at lists.zenbe.com, then sync them to my phone. Significant time saver for me.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:42:05 +0000

“Why can’t he figure out how to vacuum properly?!”

First, I want to say that I love your web site. Until today, I never really kept up with it, which has got to be why my life is in complete shambles! Doi? Anyway, after re-discovering your site again for the umpteenth (stupid word) time, I read the line that I quoted above and oh how it made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

By: J

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:12:42 +0000

a lot of people talk about this barcode stuff with these cards for the supermarket and what not. get rid of all that crap and just use your phone number in the store – works for me every time, i never forget the number, and i’m not wasting time taking pictures of cards or showing people my phone.

either tell the clerk your number or key it into the atm reader.

By: Nimic

Nimic — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:04:27 +0000

Now all I have to do is be able to BUY an iPhone 3G . I refuse to wait in line for one 5 hours. Anyone got any tricks up their sleeve to avoid the human clutter at the Apple store or the lack of stock at the AT&T store?

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:17:27 +0000

There is a $40 utility I think the users of this site would appreciate called The Missing Sync. It allows for Notes to sync with your Mac or PC, can back up SMS messages so you don’t have to have them on your phone if you want to save them, and for the business person, can back up your call log. it sounds like users want to be able to back up this kind of data so I thought I would throw it out there. The same software is available now for Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and an array of PDA’s. I don’t work for Mark Space, I am just a faithful user.

By: Ric Wilson

Ric Wilson — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:21:30 +0000

If you haven’t checked out TaDa before, I’d highly recommend it. I keep all kinds of lists there for myself and for my family. You set up your free account at http://www.tadalists.com, and then you have a password protected website with all your lists. This means no syncing required and changes appear instantly for everyone.

One of the best uses is for family shopping lists – we have ones for the Grocery Store, Pharmacy, Hardware, etc. Then, when you need something, don’t tell me about it, put it on the appropriate list from your computer, iPhone, Blackberry, whatever. Then when one of us goes to the store, even if someone adds to the list 30 seconds before I walk in, when I open the list everything is there. And like Zenbe, when you check things off, they don’t go away so you can reuse items (like milk, eggs or shampoo).

My 2¢, ric

By: Puhsitch

Puhsitch — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:24:07 +0000

Doesn’t the Google Mobile application, in terms of Google apps, just bring you to the web interface via Safari? The only thing I’ve seen the application do on its own is just general smart-searching. My webclip to Google brings me right to what I need (Google Reader, specifically) without all the extra steps!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:52:24 +0000

Try eWallet for keeping copies of cards in a secure format. For ones that are less security concerned (grocery store/club cards) try scanning the card front and back rather than taking digital photos – much more accurate and standardized way to deal with the images.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:17:31 +0000

Hee hee! I had never noticed the guy at the bottom of the page, glad you pointed that out. He’s adorable! And I’ve always loved the “suck-face guy”!