This is the first in a two-part series looking at the best apps available on each of the mobile platforms, and more specifically ones that will make a dramatic difference to the way you use your phone. Not every app will specifically meet your needs, but hopefully some will be as useful to you as they have been for me.
iPhone / iPad
Week Calendar (£1.19 / $1/99)
Week Calendar is, in my opinion, the best calendar replacement currently available on iOS. It marries a highly visual interface with some neat tricks that will make your organisation of a busy calendar much easier than before. For example you can simply hold your finger on an appointment and drag it to another day and time and this can immediately be reflected in whatever online calendar service you are synchronising with. It looks like a mini version of iCal, an app I have never really liked using, but brings near perfect touch navigation to the small screen. Throw in list, day, week and month views and you are all set to start enjoying your calendar again without all of the needless fiddling that so many competitors require you to do.
2Do (£3.99 / $6.99)
There are countless ToDo apps available for the iPhone and believe I have tried most of them. I currently have ToDo Map, ToDo and Put Things Off loaded onto my iPhone, but 2Do has proved itself to be the winner for me. The interface is lovely and offers anyone who needs visual organisation the perfect place to get their tasks in order. It is expensive, but it is also universal and the iPad version is arguably better than the iPhone version in its presentation. With countless customisation options, projects, checklists and so much more included it is hard to consider what is missing here. Even the synchronisation is nearly perfect in its implementation.
TomTom (£29.99 – £69.99 country dependant)
When it comes to navigation I always want the best and at this time I would rate TomTom as the best available. You pay a lot for the privilege though and this means that it is not necessarily the best value for money in comparison to others, but the presentation and general navigation capabilities are exceptionally well created. There are some negatives though which I am still trying to resolve; HD Traffic is a paid-for optional extra which on two occasions has completely missed huge traffic jams and left me stranded for hours on end and the IQ Routes sometimes have a mind of their own. I use this app every day to drive to work and every day I am offered a different route even though there is no traffic on any of them (have checked with colleagues at work). This lack of consistency could lead some to distrust the app, but I have to say that for the majority of the time it wins out against the rest.
Kindle (free)
eBooks are big business these days and Amazon is currently king of the hill in this area. I have chosen Kindle as an essential because the books are, on the whole, very competitively priced and the ability to synchronise between multiple devices with ease only adds to the ease of use. The presentation is also excellent and I would argue that it is better than iBooks for flexibility and the overall look and feel. As it stands there is no better eBook service for multiple devices and until the rest open up and start looking past their own devices it will continue to prosper.
PocketMoney (£2.99 / $4.99)
Finance is another area that is well covered on iOS, but to me PocketMoney stands head and shoulders above the rest. Not only does it offer exceptionally quick transaction input thanks to its ability to memorise previous entries, but it also presents all of the information in a clear, yet detailed, form which works perfectly. There is synchronisation, backups, multiple accounts, recurring transactions and detailed reporting which makes the asking price a tiny drop in a vary large ocean of usability. Superb!
BlackBerry
Tether ($49.99)
$50 is a lot to ask for any mobile app, but potentially Tether will be your new best friend should your lifestyle and needs require such a solution. It works best on 3G BlackBerry’s and in my experience can offer a similar result to a Mi-Fi style solution, but one that you will already be carrying with you. The fact that it hides your tethering is a killer feature because your network provider will have no idea that you are using your BlackBerry this way. Clever stuff…
Ascendo Money ($29.99)
The best mobile finance software on the planet on any platform; hugely detailed reporting, extremely quick data entry and a near perfect understanding of how software should look and work on a BlackBerry smartphone. The desktop component tops off what is a wonderful piece of work and one that is well worth the premium asking price.
Aerize Email/SMS Alerts ($4.99)
This simple app can reduce the time you spend dealing with incoming communications by more than half. Instead of having to go to the email app every time a new email arrives, you can simply dismiss or action the email from your home screen. The same applies to texts and it quickly becomes a whole new way of managing your BlackBarry on a day to day basis. It works so well and the developer has cleverly managed to integrate the look perfectly into the general feel of the BlackBerry OS- it is seriously good.
BerryWeather ($9.99)
$10 is a lot of money for a weather app, but with few quality competitors available for BlackBerry and a heavy feature set, BerryWeather just about manages to pull off the price. There are pushed weather alerts, over 72,000 locations covered and an interface which looks somewhat similar to the standard HTC weather app. If you need weather tracking and you need your BlackBerry, you may as well buy the best.
REXconnect ($9.99)
Imagine being able to transfer data between your mobile calendar, email, address book, tasks, memopad, browser and almost every other default app on your phone. Very few platforms can do this, but BlackBerry can thanks to REXconnect and the price is a steal considering the functionality you are getting.
Next time, I will cover five essential apps for Symbian, Android and Windows Phone. Feel free to add your essentials with a comment.
