ipod touch apps

Posted: November 5th, 2008 | Author: sofia | Filed under: useful | Tags: , , | 3 Comments »

Since i’ve got my ipod touch, i’ve been trying out several applications. Some have sticked, others less. So here’s my current favorite list along with a few comments.

Stanza provides the best reading  experience of all the ereaders i’ve tried (stanza, filemagnet, instapaper, ereader) . A feature suggestion: I really would like the ability to add notes on any page or at least to underline/highlight text. Highlighting would really be nice - it just makes the reading experience much better. Basically the physical action of highlighting makes it easier for me to process the information and remember it later.

A note on page turning: Stanza is the only app where you press the left/right side of the screen to go to the previous/next page which would be fine if everyone else was doing it as well. As it is, I frequently scroll down and then wonder why nothing’s happening. I actually would like for everyone else to use Stanza’s method - it just jumps to the exact spot you were on which is less tiring on the eyes.

Stanza Pros: free; good readability. Cons: Most pdfs i tried to convert were not converted correctly making the app much less usable than i initially thought. Especially images and indexes are really poorly converted. So the search for a decent experience on reading my pdf’s went on which led me to the next app.

FileMagnet - a file manager for the ipod/iphone. Does what it’s supposed to do allowing the ipod work like a thumb drive. Cons: Frequent warnings on low memory when reading large pdfs and much poorer reading experience than stanza. Price:3.99€. Pros: Everything that i can’t read on Stanza, i read here. Useful.

Instapaper - simple app for saving pages and then reading offline. This is probably the app i use the most now along with itunes. Free and paid version. No real cons.

SmartTime - an app i really appreciate. A todo list + calendar: it’s been done a thousand times before but they actually innovated in the ui. Cons: no integration with google calendar, no export/import.

Writing Pad - another innovator. Instead of the default experience we have on small software devices where we click letter after letter to write, we now basically draw a line in between all the letters - this simple difference makes the writing experience a bit less clumky and much faster. I’ve gotten so used to it that i miss it in other apps where i write. A really good idea for writing on small devices (and they’ve filed a patent).

Accountr - a simple app for finance management. Didn’t really like it at first but it’s really quick to register stuff and i keep using it so that’s a good sign. Price: 0.79€

I could also mention others like Evernote but those are the ones i’m using the most now. Suggestions welcome :)