Dec 26, 2012

My Current iPhone Homescreen - Version #1



Phones are an important part of our life in this day and age because they basically store our lives and businesses.  That's why I think it's important to share & find new apps that may improve our productivity, organization or lives.  Every so often I am going to write about new apps that I love or share my current iPhone home screen.  Why am I going to do that?  Because I love apps and download quite a few to test out.  

Above is my current iPhone home screen -- I'm OCD about this screen.  I want to make sure that everything on my home screen I need or use and definitely want it to look organized and neat.  Why do I have only three rows of apps when my iPhone holds 5 rows?  Basically because I want it to look clean and streamlined.  I only want what I use every single day on my home screen and that's what's there.

Sparrow Mail - I never liked the look or feel of iPhone's native mail app so I went searching for a new app.  Sparrow may cost $2.99 but it's an amazing app for mail.  You can add multiple e-mail accounts and it looks clean and is extremely easy to organize your mail.  I'm actually obsessed with this app right now.

Chrome - I'm a loyal Chrome user on my PC & Mac so it's only fair that I use Chrome on my iPhone & iPad as well!  I absolutely love how fast chrome loads versus Safari and love how bookmarks & recently viewed pages stay on the home screen of the app as well.  It's great!

Camera + - I use my phone as a camera multiple times a day, it's one of my favorite things to do with my phone.  Camera + actually takes than the native app and I love the zoom & grid features. 

Google - Anyone who knows me knows that Google is one of my favorite things.  I am constantly Googling random facts or things I need to know about.  Instead of constantly opening Google up in my browser, it's only fair that I have the app for easy access. 

TD Bank - Easy access to my checking and savings account & account balance. 

Week Cal - I just like this app better than the native Calendar app.  I think it has a better interface and easily switches between work, personal and other calendars I may have.  It just has a more clean interface to the app and calendar. 

Pocket - Pocket is one of those apps that I can't live without.  I can easily send websites and blogs directly to Pocket to read later on.  It's similar to Instapaper and was formerly called Read it Later.  This is an app I definitely recommend to everyone.  

Reeder - BEST RSS reader.  I love it!  (I don't love the way my unread count continuously goes up though! LOL I subscribe to too many blogs!)  It's feature heavy and allows you to mark all read/unread, keep favorites and edit your subscriptions right from the app.

AnyList - I have to be honest, I use other "list" apps too but AnyList is one that I can't seem to part with.  I'm not 100% in love with it but I don't hate it either.  I love the fact that the "banner" tells you how many tasks you still have to get done.  It's helpful because the annoying number of undone tasks continuously has me looking at it to see what I can get done to make that number go down or away. lol

Evernote - I just recently fell in love with Evernote but seem to use it quite a bit.  I use it in conjunction with Pocket and Reeder.  If there's something I want to save to use later I will use Evernote to index it so it is easier to pull back up later.  This app is so feature packed and has so many advantages...

SongPop - Love Love Love this game. Enough said. 

Dialvetica - Has definitely replaced my native "phone" app.  Firstly, I don't use my phone too much for actual calls and talking so I don't need to constantly use the "phone/contacts".  However when I do need to make a call Dialvetica knows who I call the most and lists them first with all of their contact information.  This way it is extremely easy and quick for me to pull up one of those contacts to call, e-mail or text.

TweetBot - I used to use the regular Twitter app just until a few days ago.  I'm currently testing this app out because I wanted a change of pace.  I'll probably know within a week or so if this app is a keeper for Twitter...I use it quite a bit so I need something that I actually like!

The other pages have:  

2nd Page:
  • IM+ for cross platform instant messaging.  
  • AT&T Navigator for GPS -- I love this app even though it costs me monthly.
  • Calculator because I'm # challenged.
  • Farenheit since I always want to know the temp and love how it shows it in a flag on the front of the icon.
  • App Store just because I'm such an app addict.
  • Optimum is my cable provider and I love that I can watch TV from the app, manage my DVR and use my phone as a remote via WiFi.
  • Capture as a video recording program.
  • Settings since I use settings quite a bit.
The third page has all of my folders which I name with verbs instead of other titles.  I use titles such as "work", "photograph", "listen", "watch", "shop", "organize", etc...  I feel it makes me more productive for some reason!  I also have a folder for apps that I am currently testing and a folder for the native iPhone apps that I barely ever use. :)  

I love that my phone is organized, it makes me feel like I have at least one thing under control in my life.  

How do you organize your phone? What are some of your favorite apps?