At its recent annual iPad event, Apple’s Tim Cook announced that there are more than 1 million applications in the Apple App Store. Starting with just 800 offerings in July 2008, these applications can now help you find your iPhone, help you find bargains on travel and even nearby gasoline, and help you determine what the weather will be like for your softball game on Saturday.
Top 50 Apps
To help you sort through the multitude of these offerings, Time magazine recently ran an article entitled the “50 Best iPhone Apps.” As I was scrolling through the list, I found a free recreational app that jumped out at me: MapMyRun.
I have bought clumsy pedometers in the past as I have logged over 35,000 miles in my running shoes that never seemed to work right and simply ended up being returned to the store. But after installing the MapMyRun app with a few taps on the screen of my phone, I was literally off and running! As I run, my iPhone announces mileage and times. The app also tracks the route covered and calories burned. MapMyRun even stores this information and allows me to share it with friends.
From a professional standpoint, you may want to consider another handy application that cracked the Top 50 called Springpad.
“Few people actually love organizing their calendars and projects,” says technology writer Alan Henry. “Except for the new Springpad, that is! Unlike most tools of its ilk, Springpad thinks for you, working like a professional assistant to cut down on the time you spend on the less enjoyable aspects of organizing information – meaning you’ll spend less time organizing things and more time doing them.”
How Springpad Works
After you install the Springpad app on your Android or iPhone and sign up for an account, Springpad will provide you with organizational tools known as notebooks. In each notebook you can store notes, articles, tasks, or even a product barcode. You can keep a to-do list, manage home and work projects, or even organize your recipes. Each notebook can contain any information that you might want to reference later. Of course, you could always bookmark information on your desktop or laptop, but Springpad can spring you on to an entirely different adventure.
Springpad: Your Personal Assistant
Let’s assume there is a new product you are thinking of buying. After you add the item (“spring it”) to your Springpad account, Springpad’s intelligence will take over for you.
“It’ll add links to buy the product at Amazon, check the prices elsewhere, and even look up reviews and other information on the product so you can make an educated decision, all without you spending time looking it up yourself,” says Henry. “If you decide to sleep on it, Springpad will even send you an alert if the price on your item drops . . . The same thing applies for music, movies, and books – Springpad automatically organizes them for you and pulls in relevant information so you don’t have to.”
As your new personal assistant, Springpad will save you time, so that you can spend more of your time . . . running!
