In the continuation of my posts reviewing all my iPhone apps, I’ve called this part “2b”, because the apps here are not part of my 3rd screen, but rather the expanded contents of my “Reference Folder” from my iphone screen 2.
WIKIPEDIA
Awesome, slick app. And it’s great to have on you at all times if you’re like me and often get an on-the-spur-of-the-moment urge to look something up on Wikipedia. Actually I’ve found that for many search terms Wikipedia has replaced Google as my first stop for searching. I’m surprised it’s not happening more.
POCKET OXFORD DICTIONARY AND THESAURUS
An expensive app, but worth it for me. Why the American version you may ask – me being based in South Africa with its colonial British English heritage? No reason really – I seldom use the dictionary for the spelling of words, but rather for the definition of words. I could write a whole post on that – “The dictionary meaning of words” – but will just say here that as an armchair philosopher I often turn to the dictionary to “define my terms”, and its the one area where a google search will not suffice. In fact its the one area where I like to go to a meat-space hard-cover dictionary, as I like my definitions to be authoritative and firm, not fluid and changing as is want on the Neb. But hey, we don’t always have the actual book with us, so this is also a great app.
BOOKMARKS
This is the Delicious iPhone App. I’ve been a delicious power-user for years but have very recently switched to evernote for my bookmarking needs, so havent used this app much of late.
AMAZON
I do all my book research on Amazon, but haven’t used this iPhone app much.
READ IT LATER
What can I say – since using ReaditLater on my desktop I’ve never looked back. Productivity and workflow have improved incredibly. However I haven’t actually read my saved items much on the iPhone – its not an optimal reading device. When I have away-from-computer reading time I rather skim through my RSS feed headlines. When my much wanted iPad finally arrives this will change big time and 90% of Read it Later will probably happen on the Ipad. Instapaper is another option if you’re looking at one of these services – both very good.
DAYTIDES
Living 100 metres from the beach – a tide table is essential. I way prefer beach walks at low tide.
LONELY PLANET CAPE TOWN
I’m a big Lonely Planet fan and purchased this app during my wild app frenzy just after getting the phone. A waste of money (it wasn’t cheap) as I’ve hardly touched it.
SAFE NOTE
Essential! I find I have to keep one or two passwords/numbers in my phone and I like the fact that I can store them in a Password protected file.
GOLD CHARTS
I’m a firm believer in the investment value of gold, and back in January I even fantasized about purchasing a Kruger Rand or 2 to bury in my garden, so purchased this app to keep track of my escalating fortunes. As I said – fantasy.
BBC NEWS
Awesome – a must have. I only check the top headlines when something big is going down in the world and its great to have such a good source (BBC is the BEST news source IMHO) at your fingertips.
IBOOKS
The native Apple iPhone e-reader. As I said I don’t like doing much long-form reading on my tiny screen so this was a bit of a non-starter.
KINDLE
Ditto.
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Stay tooned for scenes from our next episode.