I react to the Apple App Store in much the same way that I react to bookstores and breakfast buffets – the world around me fades out as I focus on the number and variety of the options before me, mind scrambling as I try to decide what to try first.
(Taking a moment here to imagine a breakfast buffet at a book store. Oh, if only there were such a thing.)
Ok, I’m back. And hungry.
Anyway, I love me some apps. I love using apps and reading about apps and getting recommendations for apps…and now I’m going to recommend a few to you! I hope you find these helpful!
Spiritual
Tecarta Bible (iPhone) – This app actually works on the iPad, too, but I use it on my iPhone at church. That’s right, I don’t carry a Bible to church anymore. And not because I’m so techie – after the second baby, it just made good sense to look for redundancies so that we didn’t look like pack animals as we carted babies and diapers into the church nursery. I don’t always get a signal in church, so I like that I can download different translations right to my phone (for a price). And I’m one of those that likes to look at verses in several different translations, so I like that doing that is so easy to do with this app.
Olive Tree (iPad) – This app works on the iPhone, too, but I use it on my iPad for more serious Bible study. You can purchase different translations and Bible study aids to fit your needs.
Lamplight (iPhone/iPad) – Shameless plug alert – I wrote this app. But I think it’s super helpful! It’s a way to save and categorize Bible verses for prayer, memorization, and study. You can sync up your verses with your Dropbox account so that you have access on both your iPhone and iPad.
Games
Candy Crush (iPhone/iPad) – My name is Leslie, and I’m a Candy Crush addict. I go through periods when I’m obsessed with different games, but I’ve been into Candy Crush for a while now. I try to manage my Candy Crush crazy by not purchasing extra lives or anything like that.
Doors & Rooms (iPhone/iPad) – This game is all about trying to get out of different rooms by observing your surroundings and solving puzzles. Very interesting. My 4-year-old LOVES this game so much (although he thinks the game is called Open Doors – cute). I’m surprised at how much he can do by himself, although a lot is way above his level. And I love that I can remind him of this game to get him to work on his letters and numbers.
Health
My Fitness Pal (iPhone/iPad) – One day I shall lose the baby weight. One day. I’m using this app to keep me accountable. I like that you can scan the bar code of a food package to pull nutritional info into the app. Easy peasy.
Get Running (iPhone) – This is a nice little Couch to 5K program. The toughest thing about it is finding time away from my kids to actually use it.
Utilities
Grocery Gadget (iPhone/iPad) – This app has changed my life. You create an account online that keeps your phone and iPad synced up. When I realize that I need something from the store, I grab whatever device is closest to me and add it. But the best thing about it is that my husband can sync up to the same account, which makes it super easy for him to do the shopping. You can even add a picture to each item to make sure that he gets the right thing. Awesome.
Call Sweetheart (iPhone) – This is basically speed dial for your sweetheart. Isn’t it cute? I keep it on my home screen to make calling my man quick and easy.
Find My Friends (iPhone/iPad) – I love this one so much. My husband and I have added each other so that we always know where the other is. So if he’s on his way home but caught in traffic, I can look and see how far away he is. You can also add other people temporarily. I’ve used that feature when driving to Dallas to visit my little sis so that she would have an idea of when I’d get there without having to call me.
Kindle (iPhone/iPad) – I may have mentioned that I love to read. I didn’t think that I would ever get over paper books, but the e-book world has won me over with its ease of use and syncing with multiple devices and resizing of text for tired eyes.
Toddler/Preschool
Preschool is starting again for Michael next month, so I thought maybe we should start paying attention to things like reading and math preparedness. I tried a few different ways to get him interested in practicing his letters and numbers, but the only thing that has worked have been educational apps. What can I say, he’s a geek in training. Comes by it honest. His daddy is a music geek, so we’re making sure to throw some of that in there, too.
Letter School (iPad) – The best app I’ve seen so far for teaching letters and numbers to toddlers. Michael loves it, and even I want to use it.
Adagio Kids (iPhone/iPad) – This is a cute way to prepare toddlers/preschoolers for reading music.
Music Learning Lab (iPhone/iPad) – I’ve been really impressed by this app. It’s a little advanced for Michael right now (he just turned 4), but I can see that we’ll use it a lot in the future.
Tozzle HD (iPad) – Cruz (22-months-old) absolutely loves this app, which is basically puzzles and shape recognition. He can navigate around the app without any help from me, which is a bonus when I need to keep him busy for a few minutes. (There’s also an iPhone version of this app.)
Linking up with Kelly’s Korner.
4 thoughts on “My 15 Favorite Apps (Right Now)”
I can definitely relate when you talk about Apps. I am quite a tech
geek too. I have used many of the apps above and really like them
(MyFitnessPAl gets the most use). I have over 100 apps on my phone, but
these are my faves I use regularly: Feedly (to replace Google REader),
used to use GroceryIQ (like yours above but easier to type in–only I
find a pen and paper easier still most of the time now because I like to
draw symbols etc…next to my list), Mercury for web browsing most of
the time (still not sure how to make it the default) because I like the
tabs and ability to open mimicing many different platforms, weathercube,
blogger to create blogs on iphone, voice memos, coupon keeper 2
(ironically the only app I paid for) to keep track of coupon expiration
etc.., pocket to store pages offline (easier to interface for me than
evernote). Still playing with different apps to manage reminders to
self and appointments I want to add to the calendar. Suggestions? Dont
really like any of the ones I have tried.
It’s been a toss-up for me between Feedly and Bloglovin’, which is why I didn’t mention either one. I really like the Feedly interface, but it seems that organizing my feeds was just too hard. Bloglovin’ has been touted by many bloggers and has nice buttons that you can add to your sidebar, but it has crashed on me many times. So I’m still not loving either one.
I’ve tried some different browsers, but I don’t think I’ve tried Mercury. Safari is working for me right now because I use the Cloud button a lot to see tabs I have open on different devices.
I’ve tried a few different apps to organize myself, like Home Routines, Clear, Awesome Note, and plain ol’ Google Calendar. But nothing completely did the job for me. So I jumped on the Erin Condren bandwagon and got one of the planners as a birthday gift to myself. I’ve gotta say I love it. I also ordered some of the extras, like the bookmark and extra notepads to stick in the back.And I chose the picture collages for the front and back covers, so it makes me happy to look at it since it’s covered with pictures of my family. I need to write a blog post about it.
I understand…still not fond of some aspects of feedly. (I just miss google reader) I dont like the lack of search (which is coming but not in free version). I have tagged many posts but cannot delete tags afterward if change categories. And the iphone app does not show tagged categories. Arghhh…. It is improving but not there yet. May check out bloglovin.
Use Mozilla at home– have not tried safari with cloud button. Will have to check that out.
Most of the time I need an audible reminder about something so still like the idea of iphone, but would like to have it easier to make a quick note (or even verbal note) and then pin to a reminder time with repeat. Often set Google calendar but just not easy and other reminder apps just did not cut it completely either. I need something between a notes app and calendar/timer app.
You may want to check out the app Awesome Note. You can create a folder with a note type of “To Do”, then do a quick edit to add a note with a reminder time. There are some optional settings for the alarm, too.