Monday 23 January 2012

I was reading an encyclopedia and I tripped (or "fell over") and hit my head (or "brain helmet")

 heather
If I had known how much having an Android was going to change my life, I would have bought one AGES ago. Actually, that's probably not true because it only became apparent to me in the last year that if I didn't institute some kind of calendar/list/task situation into my world I was going to destroy myself. I actually went to the Verizon store to buy an iPhone, but the customer service guy was like, "Girl, no. You can't get insurance on an iPhone. You want an Android." Which was correct because sometimes it's like I invent ways to thrax my mobile devices. So the Droid X2 is what I bought and I love it and here are the five apps I use the most:

1) Astrid

Pretty much the greatest thing in my life. I use the app and astrid.com in equal measure; the sync is seamless. I use it for task lists, books-to-read lists, movies-to-watch lists. It has made me so much better at not running around in an inconsolable frenzy trying to meet a deadline in ten minutes. It reminds me of things, encourages me to do things, and gently shames me when I've spent three hours playing Zynga poker instead of working. Plus I can share lists and tasks with people if I need them to help (like if I need Amy to pick up groceries) or if I need them to hold me accountable (like if I need Amy to come to my office and stand over me while I write recommendation letters or whatever). My favorite feature is the little pink Astrid guy who sometimes pops up to say stuff like, "Remember how you said you were going to write your Collective post this afternoon? Why don't you do that while I fix you a snack!"

2) InstaFetch

InstaFetch is InstaPaper on Android. It autosyncs with my InstaPaper account, so I can save from my Droid or my laptop. It's super easy to use, super easy to read, and super important to me because if I had to try to remember in my brainspace all the things I want to read later, I would be fuuuucked.

3) GoodReads

I pretty much abandoned writing GoodReads reviews because of being lazy, but I still use it every single day to keep up with what you guys are reading and also to evaluate the worthiness of every book I ever hold in my hand, pre-purchase. (I wish one of you had read "A Discovery of Witches" before me so you could have warned me about how I would want to MURDER the vampire guy.)

4) WikiDroid

The Droid-friendliest Wackopedia app. Remember when Wackopedia was blacked out the other day? I kept a running tally of times I tried to look up shit anyway. 31 times. 31 TIMES.

5) Gmail

Duh.

And now, a moment of silence, for our old friend Google Reader.

*SOB*

6 comments:

eclectic said...

Husband just got a Droid Razr(?) for his birthday. Once he figured out how to turn it on, he loves it! Now I have phone envy. *sigh*

eclectic said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave said...

Why sob? I use GReader every day. In fact, I just used it to read your post!

kat said...

Oh Dave, you have no idea.

SOB.

Kiti said...

I'm going to get Astrid as soon as I can go home and take care of downloading it. I use hardly any apps because I get app fatigue: there are SO MANY thousands and thousands of apps, and I can't deal with researching them and going through my (admittedly lengthy) vetting process to figure out which ones are good and would be good for me. So I just give up and use hardly any.

Jennie said...

I don't know why I never think to use my phone to make lists. There's just something so pleasing about handwriting them. That said, I'm trying Astrid immediately.