Evernote
I know people who now live in Evernote! It is a cloud-based clipping app.
You store all your little snippets of information in notebooks in Evernote. Find a website you like, clip it out and store it in a notebook; have a receipt or bill, scan it (or even better taker a picture of it with your phone) and store it in a notebook. As you clip each snippet of data you can add tags such as "dinner with Steve" or "this is a great wine."
Your notebooks are stored online, and you access them with Evernote on your smartphone, your computer, or any webenabled device.
Imagine you had a great bottle of wine with friends at a restaurant. Take a picture of the wine label and next time you are in the liquor store, call it up.
There are extensions for your web browser, allowing you to clip information directly from the web.
It is a tool that lets you gather and retrieve all those little bits of information that so often get lost. It is always the first app I install.
CardStar
Has your wallet become a massive bump on your behind?
We wish the reason was cash, but truth be told, it is due to all the loyalty cards. If guys think they have it bad, check out your partner's purse!
CardStar is Weight Watchers for your wallet. It lets you easily store, manage and quickly retrieve your reward, club and loyalty cards on your smart phone, where they can be scanned directly from your screen at most merchants.
One minor disappointment is that not all retail scanners easily read all phone screens, but the clerk can still manually enter your information.
HootSuite
A good Vancouver-based company, HootSuite is a social media dashboard. I have become more and more involved in social apps, (Twitter, LinkedIn). HootSuite combines all my social feeds into one area, allowing me to check and update all my feeds in one place. It's a real time saver.
Vlingo
We all can't be lucky enough to have an iPhone 4S replete with Siri. For the rest of us, Vlingo is a very serviceable substitute. Vlingo does not have Siri's terrific "virtual assistant" capabilities, but it does a fine job of voice command. Sending texts or even emails by voice alone, or making phone calls through voice commands are all things Vlingo excels at.
All these apps have two things in common: they are all indispensable as far as I am concerned, and all are free.
Email your questions and comments to Steve Dotto at [email protected]. Visit him online at www.dottotech.com or at www.facebook.com/dottotech.
