Top Five Apps
Top Five is a show where the hosts categorize, rank, compare, and stratify everything… from cars to gadgets to people and movies. From stuff that is hot, and things that are not nearly as interesting – it’s Top Five.
They occupy our time, they give us the needed information, and they keep us from killing each other! These are our top five apps!
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6 Comments
This is my kind of list (seriously, you guys listed over half of my choices).
5 – Sentinels of the Multiverse – This is a tablet only direct port of my favorite card game ever. While the game gets a bit fiddly at times (lots of “Oh, that damage should have been reduced” or “Shoot, they have a beginning of turn thing that happens”), the app streamlines and remembers all of the little details for you. This allows you to fully immerse yourself in the fun of playing as a team of heroes beating up super villains.
For my next three apps, I’ll be stealing choices from Rodrigo, Matthew, and Zach.
4 – Facebook Messenger – I barely use Facebook anymore. I might post a status every week or so, and I’ll make a sarcastic comment on someone’s status or picture every once and a while, but for the most part I use Facebook messenger. When the fiancee (I’ll get to start writing wife instead on Saturday) and I want to plan things with our best friends, we use Facebook messenger. As Rodrigo said, the seamless crossover from phone to computer and back for the conversation is really convenient, and I have a friend who NEVER checks her phone, but does respond to Facebook messages. All in all, it’s a convenient and simple way to maintain communication.
3 – Atomas – SOOOOO much fun. I get sucked into this game so easily (I actually played for five minutes between writing the first two sentences of this section), and because of the dark color palette, I can play the game as I unwind for bed. They’ve been updating since this episode was filmed, and there is now a timed mode (bleh) and a “Full Alchemist” mode which adds in the entire periodic table (I’ve gotten to Bismuth). The most recent update also added in a new Black + that adds a new dimension to the game.
2 – Reddit Blue – Reddit is a great site to find random content from all over the web, and I probably spend more of my active time on my phone scrolling through this app than I do anything else.
1 – (I’m cheating here) Downcast and Audible – I spend a LOT of time on the road for my job, as I am a homebased social worker that serves clients in three counties, two of which are large and very rural. As such, I have a lot of listening time in my car. As much as I love Major Spoilers (and hence Downcast being on here), even you gentlemen don’t produce enough listening material for my needs. When I’ve finished listening to your offerings of the day (or the couple other podcasts I listen to), I turn to audio books to fill the rest of my driving time.
Im not a big app guy, but the ones i actually use every day are Comixology, even if Im still little salty about no ios purchases and separating EU and US stores. Another one is Hootsuite for Twitter and stuff.
#3 Crunchyroll Manga (also the anime one) – I also read manga and watch anime
#2 Comixology – I read comics
#1 SeriesGuide – A great application to track what episodes of a series you’ve watched, what is out, what series are running episodes tonight
Good lists all around so far. On my trusty Android, my top five are thus:
5. Google Now/Search – all of my appointments, must see TV, articles I may be interested in, sports scores, and updates to websites I frequent show up in my Google Now cards.
4. Google Keep – A full page widget keeps all my quick notes and shopping lists visible on my home screen
3. Waze – With over 2 1/2 hours on the road every day this traffic and directions app saves me time and gasoline every day
2. Google Music All Access – I’ve uploaded my entire library to this service, along with the streaming portion I can listen to pretty much any music I want to at any point throughout the day.
1. PocketCasts – Since I got my new phone a month ago I have accrued 15 days 18 hours of listening time on this handy little app. It removes silence, over 8 hours of it for me, and also has voice amplification for those quieter podcasts.
As for the hosts lists, I will agree with Matthew that quite a few of the apps on my phone are solely there so I can zone out and not go nuts on the people in my life. Between Candy Crush and Soda Crush I’ve got more levels under my belt than I’m comfortable admitting. In the productivity neighborhood Zach mentioned, I actually have been getting into Microsoft’s suite of mobile apps, even the Beta ones. They don’t integrate as well with the phone but I do like that I can go from mobile, to web, to desktop app with pretty much any document in my OneDrive. Like Rodrigo, Facebook Messenger is becoming harder to ignore. Its the only way I can get the attention of my 17 yr old anymore these days. I do like the comixology app that Stephen brought up, but as I have a larger library of DC book I prefer to read them in the DC Comics app. It seems to work better in there.
Fun episode as always, thanks gentlemen.
I am not at big tech person. I just got a smart phone this year.
So I only have three.
3. Notes. It came with the phone and I have dozens of lists. One of them is just a list of movies and comics I need to check out. Usually from stuff you guys recommend.
2. MyFitnessPal. I am slowly getting into shape. This has been a great tool to track my progress and intake. It keeps me straight and motivated.
1. PodCasts. I don’t know if this counts. I never understood podcasts and why people would listen to them. However Geek History Lesson got me into them. I have become addicted.
I enjoyed this episode. Here’s my top five apps:
5 – Dropbox – I take a lot of photos with my phone, and the Camera Upload feature automatically backs them up to a folder in Dropbox. Combined with synched Dropbox folders on all of the computers I use, that gives me immediate access to any photo to manipulate or use in other ways. It’s powerful, but simple and invisible. I like that.
4 – Chromecast – This app doesn’t stand alone, but it allows me to stream content from Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon Video, Yahoo Stream, and even my podcast app directly to my TV through the Chromecast device. This is a wonderful thing!
3 – Instagram – When I take a good photo, I want to share it. I do that with Instagram. That shares it with my increasingly large group of Instagram contacts, but more importantly, sends it to my Facebook and Twitter accounts as well. I don’t do much with the filters, but the ease of posting to multiple places makes this easily my favorite image-related app.
2 – Podcast Addict – When we last changed phone providers, I upgraded to a big shiny HTC phone, but my old LG smartphone was still a useful piece of technology, and I’ve now dedicated it for podcast listening. I use Podcast Addict to curate, download, and listen to podcasts, and a utility called Headset Button Controller that sits in the background allows me to control the player with the button on my headset or car aux cable.
1 – Facebook and FB Messenger – I am a huge Facebook user, and I couldn’t get along without this basic connection to all of my friends and family.
Also-rans: TeamSpeak (VOIP for gamers, used for playing Pathfinder with friends), Timehop (Tells me what happened on social media 1, 2, 3, or more years ago on this date. Love it!), Literotica (*blush*), and the Rodrigo-recommended Atomas and Bears Vs Art. :-)