Apps and Services That I Actually Use! (Part 2)

A while ago I posted a list of apps and services that I regularly use, and I feel help me stay motivated and productive. Here is part two:

Let's get physical! These three apps combined have helped me lose weight, get fitter, as well as feed the need for stats and figures:

• Fitbit - Record your steps, and exercise. I use this together with a Fitbit tracker. You don't necessarily need a dedicated tracker though as your smartphone would work just as well. The app is free though you can pay for more services.

• MyFitnessPal - I track my food intake (calories and other important stats) with this free app as Fitbit only has a U.S. food database. Using this app is easy and fast, especially if you use the barcode scanner. The U.K. food database for this app is huge, and I challenge you to find a food item it doesn't have. Taking the step data from Fitbit you can easily see where you're at in terms of calories consumed and burned.

• Sync Solver - This app isn't free, but if you want your Health app on your iPhone to talk to your Fitbit app you'll need it as Fitbit has yet to enter the Apple Health fold. Sure, you may hardly glance at your health app, but there's something slightly reassuring knowing you can and your health data will be there!

Grammarly - All of us, no matter how good we are, will miss a mistake or two when writing an article, blog or other written endeavour. A double word will slip in here, a spelling mistake there. Even so, most good spell checkers will help you catch these before your masterpiece is given to the world. Grammarly, however, seeks to solve all these problems and more, the clue is in the name. Not only will it help you with your spelling it will also spot any overuse of a word and offer alternative suggestions. It will very cleverly check to see if your sentence is overlong and whether you could have written in a more concise way. These are but a few of its algorithmic suggestions and I guarantee if you use it, you will write more intelligently and clearly. There are apps and browser plug-ins aplenty and so everyone should find some way of fitting this service into your writing life. It is free though there are paid options available.

Over / InstaQuote - You know all those clever looking pictures you see on Instagram and the like with inspiring words overlaid on them? They look like they were made by a pro and well... they look so cool! Most of them, in truth, were probably done on apps like these, especially those of us who don't have design budgets. Download these apps, experiment and you'll be producing this same cool stuff to share on Instagram (and other social media sites) in no time! The apps are free with in-app purchases which are mostly worth the small cost.

Pocket Drive+ - Here's an interesting little app that makes use of any spare megabytes you've got left in your iDevice and turns in into a virtual USB thumb drive, albeit one with a few more bells and whistles. By cleverly making use of the Wi-Fi connection of your device and computer you can transfer files easily and quickly with little to no set-up. You get access to a few megabytes of space to try this app out for free and if you like it you can pay for various levels of access (depending of course what memory you have to spare on your device). You may think you wouldn't use it, I tried it cause it sounded cool and then found I was using much more than I expected. Simple and fast and easy to use, what every productivity app should aspire to be.

Blogsy - I couldn't have put it better than this quote - "If you’re a blogger with an iPad, then I would highly recommend picking up Blogsy. It finally makes your iPad a worthy blogging tool." If you blog and your iPad is your main tool, all your Christmases have come at once. 'Nuff said, just download it and use it!

Daily from Buffer - I've talked about Buffer before and you can find my review on this blog so I won't go into it further here. Buffer created Daily a while ago now as an easy way of giving you content, useful, inspiring and interesting content, for you to post to all your favourite social media sites. Buffer says this is a "Your daily source of inspiration and knowledge, seamlessly added to your Buffer queue." I couldn't agree more, gone are your 'nothing worth sharing' excuses.

I hope these are of interest and that you give them a go. These aren't just apps that sit on my iPad or iPhone gathering virtual dust, but apps that truly turn my iDevices into productivity tools. 

If you have any suggestions for useful apps, please let me know so I can have a play!