{"id":1455,"date":"2013-05-01T19:03:28","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T00:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/?p=1455"},"modified":"2013-05-01T14:52:51","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T19:52:51","slug":"my-top-paid-app-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/my-top-paid-app-picks\/","title":{"rendered":"My Top Paid App Picks (plus one free app)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continuing with the theme of technology and productivity, it\u2019s time to talk about apps that might be worth paying for.\u00a0 Remember the most important aspect to any technology is what your personal needs are \u2013 how do you use or want to use your tools.\u00a0 Using our technology tools, we all vary in what we need and how we use them.<\/p>\n

The chances are that there are some free apps that could help you avoid spending money.\u00a0 Yet even then there are times when it makes more sense to purchase something that will meet your needs.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said more than once, I tend to be frugal and especially dislike spending money on something that may or may not meet my needs.\u00a0 I have more than 100 apps, yet have spent money on only a few.\u00a0 Apps tend to be significantly less expensive than your traditional computer programs, and I appreciate that.<\/p>\n

So, moving on, these are the apps I purchased and why.<\/p>\n

1. Todo<\/a> ($4.99)<\/p>\n

This is exactly what it sounds like \u2013 a to-do program.\u00a0 In many ways it functions like many of the other to-do programs available.\u00a0 It allows you to create projects and checklists as well as a simple to-do item.\u00a0 You can create multiple categories \u2013 like home, work, personal, etc. as well as repeating tasks, start date, priority, alarms, etc.\u00a0 It also offers you the option of setting tags and contexts \u2013 so you can sort by these and see all your tasks that fall under one of these \u2013 like all your phone calls or those tasks that require your spouse\u2019s help.\u00a0 One of the reasons I like it is that my past do items (yes, I do have past due to-do tasks!) are listed yet aren\u2019t quite as annoying as with some other apps. \u00a0This program is my brain dump for all tasks, it\u2019s where I collect all those tasks that I need to remember and accomplish.<\/p>\n

\"To<\/a>

One image from Todo app (this view from phone, not tablet)<\/p><\/div>\n

2. Pages<\/a> ($9.99)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a word processing app, the equivalent of Word for Mac, and it does allow you to save your files as a Word file (DOC) as well as a PDF.\u00a0 This is certainly an app that is useful only if you want and have a need for doing a fair amount of typing on your iPad.\u00a0 Not everyone adjusts to the keyboard or even needs to do much typing; I have written more than one blog on my iPad using this app.\u00a0 The iPad version is friendlier than the computer version of Pages.\u00a0 It is very straight forward and easy to use \u2013 not much of a learning curve.<\/p>\n

\"Pages\"<\/a>

One image from Pages app<\/p><\/div>\n

3. Notability<\/a> ($1.99 \u201con sale 60% now\u201d)<\/p>\n

A month ago I said I\u2019d only purchased 5 apps, this one was my 6th<\/sup> purchase as I was looking for another program that would allow easier note taking at the NAPO conference.\u00a0 It offers you the option of audio recording while you take notes, linking the place in the audio to your place in the notes.\u00a0\u00a0 You can use the keyboard or writing (finger or stylus) as well as import PDF files to take notes on.\u00a0 You can export all of these out of the app if you want them elsewhere later.\u00a0 Since I\u2019ve only just begun using the app, I can only comment on my usage so far, and I really like it and it\u2019s versatility.<\/p>\n

\"Notability\"<\/a>

One image from Notability app<\/p><\/div>\n

4. iAnnotate<\/a> ($9.99)<\/p>\n

This is an app for taking notes and annotating PDF files (though they\u2019re now offering Word and PowerPoint annotation with a free account).\u00a0 It offers a number of options for how to mark-up the PDF\u2019s and how to export them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found it a little cumbersome for note taking during conference sessions, though some of that depends on the format of what I\u2019m annotating. When there\u2019s not such a time constraint as being in a session, I prefer this app for annotating for it\u2019s cleanliness and versatility in how I save and export it. Recently I had a PDF I needed to scan and get back to someone, I opened it in iAnnotate, signed and dated it, and emailed it back to her \u2013 all within the app.\u00a0 It was wonderful and saved the hassle (and needless paper) of printing it, signing in, scanning it, and attaching and emailing it back to them.<\/p>\n

\"iAnnotate\"<\/a>

One image from iAnnotate app<\/p><\/div>\n

5. Numbers<\/a> ($9.99)<\/p>\n

I use this one the least and primarily for a few business needs \u2013 it\u2019s a spreadsheet app.\u00a0 Like Pages above, it\u2019s the Mac equivalent for Excel, and allows you to open and send files as XLS (Excel) files.\u00a0 It has many features to offer the user the versatility to do what they need with their spreadsheet.\u00a0 This is a good example of an app that some will need, while it would be unnecessary for many people.<\/p>\n

\"Numbers\"<\/a>

One image from Numbers app<\/p><\/div>\n

Last month I said that I\u2019d share the 5 apps I paid for and that 4 of them are indispensable to me.\u00a0 You might notice that there\u2019s only 5 apps listed and one of them is quite new for me.\u00a0 The ones I\u2019ve found to be indispensable are ToDo, Pages, and iAnnotate.\u00a0 There\u2019s an app that I thought I\u2019d paid for, and yet as I look at it now, it\u2019s free!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Penultimate<\/a>.\u00a0 This is a great handwriting app. You can create multiple notebooks and sync them with Evernote \u2013 an apparently new feature that I\u2019ve not used.\u00a0 This year I created a notebook for phone calls \u2013 a place to take notes on both the messages I collect from voicemail and while talking to someone.\u00a0 They\u2019re all in one place and there\u2019s a way to view all the pages within a notebook, so when I need to find my notes on a specific phone call it\u2019s easy to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s also the place I can quickly write something down, even with my finger (though it\u2019s messier than with the stylus) and when I want to \u201cthrow\u201d away the note, there\u2019s an option to clear or delete the page.\u00a0 You can also send a whole notebook or even just a page within a notebook with email.<\/p>\n

\"Penultimate\"<\/a>

One image from Penultimate app<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the things I\u2019m realizing is how this tool \u2013 the iPad with associated apps \u2013 are moving me naturally toward being more paperless.\u00a0 This didn\u2019t happen overnight \u2013 it\u2019s actually taken me years of using it and adapting to using the technology.\u00a0 Yet, with my growing comfort and considering things in different lights I\u2019m realizing how to utilize the various features more fully.<\/p>\n

Some people believe tablets will replace computers before long, there\u2019s nothing I can think of that you can\u2019t do on a tablet.\u00a0 I still find my computer to be quite useful and in some ways easier to use \u2013 though we all know how fast technology changes.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m going to feel like a broken record \u2013 find and use the tools that will assist you in making your life easier.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Free apps are wonderful, though sometimes it\u2019s important to spend your money in wise ways to get the features that will make your life easier \u2013 that\u2019s what all this technology is supposed to be for!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10,8,18,5,20,22,15,4,16],"class_list":["post-1455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-goals","tag-household","tag-paperwork","tag-productivity","tag-resources","tag-routines","tag-to-do-lists"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-nt","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1455"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1467,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}