Mobile Technology Overload Techfast

A lot of information was covered during the Mobile Technology Overload Techfast (video embedded above) by Ted Moskalenko and Scott McNulty. Here’s a handy list of all the recommended phones and apps discussed during the Techfast.

Recommended Phones

iPhone

If you’re in the market for an iPhone, you should get the latest and greatest from Apple: the iPhone 4S. The biggest feature of the 4S, not available on older iPhones, is Siri. Siri is a digital assistant that allows you to dictate messages to your phone, ask questions (“Siri, do I need to take an umbrella today?”) and more.

If you have an older iPhone, or iPad, you can get a ton of new features by upgrading to Apple’s latest mobile operating system: iOS 5. Here are Scott’s top five iOS 5 features:

  1. Notification Center
  2. iMessage
  3. Tabbed browsing
  4. Reminders
  5. WiFi Sync

Finally, check out Apple’s newest free service iCloud. iCloud offers a bunch of services including email, contacts sync, document sync, and more.

Android

One of the greatest things about Android is the staggering variety of available phones. And this choice grows every day as new phones hit the market. Ted thinks the following list, grouped by carrier, is a good place to start at the moment (feel free to contact Ted for his up to the minute recommendations):

Verizon

AT&T

T-mobile

Sprint

Apps

Android has a number of app markets that offer a variety of apps. You aren’t limited to the official Google Android Marketplace, you can download apps from:

Cross platform apps

Both Android and iOS offer a large variety of apps in their respective app stores. There are a number of “cross platform apps” that Scott and Ted like. These apps are available for both platforms, and are free in many cases:

Android apps

Android does offer up some apps you just can’t get on your iPhone (or work much better on an Android device). Here are a few of Ted’s favorites:

  • Google Apps: Google offers a huge variety of apps for Android.
  • Google Voice (Android | iOS): Google Voice takes your telephone number to the next level. While there is an iOS app available, the Android app is far more powerful (and more useful).
  • Beautiful Widgets (Android): Widgets give you access to a variety of information quickly, and Beautiful Widgets do this in an attractive way.
  • Flashlight: Why does your phone’s camera get all the flash’s time? This app will turn your flash into a flashlight.
  • Locale: Your phone knows where you are, and with Locale you can set up different groups of settings that are applied automatically based on your location.
  • NitroDesk TouchDown: Integrate your Exchange account with your Android phone.
  • Tasker: Being able to run a bunch of apps at the same time is awesome, until your battery gets drained. Tasker allows you to selectively stop apps to better conserve power.

iOS Apps:

The App Store is chockfull of apps, but what which ones are worth your time? Here are some of Scott’s favorites:

  • Anything by Apple (iPhone | iPad ): Apple makes great apps, and they know a thing or two about iOS. All of their apps are beautiful, and some of them are even free.
  • Instapaper: This app allows you to create a queue of Internet articles in a central place so you can go back and read them later.
  • Instagram: This fun little app allows you to snap a picture and quickly share it. It includes a number of filters that you can apply quickly to make your photos pop.
  • Omnioutliner: Scott is an outlining fool, and this app (which is a little pricey) is the gold standard for outlining on your iPad.
  • Taskpaper: Another outlining tool, this simple app attempts to replicate the feeling of keeping a list of To Dos with a pad and pencil.
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