Your mobile phone is more versatile than a Russian gymnast with a muscle spasm.
It’s a clock, a computer, a web browser, a compass, a GPS, a filing system, a voice recorder, a camera. Oh, and a phone. And a very sexy paperweight if you happen to have dropped it on the tiles.
This is mostly because smartphones use apps (short for applications and I’m not even sure if I need to explain that anymore) to perform awesome tasks. But for every app that changes your way of life, there’s another app that is basically a light sabre that can also make fart noises.
Not cool. There are actually more than 100,000 mobile phone apps out there but only some of them are genuine-100-per-cent-joy-ticklers. There’s a term you’ll want to forget quickly. So here’s the best way, check out our pick of the apps that will change your life:
Spotify launched in Australia today, people. And despite a few slow starts with getting the app to show up, it's well worth your time as a music lover. You can stream music anytime, anywhere - with offline playlists - and search by songs, artists or just genres if you want to discover something new. Subscribe to your friend's playlists and more. This has been a huge hit overseas but hasn't been available in Australia until now. Woohoo!
Comments
119 Comments so far
Pat,You are right
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Standing by what you said is a very good thing in blogosphere. But it is important that you support your logics with good, sensible reasoning
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Forgive my ignorance, but these apps that are mentioned (above), are they for Android phones or Iphones?
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Dropbox has completely changed the way I work. You save stuff to your dropbox folder or app and then it’s available and synchronised on every device – smartphone, work PC, home PC, tablet etc.
Another recent discovery is tripit. You just forward your confirming emails to tripit and instantly you have a comprehensive itinerary, again on all your devices. You send in hotel bookings, flight confirmations, hire car bookings etc and magically it extracts all the details, puts it in order and makes it look pretty – no work required. Fabulous!
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If you have an Android phone, get Juice Defender, and you’ll have no more battery worries……My Samsung was on all day, and it only went down to 77 % and was used a lot !
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Instead of Instapaper, I use Pocket. For starters, Pocket (formerly known as Read It Later) is free. Plus it is gorgeous to use and the functionality is slicker and more obvious in use.
Cinemagram – can’t find it in the iOS app store? Is it Android only?
Shop Ethical is only good if you read why they’ve made the decision. For example, not supporting communist Cuba is a reason for Bacardi Rum having a negative ethical review. Seriously.
I much prefer Naturespace to Whitenoise.
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Oh and Zite!
You put in interests and it comes back with suggested articles. You can thumbs up or thumbs down and pick additional keywords and it gets better and better at finding you, for example, camping articles, or Apple news or gadgets or food or whatever.
I love love love Zite.
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PLEASE can you post a list of the apps. The gallery doesn’t work for me so I can’t see them all
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I always thought site’s galleries don’t work on any browser but recently I used a prehistoric version of Explorer and it worked fine. So that’s the secret – downgrade.
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There are a number of Couch to 5K apps out there. Which one is recommended?
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Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I love FoodSwitch. You scan a barcode of a food item and it will rate it for fat, sugar etc and suggest other similar products that are healthier.
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Awesome post and awesome comments! Thanks : )
For the iPhone:
Rain is a radar to see where the rain is (and bringing your washing in accordingly!)
Charley Bear is great for the kids
Flashlight is awesome when you are in darkness and need some light
And as others have recommended, totally love period tracker, and draw something.
I’m pretty sure they’re all free.
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I’m another Android user who would like a more Android-focussed post.
I <3 Kindle app – the app was what sold me on a Kindle and not vice versa.
TV & Movie Times, ebroadcast – set your location, tv channels, favourite cinema, and it shows you what's on tonight.
What'sApp – get your SMSes onto your data allowance instead of your phone bill.
QuickNote – a simple, bare-minimum notes app. Make sticky notes on your home screen (I use mine for shopping lists).
I tried PeriodTracker but deleted it. On the pill it's unnecessary as your packet tells you where you're up to.
AmI the only person who's sick of Instagram? I'm tired of my Facebook being fullof fuzzy, sepia-tinted pics; I want to look at photos that are clear and focussed.
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I love This American Life.
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Oh god I dont even have a smart phone yet…
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Thank you mamamia-ians all your suggestions are awesome. Been downloading like crazy for the past ….. oh my god is it that late already xx
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What to expect baby. A good app for keeping track of a newborns feeds, sleeps and nappies in the first few hazy weeks of parenthood.
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It was recommended last time MM ran this post; naturespace!!
I use it as white noise when I can’t sleep and it works a treat.
I use feedler for my RSS feed, but am sure there are better ones out there, any suggestions?
I use GoCatch or Swan Taxis (Perth) to book taxis
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I don’t tend to keep apps around unless I use them a lot, but I do have a few I couldnt live without!
Task Pro – keeps track of all those pesky tasks on my to-do lists, plus lets me sort by priority, date due, or set my own tags. First app I’ve found thats actually able to keep my complicated set of to-dos organised!
Week Cal – definitely prefer it to the original iphone calendar. Much more useable!
TurboScan – turns your phone camera into an instant scanner that can save as pdf and then email your files to anyone you like. Genius!
Non-organisational faves:
TED Talks – brilliant people talking about amazing topics, downloaded straight onto my phone
Planets – gorgeous free astronomy app. I love the 3D model of the constellations best, but the spinnable planet models are a close second.
TripTracker – use this a lot when I travel. Keeps track of your travels, and gives up-to-date information for your flights – gates, weather, delays, etc. Very useful!
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Can someone explain to me whether you can use Instagram just for its awesome photo-taking abilities, and not publish these for all to see?
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You can publish them to your locked Instagram profile and never share them on social media. Then you can have the pics filtered for whatever you want them to be used for!
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Delightful! Thank you Rick
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I haven’t been able to look through the galleries for the past two days and I have no idea why? The first picture comes up as do the thumbnails, but I can’t click through them, or autoplay or choose a different thumbnail. HELP!!!
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Don’t worry I haven’t been able to look at them for the last year! I assume mine’s a software issue though (at work) and nothing to do with this site. And looking through the galleries on an iphone is awful – non e of the captions match the pictures and the back and forward buttons don’t work properly. I gave up ages ago!
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Red Stamp is a beautiful stationary app for sending cards and messages. Only downloaded Shazam recently and it makes me so happy every time I use it. Fireman Sam app makes nappy changes bearable and use Tinybeans for making a journal of my kids’ photos and sharing them with my family. The last one is mine, but I still love it
x
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Daily check-ins – Instagram, Facebook, Echofon (for Twitter), Pinterest.
Flipboard consolidates your feeds to these types of things and you can subscribe to other news or blogs etc. I have just downloaded it after my dad raved about it for his iPad.
For travel, CityMaps2Go is our saviour, it’s offline maps have saved us data roaming charges when we leave Hungary and head to other countries. It’s not fail-safe but pretty reliable 95% of the time.
Skyscanner is awesome for checking out flights.
WhatsApp for messaging friends and family without text charges.
Agoda for booking hotels.
TripIt for organising your travel.
Blogpress for smooth blogging onto multiple platforms (I have WordPress & Tumblr so it can send the same post to both or either. Very easy posting.)
Postale, for sending digital postcards to my parents
Photography apps I love – Plastic Bullet Camera, Infinicam, CameraBag, PicFrame and PS Express.
EnglishHungarian Dictionary, for obvious reasons, and iTranslate – helpful at the supermarket when you can’t read labels!
Not much of a gamer but occasionally get stuck on DrawSomething, or Bejeweled.
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Love My Fitness Pal – makes you accountable and i lost 5 kgs when I followed it – especially love it that it has a scanner now and you can scan barcodes in the supermarket
Days left – to count down to holidays etc etc
Realestate.com app lets me check out all the real estate I will never be able to afford
Trip Advisor – love checking out the hotels etc before we go and see real photos/reviews by other travellers
TV & Movie Guide – will show you whats on the telly wherever you are (have only used it in Oz so dont know if it works OS)
Logo quiz – love love love it!!!!!!!!
For game time when I can tear myself away from Angry birds (original, seasons, rio) I play W.E.L.D.E.R, Airport Mania, Unblock Me, Fruit Ninja, Line Up, Romi (like Rummy), Frog Checkers
Business Apps that are cool – Australia Post, WorldCard (takes photos of business cards and stores the info into your contacts)
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I was an iPhone holdout but now am a total convert. I agree with a few if these – especially Instapaper, LOVE it – but there are a few more …
Reeder – for my RSS feed
Evernote – this is my note taking app of choice
TripIt – will consolidate all your confirmation e-mails into a neat itinerary
Snarl traffic – check WHY you are going nowhere, or if you are organized plan your route
Etsy and Amazon – pretty self-explanatory
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PS can you get the period tracker on the ipad?
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Yep iperiod on the iPad is awesome.
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More importantly, can you get it on the iTampon?
I know! I AM hilarious!
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That is brilliant!
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my fav app is the Net-a-porter Magazine on my ipad!!! love it! along with Plants vs Zombies – great for when you are travelling and need to kill some time
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i have to say….. i’m absolutely crazy about zombies, run! it’s an immersive story thing, in a post-apocolyptic zombie infested world. it tells a story as you walk or run, and you “collect” stuff to distribute in a very, very simple game when you get back home. you can go at any speed, and at a certain speed you can have the option set to give you zombie chases.
it’s fantastic. it’s like dr who meets blakes seven…. the story is fascinating and the actors are all english and it rocks.
in between it plays your own music and at the end of your mission.. .it goes to radio mode.
i didn’t think anything in the world would make me WANT to leave the house and go excercising in the dark, cold night. but damn, i want to run away from zombies! it’s a bit expensive, but i hate gyms so it’s cheaper than one visit to the gym. i think it was almost 8 dollars. it was started with kickstarter money so it’s very, very new. and the creators are nerds who acctually respond to email questions. it’s the best thing ever.
i’ll add a link for anyone that’s interested. if mia et al want to delete it feel free to. don’t want to be spammy mcspammerer.
https://www.zombiesrungame.com/
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Whatsapp – awesome for free texting home & o/s
RunKeeper – GPS tracks the distance you run, with ability to run to own playlists, time intervals and calorie counter. Awesome.
Audible – best for audio books (I use when running in gym)
Best. Ever.
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I’m also a big fan of Run Keeper, it’s awesome. Have to give audible a go as I love listening to audio books when I walk.
Thanks
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For ladies who love heels and want to walk with style and grace there is a great new app called ‘walk the line,’ best of all this app is a designed right here in Melbourne – and you know those city streets of ours we need all the help we can get.
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Thanks. Just downloaded it and am strutting up and down the hall try to get to expert. Here is the link http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/walk-the-line-high-heel-test/id525310393?ls=1&mt=8
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That’s so cool!! Well done – I’ve got my eye on some sky high heels now – no more sensible court shoes for me now.
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I agree, Tripview rocks. Best app ever.
Tune In for when I have the desire to listen to Kazakhstan’s Top 40!
DrawSomething is fun.
Shazam never gets boring (but I want to invent Face Shazam so you can point it at the TV when there’s an actor whose name you can’t remember and it takes a pic or something and tells you who is is and approximate year of taking. Someone please make it!)
My 11 year old is obsessed with:
1) Bump and 2) Tango. I know, they sound dodgy and I’m not 100% sure what they do but I think Tango is for free texting/calls and Bump is for connecting your phone with a friend’s to play games or something. I sound OLD now.
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Have you tried Google Goggles for that Shazam-like image search? You take a photo of something with your phone then it searches Google’s image archives for similar images. Amazeballs
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Thanks Alicia!! I’m going to go try it now
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Can’t find Cinemagraph on iTunes anywhere, even tried searching with the dot in it.It looks good
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Yeah, I can’t find it either. Wonder if it’s only an iPad thing?
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Cant find it for iPad either
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Try cinemagram
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I found iCinegraph which seems to do the same thing…
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It is on iTunes now, just found it this morning if you wanted to look.
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http://cinemagr.am/
You’ve got to register, it’s not in general release yet.
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Beanhunter is an amazing and beautiful app for coffee lovers – use it all the time to find new cafes! really appreciate the design of it as well. as a Melbournite coffee lover it’s one of my favourites
you can see a bit from their website – http://www.beanhunter.com
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Melbourne Coffee Review is great too!
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Second vote for Tripview. Also suggest Link Express which i think is free. You tell where your starting from and where you’re going and it pieces the journey for you including which platform number and then has a copy button so you can put it all in your calendar.
For occasional public transport users like me, the smartphone is a godsend.
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I love the Instagram, Shazam and UrbanSpoon apps.
And one for the kids…. my 4 year old has recently become addicted to “Finger Puppet Frenzy”. He spends hours whacking the little coloured puppets while running down my iphone battery
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If you ever get annoyed when you hear a song, but don’t know what it’s called, then get Sound Hound
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The ‘Sleep Cycle’ alarm clock is brilliant. No more waking up tired in the mornings
It’s an alarm clock that analyses your sleep pattern and wakes you while you’re sleeping your lightest – that way you wake up feeling rested. It even has its own peaceful alarm sounds to choose from which are *heaps* better than the preset iPhone alarms.
AND it charts your sleep pattern each night on a graph, which totally appeals to my inner nerd!!
Usually the novelty of a new app wears off quickly for me but after 152 nights (with an average sleep time of 6h 21m – I know – I’m trying to improve this!) this one’s still holding my attention.
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How does it work?
I have been waking up barley able to move my eyelids so I’m guessing that I’m not sleeping properly but neither me or my partner are waking up in the night (that we can remember). Soemthing like this would be good.
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You set the sleep cycle alarm, then place the phone face down on your mattress (if you look it up in the App Store they have a diagram). It uses the built in motion detector that’s already part of your phone to sense your movement during the night, so it can tell when you are sleeping soundly (ie without much movement) or not.
My partner and I both use it, and it has the ability to track our different sleep patterns.
Good luck with it Lauren!
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Um what about the radiation from the phone being so close to you while you’re sleeping. Or the iPhone warning that it should be kept at least 15mm from your body at all times?
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I agree that the radiation emitted is a consideration. There’s definitely no issue with the iPhone warning of keeping it at least 15mm from the body – it’s much further away than that, but the reality is that it’s not much closer than before when I had it on my bedside table overnight
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I turn mine on airplane mode before I set it up. Works fine.
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I don’t have a smart phone so for those who do this is probably a really dumb question, but the answer will definitely influence whether I bite the bullet and get one….
With these different apps, do you have to be online to use them? For instance, I realise that for something like ABC iView of course you do, but for things like the Period Tracker, or Couch 2 5k – is that chewing up your monthly usage alowance very time you look those things up? Or is just a function that you purchase and so can use anywhere without Internet access?
Thanks (in advance) for the answer – and any other advice you want to give me too
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Hi EC,
You’ll find that the majority do use some form of internet allowance. I am not sure what plans you’re looking at, but I am currently on a $79 Optus plan with my iPhone, which gives me unlimited text and 3gB of data. I have the Optus app so I can track my data usage but never in all the years of having an iPhone have I EVER gone over my data allowance.
The apps use so little internet that it would barely register. I am a Facebook and Pinterest addict (procrastination from study) and, like I said, have never come close to using my allowance. So many places have wifi now that if I am on the move and downloading an album from iTunes or something else similarly large (about 300mb), I’ll just log into the local wifi!
Mmm contrary to what it may appear, I don’t work for Apple!! There are so many fab smart phones out there and with everything they can do, it’s definitely worth getting one.
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I didn’t get an iPhone until quite recently, because I didn’t want to get sucked in, but it really is fantastic.
I’m only on the 49 dollar cap with Vodafone and i’ve NEVER gone over it. I’m 21-years-old so I’m texting, calling, facebooking, emailing and ‘app-ing’ often!
I have my phone synced to my internet at home. Once you connect to it once and put in your password, it will connect automatically from then on. So when you’re connected to that, you’re not using your phone ‘downloads’ your using your internet downloads instead.
Most companies won’t charge you for facebook and twitter, so it’s really just any other internet you’re using.
As amyfizzer said, a lot of the apps don’t use internet, but those that do use barely anything (unless, as she said, you’re using it to download an album or something).
Sort of think of it in the same way as using internet at home. Your downloads are going to be depleted quickly if you’re downloading albums off itunes, or really large documents or movies from the internet. But clicking on a website is not going to do much at all.
it’s the same thing with iphones.
Good luck!
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Thanks Lauren. That’s a really good point about using our existing internet at home. We have wireless, so I guess (being at home with young kids a lot) that for the most part I’ll just be using my phone rather than my computer, so not actually likely to cost me much more.
TYVM
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Yep that’s exactly right! Have fun!
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Thanks Amy.
What a great idea about saving downloads for when there is free local wi-fi available!
Cheers
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It depends. If the App requires online content – like a news app that is updating – then yes, it requires a connection when it updates. But most of them – like the couch to 5k, period tracker, games like angry birds -these don’t update daily theand so they DON’T use data when you use them. Sometimes they will release an update to the app which you can elect to download or not (which will include new features etc).
Interactive voice apps (SIRI for the Iphone) DO use the internet and can eat into it – but that’s only if you use it excessively.
Get a smart phone! They are so useful and fun
Hope this helps! Happy to answer any other questions….
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Cool, thanks very much for the tips Emmy. Definitely appreciated, incl the offer of more help. Cheers.
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For the cooks out there, I love Recipebook. You can download recipes online, easily. They’ve got some prefixed websites but you can add others you browse. Another bonus is you can add on your own recipes Doyle don’t need to be online to use it. It also upsizes recipes, has a kitchen timer, produce a grocery list and does conversions from different measurements and you can email your recipes using this app.
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Love my Snapseed photo editing App,and also Diptic for cool frames and 8mm for vintage look videos.Cute games are Oscura and Sir Benfro.For a good laugh i can’t go past Lamebook,it’s hilarious!What’sApp is awesome to text,send pics and videos for absolutely free to all my overseas family and friends.Cool drawing Apps are Scribbler,Harmonious and Art Rage…
I’ m also loving the ANZ App,it’s so handy!
Also,i’m about to buy a car,so at the monent i’m on ebay and carsales a lot…
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Barcode scanner – take a photo of any barcode and it willl ook up where to buy it online!
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Great post MM!!
I am quite partial to any sort of note taking, planner, list making, organisational app…I use my Ipad for work mostly these days and I have the Meetings app on there…I strongly encourage people to get it if they use their Ipad for work…
But what I really want to know- does anyone have any good suggestions for yoga apps??
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Any suggestions for maths apps suitable for a year one and a year two student?? I suspect angry birds is not really brushing up my darling boy Childs arithmetic???
Actually I would love any vaguely educational suggestions for a 5 year old and 7 year old, some of the “educational ones” ones have creepy American accents?
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Maths Bingo is what my 6 and 9 yr old play
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Actually Angry Birds is pretty advanced physics!
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Mine like Teach me grade 1 (they have toddler to grade 2 I think.)
Voice isn’t great and says twenny not twenTy!! But it’s at a level they understand.
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Monkey preschool and monkey maths are great. My kids (6 & 3) lOve playing them.
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My kids love Playful Mind Math
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My 7 year old loves the Incredible Machine, you have to help get various things like balls into baskets, or mice back into their houses, using logic, physics and guesstimating. It’s lots of fun and educational in a sneaky way!
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huge thanks for your suggestions x f
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Instagram has stolen hours and hours of my life since I installed it. Also love my shopshop shopping list but would like to know if there are better shopping list apps about please. iP period tracker is great – except that the other day it very happily announced on my home screen that I’m fertile now – which I don’t need to know at 41 with no plans for more babies, but anyhoo. Yoga Nidra helps when I can’t sleep, Kelli Fox’s astrology predictions are spookily accurate, supagr.am makes pretty collages, taste.com.au app has every recipe I’ll ever need and IMDB solves every movie arguement we have. Loving the suggestions though, you can’t have too many apps.
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and Discount app which works out how much you’ll save to spend on something else, right Mia?
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I prefer Our Groceries to shop shop because of the ability to sync lists. I can add and my partner can shop or vice-versa. That way it is no longer my fault if I forget the milk
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Oooo my favourites…
Week Calender – so much better than the original
Ocassions – never forget birthdays again
Our Groceries – great because you can sync lists with other people
Flashlight
Banks
Convert Units – great for cooking
Instagram – can’t wait to try cinemagram… is it for ipad only?
Words with friends – addictive
DrawSome
And for the kids:
DoodleBuddy
Cut the rope
Virtuoso
TimesTables
iWriteWords
Babyscratch
Create a car
Tozzle
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I don’t know if this is possible for such an appled out office, but could there be a post for the android users amongst us? (although I was able to get period tracker, which is perhaps a little more exciting than it should have been!)
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I second that. I may be the only non-apple purchaser in the world and I like it that way. Nothing against those who choose Apple though. Anyone suggest any apps for Android?
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Kids Mode is great on Android… if you haveyoung kids you can add their photo and link apps and games into it that you want them to play, reading and puzzle activities etc and then they can’t change your settings and layouts etc cos they can’t ‘log out’ (till they can read lol)
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out of milk is for android. My android friends swear by it, but it’s not available for iphone.
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My partner has an HTC (Andriod) and can get pretty much the same apps I can
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On my iphone i mean…
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And often they’re free when they’re paid on apple. Might just have been unlucky with this post, ‘cos not many could be found on the Android play store when I looked …
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What’s an Android?
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Cheeky!
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Love Run Keeper, if only to moan about how fit I was a year ago (look! I ran 8km!). Also; Pocket (Formerly Read It Later), which does the same thing as instapaper I think. Triple J app (I find it streams faster than Tune In when I’m on 3G). Bank apps, which are a life saver. Nav Free as I don’t have a GPS. Google maps.
And Angry Birds, of course.
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The ANZ Bank app is excellent….extremely slick & easy to use.
Rimshot is great for adding a bit of boom-tish, applause, or crickets to any conversation.
8mm takes movies and gives them an aged 1920s or 1960s look as if they’ve been taken with an old 8mm movie camera.
I couldn’t find Cinemagram in the app store, is it for Ipads only?
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I’m having trouble with Sprout. I’m due 30 December this year but it won’t accept that. It wants to make it 30 December next year. That’s one long pregnancy. Any tips?
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Try Essential Baby, it’s awesome
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TripView Camera+. Good Food Guide best pubs. Instagram. Around Me.
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Does anyone have recommendations for good speech therapy apps for a 2.5 year old? i.e. apps that encourage sound making/talking/ as well as receptive language.
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We have ‘Proloquo 2 go’ for our son who has a speech delay. It’s not cheap (around $200 or $300 from memory) but it’s a fantastic app. You can add items by takin a photo, naming it, and popping it into a folder. We have a folder full of activities he does at speech therapy, one for food, home activities, outside, etc. The app also verbalizes the word when the item is pressed. It’s completely customizable, so you can start with single words and gradually build requests using multiple words.
If you get any sort of govt funding (we do as my son is ASD), your speech therapist can probably purchase it using your funding.
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Thanks for your suggestion mamaruns! I will look in to it.
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