Home Screens - Tim Stringer

Not so long ago, I linked the video The Omni Group produced about Tim Stringer (Twitter) and his journey with technology. Since then, I’ve got to know Tim a bit and he’s agreed to share his home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

The iPad is a marvellous learning tool. I use the DK HumanBody app to learn more about my inner workings and Star Walk to help find my place in the universe.

What is your favorite app?

If I had to pick one I’d choose OmniFocus. Having mobile access to my projects and tasks helps me keep my GTD system current and my mind clear. Honourable mentions go to Tweetbot, one of the most thoughtfully designed apps I’ve ever used, to Due for faithfully reminding me of time-sensitive events (and helping ensure my tea isn’t over-steeped) and to my favourite writing app, Byword, that comes complete with iCloud, TextExpander and Markdown support.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I admit to being a bit of a podcast junkie. I recently started using Downcast to listen to audio podcasts on my iPhone and to watch video podcasts on my iPad. I appreciate the flexibility this app provides, most notably the highly customizable Playlists feature. For example, I have a Playlist called “Favourites” that automatically lists unheard episodes from my favourite podcasts, including Mac Power Users.

What is the app you are still missing?

I’m still waiting for the ultimate visual search app. For example, I’d like to be able to point my iPhone’s camera at the leaf of a tree and be provided with details on the tree in question. The possibilities are endless.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

This varies dramatically depending on my current situation. My iPhone and iPad tend to get used more heavily when I’m out and about and serve quite different purposes. My iPhone fits easily in my pocket and gives me quick and convenient access to everything from bus schedules to weather information. My iPad becomes my primary computer when I’m on vacation and takes the place of a physical notebook when I’m travelling on business. Most of my reading is done on the iPad these days and the outstanding battery life it provides allows for an entertaining diversion on even the longest of trips.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I’ve always been rather picky when it comes to displays, and I appreciate the gorgeous Retina displays on my iPhone 4 and my new iPad.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would add an background update feature to iOS that would allow users to give specific apps permission to update their data in the background. For example, OmniFocus could automatically sync and Instapaper could pull down the latest batch of articles without it being necessary to manually launch each app. To address power consumption concerns, there would be an option to disable background updates when the iOS device isn’t plugged in.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Both the iPhone and iPad have the potential to be a major source of distraction. I make a point of going through the Notifications options in Settings with a fine tooth comb, fine-tuning the settings so that I’m not, for example, pulled away from reading an interesting book each time someone references me in a tweet.

When I received my new iPad last month I decided to start from scratch — installing apps on an as-needed basis and eliminating any past cruft in the process. I put general-purpose apps, such as Camera and Calendar on the Home screen and Dock and all other apps were placed in folders based on their related activity. When I have time set aside for reading I open the “Reading” folder and all the other apps fade into the background. Similarly, when I’m in work mode I open up my “Productivity” folder, bringing the focus to my productivity apps.

Thanks Tim.

For more home screens clicky here.

Home Screens - Robert Lloyd Lewis

This week’s home screen features Robert Lloyd Lewis (Twitter), producer of Dexter, the most loveable serial killer in the history of television. Robert, among many talents, produces a popular television show, builds apps, and loves his Apple technology. So Robert, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

Air Dictate, which let’s me use Siri to dictate to my Mac. Unfortunately Apple yanked it, but I’ve still got it! I also love FaceDialer, which allows me to create one-touch-dial apps with a photo as the icon. I also like YouMail, which emails me my voicemails.

What is your favorite app?

OmniFocus. Yes, it has a learning curve (and thanks David for your invaluable screencasts), but my life would be chaos without it. It also has the most reliable cloud syncing of anything out there, including iCloud. OF’s cloud syncing…just works.

On my iPad:

I love Pear Note, which records audio while I’m taking notes and associates the two. That way I can easily find any part of the audio by clicking on the text I was typing at that moment.

I also can’t live without iAnnotate, which is better than Good Reader. I’ve got all my Dexter scripts with annotated notes, highlights and scribbles on it.

My browser of choice is ‘Grazing Web Browser’. Much better than Safari.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

My own app, of course! Vowel Movement is a word game in the vein of Scramble and Scrabble. Shameless plug!

What is the app you are still missing?

A reliable way to add todo’s into Omnifocus through voice/transcription. The OF workaround is unreliable. So, my most useful app is not an app at all. It’s on my home screen as ‘Quick Entry’. It’s a trick that opens a text-ready inbox todo in OmniFocus with one touch. Find it here.

I still haven’t found the perfect headset. I’ve tried tons. My current fave is the Jabra Stone 2.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

Whenever I’m not by my Mac, my iPhone/iPad batteries are draining.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

My iPhone let’s me carry my whole world on my hip. Since it’s always with me, I have every piece of data I ever need at my finger tips. Also, a good idea never slips into the ether since I have a place to store it quickly.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would add a drop down with which I could easily toggle on/off bluetooth, location services, airplane mode, and wifi all in one page without drilling down endlessly. (I think Android has this feature). I also wish I could restrict Siri to the iPhone mic. It connects to my car’s built-in bluetooth mic and doesn’t understand a word I say. Frustrating!

Anything else you’d like to share?

Thanks David, for your awesome blog, and keep those screencasts coming!

Thanks Robert.

For more home screens clicky here.

Home Screens - Mike Vardy

Mike Vardy (Website) (Twitter) is humorist that writes and talks about productivity. I met Mike at Macworld this year and can report he is a pretty swell guy. So Mike, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

Buddha Machine, without a doubt. When I want some ambient music in the background while I’m either working on my book or doing any other type of writing, it hits just the right spot.

What is your favorite app?

My favorite app is Reeder – both on my iPhone and iPad – because it allows me to read, share, track and enjoy all of my RSS feeds in one fell swoop. It’s just really well-executed and a pleasure to use.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I didn’t have one until recently, as I got rid of any games I’d installed. But then Paper by Fifty-Three came along for the iPad and I’ve been having a blast with it. I had no need for a stylus before it, but since I downloaded it (and subsequently bought the in-app writing/drawing instruments), I’ve got Studio Neat’s Cosmonaut headed my way.

What is the app you are still missing?

A proper mobile app for Asana, my task management app of choice. It’s not quite as robust as it needs to be, so I’m anxiously awaiting an update so that I can have a more full-featured Asana experience in my pocket.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I have both of them at the ready every day, several times a day. I shift gears to my iPad when my MacBook air battery runs low, and my iPhone is my work phone. I read all of my RSS feeds and my Instapaper queue on my iPad or iPhone, and podcasts on Instacast are synced between the two devices as well. And let’s not forget Tweetbot. Both my iPad and iPhone get used numerous times per day, and each of them has use cases they’re better suited for based on form factor.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Both the iPhone and iPad give me the power to create and interact with others that are miles away regardless of where I might be. That kind of power and flexibility is something that I enjoy having at my disposal.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I’d make sure that the inability to delete native apps from iOS devices was no longer an issue. I mean, if iDevices are supposed to be so personal, surely I should be able to remove the apps that aren’t a factor in my life…right?

Anything else you’d like to share?

The best part about both the iPad and iPhone is that they can do so much and take up so little space. They can be used to consume or create. They can play music or they can make music. They can display words or they can allow you to take words and display them almost anywhere. They can play movies and they can make movies. When you think about all they can do, that’s pretty phenomenal.

Thanks Mike.

For more home screens, clicky here.

Home Screens - Brooks Duncan

Several years ago, I met a very nice fellow at Macworld who told me about his website dedicated to scanning and paperless workflows. Little did I know what an institution Brooks Duncan (Twitter) and his DocumentSnap.com website would become. Alright Brooks, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

Based on the amount that I use them, I would say Sparrow and Pocket Casts.

Sparrow is an e-mail client that has replaced iOS’s Mail app for me. I am not bothered by the lack of Push Notifications because I prefer to check my e-mail rather than have it notify me. Even if it had Push I would probably turn it off. I did my time in Blackberry blinking-red-light hell for too many years.

Pocket Casts is a podcatcher. I know that Instacast seems to be the big favorite, and I have it too, but for some reason I keep coming back to Pocket Casts. Maybe because it is the one I tried first and I became used to it.

Either way, I could never go back to stock podcast management and syncing through iTunes like an animal.

Honorable mentions should go to YNAB, which is the iPhone client for You Need A Budget. I use that to track my spending. I use Notesy, for my general Dropbox-synced text geekiness.

What is your favorite app?

Definitely OmniFocus. I hemmed and hawed about moving to OmniFocus for almost two years, but I finally pulled the trigger after Macworld|iWorld this year. I am angry at everyone on the Internet for allowing me to wait this long. I don’t understand how I got anything done without it.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Right now, probably the Kindle app because I have become sucked into George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series. Any moment that I am not working or playing with my kids, and some moments when I probably should be, I am reading A Dance With Dragons.

I love how I can start reading on my iPad, switch to the Kindle 4, and then seamlessly move to the iPhone when I am in a grocery line lineup.

What is the app you are still missing?

I have yet to find a great document scanning app that will also OCR documents well. It is not something I need to do often, but it would be cool when I need it.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I would say “a lot”. My wife would say “way too much”. My kids would say “what do you mean YOUR iPad, it’s ours!”

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

How well it all works now. iCloud is really starting to be the glue that pulls it all together. I love buying an app, a song, or a book, and having it just be there on all my devices without me thinking about it.

Thanks to your screencast, I have started using the iCloud functionality in Byword on iOS and the Mac, and that is just magical.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

The recently-killed ability for Launch Center to directly access prefs URLs was fantastic. I wish Apple would find a way to bring something like this back. Other platforms have iOS beat on this. It should not be so hard to turn Bluetooth on and off.

Speaking of Apple killing great functionality, I really wish there was a way to export or print an e-mail to PDF on the device. That would be great for GTD-style “if it takes a minute, just do it” e-mail processing. Prior to iOS 5, apps could register themselves as an AirPrint destination for this, but that is sadly gone.

Anything else you’d like to share?*

Despite my OCR whining above, it is amazing what a great document scanner the iPhone makes. Both the camera and the apps have become so good that it is a really viable on-the-go or one-off scanner.

Thanks Brooks.

For more home screens, clicky here.

Home Screens - Reid Trautz

This week I’m heading to Chicago for the ABA TechShow. TechShow is the best collection of attorneys on the planet. It is lots of great technology talk without the ego nonsense that usually comes with a big group of lawyers. The chair of this year’s TechShow is my friend, Reid Trautz (Twitter), who tirelessly works to make this show happen. So Reid, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

Zite is my favorite news magazine reader. iHome+Sleep is my new morning alarm clock when dropped into my bedside recharger/speaker bar. Of course, the just-released ABA TECHSHOW app made my home screen!

What is your favorite app?

I really think Notability has quickly become a productive must-have app. It does the work of several others I now rarely use.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Scrabble. I know Words with Friends is far more popular, but I grew up playing Scrabble.

What is the app you are still missing?

I’d like a dictation app that is truly integrated into email and my calendar. It might exist, I just haven’t found it.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I use my iPad 10 times a day when away from the office especially when on the road, but I use my iPhone far more day in and day out.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The form factor. I think Apple and Steve Jobs got the size, weight, shape just right. I’ve read more books in the past year than the previous four without a iPad; also, kicking back in a comfortable chair with the iPad makes late-night work less of a chore than with my laptop.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I’ve been a MacBook user for at least 5 years, but use a PC at my office. I really miss having both the Backspace and Delete keys on my Mac.

Anything else you’d like to share?

One thing. Buy David’s iPad@Work book. I learned a great deal!

Thanks Reid.

For more home screens clicky here.

Home Screens - Aaron Mahnke

Aaron Mahnke (twitter) is exactly the kind of creative junky that I dig. He does frelance graphic design by day at Wet Frog Studios and writes books by night. In his spare time Aaron also curates the Read & Trust Network. So Aaron, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

My home screen is honestly just filled with the basics. I have replaced the calculator with Calcbot because I prefer the design and features. Plus it’s just darn sexy, right? And Weather has been replaced by Shine. But most other apps that came with the device are still on my home screen.

Other exceptions:

I use PlainText for writing on my iPhone instead of Notes. The app syncs with Dropbox (and nvALT on my Macs), and can even be connected to Scrivener. That’s helpful if you do a lot of writing in Scrivener, and I do.

I quickly removed the iPod app from the dock (it’s easy to reach with a double-tap and a swipe) and placed OmniFocus in its place. That app is the core of my work life, and I capture everything in there. I don’t get fancy with OmniFocus, instead just depending on it as a place to file away tasks, assigning them due dates, a context and a project, and then I work from that database each night when I hand-write my paper to-do list for the next morning.

Oh, and Instacast has found a place on my home screen as well. I have a few regular podcasts that I enjoy, and also love to see my own artwork in the app (I design most of the cover art for the shows on the 70 Decibels network).

What is your favorite app?

Hands-down, my favorite app is Tweetbot. I’m a freelance designer, working from home by myself, so it’s very easy for me to look for connection through the community on Twitter. Tweetbot allows me to manage that “relationship” in ways that helps me stay productive. I can mute hashtags, twitter clients and even users. I want to stay caught up and find the quality content, but Tweetbot shines in helping me avoid the stuff that gets in the way.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

If I’m not taking care of email or browsing webpages, my guilty pleasure is the Kindle app. I’m a writer and a reader, and sell all of my books through the Kindle store because of how easy it is to use and interact with. And so when it comes to spare time, I run right to the Kindle app on my iPhone.

What is the app you are still missing?

As an author and publisher, I frequently interact with Kindle’s KDP dashboard, where my book sales are updated live. I would love an app for KDP stats. I realize that it would probably appeal to a small market, but it would be infinitely more useful than using Safari on the iPhone.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

I have my iPhone on and docked beside my keyboard all day while I’m at my desk. But it gets the most use in the morning before work and in the last couple hours of my day.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

I’m easy to please for the most part. I’m in love with the Notification Center. Sure, there are issues and things I’d fix (like those darn little “x” and “clear” buttons…ARGH!), but for the most part it has made using my iPhone so much more convenient.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would love to have the ability to move specific Notification Center widgets (such as Stocks or Weather) to the iPhone’s lock screen, so that I don’t have to press the home button, slide to unlock, and then drag the NC open. That would be my top request for a future update to iOS.

Anything else you’d like to share?

As a little kid in the 80’s, I used a magnifying glass to burn a small piece of scrap wood from my dad’s workshop. I burned a drawing into the wood. A drawing of a screen, buttons and nobs and switches. I really believes that someday we would be carrying our computers in our pockets.

The ten-year old me loves living in the future.

Thanks Aaron.

For more home screens clicky here.

Home Screens - Rob Corddry

When I was setting plans for Macworld 2012, I asked Rob Corddry (IMDB) (Twitter) if he’d fly up to San Francisco to talk about his use of Apple technology in showbiz. I explained there was no budget to pay for his travel or his room but I’d really like him to join us. Rob replied, “If you can guarantee that there will be no per diem or cab fare reimbursement, I’m in.” This is just one of the many reasons why I love Rob. So Rob, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps? There are a few pretty interesting ones: DC Comics, which I use religiously on the iPad, is the only really good comics browser in my opinion. Action Movie is bordering on fascinating. I also love Chefs Feed and MatchBook. Chefs Feed tells me where chefs choose to eat. Matchbook is a location-based restaurant reminder.

What is your favorite app? Omnifocus (iPhone) (iPad)is by far the most useful thing ever to be made for the iOS. And if you know Omnifocus, you know that the iOS apps may actually surpass the desktop version.

Which app is your guilty pleasure? It takes a lot to make me feel guilty. Instagram? Not that I’m ashamed of it, in the way that I cringe a little over my love for the Barbara Streisand and Barry Gibb team-up (best song? Guilty. Very apropos) . I just spend a lot of time on it, poking around in other people’s business.

What is the app you are still missing? Jott’s sudden incompatibility with Omnifocus left a huge hole in my workflow that still exists. I want to be able to push a button on my steering wheel and have whatever I say show up in my Omnifocus inbox. Nerds?

Have you tried Siri integration? - David

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad? My iphone keeps trying to poke bio-mechanic tendrils into my wrist. I use my iPad less frequently. I have two scripts I have to read today which will happen on my iPad. I use PDFpen for iPad to take simple notes with a stylus because I’m more of a pencil/pen notetaker. I also read the majority of my DC comics on the iPad because their browser is leaps and bounds better than Marvels or Image’s. I prefer to read most of my comics on real paper anyway.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad? My iPhone is like that fat Swiss Army knife that my Papa gave me when I was too young to even wield a fork that wasn’t blunted, but my iPhone is easier to carry. My favorite singular feature has to be the the camera. I have two really great cameras, a Canon DSLR and a beautiful compact Sony that I NEVER USE.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change? I have tiny little gripes about everything that I use but nothing that hasn’t been talked about a million times. My biggest complaint is that my wife and I can’t share stuff between our iTunes accounts. That’s where the gloss wears off for me and I can see the seams in Apple’s fabric. It’s a level of control and security that tarnishes everything else for me.

Anything else you’d like to share? A lot of people may balk at my folder structure but if I have single apps on multiple pages I get lost.

Thanks Rob.

Click here for more home screens.

Home Screens - Chris Foresman

Every year I yammer on about the Macworld friends that I only get to see once a year. One of those people is Chris Foresman. Chris is a really smart guy that covers the Apple beat for Ars Technica (Twitter). So Chris, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps? That’s a tough question. I’d say for the most part my home screen apps are pretty pedestrian‹I chose them for maximum utility. However, I’m really liking Tweetbot; I recently added it to replace the official Twitter client, which is frankly getting to be a pain to use.

I also keep a lot of various photo-related apps in a folder because I’m a consummate iPhone snapper. Lately I’ve been getting into Snapseed, Pano, Diptic, and IncrediBooth.

*What is your favorite app?( Another hard one. I’m inclined to say Buster, since I use it to navigate Chicago’s CTA busses and trains. Plus, I had a small hand in steering some of its UI conventions. On the other hand, I use Instagram almost daily. Love me some Instagram.

Apps I really like off the home screen: Netflix, iBooks, Kindle, GarageBand, PNC Virtual Wallet, and Taxi Magic.

Which app is your guilty pleasure? Probably Ticket To Ride Pocket. I’ve been playing it non-stop since it was released, even though it lacks the various maps and add-ons of the iPad version. Really liking the Game Center turn-by-turn integration, though it has a few quirks. Just wish I knew more people that wanted to play!

What is the app you are still missing? I guess Siri, since I still have an iPhone 4. ;)

How many times a day do you use your iPhone and iPad? I tend to use my iPhone all day long, making calls, staying in touch with friends via Facebook and Twitter, and playing games whenever I have to wait on something. I’m also always taking pictures and posting them via Instagram.

My iPad largely sits idle by the bed, for the occasion I want to do some reading, play some iPad-only games, or do the occasional iPad review. I do like to take the iPad on trips though, if I can avoid taking my laptop.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad? Seamless syncing of important data. When Jobs said “iCloud was the future of Apple for the next decade,” I really hope he means it. I want ALL my data accessible from any of my devices. It will take some time to get there, but looks like Mountain Lion is making some strides in that direction.

Thanks Chris.

For more home screens clicky here.

Home Screens - Jean MacDonald

One of my favorite people in the Mac community is Jean MacDonald (Twitter), one of the owners of Smile, makers of my beloved TextExpander. The thing about Jean is that every time I spend any significant time with her, I learn some new thing about her that I never knew before, like that she is in a rock band, Ruby Calling, and on the board of directors for Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls. So Jean, shown us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Twelve apps are Apple’s default apps, but I use those apps all the time. Of the remaining eight third-party apps, here are a few of the ones I find most interesting: 

GroceryIQ: I like it because it allows me to segment my shopping list by store. There are certain items I only buy at Trader Joe’s, versus New Seasons or Fred Meyer. A shopping list is important part of my process of getting things done. I need to have an easy way to get things off my mind and onto a list that I won’t forget.

WriteRoom: This is my default note-taking app. I like the simplicity of it, and that it has TextExpander support built-in.

Due: This lets me set alarms on an ad-hoc basis. It’s much easier than using the Clock or Calendar app. 

Maybe the most interesting thing about my home screen is what’s NOT there: TextExpander. Obviously, I use TextExpander all the time. But on the iPhone and iPad, the OS does not let TextExpander function the way it does on the Mac. It’s still very useful, but more so in the apps that have added support for expanding TextExpander snippets. Osfoora for Twitter and WriteRoom both have TextExpander integration. TextExpander is on Screen 3, along with all the other apps that support it. It just doesn’t get opened very often, especially now that all my snippets are synced via Dropbox.

What is your favorite app?

Maps. When I got my first iPhone, I was heading out on a solo road trip from Portland to Northern California. I never anticipated how useful the Maps app would be, even before there was GPS in the phone. I love calculating how much time is left until I reach my destination. I was just in Chicago, and I used the Public Transit option to plan my trips around the city. I use the app to check traffic. And I use it just for fun, to go look at some exotic destination in satellite view, or to show someone my neighborhood in southeast Portland.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Cat Piano. I use it to mess with dogs.

What is the app you are still missing?

I want an app that can identify trees and flowers from a snapshot. Kind of like Shazam for plants. 

How many times a day do you use your iPhone and iPad?

My iPhone is almost never more than a foot away from me. I use it too many times a day to count. I use the iPad two or three times a day, more if I’m traveling.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would let developers respond to App Store reviews. The system right now is so frustrating. Frequently, the gripes could be resolved with a quick response. I’d also like to encourage all your readers to take a few minutes to leave reviews for their favorite apps. It really does make a difference!

Thanks Jean.

For more home screens clicky here.

Home Screens - Michael Schechter

Michael Schechter (Twitter) publishes A Better Mess, where he writes about productivity and creativity. Michael is among that breed of bloggers that keeps up a day job and still makes time to create something special for the rest of us. So Michael, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

I recently moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn and now spend an extra hour every workday on the subway. In fact, I’m writing this right on the iPhone while sitting on the B-Train. So as you can imagine, this extra time has helped me grow quite close with my home screen. Most of that time is split between three apps: Simplenote for writing, Instapaper for reading and Instacast for listening. While these may not be all that exciting, they are the most useful to me and are where I spend the bulk of my time. Between my full-time job and two young kids, my commute is oddly the best time time for learning and creating; those apps make that possible.

What is your favorite app?

Instapaper, by a large margin. Not only has it changed the way I read, but the way I educate myself. The ability to seamlessly pull articles, blog posts and email newsletters into one place for offline reading was a game changer for me. Combine that with the ability to send quotes to Tumblr and send items to Omnifocus when an article requires me to create a task and it’s easy to see why I yell at anyone with an iPhone to give Marco his $5.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I spend far too much time in Instacast, especially with the 5by5 and 70Decibel networks. It’s one part pure enjoyment and one part necessity. I know a lot of people require boredom to do their best thinking, but I’ve never really fared well with it. Podcasts seem to be this great middle ground where I can focus on what I’m listening to yet somehow allow my mind to wander. It’s common that I’ll be listening along and an idea will resonate or an errant thought will fly by. The iPhone makes it so easy to shift gears, jump into Simplenote and capture the idea for a future project (occasionally I’ll end up riding that momentum and write an entire post). Instagram is worth noting as a close runner up, as I tend to take an excessive number of pictures of my two little girls.

What is the app you are still missing?

I’m going to cheat a little here and talk about a feature that I wish more apps included. While I’m not a huge fan of notifications, I have the short term memory of a goldfish and the current notification system makes them all too easy to overlook. It’s the reasons I prefer Due over Reminders, even in lieu of Reminders’ Siri integration and location-based notifications. The fact that Due persists until I do the thing I need to do is invaluable for small, easily forgettable tasks, the very tasks that often save my marriage and career. I guess if I was forced to sum it up as an app, I wish there was a notification app for my notifications…

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I think it is safe to assume that should/when my wife leaves me, the iPhone will be stated as the cause. Checking my phone has become a bit of an addiction; it’s a habit I really need to break. It’s more than just enjoyment, it has become a big part of both my personal and professional workflows. I have the world’s worst handwriting and a generally poor relationship with paper, so the phone is always my go-to device for capturing tasks and thoughts throughout the day. It has become such a big part of my day that I just forget to put the damn thing down sometimes.

As for the iPad, it plays a lesser role (it just doesn’t fit well with a rush-hour subway crowd), but for tasks like mind mapping, the additional screen real estate is a must.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I’m a big fan of the integration between third-party apps. They’ve created a tapestry of tech that lets me accomplish a previously improbable amount when away from my desk. The marriage of TextExpander and Simplenote is a perfect example of how an app that appears to be as bare bones as Simplenote can prove to be so useful.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I wish that some of that same third-party integration would make its way into Apple’s own apps (I know it will never happen, but a boy can dream, can’t he?). This is especially painful for managing email and it forces me to use the device for triage more than processing. The lack of TextExpander integration has been troubling to me, especially when it comes to handling customer service requests for our business. Then again, I now spend time on the subway reading and writing for myself rather than responding to work emails, so maybe they are onto something there…

Anything else you’d like to share?

It may seem silly, but take the time to figure out what you want from the phone. For the longest time, my phone was a dumping ground. I just kept downloading apps with no real thought as to where they should go, why I needed them and how many was enough. Over the past year, I’ve really evolved my relationship with the home screen. I decided to rethink my usage and made three simple rules: 1) no folders on the home screen, 2) no more than two pages worth of apps (including the home screen) and 3) Minimize notifications and eliminate badges with the exception of new texts, voicemails and overdue Omnifocus tasks. These may seem like an arbitrary limitation, but the lack of alerts help keep me focused and the real estate restrictions forced me to think long and hard about how I wanted to use the device.

Thanks Michael.

Click here for more home screens.