This week’s home screen comes to you courtesy of Thanh Pham (Twitter) from AsianEfficiency. I’ve long been an admirer of Thanh’s and his excellent content. I was fortunate enough to meet him this January at Macworld and found out that in addition to being a really smart guy, he’s also a really nice guy. Also, remarkably, he lives in the same county as me and we’ve never had dinner. We’re going to fix that. Thanh, show us your home screen.
What are some of favorite apps?
This app is a must-have. I almost browse more in 1Password than I do in Safari.
I have a lot video courses on my Macbook that I want to access with my iPhone and iPad. Instead of syncing the video files (which can be big) I like to stream them to my iDevice. So whenever I’m in bed or on the couch, I can pull out my iPhone, pick a video, stream it onto my iPhone and continue learning.
I’m always experimenting with my habits. Sometimes I’ll add or change multiple habits at the same time so having an app to track my progress is great. Over the years I’ve tried many different ones but I like Habit List the most.
Do I really need to say more? It’s the best task manager out there. Period.
I’m pretty new to listening to podcasts and I’ve found that Downcast appeals to me the most. Design is really important to me and this app is the best designed out of all podcast apps (just play with a couple gestures to see why).
I do a lot of reading so Instapaper is a must-have. Whenever I get a chance, I like to catch up with my articles in my inbox.
This is my go-to app for capturing. It’s fast, simple and you can easily store your notes in the right places. I’ll often use this too for dictating my thoughts because it’s so easy afterwards to get it stored in OmniFocus or Evernote.
Simply the best twitter client out there.
A gorgeous weather app that gets the job done. I mostly use this app just because it’s so beautiful.
Which app is your guilty pleasure?
It’s not on my home screen for a good reason. If you want to throw productivity out the window, this is the tower defense game you must have. You have been warned.
What is the app you are still missing?
I’ve tried a bunch of fitness apps for tracking progress, nutrition and measurements but none have really won me over. There are a lot of apps that excel at one thing but there is no app that does it ALL really well. I just want to easily track my progress, know how many calories I had today, track my weight, body fat and water weight without much effort. Integration with Siri would be really nice to have so I can just say what I did and ate, and have it all processed for me.
How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?
During the hours I’m working, maybe once an hour. I try to hide my phone whenever I’m engaged at work. However, as soon as I take a break or call it a day, I’m constantly on my phone.
What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?
I really like Siri. I use this feature a lot for sending texts, starting a timer, weather forecasts, reminders and directions.
If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?
I would like the idea of “charging your phone” to be non-existent. It’s something you shouldn’t have to think or worry about.
Another issue is iOS. I got an iPhone the first day it came out and I have never used another phone since then. However, with the lack of iOS innovation sometimes I feel like I’ve been using the same phone for a decade. There are a lot of opportunities for iOS to be even better, e.g. customizing the look and feel, lock screen utilities, customizing gestures and much more.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Thanks for having me! I really love your home screen series because I get to see how other people use their iDevices and I always learn something new. I hope I did the same for someone else.
Thanks Thanh