This week’s home screen comes from Craig Scott (Twitter) (Website), the developer of iThoughtsHD, the app that finally convinced me to start making mind maps. So Craig, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

iThoughts

From a dog food eating perspective, it’s got to be on my home screen.

Day One

This is a really nicely designed app and a pleasure to use. I use it like a private Facebook. I try to add one entry per day (usually with a photo) to act as a simple diary. What I’d really like, however, is the ability to add a short textual comment to pictures in my standard photo library – then have them sync back to iPhoto etc. Once in iPhoto (or Apple TV) the text comments would appear with the photo in slideshows. There you go Apple – you can have that one for free.

Flashlight

Who would have thought it would be so useful to have a torch with you all the time? 

Kindle

I spend a lot of time ferrying my kids to various after school clubs and sitting around waiting for them. Trashy novels help keep me sane. I try to avoid having techie books on my iPhone. Not sure what side of the brain stories use – but it’s different to the logical techie side I use most of the day and it needs exercising! 

1Password

The de-facto secure storage app. Not keen on the actual app design, but I love the fact that I can sync it via Dropbox with my Mac version and have access to all my stuff. Previously I used Yojimbo but they wouldn’t support data entry via their iPhone app, so I had to jump ship.

BBC iPlayer (Link not available for US)

On the odd occasion that I get sufficient 3g coverage then I may try to catchup on some TV. I still feel guilty streaming video over 3g even though I don’t have a data cap – it just feels wrong – like I’m using up some finite fossil based resource!?

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I have two – the first is Reeder. It started out as a time SAVING thing, to reduce the time I spent trawling through my favourite websites. Trouble is, it saved me so much time I decided to include more websites in my list. Google killing their RSS feed thing is probably doing me a favour. My other guilty pleasure is the TED app. I can justify this on the grounds of it being educational – but it sure can eat up an afternoon.

What is the app you are still missing?

I can’t really think of one – but that’s more down to my lack of imagination than anything else. I can still remember arguing with my friend about how pointless it was to put a camera in a phone and how music downloads would never replace CDs. I’m not a great barometer for the future of innovation…

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

Sad though it sounds, it’s the first thing I look at in the morning and last thing at night.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Physically, I guess it’s the camera – it’s the only one I use nowadays. From a software perspective I really appreciate the consistency of the UI and the visceral feeling that the OS and apps strive to achieve by way of animations etc. 

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

Tricky one since a lot of the things that bug me about Apple are what makes Apple, Apple. However, if I had to pick on one thing then I’d argue that they need to rethink their whole approach to files. They seem to want to remove the whole concept in order to keep it simple for users. Personally I believe that files and folders are a perfectly good ‘metaphor/abstraction’ which also benefit from having real world counterparts understood by everyone. Their current approach (keeping information siloed within apps) is not good – it drains much of the value from that information. It also results in services like iCloud… </rant>

Anything else you’d like to share?

Am I the only person who would like an iPhone5 with an iPhone4 sized screen?

Thanks to David for asking me to do this – it’s been fun.

Thanks Craig.

This week’s home screen comes from Hardik Pandya (Twitter)(App.net)(website), a consultant, student, blogger and photographer from the Netherlands that writes about technology and other issues of interest. So Hardik, show us your home screen.

Day One

This has to be one of the most used apps on my phone. I have started logging my life for last year now and I have about 500 entries. I use Terpstra’s Slogger tool and even make hand-typed entries twice or thrice a day. This one is for the lifetime.

Evernote

Kind of a no brainer for everyone. I wrote my whole Masters thesis in this app and managing documents has been so much easier. A hat tip to Evernote Essentials from Brett Kelly too!

Spotify

Perhaps the easiest to use music manager for my huge music library. Always on on my MacBook Pro.

Felix

The best App.net client out there. Developer Bill Kunz is almost always present on App.net and is a nice guy. Plus the experience of the app is super sleek.

Today

The mandatory weather app on the home screen! I actually like their interface and multiple location handling. Plus hour by hour forecast is all I need so this one is fine.

Simplenote

Did someone roll\ his eyes? Yes I still keep Simplenote on my phone because it’s fast, their sync is not bad at all even though those problems in the past. Also, it works perfectly with my huge nvALT notes database on MacBook Pro.

Due

For all those little chores that might get slipped through the cracks and who do not deserve the prestigious OmniFocus project/task status.

Pinbook

I recently started using Pinboard.in and I love it. The tagging feature, speed of use and it’s support across the apps is just amazing. Using it on iPhone is made simple and easy by this app.

Mail: I use FastMail for my personal email and have ditched Gmail over suggestions from Marco Arment and others. FastMail only offers IMAP and not a lot of apps support FastMail at the moment. I have decided to stick with the native Mail app from Apple. It works great and serves the purpose.

1. What are some of your favourite apps?

I love to listen to podcasts and I get my source of weekly nerdery from there. That is why I love Pocket Casts – my favourite podcast manager. Another one of my favourite has to be Reeder. Lovely interface with continuously enriching functionality and easily the best source of news for me every morning.

2. Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I think Flipboard has to be the one for me. That is why it’s hidden in the news folder there. If I see it, I have to open it and I just get lost in the flow of content that is available inside. Sometimes it’s too much. But I still love it.

3. What is the app you are still missing?

I publish my blog via Squarespace. Their apps are not up to the mark. When I see the polish of the apps for WordPress publishing (e.g. Poster), I really miss that functionality in Squarespace apps. They are not bad but they do not offer everything. I have at times lost whole blog posts due to draft syncing issues. They could work on it a bit. So that is the app I miss the most.

4. How many times do you use your iPhone?

I am writing my thesis at the moment. I do that in Evernote. I get my news through RSS and Twitter/Flipboard. I listen to podcasts (almost 2 a day) and I communicate via WhatsApp etc. I manage tasks through OmniFocus and Due. So you can say I have my iPhone with me all the time. Apart from when I go to take a shower of course!

5. What is your favourite feature of your iPhone?

My favourite feature of my iPhone has to be the amazing touch experience while typing. I have used Android and BlackBerrys but have never experienced the same level of polish on the touch screen. This almost works silently in our daily lives but saves us countless hours on mistypes and double taps.

6. If you were in charge at Apple, what would you like to change?

I would make the cross-app integration of data/files much simpler and easier. That would immensely increase the value of the apps and attract the developers to integrate more and more sharing services in their apps.

Thanks Hardik.

Lately, I’ve been reading Sam Spurlin’s blog. (Website) (Twitter) Sam has some great content and I like his voice. Sam’s also got an iPhone and some definite thoughts about his home screen. So Sam, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

My hands down favorite app right now (and has been for a long time) is Instapaper. I’m a Ph.D student so I spend a ton of time reading things for class and research which means I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and read other, fun, things. Instapaper is almost single handedly responsible for keeping me a semi-rounded individual. I’m very good about throwing interesting articles I see into the app and I love that I can use weird snippets of time to work through a personal reading list. I’ve also really been enjoying Circa for kind of the same reason, actually. I like how well summarized and broken down the articles are. You can tell there is some serious thought and care taken to do that well. The app is also just really well-designed and fun to use. (D-Nice find)

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Probably Facebook at this point. It seems to be one of the main ways my classmates like to communicate so I’m obligated to keep it around to some degree. It’s also a good way to stay in touch with my family on the other side of the country. It has become much more bearable ever since I unfollowed almost everybody who I wasn’t “real” friends with. Now my News Feed is (mostly) filled with updates from people I actually care about. I suppose my other one is the NHL’s video streaming app, NHL GameCenter. I’m a huge hockey fan and it’s nice to be able to catch a Red Wing’s game if I’m stuck in a lecture…I mean, not near my computer for a completely legitimate reason 🙂

What is the app you are still missing?

This is where I make a corny joke about an app that will write research papers or do my homework, right? While I love Mendeley for PDF storage/citation management on my Mac, the iPhone app is pretty terrible — to the point where it’s basically missing. I eventually plan on getting an iPad or iPad mini and at that point I’m going to have to figure out an app or system of apps to keep the PDFs I read and annotate/highlight on my computer automatically synced with my iOS devices. I’m sure there is something out there that will work great but I haven’t spent the time to figure it out, yet.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I have an iPhone 5 and I love how thin it is. I upgraded from a 3GS so the difference between the two was striking. My phone is the hub of much of my productive life (Fantastical, Things, and Evernote being the main trifecta) as well as much of my leisure time (Instapaper, Reeder, Twitter, Comixology, Letterpress, etc.). Being able to always have it in my pocket and not feel oppressed by its size or weight is important to the way I use it.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I don’t remember where I originally read this or if it was some kind of original thought, but I try to use my home screen as inspiration. I look at my phone many, many times every day and I decided that I want the apps that help me be a better person or create something new in the world to be what I see most often. That’s why I keep WriteRoom, Drafts, and Ink where I do. Instead of turning on my phone and being greeted by a bunch of games or mindless social networks I wanted to see apps that require me to engage with them on a little bit more intellectual level. Even if I’m not turning to my phone to draft an article or sketch a picture, keeping those apps front and center help me keep my mind on the fact that this phone can be a powerful tool if I decide to engage with it properly. I’m obviously getting away from this somewhat (see Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, etc.), but it’s something I try to be mindful of.

Thanks Sam

I first met Marcelo Somers (Website) (Twitter) several years ago when he organized the Syndicate ad network. These days Marcelo spends his time as a user experience consultant and writing at Behind Companies. So Marcelo, show us your home screen.

Chrome

Until recently, I was a devout Safari user. It wasn’t until I forced myself to try out Chrome that I understood it. Google is absolutely killing it with their apps on iOS. The physics of how you interact with tabs and the single omnibox is brilliantly done. When I’m back in Safari, I find myself craving the horizontal swipe to go between tabs, or how easy it is to open in a new tab behind the existing one.

It’s a little bit of a nuisance that links open in Safari by default, but I use Jon Abrams’ bookmarklet to send a page from Safari to Chrome. What’s interesting is that my bookmarks menu in Safari has really become like a second share sheet. The simple bookmarks interface is the one feature I still like better in Safari.

Listary

I’m an OmniFocus user for my day to day task management, but for basic lists like Groceries, Listary gives me a clean simple interface that’s exactly what I need. The Simplenote sync lets me share lists easily with my wife, and do bulk entry on my Mac. I have two wishes for the app: Dropbox sync and URL Schemes. The developer has shared that Dropbox sync would prevent list sharing, so I can understand that, and URL Schemes are supposedly coming in a future update.

1Password

I won’t beat the 1Password horse here, except to share one pro tip that hasn’t seemed to make the rounds yet. 1Password 4’s big update added the url scheme to open pages in the app. I wanted an easier way to do it, and Federico Viticci of Macstories obliged with this bookmarklet to send pages from Safari to 1Password. It’s 3 steps easier than manually adding ‘op’ to the beginning of a URL, and I use it constantly.

Maps

I’ve bounced back and forth quite a bit. I gave Google Maps serious consideration after it came out, and like Chrome they are doing an amazing job on iOS. However, I find myself coming back to the beautiful maps from Apple. The turn by turn interface is much more realistic with perspective. I do keep Google around though for the occasional time that mapping data isn’t correct. Waze is my 3rd wheel that I’ll use to check what is going on with traffic if I’m stuck in my commute and Maps and Google don’t help.

Mail

I hate email, but I’m a devout Mail user. I’ve tried Mailbox and all the other alternatives, but I keep coming back to the simplicity of Apple’s client. I have a simple approach to email: things in my Inbox need to be dealt with, once they’re dealt with they get archvied. No complicated folder structure or filing system, and I still haven’t found a better app for it on iOS.

I’m of the opinion that if you are constantly on the hunt for an app to fix your email problems, your approach to email is really what needs fixing. An app isn’t going to do it for you.

Calendar/Fantastical

Much like Mail, I still haven’t found a better iOS calendar app than Apple’s own. With the iPhone 5 and the additional appointments visible in Month view, it got even better.

With that being said, Fantastical is incredible for creating appointments. I use it much more devoutly on the Mac. I love the interface, but the iOS version just isn’t quite a fit for me for general calendaring. I like the Daily/Monthly view in Apple’s app.

Forecast

I was thrilled when the Dark Sky team released Forecast. It’s a web app, but it’s perfect. It gives me just the data I want with data visualizations that make sense.

Drafts

I’ve just started down the path of all the amazing URL Scheme actions that Drafts can do, but I love the idea of quickly opening the app to jot something down.

Launch Center Pro

Like Drafts, I’m still exploring the world of URL Schemes with Launch Center Pro. I’ve found a few key uses for the app. My biggest is keeping groups of contacts I reguarly message together (my parents, my in-laws, etc.). LCP makes it super easy to message them together without taking the time to select multiple contacts. My wife and I are expecting our first baby this summer, and I’ve even created a very large group to easily message updates when the time comes.

I also keep commands to Text my Last Photo, Place my last photo on the clipboard, send my wife a canned message that I’m on my way home, and some reguarly used app actions like taking a photo of a business receipt with QuickShot (via Shawn Blanc).

Instagram

I keep this on here as my “guilty pleasure”. I was a huge Gowalla user back in the day but never fell in love with Foursquare after the Gowalla team went to Facbeook. Instagram took that spot for me, and it all clicked when Josh Williams (Gowalla’s Former CEO) described the “M. Night Shyamalan moment”:

They made their own rules. They called it Instagram.

That whole see the world through the eyes of their friends thing? Turns out Instagram did a pretty good job of this.

While we were busy playing tug-of-war over check-ins, someone else found a path to the goal with less friction.

Other Apps I love:

OmniFocus (MailDrop) – I love the voice capture coupled with Daniel Jalkut’s Reminders Plumbing. However these days I find myself using MailDrop far more often on iOS.

Gmail – I keep Gmail around for searching my archive. Once again, they’re killing it.

Dropbox – I moved to David’s own Paperless system last Christmas when I got a Doxie. Dropbox lets me access all my records on the go, and I love it. It’s also saved me many times when I needed to share a work file on the go without a laptop.

Amazon – What a simple, but delightful shopping experience. I love using the app’s UPC scanner to compare prices when I’m out shopping, and they make it far too easy to one click purchase something I think I need. A large percentages of my shopping on Amazon is now done through mobile.

Dark Sky – It’s not used often living in Texas, but it’s so damn magical to get a push notification that it’s about to rain. It’s also saved me several times when I was going to forget an umbrella.

What am I missing?

There aren’t really any apps I desire, but what I want to see in iOS 7 is better inter-app sharing of content. URL Schemes are great, but they have their limits, and it’d be great to have it be more accessible. I also want better photo/video backup. I’m currently using Dropbox (which requires manual opening of the app). With my first child on the way, this becomes even more crucial. Also, more free space on iCloud for device backups. It gets tough to fit it all with a 16gb iPhone and iPad.

Thanks Marcelo.

If you’ve got an interesting story and home screen, let me know.

It’s been a long time since Eddie Smith first showed his home screen here on MacSparky. I thought it was time for an update so he shared one. In case you don’t know them already, Eddie writes the Practically Efficient blog and is one of my best nerd friends. We even wrote a book together. So Eddie, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Every app on my home screen is a favorite in some way. They range from really sophisticated task managers like OmniFocus to single-feature gems like Lighty. In fact, Lighty, my favorite flash light app, is one of the most important apps on my phone. I use it all the time, and it’s probably saved me real dollars in the foregone cost of replacing batteries in little flash lights around my house.

Productivity Apps:

One notable trend on my iPhone in the last year is the inclusion of more and more Google apps. Until the last year, I felt like Google intentionally avoided putting development resources into its iOS apps, but that seems to be changing.

I tried very hard to use the default Apple Maps app that debuted with iOS 6, but I’ve found the search in Google Maps (Google’s response to the new Apple Maps) far more intelligent. Given that I use maps apps primarily for location and phone number searches, the Google Maps app is a better fit on my home screen.

I use Google Voice as my voicemail solution—partly because it provides a convenient text transcription of voice messages and partly for the entertainment value in how poorly it often transcribes those messages.

Google’s Gmail app really sucked until version 2.0 came along. It seemed like a slow, laggy mobile version of the full Gmail web UI. 2.0 is much better, and while I’ve tried using the default Mail app, Mailbox, and others, the Gmail app suits me best the way I use email on my phone—which is mainly to process incoming mail and search for archived mail.

Another notable Google app I’m using (that isn’t on my home screen) is the new Google Drive app. For the first time, I feel like I can reliably edit Google documents and spreadsheets from my iPhone and iPad. In fact, I think the spreadsheet interface in Google Drive is the best mobile spreadsheet interface I’ve seen so far.

Enough on Google.

If the Gmail app is my favorite app for pulling email, Drafts is my favorite for pushing email. In fact, I’m composing more and more of all kinds of things in Drafts. I just love the simplicity of having a single point of entry for text on my home screen. I think of Drafts as a more natural human way of entering text—more like a sticky note in the pre-digital world.

While most digital interfaces for text entry—from email clients to task management systems—encourage you to “title” something and choose its destination first, Drafts encourages you to get the message or content down first, then choose its destination. I would love to see this design concept bleed into other mobile and desktop interfaces.

Day One, Evernote, and Notesy give me access to most of my personal information. I love tracking simple goals in Day One. Evernote is like a paperless filing cabinet in my pocket. Notesy gives me access to all of my plain text notes in Dropbox.

Soulver is my favorite calculator app, not only on the iPhone but on my iPad and Mac as well.

For task management, I mainly use OmniFocus. The OmniFocus iPhone app is really useful for capturing inbox items. I’ve starting using Drafts to send things to OmniFocus instead of starting with OmniFocus, though.

I use the built-in Reminders app for short-term but important reminders that I want pushed to all of my devices (e.g. “Put jeans in the dryer” when I really need to remember to do that.)

I’m glad this is a home screen post because I would be embarrassed to show you how many weather apps live elsewhere on my iPhone. Today is my current favorite for checking current weather and daily forecasts. The new Forecast.io and Dark Sky, however, both get a lot of use, too.

While we’re talking life management, it’s worth noting that I have two calendar apps on my home screen. I really like Fantastical’s natural language entry system, and I use it a lot—mainly in situations where it’s not appropriate to speak aloud to Siri. I can’t bring myself to remove the default calendar app because I really like having today’s date displayed on my home screen.

Entertainment:

I prefer to read on my iPad, but I actually read way more on my iPhone because it’s with me all the time. I’ve really been digging Newstand in the last year. Marco Arment has done a great job with The Magazine, which lives in Newstand along with the New York Times app and The Economist. The Times app is easily the best news app I’ve ever used. If they would get rid of ads in the paid version, it would be even better.

Tweetbot, Reeder, and Instapaper live in my News folder. Tweetbot lets me capture important links on Twitter, and Reeder is my favorite place for following RSS feeds. And Instapaper, of course, my favorite place to read the articles I find in Tweetbot and Reeder.

I listen to a lot of audio through my iPhone. Virtually all of it comes from Instacast, my favorite app for following podcasts, and Pandora.

What app are you still missing?

I’m really looking forward to see how Google’s killing of Google Reader will change the way we subscribe to websites. I would like to see someone develop web services and apps that make it easier to not only follow newly published information but that also make it easy to subscribe to archived information. For example, I wish there was a way to browse older content more easily when I find, say, a blog that’s already been active for years—kind of like working through a box of old Life magazines.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Thanks for having me back. It’s always a pleasure working with you, reading you, and listening to you.

Thanks Edddie.

This year at Macworld I finally got to meet Rene Ritchie (Twitter). Rene publishes iMore, one of the best sources on the web for Apples news, rumors, and tutorials. Rene does an amazing job of sleuthing out details for future Apple products and iMore does some really great tutorials. (Just this week they did a nice piece on iOS message archiving). So Rene, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

Tweetbot and Twitterrific for Twitter. I use Tweetbot to triage @mentions and DMs and respond quickly while I’m out and about or working, and I use Twitterrific for reading the unified stream and linked content when I’m relaxing.

Launch Center Pro is the first third-party app to get on my Dock and stay there. It’s ability to launch actions instead of apps makes it an incredibly fast way to get everywhere I need to go, and do a lot of the basic things I need to do, without the mental overhead of hunting for a specific app, contact, or feature each time.

Fantastical for iPhone lets me enter events into my calendar with incredible ease and speed. It uses natural language, like Siri, but with text instead of voice, and that lets it parse and create stuff literally at the speed of type. Downside: my calendar is now fuller than ever. Jerks.

Dropbox stores my entire Mac documents directory and having it on my iPhone means I’m only ever a network connection and a few taps away from getting to all my stuff, at any time, any where.

1Password is the only way I can mediate the constant battle between convenience and security. My database lives in Dropbox so I can have strong passwords at home and while on the go.

Elements is how I edit text on iOS. It stores in Dropbox so it doesn’t matter where I am, I can pick up and keep working. I can even use Dictation to input ideas on the road. It’s my memory alpha.

Screens lets me VNC into my Macs from my iPhone or my iPad. That it works at all is magic. That it works in so simple, elegant a way is more than magic. (Science!)

The iMore app, self-serving as my including here may sound, is something I use constantly to keep track of the site I run and interact with my community I serve.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Letterpress. That damn Loren Brichter has stolen more hours of sleep from me this year than any other developer. He also did it with yet-another trend-setting design, a delightful experience, and a system that doesn’t feel like it’s gouging or conning me.

What is the app you are still missing?

Whatever is next! I have a ton of great apps, many of which are incredibly clever ways to solve incredibly common or complex problems. But imagination is limitless, and I’m always on the lookout for even better apps that do things in even better ways.

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

Nearly constantly! When I’m out, I’m looking at it all the time, and when I’m home, it’s still how I glance at notifications. I might need an intervention. Not that I want one.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Simplicity. It’s beautifully yet unobtrusively designed and it powers fantastic software and services that are highly discoverable and accessible and have changed the way I live my life.

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

I’d like to see the next generation of user interface. We — every user of every device by every platform owner — are stuck in an era of pull data where we have to hunt down icons or widgets or apps to find our data and act on it. It’s time to jump ahead again. It’s time to go to push data. It’s time for our data to come to us.

I want actionable notifications where I can respond to messages inside the alert, or reset counters, or play/pause music, without switching apps or control schemes. I want inter-app communication so the stuff I need follows me where ever I am. I want a unified view of all my messages, regardless of whether they’re SMS, email, Twitter, or whatever, and all my schedules/reminders that are easy to get to and act on. And I want a simple, unified gesture navigation system to help me get around even faster. Demanding much?

Anything else you’d like to share?

Yeah, my Home screen is almost completely stock. Hi, I’m Captain Default, have we met?

Seriously, though, I have a bunch of devices for testing a bunch of different things, I restore them often, and I frequently use them to screenshot help articles. Default is the easiest way to always know what’s where.

Now if MacSparky ever asks for second screen shots…

Thanks Rene

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?

1Password

This app is a must-have. I almost browse more in 1Password than I do in Safari.

Air Playit

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.

Habit List

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.

OmniFocus

Do I really need to say more? It’s the best task manager out there. Period.

Downcast

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).

Instapaper

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.

Drafts

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.

Tweetbot

Simply the best twitter client out there.

Weather+

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?

Kingdom Rush

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

I was looking at the wealth of home screen posts going back to December 2009 and it occurred to me I’ve never posted my own home screen. Well gang, here you go.

On The Dock

Calendar

I need a calendar app in my dock because I often need my calendar. I’ve got this on-again off-again relationship with Apple’s calendar app. I know there are better solutions but at the end of the day I’m pretty scatterbrained and having the date in my dock is useful.

Drafts(App Store)

I’ve written about Drafts before. Plenty. Drafts is the ultimate text capture tool but does so much more. I use it with the keyboard and Siri all the time. Moreover, Drafts just keeps improving with an increasing number of export and automation features.

OmniFocus (App Store)

My precious OmniFocus.

Phone

Well … it is an i”Phone”.

On the Home Screen

I love my iPhone 5 but I also love having a little empty space on my home screen. I emptied out the bottom row a few months ago and now I’m used to it that way. I’m also very specific about App placement. The Camara is always top right, Email is always top left. I’ve played with alternative camera apps but the launch speed of the native app trumps their additional features.

Tweetbot and Netbot (Tweetbot App Store) (Netbot App Store)

There are a lot of great Twitter apps but Tweetbot is my favorite. I like the little delightful bits of the interface and the way everything syncs across Mac and iOS.

Calcbot (App Store)

Calcbot is another great Tapbots app. It’s a friendly calculator with great sound effects. Yes. I said that.

Reeder (App Store)

RSS feeds are my dirty habit. I try to keep the list small but I still find myself checking it several times a day. For this, I use Reeder on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Instapaper (App Store)

I know there are other read-it-later services but I love the way Marco Arment sweats all the details. Instapaper is, for me, a triage of sorts where articles get routed to Evernote, OmniFocus, Reading folders, and the trash. I also pay the monthly $1 subscription.

WriteRoom (App Store)

I have an ongoing battle between WriteRoom and Notesy for syncing my nvALT text files from my Mac. Currently I’m using WriteRoom because it is so damn fast at syncing. (As an aside, sometimes I’ll also run an instance of Notesy just syncing to my current Field Guide files through Scrivener on my Mac.)

Byword (App Store)

Byword is where I keep anything I’m currently writing on. I love the iCloud sync and the simple UI. It just works.

Downcast (App Store)

I originally used Instacast. I paid for the app and the in-app upgrades but they made changes to the UI and I never got used to it. Moreover, the icon was about the same color as the Music and Reader apps, which led to me sometimes hitting the wrong one. (I know how ridiculous that sounds.) So I tried Downcast about six months ago and it stuck with me, immediately.

Music

I know a lot of nerds put the Music app on a second page but I really love music.

1Password (App Store)

Agile’s done such an amazing job with version 4. I use this app probably more than I use Safari since it logs me in so efficiently and the in-app browser is so good.

Setting

I’m a fiddler with iPhone settings so I keep it handy. It would be nice if I could use Siri to do some of the most common tasks, like toggle Bluetooth and WiFi.

A Word about Badges.

I don’t like them. It feels like my iPhone is yelling at me. I turn badges off on just about every app that has them. I even turn them off on the email client. (Actually, I especially turn them off on the email client.) I’ve deleted apps that made too much a chore out of turning off their badges. In OmniFocus, I turn off all badges except “Due”. If OmniFocus lights up a badge, I know I have troubles.

The Second Page

I do seem to collect apps. My second page is a group of alphabetized folders with apps that I occasionally use or am trying out.

My Lock Screen

I rather like my lock screen. The image was created by a friend of mine, Gabe Wilson. You can download it with the below link.

Make me a Pirate (download)

This week’s home screen comes from my pal Mike Rohde, (Twitter) (Website), the father of Sketchnoting, founder of the Sketchnote Army, and a recent guest on the Mac Power Users. So Mike, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite Apps?

I have many favorites, not all of which are represented on my home screen, so I’ll talk a little about my home screen first and then mention a few standouts used more occasionally, but still useful when needed.

Safari & Mail – both stock apps which work well and seem to be the glue of my workflow on the iPhone. I’m either viewing or sending information with these two, unglamorous as they are. Still, they are great, workhorse tools for me.

Instapaper – This is where I send many of the longer reads I encounter on Twitter, in Reeder or in email. It’s a great reading environment and has been a staple on my home screen for a long time now.

I will admit to having no organization in Instapaper whatsoever. It’s a means to an end, really – if I like something there, I might Pinboard or email it to someone, or tweet it out. So I don’t spend any time with folders. But I love this app.
Reeder – Five years ago I spent all of my time reading RSS feeds on the Mac, using NetNewsWire. When I moved to the iPhone for reading RSS, which was a slow transition, I eventually settled on Reeder, after trying some other apps out.
I appreciate the minimalist UI of the app and how I’m able to move articles around in Google Reader, Instapaper, Twitter, email and Pinboard. It’s great to have the synchronicity with the iPad and Mac apps as well — something I appreciate in a few apps I use.

Tweetbot & Netbot – I keep these together as I spend time in both pretty regularly. Right now I spend more time in Tweetbot because of my book release late last year — sharing info about the book, responding to readers and also heavy commentary during the NFL season on my team, The Green Bay Packers and other teams too.

In that specific instance, the Tweetbot feature of being able to follow a specific list as your main stream has become invaluable. When I watch and comment on a game, I switch my timeline to the Football list I’ve built, which shows people I’ve marked as interested in or commenting on NFL games. It works great.

As for my followers who could care less about NFL tweets, Tweetbot has a nice mute feature which I am aware of, but have never used. Still, it’s good to know this feature is available.

I’ve appreciated the features in Tweetbot to the point that when I tried to use the stock Twitter app, I get frustrated. I’ve removed that stock app from my iPhone because it got so little use, once Apple integrated Twitter accounts into iOS.

Finally, I like the gestures Tweetbot and Netbot offer. I probably use a fraction of what is available, but for what I use, I like those options.

Listary – This is a simple app that uses the Simplenote database and plain text files to create to-do lists. What’s even better is the sharing feature that lets me share a shopping list with my wife and the copy of Listary on her iPhone.

I can load up items I need through the day and then pick them up — my wife can add to them as well. I’ve even seen her add items while I was at the store shopping. The lists are just Simplenote files and can easily be edited in Simplenote as well.

Maps – I actually like Apple’s mapping, though I only occasionally use them. I do miss the Google Maps transit maps — those have been incredibly handy when I’ve used public transport in other cities. I’m a fan of the Apple turn-by-turn UI and feature, and have used that more than I would have expected. Fortunately it hasn’t sent me into a river yet. 🙂

Now that Google has a standalone app, I’ll likely use that when I need to travel by bus or train in other cities, or until Apple adds a transit option.

Messages – Useful for the everyday texting I do with my wife, father and work colleagues. Like Mail it just does the job. Recently I’ve sorted out Messages on the Mac and really like having access to messaging wherever I am.

Camera – With the iPhone 4S, I’ve switched back to the stock camera app, because it’s become so quick. I do have Camera+ on the phone and sometimes use it to process photos, but felt it had become too slow for quick images.

I also like the stock camera app because it drops an original in my photo collection and photostream and if I use the image in Flickr, Camera+ or Instagram, I always have the original shot to fall back on.

1Password – This is a great tool for mostly occasional use on the iPhone, typically for logins when I’m on another machine, key codes for door locks and things like that. I don’t use it here as heavily as I do on the Mac, but I love that the key database syncs via Dropbox.

Flickr – This is the newest addition to my home screen, replacing Instagram in the same spot. I wasn’t pleased about the licensing and rights issues around Instragram recently, and have been a Flickr guy for many years now. I was excited to see the app updated and the ability to both share my photostream and sets and see others’ work as well.

I’ve moved the most recent Instagram shots over to Flickr and will eventually move them all over, and find it fun to play with the editing and filtering features in Flickr.

Instacast – I am a huge podcast listener, with a 25 minute commute into work and often 35 minutes back home, Monday through Wednesday. I’ve got a backlog of podcast right now, as I’ve recently added some new podcasts to my queue and am in the process of shifting and settling on a new list of regulars with a few stalwarts that will never get removed.

I also listen to podcasts when I walk the dog, when I shovel snow or mow the grass, wash dishes or even on my Jambox while I give kids baths. It’s great to have such a wide variety of voices and content available these days.

Day One – This app is a recent move to the home screen, ever since the iOS and Mac apps were updated to include photos, weather, location data and other features. I love that these all sync between devices (iPhone, iPad and Mac) so that I can start an entry with a photo on the iPhone in the morning, and finish the entry at night on the Mac or iPad.

I’m still not as regular with my diary entries as I wish I were, however, this app has made me much, much more regular in my day capture than before. I love the app.

Nike+ Running – This is an app I’ve been using for walking my dog at night. I’ll fire it up and the app tracks my “runs” which in this case are walks — I really love the GPS tracking that identifies the route taken and even uses a heat map style color coding system to show where I walked quickly, slowly or was stopped.

The data is synced to my Nike+ account, so I have access on the web, though most of my use of the data is right on the phone. I can see how far I’ve walked, how fast my mile is and it tracks goals and gives badges for achievements.

Eventually I am looking at a Fitbit Flex or Nike Fuelband, but for this purpose the app works just fine for my simple needs and it seems to motivate me to walk.

OmniFocus – Super productivity app that I really like and am using more this year. I primarily use it on the Mac, though it’s handy to have with me on the iPhone for entering tasks or adding new ones as I think of them.

The iPhone app’s Forecast View is especially helpful for looking ahead quickly and seeing what’s on the horizon. I’m hoping this feature gets added to OmniFocus 2.0 for the Mac.

Phone – Basic phone app that works fine, but nothing super special.

Simplenote – A great app I find more useful every day. I use it in conjunction with JustNotes on the Mac, where I track all sorts of stuff — Sketchnote Handbook reference, press mentions, reviewer name and addresses, along with thoughts I have on the go, recipes for food I like to prepare, and whatever else I need to quickly store.

It also provides a database for Listary to work, which is a great symbiotic relationship.

Fantastical – This is also a recent addition to the home screen, replacing Agenda. I really like the natural language feature for adding events and integration with Siri as well. The Week View bar up top is also a great way to look ahead – reminds me of Forecast in OmniFocus.

Other apps of note:

iA Writer – Great app for writing on the iPhone in a simple, focused environment that also has a corresponding iPad and Mac client.

Quotebook – Wonderful app for capturing quotes I get in email or see on Twitter.

Pandora – When I want to get into a groove for creating, I like to fire up a station in Pandora and just let it roll. Last year I upgraded to Pandora One and love commercial free mixes.

Squarespace – Nice little app for checking stats and approving/replying to comments. I’ve done some posting from this app on the iPhone or iPad, but prefer the keyboard on my Mac.

Pear Note – Handy note-taking app on the iPhone and iPad, with audio recording and sync capabilities that also connects up with my Mac’s version via Dropbox or iCloud.

Dropbox – More useful than I would have expected for viewing and sending files.

GoodReader – My go-to PDF reading app on the iPhone and iPad.

Bloom – Coffee timer I use for AeroPress, Pourover and French Press.

Mention – An app that I track mentions of The Sketchnote Handbook with. Service is web-based and has a Mac client so I can see what mentions have come in anywhere I am.

ooTunes – I use this to tune into terrestrial radio streams for sporting events.

Square Register – Just picked up a Square reader and this app on the iPhone and iPad so I can sell copies of my book when I travel to events.

Tripit – When I travel, this app combined with the TripIt Pro service is invaluable. Keep track of my flights, hotel and in-between travel, along with maps of cities and airports.

Minimal Folio – Great app for giving presentations from on the go.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Casual gaming, which when it happens is either Letterpress, Angry Birds or Armageddon Squadron, an old WWII fighter pilot game on the iPhone.

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

I use my iPhone constantly through the day — email, Twitter and Reeder in the morning, podcasts or music for the drive to and from work, and other uses all day long.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

My favorite feature of the iPhone and iPad is the portability and power in an elegant package. I’m sometimes shocked at the power I now have in my pocket to do so much — the version of myself from 20 or even 10 years ago would be dumbfounded to learn that the future me would have a phone more powerful than the Mac I was using to design logos with.

I learned how valuable the iPad could be through the process of writing The Sketchnote Handbook. I used it to write the manuscript with a Bluetooth keyboard, for reference as I sketched the book, to edit scripts and as a teleprompter when shooting the book’s videos and as a testing device when I loaded the final PDFs for review.

Probably the secret, underlying feature that makes them most valuable is the long battery life, particularly on the iPad. It’s become a serious creating machine for writing and concepting because I can spend a day traveling or at a cafe and never think about battery.

Anything else you would like to add?

David, thank you for making a space with the home screen series where users can share how they apply these amazing machines we have in their own lives. I’ve subscribed to the series and will look forward to reading back and seeing new pieces appear in the future.

Thanks Mike.

As I prance through the Internet, I keep noticing that articles I particularly enjoy have David Chartier in the byline. David (Web) (Twitter) is a freelance writer who frequently contributes to some of the best tech sites, like Macworld and Ars Technica. David also does work with AgileBits, publishers of my beloved 1Password. David, I believe, is also the first guest to share his iPad mini home screen (though I suspect he won’t be the last). So David, show us your home screen.

What are some of favorite apps?

How much time do we have? Let’s see, Evernote, Flipboard, Tumblr, Drafts, Day One, TextExpander, and Writing Kit off the top of my home screen. If I can diverge from the iPad for just a second, I also have to mention KitCam for iPhone. It feels like the epitome of everything we’ve learned about and want from a mobile camera for photos and videos.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Right now I’d have to say Angry Birds: Star Wars. I know we’re all probably sick to death of them, but adding the Star Wars characters created some fun new game mechanics that I am fully prepared to admit have convinced me to in-app purchase all the levels.

What is the app you are still missing?

A to-do app for things and places. I have Things, I might switch back to OmniFocus, but I want an app for collecting books, movies, music, places, and other types of things that I want to try. This app needs to understand and display metadata about the thing I want to try. I want album art, movie ratings, Foursquare-like photos of the European city to which I want to travel with my wife… not just a list of names and checkboxes. Good idea David.

Springpad is a kitchen-sink Evernote competitor that works some metadata magic. It’s close, and its iOS apps are great and getting better so I might try it again for what I’m talking about. But I would prefer an app tuned for this specific purpose, and ideally not supported by advertising (or likely to be). Recall for iPhone is getting there, and Done Not Done adds some light, social smartness to that whole thing. But I still feel like my Moby App is out there… eluding me. Taunting me.

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

Is this a trick question? Ok, I should probably break it down. My iPhone? Constantly. I keep it with me as a scratchpad for ideas (Drafts, Evernote, and Things), or to limit my social media usage when I really need to hunker down. Or simply as a flashlight to get around the house at night and to take the dogs out since I am often a night owl, my wife is a light sleeper.

When it comes to my iPad, it’s different. I’ve grown to love the portability and simplicity of iOS for many of the tasks for which it suits me, like reading, writing, outlining, basic sketching, researching (thanks to Writing Kit’s built-in browser), and more. That said, I’ll admit my Mac is still better for some tasks and situations, so I’d say my general work day is split about 80/20 Mac and iPad, maybe 85/15. But when it comes to after hours or anything that doesn’t absolutely require a Mac, I reach for my iPad more and more these days. Walking out of the house with nothing but a small, incredibly light satchel containing an iPad and maybe my Logitech Tablet Keyboard is incredibly liberating.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

That it can become any feature. The iPad and iPhone are designed to be blank canvases, from the first line of code to the final line drawn by Jonathan Ive. Whether I want to write, or tinker with my music and singing hobby, or dust off the drawing skills of my multimedia design degree, my iOS device becomes entirely devoted to that purpose with a single tap. It’s been five years and I’m still impressed by this aspect of the experience and platform that Apple built, and the immense creativity developers show in harnessing it.

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

I would iterate iOS faster and add a layer for power users. As much as I love iOS, parts of it really do feel like they’ve stalled or fallen behind. iOS releases have become one major X.0 release per year, a couple of security fixes to follow, and then nothing until the preview of the next big X.0, then the release of said next X.0.

I really do think there is room for some kind of a “pro user” layer to iOS. Maybe it could be a giant red button, buried deep within Settings.app, which warns the user that they forfeit all software support for the remainder of their device’s warranty (but total hardware failure could still be covered if you have AppleCare+). The details are negotiable.

But utilities like TextExpander, Pastebot, and everything else handicapped by sandboxing and other iOS rules are incredibly useful. There has to be a way iOS can be safe and secure for the vast majority of users, yet offer the extra power for users that can knowingly harness it.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Thanks a ton for inviting me to this series. Be excellent to each other.

Thanks David