Dr. Drang (Twitter) (Blog) is one of my favorite people on the Internet. He is a working stiff, like me, yet still makes time to write up some really useful, nerdy stuff while creeping me out on a nearly daily basis with his psychopathic snowman avatar. So Doctor, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps and how have they changed over the years?

So many changes since the last time. In particular, what was my (admittedly self serving) favorite app in 2011, an iPhone-formatted homemade weather webapp that still works, has since been banished to a nether screen in favor of Apple’s built-in Weather app, which been greatly improved over the past couple of years.

My old stalwarts, Notesy, Tweetbot, Reeder, Due, and PCalc are still there and still in the same positions. I use them all every day. Fantastical has taken over the calendar spot from Agenda, and not only because of its renowned natural language input method; I really like the compact but thorough way it presents the list of my upcoming events.

To me, the most interesting changes have been these:

1. My recognition that I text more than I talk, so Messages should be in the Dock and Phone shouldn’t.
2. The way podcast listening has become important enough for Downcast to displace the iPod (now Music) app in the Dock.
3. The rise of Drafts (an upDraft?), as both a quick way to enter notes and, through the x-callback-url system, a way to dispatch text off to other apps. I now do most of my note-writing in Drafts; Notesy is more for reading.
4. The inclusion of Pythonista. I’m continually surprised that the “locked down” iPhone has such a capable programming environment running on it.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Last time I said I was too old to feel guilty about my pleasures, and that still holds, but if I were to feel guilty, it would be for the time spent jumping from word to word in Terminology. Too often I’ve allowed it to change from a productivity app to an anti-productivity app.

I thought I was the only Terminology word surfer. Also check out Wordflex. It will ruin you. -David

What is the app you are still missing?

I’m currently on the hunt for an app to share shopping lists with my wife. There are probably hundreds of list-making apps available, but I’m very particular.

• I need the process of making and sharing lists to be absolutely transparent for my wife, because she won’t put up with the fiddling that I would tolerate.
• I need to be able to make and add to lists from my computer, because when I’m at my computer I want to type on a real keyboard.
• And finally, we need to be able to print a decent looking list from the app via AirPrint. It’s all very futuristic to swipe or tap checkboxes on your phone, but for real efficiency, there’s nothing like a printed grocery list—you don’t need to scroll, you don’t have to worry about dropping it as you reach for the milk, and it never goes blank to preserve battery life.

The top candidate at the moment is 1Writer. Its list-making is almost automatic, and it produces nicely printed lists. It syncs via Dropbox, which is great, but it sometimes needs prodding to upload additions to a recently edited list. It should sync automatically as soon as you dismiss the keyboard.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

Not so much during the day when I’m in the office and at my iMac. Constantly when I’m out of the office.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

I have a computer connected to the internet in my pocket, ready to be used at any time—a device that’s smaller and more capable than any of the computers imagined in the science fiction I read as a kid.

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

We desperately need inter-app communication in iOS. In the 6+ years of the iPhone, it has raised our expectations of what a phone can do, and I don’t see how those expectations can continue to rise without a sanctioned and fully supported means of moving data between apps. I applaud Greg Pierce and every developer who supports the x-callback-url protocol, but that’s a workaround, not a permanent solution.

Thanks Doc.

This week’s home screen features Moisés Chiullan (Webite) (Twitter), one of my favorite 5by5 hosts with shows includingGiant Size, The Critical Path, and Screen Time. So Moisés, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

I can’t live without 1Password, to which I have recently converted in a literally religious manner. I say prayers that I added something to it when I desperately need it. I’m dedicating part of this weekend to dumping all my remaining passwords into it. Combined use of TextExpander Touch, Drafts, Squarespace Blog, Launch Center Pro and Screens is the only reason I can keep up with posting content at ArthouseCowboy.com regularly (or at all), especially with the LayoutEngine integration in Squarespace’s new app. Things is the simple, straightforward, (finally) cloud-syncing to-do app that gets what I need done. The only reason I like Apple’s Mail app is that I can flip switches on or off to hide accounts that movie industry publicists send hundreds of distribution list emails to daily (thanks SXSW!), except for when I need to find a specific one.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

A tie between two games: Letterpress and vConqr (no longer available but you can get RISK). The former is great when people don’t resign or disappear on turn three, and the latter is a really basic ripoff of RISK that gets my brain back into tactical action mode.

What is the app you are still missing?

A podcast app that I don’t want to cast into the darkest corners of hell. Instacast is only there until I export my OPML data into Castro.

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

Too many and not efficiently enough. You should have asked my wife. She’d have just said “lost count”.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Over the air data sync and intra-communication of apps as implemented by third-party developers. Technically, I guess that means a wellspring of talented, smart third-party developers who are always trying be miles ahead of the curve. I wish Apple made app-to-app interaction work better from the user perspective.

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

I used to work for them, and respect NDAs even when I never expect to work for someone again…however I can say it’s inexcusable that listening to audio on my phone drains the battery completely in under a half day. If I could change one thing, it would be the 20-year-olds at the Genius Bar assuming that I have Push enabled on all my apps, a dozen Exchange accounts, and that I’m a liar and/or an idiot. Apple Stores have gotten more like sneering, cattle-wrangling hipster hangout joints and less like the oasis they used to be.

Extrapolating that as a general note, they need to focus on reinvesting into the businesses they’re in across the board before they “redefine” anything like TV and further water down their standard of “it just works”, which is now down to “it generally does what an unspecified significant amount of people will tolerate”.

Anything else you’d like to share?

In addition to The Critical Path, where I’m second banana to the inimitable Horace Dediu, I host two other podcasts on 5by5. Screen Time is a panel show that looks at all parts of the video media ecosystem, from production to consumption.Giant Size is a panel show where John Gholson and I guide new, veteran, and lapsed comics readers through characters, creators, and stories worth reading. We want to make getting into comics less intimidating. Both of them include interviews with people from across the entertainment world, from Guillermo del Toro, Peter Weller, and Star Trek designers Mike and Denise Okuda to Stan Lee and Kelly Sue DeConnick. I also recently did a pilot for a new show about the world of customer service called Thank You For Calling!, and as of this writing, it’s available as 5by5 Special #23.

Thanks Moisés