As further evidence that one of the best reasons to attend Macworld Expo is to meet like-minded nerds, this year I had the pleasure getting to know the iFixit guys.

Kyle Wiens (twitter) can take just about anything apart and put it back together. In addition to being a really smart guy, Kyle is an e-waste activist and has some really useful information on the subject at his site. Finally, Kyle’s iPad home screen wallpaper is perhaps the most appropriate (based on what Kyle does for a living) of any home screen poster yet. So Kyle, show us your home screen.

What is your favorite app?

Well, I’m obligated to say that’s my own app: iFixit. Repair manuals were meant to be mobile, and the iPad is far and away the best way to use a repair manual. You perform a task, swipe to the next step, do the next step, swipe next. It’s seamless and crazy functional. The final user experience turned out much better than I had hoped it would. Our technicians use it all the time in the office.

I also love Maps. I didn’t have data access when I was traveling throughout Africa researching e-waste, and I got lost constantly. Being able to get last-minute directions frees me from having to pre-plan every last detail of my life. I love the flexibility.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Instapaper. Whenever I get a spare moment, I dive into articles I should have read earlier but didn’t have time.

What is the app you are still missing?
I’d love to get a useful Google Voice app.

I definitely miss iFixit on my phone. Our iPad app is so incredibly useful, and I’d definitely like to have that view of our repair guides on the go. We’re almost done with our iPhone version, which I’m really excited about.

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

It depends on the day. When I’m working, I don’t use them much at all. When I travel, I use my phone constantly. I listen to podcasts on the way to work and Runkeeper when I run in the evenings.

I actually use my iPad rarely—less than I use my Kindle. I mostly use it to follow a repair guide when I’m fixing something or to check out interesting new apps. But when I do use it, it’s incredible. In fact, I used it last night to fix the ignition switch in my Honda Accord. There’s no way I would have been able to use my laptop for that.

I’d like to use the iPad more over time, but I haven’t found anything yet that makes it useful in my day-to-day coding and design work.

I’m so much more productive on my MacBook Pro than my iPad that I really reserve it for consuming content. Or jamming in Garage Band.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The iPod app’s double-speed podcast playback. If it didn’t do that, I’d have to get a custom-purpose device that did.

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

I would kill iTunes. It’s the worst product Apple’s ever made, and it needs to be scrapped and rewritten from scratch. Here’s an example. I listen to BBC World Service every morning. Here’s my process: Open iTunes. Plug in my phone. Wait 10-15 seconds for iTunes to un-freeze and start syncing. Click podcasts, click refresh. Wait for the phone to sync and the podcasts to download. Then click sync again, because it doesn’t always sync podcasts that were downloading while it was syncing the first time. Wait for the sync to finish, unplug and go. It’s a ridiculous waste of time. Why can’t my phone download new podcasts over the air?

I’m sure Apple knows iTunes sucks, but replacing it with a cloud architecture is hard. I’m optimistic they’ll figure it out eventually, but I don’t think the solution will come anytime soon.

Anything else you’d like to share?

The iPad revolutionizes repair. Performing a repair with the iPad is a phenomenal experience. It really feels like the future. Follow a step. Swipe to the next step. Tap to zoom in on a photo, and pinch to zoom to see the itty-bitty details of an individual screw head. Tap to close, swipe for the next step. The iPad completely disappears, and the photo manual is all that you experience. This really is a quantum leap forward in making online knowledge seamlessly useful. Unlike the repair manuals of yore, iFixit on iPad gets better when you’re not using it—because thousands of people all over the world are constantly editing and making our manuals better.

I also included a screen cap of my MacBook Pro’s desktop for posterity. Lightroom, Scrivener, and BusyCal are my favorite third party Mac apps.

Thanks Kyle.

Several months ago I was on a business trip and had one of those fortuitous experiences. This guy got on the airport shuttle with me and was positively beaming. He was a complete stranger to me but I immediately knew I wanted to make a new friend. He turned out to be Steve Volk (Twitter) and the reason he was so happy is he had the first print copy of his first book. Steve and I proceeded to share lunch and a drink at the Airport and I made a really smart and geek-inclined new friend. Steve is an experienced investigative journalist and just released his first book, Fringe-ology, all about a serious look into such things as ghosts, UFOs, and maverick scientists. So Steve, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

Things like Zite and Flipboard, which aggregate media, intrigue me. They probably represent the future of my business as a journalist, allowing people to bypass all the traditional portals and eliminating the reader’s identification with particular publications. I’m not sure what this means for my paychecks, ultimately, and I worry about a public that more and more can entirely control what information it receives. Sometimes, we simply need to be confronted by points of view we don’t like. But I’m also excited by what these apps represent—the ability to get content to people, multimedia content, near instantaneously.

What is your favorite app?

I love my comics reader, Comixology, and the functionality of iBooks is dreamy—sorry, bibliophiles, but the tactile sensation of holding the iPad and turning virtual pages is enough for me. This is quite a statement from a guy with a book he’s looking to sell. But whoomp! there it is, and I’m just as happy to have people buy it using an e-reader.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

FIFA 11—the soccer app. I can play a half of soccer in seven or eight minutes on a break and a second half later, whenever I have the time. The graphics are great and the gameplay is smooth and, well, shouldn’t I be using those stolen minutes to meditate? Here I am, having done all that research on meditation and I’m spending some of my time playing videogame soccer?

What is the app you are still missing?

Too many to count. With the book out and some assignments I’ve been working, including a long piece on the culture of open air drug dealing in Philadelphia, I’ve been too busy to really even scratch the surface of what’s available to me. My intention, no lie, is to sit down with your blog, on my iPad, of course, and get some ideas of what I’m missing. But I have yet to enjoy the chance.

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

I mean, constantly. I use my iPhone to listen to audiobooks, podcasts and music. In fact, I listen to my phone more than my home stereo. I also use it every time I run. I am finishing Couch to 5K, the running app, and transitioning to Couch to 10K. My iPad is even more of a companion. When I sit down for the night, whenever that is, I curl up with my iPad and sit next to my wife in the exact same way I used to sit down with an armful of books and magazines.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but the ease of use. I am not a technophile but darn if I can’t figure stuff out on these bad boys. In my entire life, how many things have met my expectations for them—from people and relationships, to my own work and nearly every product I buy, book I read or movie I see? My wedding day, my marriage, my iPhone and my iPad all have one thing in common—they exceeded my expectations for them. That’s a short list. And no, I’m really not equating my iPad to marriage… . Really.

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

Dudes, for gosh sakes’, bring back the black MacBooks. They were so fricking cool.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Well, ultimately, my book is about how we don’t have to feel separate from one another. And whether anyone buys the book or not, I hope if people take away one thing from Fringe-ology, it’s that. I took on a whole series of taboo topics for a mainstream journalist—paranormal stuff. And what I found, again and again, is that the people on the extreme poles of belief and unbelief hold a lot in common. I think they try to establish a worldview for themselves based on plastering some often ill-fitting answer over questions that are still open to investigation. But once I started looking into topics like prayer, meditation and lucid dreaming—which, for a lot of people are just hooey—I found myself in new territory. Here, it seems, whether we believe these are purely material pursuits that bestow beneficial effects on our brain, or also spiritual pursuits, we’re still better off for taking part in these practices. And if we focus our thoughts on ideals like peace and compassion and love, we tend to emerge with a more accepting, tolerant and welcoming attitude toward other people and their beliefs. This may color me as a kind of journalist-hippie. But I’m all right with that. See how accepting I am?

Thanks Steve