Image by JD Hancock used under Creative Commons License — Image by JD Hancock used under Creative Commons License

The Google Play Android App store has over 1M apps but there are a handful of apps I found really useful in 2014 and they tend to be the first apps on a new phone and the apps I use most often.

1 - Drippler

Drippler is a neat little app that provides reviews, tech tips, updates and app recommendations in a well designed easy to use Android app. This app is a must for anyone interested in Android.

Drippler will provide tips and app suggestions based on the device it is running on. It's simple and straight forward.

Get Drippler from Google Play here (link)

2 - Slice: Online Shopping Tracker

Slice is a helper app for anyone that makes purchases online (and who doesn't). At it's core, it is a fantastically full featured package deliver tracker that has push capabilities (no more checking 5 online package tracking websites). It supports most major US package delivery carriers such as : USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, OnTrac, Lasership, Prestige, Ensenda, and more

In addition to tracking packages, it tracks recalls to see if anything you bought has been recalled or if the price has dropped (helping you claim under price match policies).

If you are in the US and use Android, you should download this now.

Get Slice from Google Play here (link)

3 - Agent - do not disturb & more

Anyone that has met me in the last year, that uses a non Motorola Android device has heard me recommend this app. It is a must. Everyone that tries this app loves it.

It basically gives you some of the functionality that has made Motorola phones so popular. It is a smart background agent that automatically changes phones settings to save battery, prevent distracted driving, remembers where you parked, silence your phone when you are in meetings or sleeping (except for urgent calls), etc.

The Drive Agent is triggered by your cars bluetooth connection or by the motion of your car. It can be configured to read your SMSs, allow you to respond by voice or auto-respond to callers/texting letting them know you can't answer now because you are driving.

The Battery Agent is triggered when your battery drops below a certain threshold and allows you to turn off blutooth, dim the screen, etc. Everything comes back to "normal" when you charge your device automagically.

Meeting Agent knows when you are busy (based on your calendar) and then switches your phone to either silent or vibrate. You can specify your work week (days/hours) so it only applies during these windows.

Sleeping Agent allows you to automatically silence your phone when sleeping. You can configure different times for different days. It can auto-respond to callers/texters letting them know you are sleeping. You can specify which contacts can "wake" you.

Get Agent from Google Play here (link)

4 - Time Hop

There was a fantastic online picture storage service (now gone) called Everpix. One of the coolest features they had was a flashback feature where you received an email everyday highlighting a picture from that day a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, etc. It was a great way to relive some of your past moments captured in photos.

Time Hop is a similar concept except it does this for all your social media networks. It brings back this day from your past by surfacing posts and pictures from your various networks: Phone, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Foursquare.

Get Time Hop from Google Play here (link).

5 - Lastpass

With all the hacks and breaches, you should already be using long unique passwords for each internet site you are registered with. Obviously keeping all of those in your head doesn't work otherwise your passwords aren't unique enough. Enter LastPass. It is a fantastic cross platform password manager that costs just $12 a year.

6 - Evernote

I love Evernote and everyone should have it, use it and love it.

Best Business Card OCR App For The IPhone

May 15, 2013technologyEdward Kiledjian

As a leader in a multinational organization, I meet dozens of people every week and need a way to easily (and reliably) capture their contact information and make it available anytime/anywhere I need it. There are dozens of Business Card OCR apps in the Apple itunes AppStore but most have one fatal flaw, they rely on technology to recognize the information on the business card which means you will have to manually correct all of the transcription errors.

Human transcription is better

Enter the wonderful world of manually transcribed business cards provided for free by CardMunch. The app is very simple to use, you snap a picture of the business card (making sure it is legible) then it uploads the image to a magic fairy world (aka Amazon's Mechanical turk service) where the card information is transcribed by a human for you. There is a delay between the time you snap the image to when the transcription is done. The wait is usually between 15 minutes and a couple of hours.

When the app was just purchased by LinkedIn, I had some transcription quality issues (info not being transcribed or info being wrongly transcribed) but since then, LinkedIn has really improved the quality and I now very rarely have to "resubmit" a card for transcription. If the transcription isn't up to your standards, you have a nice resubmit button to have the work redone.

Free as a bird

When the app was first released many years ago, customers had to buy transcription packs (you paid per transcription) but since the product was acquired by LinkedIn, they have made the entire service free.

The "catch" is that you need a LinkedIn account (which is free itself).

Value added LinkedIn Information

If a scanned contact has a LinkedIn profile then get their full LinkedIn profile and their LinkedIn picture shows us also. You have a Connect button if you want to send them a LinkedIn connection request (which doesn't appear for existing contacts of course).

The app has a nice search option which searches by contact or company name. Turning the phone sideways shows the cards in a Rolodex like carousel format.

Other Options of note

You can configure the app to autosave all recognized cards to your iPhone's address book ( latest version of the app seems to have removed this option) and you can export a contact's information to VCF (which make importing into outlook super easy).

Verdict

Good : The app is easy to use, free and offers very accurate business card transcription.

Bad: One drawback is that the human transcription can sometimes take an hour or more. After the last update, they removed the ability to autosave contacts to the iPhone's address book. After the last update, sending LinkedIn invitations to transcribed contacts often fails. Hopefully they will fix these issue with the next update.

Overall I use this app very often and highly recommend it.

Images

Below you see the card scanning interface.

The below image shows the main app interface. On the top you see images of scanned cards waiting to be transcribed and below you see all the contact you have had transcribed with the app.

The below image shows the contact information collected from Linkedin (public or if you are already connected to the person) and transcribed from the persons business card.

Best video recording app for the iPhone

May 11, 2013technologyEdward Kiledjian

For most iPhone owners, the built-in camera and video app is more than enough. For the rest of us, there is FiLMiC Pro.

Best App Ever Awards: video nominee 2011, 2012
Best App Ever finalist, Tap! Magazine
Gizmodo Essential App 2011, 2012
Best Video App of 2011 - TUAW, Editors Pick
5 Stars, Editors Review, cnet.com
App of the Week, Time.com/Techland
Editorʼs Choice - Wired, Film Riot, Macworld

During the Zacuto "Revenge of the Great Camera Shoot Out", Filmic Pro was used with an iPhone 4s and put against some major competitors (one costing $5,000 and the other $13,000) and won out during a blind "taste test" shootout.

Why is Filmic Pro so good? It offers amazing quality and personalization options. Truth is, you won't need any other video apps. First important difference (compared to the stock Apple app), you can lock exposure, focus and color. This means your video will look consistent throughout.

It supports extremely slow motion video all the way to super speed recording (and everything in between). Most of the time, you'll set it and forget it but there are times when the slow motion feature comes in handy. As an example I slowmo recorded my daughter on a roller coaster. It was a wonderful way to enjoy the moment (at normal speed, I would have missed her facial expressions and the moment would have been over in a fraction of a second).

Using the app can be as simple as point and shoot but it offers many features professional expect such as an audio meter (stereo capable if you have an external input), aspect ratio overlays, ability to choose frame rate, audio quality and super simple upload and sharing options.

I have tried dozens of video apps in the last 12 months and none come close to the power and quality of Filmic Pro

Best rechargeable batteries

May 3, 2013technologyEdward Kiledjian

I often get emails asking me which rechargeable batteries I personally use... The answer is SANYO ENELOOP rechargeable batteries. I wrote a review about them here.

Hope this helps