Apps That Get Me Through The Day

Last year, I wrote a post regarding my favorite tech tools. Now, I would like to discuss iPhone applications.

I wake up in the morning and I turn off my Sleep Cycle app. This application monitors my sleep throughout the night and analyzes the best possible time to awaken me in the morning. Sleep research has established that the best time to awaken a sleeper and ensure that they feel refreshed is if they are at the top of their sleep cycle rhythm—this application uses the iPhone’s accelerometers to pinpoint the best possible time to wake me up. According to the Sleep Cycle’s statistics, I have used the app for over 124 nights—and there have only been two occasions that I did not wake up feeling like I am at the top of the world!

I then rollover and have my morning quiet time using the Reformation Study Bible app. This app was the most expensive I have ever purchased, but it has been the most invaluable. This application offers thousands of commentary notes from today’s leading theologian—including R.C. Sproul’s notes that come preinstalled on the app. The easy to use app also organizes all of my verse notes and easily syncs them to the Internet or to my iPad. With the thanks to this application, I have created hundreds of notes that I will never fear losing, unlike that devotional journal that I once misplaced.

I roll out of bed and it is time for exercise. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the past month, I have been using the 100 Pushups App, and thanks to it I am now at 90 consecutive pushups every morning. However, if it is a Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday, it is time for Lydia and myself to train for our 5K and our opportunity to utilize the Get Running and Run Keeper apps. (But naturally, before we go out the door we have to check The Weather Channel app to see what we need wear.) The Get Running app has masterfully coached we couch potatoes into running enthusiasts, while the Run Keeper app commandeers the iPhone’s compass and GPS capabilities and logs our distance and our routes.

While running, I use the Rhapsody app to listen to music. I am the type that abhors the thought of buying an iTunes song for .99 and ending up hating the piece. But with Rhapsody, I can listen unlimitedly to millions of songs (that are also in the iTunes collection) for $10 a month. I cannot tell you how much music that I planned on purchasing, listened to it on Rhapsody instead, ended up hating it, and thus saving $15 thanks to the application. The Rhapsody app keeps getting better and better. Check it out, music enthusiasts!

While sitting down to eat breakfast, I organize my day with 2Do. For those of you who I have not yet converted, I subscribe to David Allen’s personal productivity system called Getting Things Done. I have used countless todo lists on the iPhone, but 2Do is the best by leaps and bounds. What makes it even better is that I use a separate app called reQall to vocally enter my todos throughout the day. ReQall dictates my todos and uses this process to update my 2Do app inbox. I use these apps more than any others.

After I have my morning review of my todo list, I have to see what is going on in the world. So, I use the Google Reader vehicle Byline, The Huffington Post app as well as the Drudge Report and Politico mobile app sites.

Now it is off to work, I am sitting at a red light and I see that Lydia sent me a text message to my Text Free app—an application that allows me to send and receive as many text messages that I want at absolutely no cost to me. Of course, it is rightly against the law to text on the road in the state of Tennessee—even if you are at a red light—so I use the Dragon Dictation app that with a touch of a button records my voice and dictates the reply text message. Is the transcription accurate? It learns your voice overtime so eventually it becomes freakishly accurate!

While in my car, I like to listen to a lot of talk radio, yet living in East Tennessee I oftentimes only have the selection of Rush Limbaugh or Rush Limbaugh, so I fire up the WunderRadio app which boasts the most comprehensive radio streaming archive on the iPhone. I see that Neal Boortz is on a radio station up in Alaska, so I choose the stream and listen to Neal in perfect quality.

On my lunch break, a coworker asks to see photos of my European vacation. Photos work great on any iPhone, however, they also take up way too much disk space. That is why I use the Flickr app to store my photos online. I never have to worry about losing my photos in a hard drive failure, or anything of the like.

After work, I head to the local bookstore to pick up a book on theology. I use the Red Laser app to scan the barcode to see that it is actually sold online much cheaper. But I have even more options! Going on the Amazon website, I see that I can buy the Kindle version of the book at a much cheaper price and it can also be synced to my Kindle app on my iPad. I could start reading the book on the way out the door, drive home, pick up my iPad and pick up where I left off!

While reading my e-book, I hear a lot of emergency sirens. Recognizing that Lydia is on the road, I pull out my 5-0 police radio app to listen in to the local police transmissions. I hear that the sirens are for a 459 in progress. Having no idea what a 459 is, I look it up in the app’s glossary to see that a 459 is a burglary in progress and has nothing to do with traffic accidents, so my anxious heart is quickly relieved.

Lydia then arrives at home. We put down our Apple products. We then share a wonderful evening.

I suspect that this time next year, I will have even more apps to share! Below are photos of the apps mentioned above (in the order in which they were mentioned). I endorse each one!

Two Things That Chirp

I (Kevin) was placed with the responsibility of blogging this, and surprisingly the Getting Things Done (GTD) guru has procrastinated for almost a month of these very important additions to our family. Yes, we at the Fowlers added two things that chirp to our family.

1. The Apple iPhone 3GS


This is probably the most extravagant purchase I have ever made. Yes, the guy who prides himself on buying hardly anything just bought one of the hottest items on the market. For those that have been around me the past year, this purchase probably isn't a big surprise. I used my (free) iPod Touch religiously and I came across a small bonus at work two weeks before the phone's release. So, I wanted to use this newfound chunk of change on something that I could use everyday. I chose the iPhone and I absolutely love it.

Lydia figured that since I am making this rather expensive purchase, a little treat for her was in order...So, she chose the second thing that chirpped.

2. Optimus Prime (O.P.)


This is our little parakeet budgie O.P. He's quite the contented little dude. Its taken him a little while to get used to us, but he's getting there!



Welcome O.P. and iPhone!

Life Changing Software

Hello friends and fellow Mac heads,

For the past month or so I have been using computer software called Things. It is from a company based out of Germany called Cultured Code. This software is simply a sophisticated to-do list based off of world-renowned productivity guru David Allen's system (and book by the same name) Getting Things Done.

I first experimented with the iPod/iPhone version of this product. I purchased it for $10 (which is pretty expensive as far as iTunes Store apps go) and found that it was totally worth it. I then read about their desktop version which would open a whole new world to my iPod version. I purchased it (after a free 15 day trial) for $50.

For a grand total of $60, I have purchased the entire Things package and it has earned my highest recommendation. Using it and the Getting Things Done model, I have become more productive, more responsible, more punctual, and even...more relaxed. If you would like to know more, I highly encourage you to watch the video that is linked above. You may only want to watch the first half, as the latter half talks about software development. This is a great company and investment. I hope that you will consider it.

We are (MAC) Family...

You may be under the impression that any time I post on the blog it is to blabber on about gadgets. Well, this isn't entirely true, here is a link to all of my other posts. We both figured that it would be important to point out the major technological change that has happened in this family over the Christmas break.

As the above picture confirms, with the purchase of a new computer for Lydia, we are 100% Macintosh in this household. We have both been using PCs for decades and last week we are officially standing behind Apple computers. This just goes to show how quickly that we've been swept up by not only the Macintosh computers, but the company itself. Let me explain what we are holding.

Kevin: iPod Touch/MacBook
I of course wrote this post dedicated to my love to these two products.

Lydia: mac mini/Time Capsule

In Lydia's right hand is Time Capsule. Time Capsule not only serves as our wireless Internet base but it is also a highly sophisticated external hard drive. The Time Capsule connects with the OSX program "Time Machine." Time Capsule sits in a corner in our office and updates our computers wirelessly without us having to do a single thing. If we delete an important file, all we have to do is take a trip in our Macintosh Time Machine through the Time Capsule and we can find the file with ease.

Now to the newest member of our family...Believe it or not, Lydia is holding her brand new desktop computer in her left hand. Below is another picture of the mini. These machines were introduced back in 2005, so we are a little slow jumping on the band wagon, but we are very excited about the potentiality in this machine.

Want to know more about mac mini? Below is a video of Steve Jobs introducing the machine to the world. Why am I posting this on our blog? Well, this is the video that sold Lydia and myself to the product. Enjoy!

10 Tech Tools That Have Changed My Life

Many of you consider me a pretty tech-savvy person, so please allow me to turn fully geeky in the confines of this blog post. I want to share with you 10 tools that have truly made my life easier. These tools are not only for tech-nerds, they can be easily incorporated into anyone's life.

10. del.icio.us

You come across a page that is really cool and you know that you would like to see it tomorrow, a week from now, or even a decade from now. What are your options? Some of you will argue that you simply add it to your ever-growing favorites folder on your computer. But do you only use one computer? What if you want to access it from work? The average life of a PC is about four years...are you sure that your bookmarks are going to follow you forever?

del.icio.us takes care of that.

1. Visit a website that you deem cool and would like to keep for reference.

2. Click "Save To My del.icio.us" on the website's provided browser toolbar.

3. "Tag" your webpage with a word to help you organize it.

4. It is yours forever!

It can be accessed from anywhere. Want to give it a test drive? Where can you find this service? Well I already mentioned the URL multiple times. Type "del.icio.us" into your web browser and you are there!

Cost: Free!

9. Blogger

Leave it to Google to create a blog program that anyone can use. Whether you are a meager school teacher and his sign language interpreting wife, the former Secretary of Labor under the Clinton administration, or just a dude that wants to share everyone's secret, everyone is using Blogger.

In literally 5 minutes you too can be publishing your family, hobby, classroom, or life to the world's largest audience.

Cost: Free

8. YouTube

I bet you've never heard of this one, eh? Well, we in the Fowler household use YouTube more than just a replay of a funny clip you've seen on television--YouTube is our television. It is also an easy forum to create a clip in iMovie and send a silly e-birthday card to a family that lives thousands of miles away.