iPhone App Zealot

Pocket Informant by Web Information Solutions integrates to do lists with calendar management. To Do lists can be managed “Getting Things Done” (GTD) style, Franklin Covey style, or ToodleDo style. My personal preference is GTD, and it is good to see the other options. PI has the best calendar view of all the iPhone calendar apps I tried based on how I work. Specifically, it has the most useful and flexible weekly view calendar. Another great feature is that no matter which calendar view you are in as you drill down on details, there is a one touch back to monthly view button at the top of the screen. The options and flexibility of the list management is both a strength and weakness. I have a score of projects and a half dozen contexts. The lists can be sorted by project, contexts, next actions, all, in progress, overdue, due today/tomorrow, undated, and completed. This can be wonderful for getting to just the right details or bewildering if I’m not three cups of coffee into the day. PI’s good search feature saves the day until caffeine intake passes information overload.

PI syncs with Google Calendar and with ToodleDo. Both have good web interfaces, allow sharing among users. This means my lists and calendars sync’d in my pocket and on the desktop.

As of today, the full version of PI is $12.99, and there is a free lite version of Pocket Informant.

The New Media Team at NASA Ames Research Center has developed the first NASA iPhone application to deliver up-to-the-minute NASA content directly from Agency sources in one easy-to-use mobile platform. The software makes extensive use of built-in iPhone features and usability to offer NASA information in a clear and intuitive way. The application aggregates and delivers a compelling range of dynamically updated information, images and video links.

OK, maybe Shazam does not use magic to figure out what song is playing, but I cannot tell the difference. Shazam Entertainment delivers a fantastic music discovery app. Launch Shazam, press “Tag Now” and your iPhone will listen for music around you. After collecting a sample, it calls home and analyzes the track. It reports back with Name, album, genre, album art, links to iTunes, YouTube, and more. Shazam failed to pick up very few songs. While I mostly use it for songs I want to know, I have tried to “trick” it with ones I thought would choke it. The most obscure I tried was Kids Bop #4 (from McDonald’s Happy Meal, “sung by kids for kids”), track 1 Life is a Highway? Nailed it. Who knew? I’ve used it to tag the theme song from True Blood (Bad Things by Jace Everett), figure out the name to a song on So You Think You Can Dance? (Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis; great song & great dance) as well as a large number of songs on the radio. Well, not that large a number since I rarely listen to the radio, but when I do, I have no idea what the song is called. Shazam comes through every time I need it. Did I mention it was free? Get it. Use it. Love it.