Ask Slashdot: Best Phone Apps?

An anonymous reader writes: The phone app ecosystem has matured nicely over the past several years. There are apps for just about everything I need to do on my phone. But I've noticed that once an app fills a particular need, I don't tend to look for newer or potentially better apps that would replace it. In a lot of areas, I'm two or three years out of date — maybe there's something better, maybe not. Since few people relish the thought of installing, testing, and uninstalling literally hundreds of apps, I thought I'd put the question to the Slashdot community: what interesting, useful new(ish) apps are you aware of? This can be anything from incredibly slick, well-designed single purpose apps to powerful multi-function apps to entertainment-oriented apps.

What a stupid question

[Anonymous Coward]

What's next? "Ask Slashdot: What food is good?" or "Ask Slashdot: What's the best place to live?"

Re:What a stupid question

[Andurian]

"What food is good?" and "What's the best place to live?" aren't particularly part of the "news for nerds" paradigm. Questions about phone apps are. I don't know about Apple's store, but Google Play is absolutely abysmal when it comes to helping users find great apps. I think his question is fine, and on point.

I'm not sure this approach is valid

[93 Escort Wagon]

There are apps for just about everything I need to do on my phone. But I've noticed that once an app fills a particular need, I don't tend to look for newer or potentially better apps that would replace it. In a lot of areas, I'm two or three years out of date — maybe there's something better, maybe not.

You may be asking the wrong question, at least if you see your phone as a tool. If the apps you've got are doing the job you want them to do, who cares if they're apps you picked up two or three years ago?

It might be better to think on what it is you would like to be able to do using your phone but can't currently accomplish with the apps you've got on hand. If nothing that comes to mind, then there's no problem to solve and no questions to be answered - you're good to go.

Since few people relish the thought of installing, testing, and uninstalling literally hundreds of apps, I thought I'd put the question to the Slashdot community: what interesting, useful new(ish) apps are you aware of?

You've said absolutely nothing specific regarding what it is you want to do on your phone. There are literally millions of apps in the iOS and Google app stores - if you want meaningful responses, shouldn't you qualify your question a bit first? Are you trying to manage your diabetes? Do you only want to buy local, in-season fruit? Are you using your phone to manage illicit drug transactions? Looking for a wife? Learning to repair cars? Managing your Pokemon collection? What??