My favorite productivity apps for iPhone

My friend Fredrick asked me about which iPhone productivity apps I find most useful. I thought others might be interested too, so here's what I sent him:

Consistency

A nice little way to ensure you do things that aren't driven by exact dates, but rather, intervals. That is, watering the house plants every 4 to 7 days. Or changing the furnace filter every 25-40 days. Try out the desktop version first to get a feel for it. I've been using it for many, many years.

Here are some articles that explain more about this unique application:

Merlin Mann on Consistency

Gordon Meyer on Consistency

To get Consistency, use these links:
Sciral Consistency Sciral Consistency for iPhone OS

Sciral Consistency for Mac and Windows


Things


For regular task and project tracking, I use "Things". The Mac desktop version is an Apple Design Award winner, and I personally love it. The iPhone companion syncs with the Desktop so I use both together.

Things Things for iPhone OS

Things for Mac OS X

Foodle

For grocery shopping, I think Foodle is the best. Lovely, and my fave feature is that it uses the GPS so you can find things again in the store. I keep separate lists for Grocery, Liquor, and Hardware Stores. I use the paid version, but here's a link to the freebie so you can try it:

Free Foodle Foodle for iPhone OS

Password Wallet

I use Password Wallet to store the zillion user IDs and Passwords that we all have. The iPhone version syncs with the Mac version. It's not a very aesthetically pleasing set of apps, but it's very reliable. The app 1Password is more popular, but I shun it because on the Mac it hooks into Safari in an unofficial way that can cause problems. Password Wallet plays by the rules and causes no worries.

PasswordWallet Password Wallet for iPhone OS

Password Wallet for Mac OS X

WriteRoom

For writing I use WriteRoom. It syncs with a cloud service (run off Google's servers) so it's easy to work on a document on the phone or at the desktop. There's a Mac version too, but it's not necessary to use them both.

WriteRoom WriteRoom for iPhone OS

WriteRoom for Mac OS X

HeyWay

My wife and I both have iPhone and we both travel, so we use the free version of HeyWay to let each other know when we've arrived at our destinations safely. We used to send SMS messages (and still do when time allows) but this is much faster when all you want to do is say "I've arrived". There's a paid version that lets you add a message, but we use the freebie.

Hey Where Are You : Location Service (HeyWAY) HeyWay for iPhone OS

FAA Wait

FAA Wait taps into the FAA database of airport delays. Great way to know what the airline isn't telling you, or is about to tell you when they finally find the time.

FAAwait FAA Wait for iPhone OS

Inquisitor

Inquisitor is a very nice web searching tool. Seems like you don't need this, but try it, and you'll be hooked. Everyone I've told about this loves it.

Inquisitor: Simple Web Search + News Search Inquisitor for iPhone OS


InstaPaper


Instapaper saves web pages, in nice readable text form, so you can read them offline later. You install a bookmark for it on your desktop, then add articles using your desktop we browser, and they show up on iPhone for later reading. I use the paid version I love this so much, but here's a link to the freebie to try.

Instapaper Free Instapaper for iPhone OS
Instapaper website

Yelp


My wife and and I both use this when traveling, it will show you nearby restaurants etc and you can peruse the reviews to see if there's a good place nearby. Invaluable when you don't really know the surrounding area.

YelpYelp for iPhone OS

So there you go, the most-used apps on my iPhone. Hope you find it useful.