Weekly App Review #10
My thoughts on apps I’ve been using for the past week+. This post has a few affiliate links. Just wanted to give a heads up ☺
Doorman (Monthly fee — 9.5/10)
I have used Doorman for every delivery I’ve received since moving to San Francisco. Living in an apartment without a doorman or place to leave deliveries, I am unable to receive any package as I am at work during delivery hours. Doorman provides a quick and easy way to ship any package to a Doorman location, get a notification when it arrives and confirm a 1–2 hour window (depending on payment plan) in which they will deliver the package, anytime from 6 pm — 12 am.
The concept is extremely simple and they do a great job of keeping that simplicity throughout the interactions in the app. The best part of the experience is the use of notifications. Whenever any package comes, you get a notification to schedule the delivery time. Additionally, if additional packages arrive after you’ve confirmed a delivery time, you receive a notification that those were automagically added to the delivery.
The only downside to Doorman is that it costs $. You can ship individual packages to Doorman for $3.99 per package or pay a monthly plan of $19 (2 hour window for delivery) or $29 (1 hour windown). I think whatever option you go with, it is definitely worth it!
Doorman is only in San Francisco but sure to check out Parcel if you are looking for a similar service in NYC. I’ve only heard great feedback from users of it and would be using it if I lived in NYC.
Draftkings (FREE — iOS + new to Android — 9/10)
With the huge announcements of fundraising by Draftkings and Fanduel and the plethora of ads they are showing on ESPN and sport-related content, tons of people are starting to pay attention to the Daily Fantasy Sports space. The industry is growing extremely quickly and these sites are vying for people’s attention.
The Draftkings iOS app has been around for a bit but I have yet to give it the credit it deserves that I would like to dole that out after the recent Android app release.
The design of the app is easy and intuitive for any newcomer that downloads it. There are many options within the app, from viewing lineups to contests to joining games and the app makes it easy to accomplish all of these goals in just a few clicks.
Draftkings is quickly growing its player pool as they try to increase their market share in the Daily Fantasy Sports industry and I highly suggest you sign up and check it out if you haven’t already.
Elevate (9/10 — Free with potential upgrade) — Elevate is a new mind training game, which I am now addicted to. At sign up, you go through different options with skills you are looking to improve upon.
Each day, you are given 3 exercises in a category of a skill you want to work on. Each exercise takes about a minute and feels like a challenge based on the level and difficulty. I get excited by the challenge on each level, especially with the utilization of lives. Improving upon my previous performance gets me amped each time I open the app. I was honestly very surprised that an education game could be as fun as Elevate.
The design of each game is very unique. Each game has a novel theme which helps make sure you don’t get bored with each game. Additionally the sound effects make you feel as a part of the game.
My favorite part of the app’s design are the progress reports that are shown after each game which motivates you to do better and come back to the app each day to complete your exercises.
I looked into purchasing the subscription but $45 a year seemed a bit expensive for me as it only gives me access to 8 more games. I will definitely continue using the app each day to do 3 exercises but will pass on the Pro version for now.
Numberfire (FREE — 8/10)
I am a HUGE sports fan. I’ve followed every major sport since I was younger as my two older brothers “trained” me to remember every random stat imaginable.
Numberfire, an amazing resource for sports and statistics nuts like myself have taken their Questions feature from the web and created a mobile app. The questions feature is similar to a forum for people to post sports questions and get others opinions that can be up/down voted and a leaderboard is created based on the up votes of each user. It’s a neat part of the site that I feel has been underutilized and I’m excited that they released it as a standalone app.
I love how each question takes up your phones screen and it takes a light scroll to move on to the next question. You can share your opinion extremely quickly within the app and move on to your next question. I found it to be a great time filler if I’m standing in line or waiting an appointment.
My only issue with the app is that it is not something I will use on a daily basis. It is more of a tool to come back to if you are looking for fantasy advice and to see other people’s views on players.
Wealthfront — (FREE — 9.5/10)
Although I do love the active mindset in stock investments, Wealthfront has provided a way to invest without the time and research necessary for stocks. It provides an automated service that invests in multiple ETF’s based on your risk profile which is calculated by a short survey at sign up.
The app is super simple in accomplishing the goal of showing your portfolio. A recently added 4-pin sign in makes it even easier to access than a regular sign in as well.
I love the basic graph to see the progress of your portfolio but would also want to see a landscape mode that shows more data within the graphs. Additionally, the infinite scroll of all of Wealthfront’s blog posts is a bit cumbersome. I think a separate page with recent posts would be a better experience so that the home screen is only your portfolio performance.
Overall, the app provides a basic overview of your portfolio and despite my small issues, the app accomplishes its goal in allowing you to quickly glance at your balance.
If you haven’t signed up and are interested in Wealthfront’s, sign up here and you will receive up to $15,000 managed for free.
Jogabo (FREE limited release (email me) — 8/10)
Jogabo allows anyone to organize a soccer game and invite other to join to play. It is currently a web app that you can export to your phone.
My favorite part of the app is the profile screen. You are able to look at your stats based on games played, record and stats. The only downside of this is that the teams are changed in many games so it’s not 100% accurate. However, it still presents a nice overview of how many games you’ve played along with a timeline of your activity.
There are several bugs in the app but these are understandable as they are still improving and fixing issues within the app.
I would love to see this with other sports too, whether it be a team sport or just looking for someone to go biking or play tennis with. As a newcomer to a city, this would be super helpful to find pickup games in several sports.
If you are a soccer player looking for games in SF, Jogabo is the perfect fit for you
The app is invite only at the moment but email me at ajbryk@gmail.com if you would like access and I will send an invite.
Yet another Product Hunt discovery! My roommate and I have been searching for an app that has the functionality of Checky. He “claims” I am addicted to my phone and wanted to know how many times we each check it per day.
Checky provides this functionality in an easy day by day summary. It uses the GPS location of your phone to track every time you unlock your device.
Although I’ve only used it for a week, I have noticed that because its on my mind, I try to not check my phone as often and when I do check my phone, I try to actually accomplish a task that I have in mind instead of a quick unlock and then lock of the phone. I am not sure whether this is a minor behavior change that will change but I found it interesting.
However, I likely will not continue to use the app in the near future because it is a huge battery sucker and is pretty buggy. It does not register my checks at times, which then messes up the count for the day. Now that I found out that I average around 70–85 unlocks a day, I can move on and try to improve but feel that its a bit of a burden to keep checking the exact amount. Perhaps a notification at the end of each week with an average would be a great way for Checky to be super useful.
Previous App Reviews — Week 9, Week 8, Week 7, Week 6, Week 5, Week 4, Week 3, Week 2,Week 1
