A road warrior’s preferred iOS apps for communications, productivity, travel, reading and more (updated: July 2014)

Many friends have asked me about my preferred iOS apps after seeing the time I invested to review the best applications for a road warrior.

I work as a consultant, travel extensively, am known for being quite efficient (too much say some of my friends) and am a tech addict. So I thought about sharing the best of the apps I use, split across Communications, Productivity, Travel, Reading and Hobbies.

I am not trying to be exhaustive, original or complete. But I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed by any of these, that they work well and that the overall collection will be a complete set of power-tools. For most of these, I have tested 3-5 apps in the same category before deciding on my recommendation.

Many of these apps are free except where noted.

My top 4 Communications apps

1. WhatsApp, for cross-platform instant messages
2. Skype (or FaceTime), for phone calls from abroad without roaming charges
3. Scan (2$), a simple but powerful scanner for QR codes
4. Wi-Fi Finder, a database of free and paying Wifi spots useful when traveling

My top 10 Productivity apps

1. Week Cal (paying), the best replacement I have found for those that need more than the standard calendar. Easily configurable in terms of fonts, colors, multiple views. Powerful yet simple
2. Wunderlist, a more professional todo list manager which syncs with a PC through a Chrome app or a browser interface. Supports large numbers of todos, organizes them automatically, has reminders, alarms, etc.
3. Evernote is a great place to store memos, list of frequent flyer numbers, passport numbers (and scanned images in case of loss/theft) all sorts of notes. Very powerful and replicates real time with PC and other devices. If you are overwhelmed by the number of functionalities then Simplenote is a great, much simpler to use, alternative
4. Drafts (4$) is a fantastic app to type in text before you know exactly what you want to do with it, then decide to email, upload to cloud, send via instant messaging, store it, etc. All these actions can be automated so Drafts is also the faster way to send a message to oneself
5. GoodReader is the standard attachment viewing application for many. It supports Microsoft Office, PDF and has great filing / search function. A nice feature is that it is possible to directly upload files to GoodReader via a PC browser (turning GoodReader into a Wifi server for a few minutes)
6. GeniusScan and Scanbot turn the iPhone camera into a scanner. Perfect for copying whiteboards after a brainstorming session, taking a picture of a letter to send it to someone or storing valuable documents in Evernote. Both apps are free although I upgraded GeniusScan to enable additional upload options (e.g., to Dropbox)
7. Pixter (paying, ca. 2$) is a great scanner/OCR application enabling you to take a picture of any image and turn the text into something one can copy in an email, Word or Powerpoint
8. CamCard helps scan business cards and enters them directly in your address book. Speeds up the process tremendously
9. In terms of cloud storage I prefer Dropbox and Box. I like the Send-to-Dropbox service can be used to enable you to forward any email/attachments directly into your Dropbox
10. After much searching and testing I settled for Notability (5$ for iPhone and iPad combined) as a stylus-based note-taking application. Advantages are that it syncs automatically between iPhone and iPad, can very easily store all notes on Dropbox-like services and can record sound and sync it with the notes

My top 8 recommendations in Travel

1. Waze, there is a reason Google paid nearly a billion dollars for this app. It is simply the best GPS navigator. It uses data from its thousands of users to build a near-perfect map updated in real time with traffic conditions, average speeds and speed traps. Not only does it tell you the best way to go somewhere, it also tells you when exactly you will get there thus reducing the stress to be late
2. Kayak is a wonderful price shopping and reservation app for all your travel needs. It can store itineraries, check flight schedules and does this all in a very fast and intuitive way. The Web application is also great. Hipmunk is very comparable and has a nice way to represent flight options
3. TripIt, the standard travel itinerary storage app, and the most often used repository for other apps to access your itinerary (e.g., see FlightTrack below). Nice feature is the ability for you (or your assistant) to email your travel confirmations to TripIt and for the app to automatically build your itinerary. I use the free version as the only useful feature for me in the paid (expensive) version can be done just as well with FlightTrack. For those of us using Amex as a travel agent, they can automatically send all reservations to TripCase
4. FlightTrack (5$ although there is a free version with less functionality) tracks your flights and sends you alerts when they are late. Simple but another stress reducing app
5. TripAdvisor is my preferred source of hotel/restaurant information while traveling
6. Taxi applications are much more convenient than waiting on the phone and never knowing when your taxi arrives. There is no single global standard yet so I use Uber where it exists (beware of standard prices from airports — typically more expensive than other services), GetTaxi in Israel/London, myTaxi and taxi.eu in most of German-speaking/North Europe and LeCab in France
7. Smartcoin is the best currency conversion app I tested
8. Rise is the best looking alarm app I have found. But be careful, all iPhone alarm apps are risky since they have to be in the foreground when you go to bed otherwise they most often do not ring

My 5 preferred News and Reading apps

1. Kindle, the grand daddy of e-book readers, still the broadest choice and a fantastic recommendation engine
2. Newsify, a very good and efficient newsreader to quickly scan multiple sources, websites, blogs, stay up to speed and discover new content. Needs to be connected to Feedly, another amazing app to aggregate all content you want to read. Works beautifully with Pocket for deferred reading (see below) although it downloads all content offline anyway
3. Flipboard, a wonderful app that builds a customized magazine for you using your facebook, twitter and other social media feeds and adds as many websites as you choose. Graphically beautiful and enables one-click saving of articles for offline reading with Pocket (see below)
4. Pocket has revolutionized the way I read Web content. It is an offline reader enabling me to press one button on my PC browser and save articles for further reading. It also “cleans up” articles from all adds, distracting fonts, and renders text beautifully. Exists in Web (Chrome applet), iPad and iPhone versions, perfectly synchronized
5. Twitter remains the perfect way to discover new content from people you like. You can start by following me.

Hobbies

1. Yahoo Weather is the best way to know if your favorite outdoor activity will be ruined by the weather. It adds beautiful photos to a slick and simple interface. I also like WeatherPro (2$) for more detailed information but it is a paying app
2. Camera+ (2$) is a great replacement for the standard iPhone app with plenty of editing features built right in. Try Photosynth to take panorama pictures
3. LumenTrails (3$) helps you record any sort of lists, I use it to track my runs, weigh, health situation but also for new words I learn in foreign languages. Exports to spreadsheet and can run simple graphs right from the app. Great for data freaks
4. CloudBeats (5$) can be used to listen to music you have stored to a cloud service. Allows you to listen to your entire iTunes collection without having to store it on your phone. Works wonderfully in hotels with my JBL Flip 2 Bluetooth speakers
5. Vivino takes pictures of wine labels and tells you all about this specific wine incl. tasting notes and ratings. A great way to record what you like and build your perfect cave over time

One last word about security online as we put more and more of our lives and personal data in the cloud. I now systematically use 1Password as a way to generate secure passwords and store them in an encrypted database. I did this after reading two amazing Wired articles about hacking and how little secure most passwords are (with a more technical explanation here). 1Password is not cheap (50$ on PC, 10$ on iOS) but it is very good and quite user friendly. There are open source alternatives such as KeePass but they are less user-friendly. Read the articles and then decide what you need, but do yourself a favor and stop using simple passwords repeatedly.

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