Dori Does Life

Confessions of an App Hoarder

I like free stuff. Especially free apps. After not getting my fix from lifehacker.com's Deal Hacker posts I searched for an app that would send me daily updates of apps that go free temporarily. This is when I discovered Apps Gone Free. Although this is a great app, it has caused me to go waaaay overboard on the app downloads. I've downloaded anything and everything from apps to practice stock trading, to guitar apps, to a gazillion productivity apps. I admit I download a lot of apps I may not currently need but I don't feel too bad. A trick I learned a long time ago is that even if you may not find an app useful or functioning at the level of your liking download it anyway. If the developers eventually charge for newer versions, you won't have to pay since you downloaded the app previously (unless they're jerks and release it as a completely new app).

How it works: I get a notification every morning around 11 - which I appreciate because I'm not an early bird. The notification tells me that the list of today's free apps is now available. I open the app and the free apps are listed based on the device you're on. If I'm on my iPhone it shows the free iPhone apps first. If I'm on my iPad it shows me the free iPad apps first. It also specifies whether the apps are universal. The best part is that you can browse through previous days issues and the app shows you which apps are no longer free.

Overall the app is a little rough and a little buggy but it gets the job done. Now I just need to find a similar app for my Macbook. If you know of any, pretty please fill me in!

Apps Gone Free on iTunes

Image from getpocket.com

I first discovered Pocket as an iPhone/iPad app for saving content from around the web. Since then it has expanded to including a Google Chrome extension and web version (they may have had the web version all along). I use Pocket to save articles, website, videos, and other various links that I need to get back to, read later, or share with someone else.

The unfortunate thing about me and storage is my tendency to abuse it. I'll be flipping through Flipboard (the app I use to read blogs) and with one tap I'll save it to Pocket to "read later." Instead of going back soon after to read what I saved, I've slowly amassed quite a collection of web content from all over. Luckily, Pocket allows you to tag and organize everything. I use tags to specify the source of content as well as to specify topic.

Pocket 5.0, released in November includes a Highlights section that's divided into Quick Reads, Long Reads, Trending content, and Best of content that can help you pick something to read, quickly. 5.0 is also supposed to be more intuitive, but clearly I haven't been utilizing it enough to make use of that feature.

The best part is that it syncs your content across devices and the interface is bright, clean, and easy to navigate.

If you don't use it already, head over to getpocket.com and let it change your life.

Note to self: Make a post about Flipboard.