Database Info

To you, what is the one most important feature of a smart-phone

Okay, let's gather some data. I want to know what the majority at XDA find that they rely on the most on a smart-phone?
Take the poll and look at the results.
To those of you who aren't sure what they find the most important feature for them, here is a short criteria list:
Personal Information Management
Calendar
Contacts
Notes
Tasks
To-do
Finances
Passwords
Reminders
Communication
Call Quality & Clearness
QWERTY Keyboard
Phone Log
Email and Messaging Compatibility
Travel and Assistant
Dictionary
Calculator
Unit Converter
Bar-code Scanner
GPS
Alarm Clock
Encyclopedia via Web
Multimedia
Music
Video
Picture
Entertainment via Web
Games
File management
Speaker Quality and Loudness
Camera & Audio Recorder
Sound Recordings
Captured Pictures
Recorded Videos
Productivity
Word documents
Spreadsheets
Presentations
Other Documents
Audio Editor
Video Editor
Image Editor
Computer Programming
I am also working on a personal project and I need help from anyone who is willing to participate. I would like to organize a list for smart phone criteria. I want to correctly categorize each feature and sub-feature to the correct and most APPROPRIATE parent category. I will take the suggestions of each new post. And I do hope that at least a few of you participate in the poll and also give me other features to add to the list and give me category advice.

If I had to pick just one then I suppose I'd say communication; but I think this poll kind of misses the point, to be honest: the reason I want a smartphone is precisely the fact that it is NOT limited to just one set of functions. If it only did one of those six things then I wouldn't buy it regardless of which of the six it is. The fact that it does all six is what's important.

Shasarak said:
If I had to pick just one then I suppose I'd say communication; but I think this poll kind of misses the point, to be honest: the reason I want a smartphone is precisely the fact that it is NOT limited to just one set of functions. If it only did one of those six things then I wouldn't buy it regardless of which of the six it is. The fact that it does all six is what's important.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point of this thread is to see what users like the most, so people (the ones who make your phone) can decide what is trendy right now. If they know what is trendy, they can spend a bit more time on improving something that is currently in demand, and less time on the less desirable features. They can also look at the smallest probabilities and see why people do not like that feature. Maybe then, they would understand why people don't use the feature. Then they can make decisions on not what is most beneficial to improve, but on what NEEDS improvement. Keep in mind that time is always moving forward so distributing equal attention and work on all features is probably uneconomical. Of course, this is only a personal experiment. Sorry, people.
I didn't ask what makes a smart phone essential (as in necessary). I asked, what is the feature that is most essential (ahem... useful and most addicting) to you.
Ya know, I am fairly certain that I use PIM more than Communication. If a smart-phone specializes in every feature such as awesome communication capabilities, awesome recording capabilities, and awesome multimedia capability, but fails to implement useful PIM management buttons/software/capabilities, then I would look for another phone. But if it only had an awesome PIM implementation than I wouldn't buy it because a smart-phone is an all-in-one device. So your point is invalid to me, and would make sense on a topic talking about how useless every other feature--except communication--is.
Please, reconsider the fact that I said smart-phone. I said nothing about travel phones, basic phones, business phones, or multimedia/music phones, or camera phones. I mean okay, maybe there is a phone that you like and think that is a perfect 10 for each category. But considering that all features are really good, I WILL still ask you what do you like the most about it? It's so simple, that I am don't know why you have to deviate from the purpose of this poll.
Otherwise, you are saying that your preference on a phone is perfectly and equally distributed. That would mean you love PIM 16%, Communication 16%, Travel and Assistant 16%, Multimedia 16%, Camera & Recorder 16%, and Productivity 16%. This is impossible in the real world.
So my topic absolutely makes sense. I think YOU are missing the point.
Please vote people. Thanks.

Confessions of a Google junkie (or, Privacy? What privacy?)

the original link.....http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/confessions-of-a-google-junkie-or-privacy-what-privacy/3553
Summary: A lot has been made of Google’s new privacy policy and terms of use. I say bring it on.
There are very few aspects of my life that don’t somehow involve Google. My phone runs on Android, my favorite tablet just got an OTA update to Ice Cream Sandwich (!!!), I use Chrome across all of my computers, I develop AdWords campaigns, I use Analytics to develop metrics for the day job and dive into SEO, I handle many of the CBS Interactive Google webcasts, I use Google Docs almost exclusively for productivity, and my wife doesn’t know where I am half the time until she checks my Google Calendar (which, in fact, aggregate two other Google Calendars).
I’m increasingly turning to Google+ as my source of relevant information and opinions, a function previously reserved for Twitter, and I’ve even dispensed with bookmarks, instead using Google Sites to organize important pages and resources.
I live, eat, breathe, work, and play Google and there aren’t many people more aware of Google’s business model and the amount of data it collects than I. So is it just sheer stupidity and naiveté that has me utterly embracing the Google ecosystem and relatively unconcerned about newly announced privacy policies that have caused so much consternation this week? Before you jump down to the talkbacks to tell me how stupid I really am, read on for another couple paragraphs.
As Larry Dignan pointed out in his post about the new policies last night,
Google noted that it already has all that data, but it’s now integrating that information across products. It’s a change in how Google will use the data not what it collects. In other words, Google already knows more about you than your wife.
From my perspective, though, I can live with Google knowing a lot about me. It knows, for example, that I’ve recently developed an obsession with the electric guitar and have been researching inexpensive models that I might just be able to justify as a birthday present to myself. It doesn’t judge, it just shows me the best deals in display ads on the three models of guitar and 2 models of amps I’ve been reading about the most. My wife isn’t aware of this obsession and her take on it would be judgmental (God love her!): “When will you have time to play guitar? And we’re supposed to be saving money! And what’s wrong with your acoustic guitar?”
Taking this a step further, as Google’s new privacy policies and terms of use do, I should expect to start seeing guitar-related apps in my suggestions in the Google Market and the Chrome Marketplace. Guitarists on Google+ should start appearing in suggested people to add to my circles and Google Reader should offer to download Guitar Player Magazine feeds for me. And, more likely than not, I’ll start seeing more guitar-related ads as well.
Google’s goal, of course, is to sell advertising. That’s about 97% of their revenue. By pulling people like me into their increasingly unified ecosystem, they can demonstrate very high click-through rates to potential advertisers and charge a premium to reach highly targeted and yet incredibly vast audiences.

They need to give me something in return
For me to buy into this, they need to give me something in return. Something to make all things Google really sticky. Like a wide array of free tools from Google Docs to Google Music to Google Voice. And cheap tools that I buy for my business like Google Apps and AdWords. Their new policies are designed to be more transparent, but also to pave the way for these tools to talk to each other better, making them even stickier through a unified experience and more relevant services.
Back to the wife comparison that Larry brought up. My wife knows that every Friday night is pizza night in our house. So does Google, since every Friday around 4:30 I pull out my Android and use Google Voice Search to find the number of whatever pizza joint we decide to patronize that week. Fine. Google, however, can actually do something more useful with that information than my wife can (”Where should I order pizza, sweetheart?” “Wherever, just not that place down the road. Or that other place. And make sure they’re having a deal!”).
Come Friday morning, the ads I see on Gmail or Google search should start being pretty pizza-heavy: Dominos, Papa Johns, and a place or two that has an active Google Offer. As I’m driving home that evening, the GPS on my phone should set off an alert when I drive past a well-reviewed pizza place (assuming I’ve set location-based preferences to alert me to destinations with at least four-star average reviews). And the minute I type a P in my mobile browser, Google Instant should leap into action and display nearby pizza places and a news story about a new place to get pizza in the next town.
We’re not quite there yet, but this is the sort of integration and experience that Google is covering in its new policies and terms of use. I know that my privacy red flags should probably be going off. Google has gigabytes of information about me and is using that information to help its advertisers sell products. That’s bad, right?
Guess what, folks? This is the semantic web
And yet, I don’t think it is. Many of the same techies who cry foul over these new policies have also been pushing for the development of the semantic web to make it easier to find what we actually need in the trillions of web pages floating around the Internet. Guess what, folks? This is the semantic web. When our search engines know what we actually mean, when data on the web automagically becomes information we can use easily and quickly, we’ve arrived.
And the semantic web can’t exist without “the web” (whatever that is) knowing a lot about us. It takes data for a computer to understand our needs and process natural language efficiently. Some of those data will necessarily be fairly personal.
Now, if I start getting spam from pizza places or calls on my Google Voice number from Dominos because Google has sold my contact information and preferences to advertisers, we have a problem and I’ll be waving my privacy flag as high as anyone else. However, when I opt in by opening a Google account and staying logged in as I surf the web, I’m not only consenting to the collection and aggregation of data about me, I’m asking that it be done so that the web and related tools can be more useful to me. This sort of data mining lets me work faster, play easier, and find the best pizza in a 20-mile radius.
For its part, Google needs to remain the trusted broker of these data. No, I don’t like the idea that our government could brand me a terrorist and seize these gigabytes of data under the Patriot Act. The alternative, though, is an ever-growing morass of web sites and tools that I get to dig through manually.
And, by the way, even if I’m not logged in to my Google account as I’m doing it, my ISP knows the sites I’ve visited, too, and could just as easily (if not more so) be compelled to turn over this information to the real Big Brother in all of this.
Far more trust in Google than the Feds
Honestly, I have far more trust in Google than I do in the Feds. Google is motivated by money: they need my trust to keep collecting those data to keep making it easier for me to buy things from Google’s paying advertisers. If that trust is broken by inappropriate sharing of data, then my eyeballs go elsewhere and so do the advertisers who target me via AdWords and AdSense. Our government has no such financial motivation. Money talks.
The fact that the speech recognition on my phone kicks ass because I use Google Voice all the time and it’s learned how I talk might be a little creepy, but it’s far more important that I can do a Google search or send a text while I’m driving without taking my eyes off the road.
Welcome to 2012, folks. The semantic web has arrived. Use it well and let’s keep Google’s new policies in perspective. And Google? Don’t be evil. I have a lot of colleagues who will be pointing, laughing, and saying I told you so if you ever are.

Nice article.
I think the key for Google's continued success is to keep the advertising passive, suggestions when you're searching etc. aren't in your face but they work.
You see a lot of people complaining that they've been searching for something online and then all of the adverts on the websites they visit contain something pertaining to that, and they grumble that it's annoying. Personally, I'd much rather see an advert to something that's relevant to me rather than a cluttered webpage of irrelevant information.
By targeting adverts and increasing their relevance to the individual, they are far more likely to be successful. This means that the revenue per advert is going to improve and websites aren't going to need to cover their website in adverts (at the cost of the user experience) to make it profitable.
Plus given the huge amount of free stuff that google gives you, it's a bit rich for somebody to complain that they're trying to get something back off you.

I too would much rather see things directly targeted towards me then just random ads. And everyone is up in arms about google recording what you do. Well i think of it this way, i'm fine with them getting to know me and my behavior and what i do, as long as they keep providing FREE products for me.

Ahh the good old "If they are going to screw me without consent, I would much rather they knew my name, stroked my hair and whispered sweet nothings into my ear while they did it."
I prefer to treat my online habbits like the strange neighbour a few doors down. Say "hi" in passing, and realise that while they probrobly know more than I would want them to from when I've invited them over for coffee and from peeking in my windows as they walk past, know that I don't actually have to put up with their $#!+ if they become too creepy.
Thats why its important there are alternitives and competition, and that we as consumers don't put our eggs all in one basket and be prepared to protest or move on if they stretch the friendship too far.
I know privacy is impossible in this day and age but that doent mean you have to lie back and take it. "because you know it means well and it does give you nice gifts once in a while"
My suggestion is cut your reliance on any one brand and spread out the load.

hungry81 said:
My suggestion is cut your reliance on any one brand and spread out the load.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like the author am reliant on Google these days. I'd be happy to look at alternatives. Granted they work on the platforms I needs them to, Android 2.X and 3.2, Linux+chrome, windows XP + chrome, and windows 7 + firefox or chrome. The linux requirement cuts out a lot of things, iTunes/iCloud for example.
Have any suggestions who/where i could go for:
Music
Docs
G+
Gmail
Needs a slick webUI, and the searching ability of gmail
Calendar
I need delegation and the ability for my wife to add me to events and share calendars.
Reader
works on all my devices, and syncs between them
I would very much like my phone to know when I leave work. Now i could do this with some sort of timer, but I end up working somewhat flexible hours, and have a leaving time of anywhere within an hour and a half. I would like it to know that since I now have "buy bread, milk, and eggs" on my to-do list (thanks hun!), that it needs to remind me of that on the way home. Even better if it can just direct me to a store with a deal on one or all of those things.
I like that the first hit in Google I get for cookies is the wikipedia page for http cookies and the second is to pythons cookielib module. Where as I bet my grandmother gets, chocolate chip cookies. The ability for Google search to know that I have a particular artist in my collection, and show me the bind's page near the top of the results without me having to add "band" to my search terms.
Anyways, if and when Google starts selling my data to 3rd parties, I'll export my data and move. Google makes it fairly painless to do that.

Fragmentation of Apps in AppStore

Social media and mobile apps seem to be the new buzz words over at Silicon Valley. In fact, such apps are now a dime a dozen and one could imagine Apple changing their popular catchphrase “There’s an app for that!” into “There are a thousand different apps for that, all of which have the same basic features, but subtle useless differences.”
The problem isn’t that we are approaching the boundaries of utility as far as mobile apps are concerned, it’s just that once an app or social service gets popular, developers start crowding around its concept and make thousands of clone apps, with little in terms of differentiation. We need more unique and original apps that stretch the boundaries of what we can accomplish with our phones and tablets and make you think “Wow! Who would have thought I could do that with this little thing I carry around with me?!” What we’re getting are the same basic concepts, re-hashed to such an insane degree that app stores get crowded with half-baked clone apps and the really amazing ones are drowned out in a sea of filth.
In my opinion, developers should ask themselves three basic questions before designing an app or a social service:
“Has this been done before?”
“If it has, can I do it in a way that is better/more pleasant to use?”
“If no, would I be able to introduce any sort of useful feature except a wacky name?”
And if the answers to all three questions are unfavourable, then the developer should think twice about coding such an app. It would only add redundancy to the app store and contribute to the rising app discovery epidemic.
I shudder to think about all the high quality apps made by independent developers all over the world that haven’t been popularized simply because of an overly saturated market. The amount of lost potential in app markets today is simply staggering.
Apart from market saturation, redundant apps also tend to cause mental saturation. In this day and age, who among us has the capacity to remember a billion app names? If we can’t even remember such a numerous volume of apps, how can we aspire to use them?
In my opinion, authorities like Apple and Google should monitor the apps in their stores not just for quality, but for identity of vision as well. Apps that feel like cheap copies of pre-existing apps need to be banned! I, for one have had enough of my normal friends playing ruddy Fruit Ninja clones and asking me why it doesn’t look as good as it does on my phone!
There are shining examples of how stupendously done apps with a clear and fresh vision can go viral within days of conception. They are the intellectual property of individuals that have worked hard to develop not just the code for their apps, but the core concept as well. And we owe it to those striving developers to make sure that the integrity of that core concept remains preserved.

k33t said:
Social media and mobile apps seem to be the new buzz words over at Silicon Valley. In fact, such apps are now a dime a dozen and one could imagine Apple changing their popular catchphrase “There’s an app for that!” into “There are a thousand different apps for that, all of which have the same basic features, but subtle useless differences.”
The problem isn’t that we are approaching the boundaries of utility as far as mobile apps are concerned, it’s just that once an app or social service gets popular, developers start crowding around its concept and make thousands of clone apps, with little in terms of differentiation. We need more unique and original apps that stretch the boundaries of what we can accomplish with our phones and tablets and make you think “Wow! Who would have thought I could do that with this little thing I carry around with me?!” What we’re getting are the same basic concepts, re-hashed to such an insane degree that app stores get crowded with half-baked clone apps and the really amazing ones are drowned out in a sea of filth.
In my opinion, developers should ask themselves three basic questions before designing an app or a social service:
“Has this been done before?”
“If it has, can I do it in a way that is better/more pleasant to use?”
“If no, would I be able to introduce any sort of useful feature except a wacky name?”
And if the answers to all three questions are unfavourable, then the developer should think twice about coding such an app. It would only add redundancy to the app store and contribute to the rising app discovery epidemic.
I shudder to think about all the high quality apps made by independent developers all over the world that haven’t been popularized simply because of an overly saturated market. The amount of lost potential in app markets today is simply staggering.
Apart from market saturation, redundant apps also tend to cause mental saturation. In this day and age, who among us has the capacity to remember a billion app names? If we can’t even remember such a numerous volume of apps, how can we aspire to use them?
In my opinion, authorities like Apple and Google should monitor the apps in their stores not just for quality, but for identity of vision as well. Apps that feel like cheap copies of pre-existing apps need to be banned! I, for one have had enough of my normal friends playing ruddy Fruit Ninja clones and asking me why it doesn’t look as good as it does on my phone!
There are shining examples of how stupendously done apps with a clear and fresh vision can go viral within days of conception. They are the intellectual property of individuals that have worked hard to develop not just the code for their apps, but the core concept as well. And we owe it to those striving developers to make sure that the integrity of that core concept remains preserved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah kind of like the lack of remotely interesting original posts on this forum, verses the viral like increase in nonsense that seems intended to do nothing but allow some forum users to boost their post count ....

I think the main problem with this fragmentation is that it is in the nature of Social Discovery apps that there is some uniformity in use. To be able to actually find people through it requires that a lot of people are using the same one.
Only people use them for different reasons and therefor there is an app for any of those reasons. Like some want to use them just to stay in touch with their friends and family, others to meet new people (like me when I am going to a new place) and than there is a group that uses them for flirting or organizing sexual encounters (I am not judging)
I think the best innovation for companies would be to invent an app that combines these functions. I haven't been able to find one.
If you know one, please let me know.

Thank you, I enjoyed reading your view. I do share all your points other than the 'vision policing' part.
"In my opinion, authorities like Apple and Google should monitor the apps in their stores not just for quality, but for identity of vision as well."
If the vision could have been identified by the platform's creator then there wasn't a need for the App Store. The platform creator would have created every possibly visioned apps for its platform and not bother about the participation of thousands of developers on its ecosystem. Basically, to identify the visions one would restrict 'ideas' in which it does not go well with the creativity nature of mankind.

I found something on which you can have several profiles. So you can create one for every function you can have for a Social Discovery app. I think its sort of a good idea, because you don't need like ten thousants of profiles spread around over the net. Just use it however you want. I like that idea.
For me it's perfect because I always have a hard time remembering my passwords
It's called Evry'U. I found it through their facebook page that a friend linked me.
Did anybody heard of it?

[Q] Help me flesh out an idea for new functionality

tl;dr I'm new, I'm not a very knowledgeable developer, I have an idea that I want your opinion about.
Heyo Peoples,
I'm new and I like to think a lot about cool new stuff with mobile devices (web, software, hardware, etc). I've been thinking a lot recently about how people like to use mobile devices, and how we might use them in the near future--thinking past what's being done now, and into what comes next.
I've been wondering for a while why there isn't an existing piece of functionality on mobile devices that allows a user complete control of the device and every piece of information on it. Imagine a GUI except instead of graphics, it's like interacting with a person. (aside: first person to say Siri should be shunned like an Amish girl who went to a movie theater).
Is it outrageous to say that you should be able to pick up your phone and have it find anything, from anytime in the past that you have done with or on it? I know that would take mountains of data, but is it silly? In it's most basic form, this would just be a search feature. In it's most eloquent form it could be an operating system. Imagine being able to ask your phone what you did last Wednesday, or maybe where you were. What if it could recall emails or documents based on date, time, location where you were when you wrote it, keyword, or contact, based on verbal interaction? What if it tracked data usage by application, or allowed you to measure and optimize system performance with a verbal command (ex. "Shut down all apps except for Google Maps" or "How much data am I using per minute").
Is it too early to start wishing for an interface like that computer on Paycheck (horrible movie with Ben Afleck) or Cortana in Halo? Is this type of interface impractical or implausible?
If you were to make something like this, would it have to be a new operating system built from the ground up, or could you develop an app to do this, or could you hack Android to do it? I welcome all of your feedback.
Lots of questions, and I have very few answers.

Jujubes said:
tl;dr I'm new, I'm not a very knowledgeable developer, I have an idea that I want your opinion about.
Heyo Peoples,
I'm new and I like to think a lot about cool new stuff with mobile devices (web, software, hardware, etc). I've been thinking a lot recently about how people like to use mobile devices, and how we might use them in the near future--thinking past what's being done now, and into what comes next.
I've been wondering for a while why there isn't an existing piece of functionality on mobile devices that allows a user complete control of the device and every piece of information on it. Imagine a GUI except instead of graphics, it's like interacting with a person. (aside: first person to say Siri should be shunned like an Amish girl who went to a movie theater).
Is it outrageous to say that you should be able to pick up your phone and have it find anything, from anytime in the past that you have done with or on it? I know that would take mountains of data, but is it silly? In it's most basic form, this would just be a search feature. In it's most eloquent form it could be an operating system. Imagine being able to ask your phone what you did last Wednesday, or maybe where you were. What if it could recall emails or documents based on date, time, location where you were when you wrote it, keyword, or contact, based on verbal interaction? What if it tracked data usage by application, or allowed you to measure and optimize system performance with a verbal command (ex. "Shut down all apps except for Google Maps" or "How much data am I using per minute").
Is it too early to start wishing for an interface like that computer on Paycheck (horrible movie with Ben Afleck) or Cortana in Halo? Is this type of interface impractical or implausible?
If you were to make something like this, would it have to be a new operating system built from the ground up, or could you develop an app to do this, or could you hack Android to do it? I welcome all of your feedback.
Lots of questions, and I have very few answers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is probably not as far off as it seems. The developers of "Utter" have come along way in the right direction. You should maybe approach them with your ideas. Not all of them of course . Save some for yourself.

One problem I see is semantics. "Shut down all apps except for Google Maps" sounds good - but do you really mean ALL apps ? The line that would be walked is one where the developer must train the program to not necessarily do what they ask, but do what they WANT. It gets trickier when you realise that some people who aren't your average users might want to test things and shut down an app (in this case) that an average user would never want shut, where they might mess up their phone beyond their ability to repair if they did.
I think speech is a great tool to interact, though I'm not going to be a person to use it. I don't think speech will ever become a default unless there are other technological advances that change how we interact with the world. It's annoying enough to hear someone gabbing loudly to another human on the phone, do we really want people gabbing AT their phones as a default interface ? I think privacy is a driving factor that will keep sound from being a major interface - perhaps it could work for in home applications, but out in public people may not want to announce to the world who they are calling, what they are looking for, or what site they're logging on to, et cetera. Until there's technology to make voice and sound less "public", I don't see this being the future of phones - it's more of a nice thing to have as an "extra" for when a person is comfortable using it.
But, hey, maybe we'll get used to wearing Google Glass and talking to ourselves all the time - or we'll get in-ear buds or implants where we can choose to hear the outside world or not. Just exploring the possibilities here.
I do think it's a big "outrageous" to have infinite backup. Just take a look at how much data companies like Amazon and Facebook acquire on a per-day basis. Think about how much data you use on a daily basis. I don't have the money or desire to be buying new HDDs every other week. Maybe in the future there will be a technological revolution that allows for mass amounts of data to be stored in even smaller spaces. But current technology in that regard is still very expensive and persnickety - read about high capacity SD cards and how fragile they can be and about data needing to be "refreshed" or they can become corrupt. There are lots of issues that make backing up everything you do impracticable.
And, again - privacy concerns. Do I really want my computer to know what I did last Wednesday and who I was with ? What if someone stole my computer or phone and had access to that information ? If we had the technology to do that, who's to say that current encryption would be "enough" - or that someone wouldn't go ahead and try to hack it anyway if they felt finding out basically everything about you was worth brute-forcing your phone or whatever they'd do in the future ? And have no password or a crappy one - even easier for them to know EVERYTHING about you, now.
Highly visual and talk-activated computers are absolutely great for games, movies, and TV. Why ? They function as narrative devices. They allow the actor to say or explain things they otherwise wouldn't have said out loud for personal, practical, or security reasons. They can become characters in their own right. People like those big screen computer displays where the characters are poking things all over and up and down - it looks cool. But not so cool is having your arms get tired from reaching up and around all the time. Not so cool is having to tell the computer out loud what kind of special images you want to search for when you have house-mates living in the next room over.
Just some thoughts. If you have other or counter ideas, go right on ahead.

10 apps to reinvent yourself in 2016

Clear your head
Headspace
Mindfulness, the act of focusing on awareness, both in your mental and physical state, is becoming an increasingly popular way of managing stress, attention issues and overall well-being.
The free version of Headspace offers up 10 mediation sessions. All it asks of you is 10 minutes a day and listening to a calm, British voice guiding you through the process of finding your inner Chi. There are also unguided sessions. After you polish off those, you can purchase individual meditations (one off or Series) from the apps library of hundreds of self-soothing options. (iOS,Android)
Elevate Brain Training
Your body and mind feel good, but what about neural plasticity? Are you as smart as you used to be or want to be? Probably not (especially if you had to reread the last two sentences more than once). Elevate Brain Training works on memory, comprehension, math and concise writing. It actually starts by testing you on all these metrics, which can be quite daunting, especially when it comes up with a rating for you on all those factors. Once it has a benchmark, the training begins with 35 brain games (free version). You can get more training by paying $4.99 for the pro version. (iOS, Android)
Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock
There are the lucky few who wake up without an alarm clock. Then there’s the rest of us, buzzer hitters, alarm ignorers and overall sleep-walkers. We need something different to get us out of bed. Sleep Cycle Alarm clock tries to work with your own sleep rhythms to help you wake up more easily.
The app uses your iPhone’s microphone to listen to your sleeping (you keep the phone by the bed, as you always do) and then, based on when you set the alarm, it will wake you up during your lightest sleep phase, which should help you feel more rested than if you’re jolted awake by an alarm during your deepest sleep. Don’t worry about waking up late — if you set the app for 9 a.m., it'll start watching for a good time at 8:30 a.m. (iOS, Android)
Protect yourself
GT Recovery for Android
Accidentally deleted messages or contacts on your Android devices? Or lost photos from the SD card on your Android device? No need to worry now! GT Recovery for Android is capable of recovering messages, contacts, photos, video, audio and documents on/from an Android phone or tablet. Due to the ease-to-use interface, it's ideal for everyone. Scan, preview and recover. Simple clicks bring you what you want.
Directly scan and recover SMS, contacts, photos, video and more
• Recover photos, video, audio and documents from SD cards inside Android devices to a computer.
• Retrieve deleted contacts, including names, numbers, Email & addresses.
LastPass and 1Password
Isn’t it finally time to dispose of all those little slips of paper with your passwords for every service you use?
Apps and services like 1Password and LastPass take the password guesswork and management out of your hands. You simply remember one very strong master password and they’ll generate strong passwords for you, store them and retrieve them and even input them automatically (on the web and Android, at least). They’re mostly free, though the mobile and business options will cost you.
Better yet, if you can’t remember a long password, the latest versions of these apps will let you log in with your finger — as long as your phone has a fingerprint reader. 1Password: (iOS,Android, Windows) LastPass: (iOS, Android, Windows)
Organize your life
Coach.me
Perhaps you’d have more luck getting things done in 2016 is you had a little help. That’s Coach.me’s perspective. It lets you enter goals big and small, track your own progress and then use the app to hire coaches (they have over 5,000), starting at $14.99, to help you achieve goals. Once you sign up, you’ll get a steady stream of emails from your own coach pointing you to a ton of different goals and coaching options. (iOS, Android)
Google Photos
You have photos, Google has answers — perhaps the answer. Last summer, Google introduced Google Photos with unlimited cloud-based storage. All you have to do is install it on your mobile devices and let the app collect and store all of your photos (there’a also a desktop uploader to collect photos from your PC or Mac). The "Assistant" will suggest movies and collages from your photo collection, and it'll also notify you when contacts share an awesome photo or album.
The free version will store a high-quality copy of every picture. If you want the original resolution, though, you can only store up to your amount of allotted Google Drive space (you can always buy more storage). Even if you just go for the free option, think of the peace of mind that comes with knowing that all your priceless photos are stored safely in the cloud. (iOS, Android)
Put your financial house in order
Mint
Even before Intuit bought Mint, it was one of the best personal-finance services on the web. As an app and with the backing of Intuit, it’s even better; one-stop shopping for all your financial accounts, reports and budgetary matters.
Just pour all your account info into the app and you’ll instantly get a world-view of your spending habits, including cash flow, monthly budget, bill reminders and a spending breakdown. You can use that knowledge to make meaningful financial changes for the rest of 2016. (iOS, Android)
Acorns
You know how when you pump gas you work extra hard to make the final bill round up to the nearest dollar? Stop doing that. In fact, for the rest of 2016, let the spare change bills come and then invest the rest. That’s the snappy idea behind Acorns. You give the app access to your main bank account and then every time you make a purchase — for, say, $1.25 — Acorns will take the remaining 75 cents and invest them in the stock portfolio of your choice.
The app tracks your investment performance, tells you about your latest round-up amounts, the overall size of your account and lets you deposit and withdraw funds at will. Just think, 2016 will be the year you save and, perhaps, make money without even really trying. (iOS, Android)
Work smarter
Asana
You can grouse and gripe about office productivity and communication, or you can do something about them.
Asana is a powerful project and team-management tool that helps you watch over projects big and small from start to finish. It’s easy to assign tasks and make sure everyone knows what’s due today, tomorrow and next week. You’ll also see when stuff is past due. (iOS, Android)

cool, thanks for the list.

Skalofrio12 said:
cool, thanks for the list.
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