Gmail 2.0
Google is basically taking over the Internet as we know it – and browsers, email applications and other various notification centers are not immune. So we’re not really surprised that the new Gmail app for iOS redesign blows its older brother out of the water. Navigate multiple accounts seamlessly while your alerts pop up in a customized (and well-designed!) central location on the app.
Why would you not download this?
Fantastical
According to Apple fanatics’ reviews, Fantastical’s calendar app surely lives up to its Mac App Store name – and we agree. For $14.99, you’ll get a visually compelling digital planner that doubles as an organizer. Even better, Fantastical works in tandem with apps you likely already have installed, like iCal, Entourage or Outlook. Start typing (the app recognizes a slew of languages, like English, French, German and Italian) and watch your event or reminder populate and automatically sync with the rest of your life. Stop being so busy and just start being organized. Now, it’s so easy.
Statnut
Statnut 1.0: the busy person’s Klout, with analytics to boot. Sliding in at just under one dollar, Statnut is your dashboard for all mainstream social media management tools. Immediately after downloading, add your various social addictions (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram et al) with ease, to a minimal but clear interface that shows you simple stats (followers, likes, photos) for your separate identities. What’s cooler than knowing when you’ve upped your follower count just after you’ve posted a picture of that dripping blue-cheese medium rare burger? We can’t think of much.
500px
500px makes Instagram pics look like grainy Polaroids you, um, took yourself. But even better, this app gives you free access to images better than any you’ll find on Getty or Flickr, plus up-to-date activity from all of your 500px-using friends via Flow, a mobile-powered system within the app. Can’t bear to part with any of the images once the app closes out? Buy them easily on the 500px Market – if you have an iPad. Photographers and would-be graphic designers will probably appreciate the app most, but anyone will find it fascinating to interact with others within the world of high-quality imagery and explosions of color. The final kicker: this app is FREE, so basically you have no reason to not download it in the next five minutes. Ready? Go.
1 Second Everyday App
What insight into your own life can you take away from just one second, even if that idea was repeated over the course of 365 seconds? That’s the premise of a Kickstarter campaign launched by Brooklyn’s Cesar
Kuriyama, who woke up on his 30th birthday and realized he wanted to start documenting his own life by recording one second of video per day. He writes of the campaign he singlehandedly launched, “When I turn 40, I’ll have a one-hour video that encapsulates my 30s. If I live to see 80 [years], I’ll have a 5-year
video.” (Way to put things in perspective.)
And with more than six thousand backers contributing nearly $40,000, various TED talks and interviews with news outlets like CNN, he’s not only changing his own life, he’s inspiring others to do the same. Fund it; watch your life story unfold and the minutes tick by.
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