App recommendations age badly, so this is a framework plus a short list rather than a chart. The criterion is simple: does it remove work, or add a place to check?
The three jobs
- Capture: get a thought or file into the phone in one gesture.
- Read: save something now and read it later without ads.
- Retrieve: find it again in seconds, offline.
What earns a place
A notes app with local search. A read-later tool that strips clutter. A scanner that produces a clean PDF and does not require an account. A password manager with offline access. A simple timer that works from the lock screen.
What to skip
Anything that needs an account to show you your own data, and anything that duplicates a system feature less well. Every installed app is a background process and a permission grant.
A monthly habit
Sort apps by last used, and remove anything untouched for sixty days. The fastest phone is the one with fewer things competing for its memory.
Bottom line: install for jobs, not for possibilities. Six well-chosen apps outperform sixty.
A mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer, typically having a touchscreen interface, internet access, and an operating system capable of running downloaded applications.
If you have an idea of what type of camera you’re looking for, you can look at the list up top for a quick recommendation.
I believe that the past 25 years of my 50-year-old, technology-laced life have only been an incubator for a silicon chrysalis designed to blur the lines between virtual, augmented, and real-reality.