I know? some of you might be saying? "iPhone apps? What about Android and Blackbery?" Well, here at the Workshop a majority of us are iPhone users. But, we would love to hear what apps you are using on other platforms. Add your comments below!
Here's what we love using lately?
Dragon Dictation
Typing out our blog posts are sooooo passé? We use our voice. Even if you don't have the latest iOS with Siri you can use Dragon Dictation as a voice recognition app to record your thoughts, meanderings and your next highly sophisticated blog posts (ha!) via voice. Simply fire up Dragon Dictation, Tap the record button and speak into your iPhone! Tap the "Done" button and see your voice recorded into text. Dragon Dictation gives you the option to send the text copy as SMS and email or share on social networks like Facebook or Twitter.
Here's an example of something I recorded on Dragon Dictation?. "Mrs. the best iPhone apple Ivan ever used two create my next blog host?" - just kidding. But seriously, the app isn't perfect and it actually takes some time for not only the app to learn and adapt to your speech but it takes the user to meet it half way as well. New Media Associate at the Workshop, Marissa Wasseluk uses Dragon Dictation to capture her ideas for writing blog posts, then emails the text to herself so she can further edit and refine her blog posts.
Analytiks
If you are a nonprofit communicator that is also tracking your website analytics, check out Analytiks by Stelios Patrakis. It currently runs for $0.99 in the Appstore but is truly worth more! I find myself in staff meetings and questions about our site traffic, visitors and content performance often come up. Analytiks provides quick references to your Google Analytics data in a very clean and aesthetic way. All of your websites registered in your Google account are accessible and can be viewed by simply swiping back and forth? It's pretty sweet!
The app also comes with two visual themes to match either your black or white iPhone.
Weather Neue
Whether its making your way out of the office to your next meeting or planning ahead for a media event, you need to prepare for the weather. Weather Neue is a simple and elegant app that generates and displays your local weather. Although it won't provide you with weather maps or video, it uses very simple iconography and display information that makes using the app a joy. It moves all other clutter out of the way and simply keeps you informed. It provides you with four nice colored themes and the option to switch back and forth from Metric units. I found this especially useful when I was traveling abroad.
Dropbox
More and more of us nonprofit communicators are mobile-moving and working from one place to the next. All this moving around requires us to access the same files wherever we are. This whole new mobile culture has popularized new services to store our most important files to "the cloud" where they can be stored, updated and accessed from multiple locations and multiple devices including our iPhones. One of the more popular services that people are now adopting is Dropbox.
Dropbox is a great app for your iphone. I find myself preparing special folders within DropBox for when I do trainings or attend special meetings or conferences. This way I can access all the same content whether I'm on my laptop, iphone or office computer-all my files are there and synced as I access and update them. I can even share my powerpoints or contact lists with other staff by placing files in my public folder.
Hipstamatic
There is arguably no better way to drive engagement on social platforms with your audiences then with pictures-really cool looking ones at that. With Hipstamatic, you can change the general look and feel of your photos by not only selecting different virtual vintage lenses but you can also change the virtual film. The app allows you to share directly on Facebook and Twitter and also provide a cool printing service for your photos. No more boring headshots of press conferences and other work related events. Take it to the next level and use your iPhone and the Hipstamatic app to visually tell your organization's story. The app usually runs for about $4 but is now half off on the iTunes Appstore.
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