A few apps I can’t be without!

I have an Google Nexus 6P, an android phone. I love it. The apps that I really use on it are only a handful, though, in some weak moments, I end up installing a few which I would use off and on. I am pretty disciplined about getting rid of stuff that I don’t use. First and foremost, I love the fingerprint support on my Nexus. it is not perfect, but it works beautifully and I pray every day that no one cuts my finger off when they want to steal my phone!

I will not go into too much details about the usual suspects – all of the Google Apps that I simply cannot do without. The ability to edit docs & spreadsheets, or share them easily with others from my phone has made my life much simpler! I use these apps all the time. I love Google Hangout and have forwarded all my SMS to it and you already know about my use of Google Voice, so I don’t have to tell you about that either. I do not have a GPS in my car, so I will be totally lost without Google Maps and Waze!

Despite the fact that many consider Google Now to be spooky, I love it. It tells me all the things that I should know and keep on top of. It does it in such a beautiful way that I simply love it. It reminds me about UConn basketball games without me having to go look ’em up somewhere. It also tells me about the cricket matches that I am very interested in, upcoming meetings, so on and so forth. I know that this kind of intrusion is not desirable for many of you, so you may not like such an app!

I use the financial apps from my bank and other financial institutions of interest on a regular basis. So convenient! Yes, I have set up 2 factor authentication whenever the institution supports it.

The two I have come to rely heavily on recently are: Meeting Mogul and MailReader. In general, I am not a big fan of conference calls requiring you to type umpteen numbers before joining the calls. Since I don’t have an office phone and I use my mobile phone for everything, I have to first dial the phone number and then go back to the calendar or email to look up the code, which, depending on its length, may require a couple of lookups. Sometimes, this results in the call being dropped. Annoying, to say the least.

MeetingMogul solves this beautifully. It detects from your calendar those calls that are conference calls and does the job for you. It dials the number and after appropriate pause, keys in the code. How cool is that? Especially while driving, this is fantastic.

MailReader is what that name implies. It reads emails to you. Another great thing while I am driving. It does not read the emails fully, but tells you who it is from and the first few lines of the emails. It checks for new emails at a frequency that you set. I set the minimum possible – 3 minutes. It can also read emails from multiple accounts. I am so happy because I don’t have to pick up the phone and glance at the emails while driving.

Only problem? I use bluetooth on my car for the times when I need to talk on the phone. But I also like to listen to the radio at other times. Whereas incoming phone calls override the radio on bluetooth, this doesn’t do it. So, I end up leaving bluetooth off for now because I get far more emails than calls when I drive!

I am still waiting for the Mindreader app that will transcribe my thinking!

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