The “iPhone vs. Android vs Blackberry” debate seems to be an increasingly popular topic these days, does it not? Regardless of which smart phone you prefer, the good news is that there are plenty of easy-to-use and inexpensive apps for each which make excellent tools for businesswomen (and men).
Finding ways to manage time, juggle responsibilities and fulfill commitments as efficiently as possible is important to becoming more productive and less stressed businesswomen and men. I am going to cover just a few of the popular apps that are useful for businesspeople and I hope you will share your opinions and preferences in the comments below.
Apps for Time & Money Management
Hours Tracker Lite
This popular app keeps track of your hours and earnings. Simply set up as many jobs as you need, then clock in and out of them and let HoursTracker take care of the rest. You can also enter time worked in the past or future quickly and easily. Keep tabs on your time and earnings with built-in reports, or import your data into a spreadsheet and crunch the numbers yourself.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Price: Free!
TimeClock makes time tracking easy! This app is ideal for anyone who bills by the hour. It calculates hours worked and wages, features customizable reports exported via email, allows you to view and edit time records within the app, and more.
Requirements: Works on all Android versions (1.5+) and all display sizes
Price: $3.99
HandyLogs Money – Expense Time and Mileage Tracker
Maximize your Expense, Time and Mileage reimbursements with HandyLogs Money. Suitable for Executives, Small Business Owners and for Personal use.
Requirements: Blackberry 4.2.0 and higher
Price: Free!
Apps for Organization
Use Simplenote to keep notes, lists, ideas and more. Your notes automatically synchronize with your computer and all your devices. This app is extremely easy to use.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Price: Free!
Springpad makes it quick and easy to take notes and save anything you want to remember in one place – from tasks and lists to products, places, movies, recipes and more. This app automatically organizes and enhances what you save with useful links and relevant offers to help save you time and money. Everything you save is synchronized and accessible on your android device and on the web.
Requirements: Android OS 1.6 and above
Price: Free!
Bento for iPad comes with 25 ready-to-use database templates that can be easily customized to organize virtually any type of information you have. Manage contacts, track projects, plan events and more. Bento for iPad is a new version of Bento, the popular personal database from FileMaker – use standalone or synchronize with Bento 3 for Mac.
Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Price: $4.99
Use My Eyes Only™ safely store information like website logins and passwords, personal IDs, credit cards, membership cards, bank and financial account information and any personal notes you want to keep safe and secure. My Eyes Only™ secures your critical information using strong encryption and password protection.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Price: $5.99
Apps to boost productivity and efficiency
QuickOffice Connect for Android
Quickoffice Connect™ Mobile Suite is the first and only full-featured Microsoft® Office productivity suite for Android devices that enables you to view and edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and have integrated access to multiple remote storage providers. This app provides you with the ability to remotely access, transfer, share and manage your files on remote storage service providers including Google® Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, and MobileMe.
Requirements: Compatible with Android OS Versions 1.6 – 2.2
Price: $9.99
QuickOffice Connect for iPhone, iPod Touch
Quickoffice Connect™ Mobile Suite is the first and only full-featured Microsoft® Office productivity suite for iPhone or iPod touch with integrated access to multiple cloud services; MobileMe, Dropbox, Google® Docs, and Box.net directly from your iPhone or iPod touch.
Requirements: iPhone and iPod touch, running iPhone OS 3.0
Price: $9.99
Mocha Remote Desktop (RDP) provides access to a PC running Windows XP Professional or Vista/Windows 7. HOME edition or Windows 200x Servers cannot be used. It enables you to have full, secure access to your work computer through wifi or the phones network (EDGE). Using your iPhone, you can connect to your Windows Computer and see the files, programs, and resources exactly as you would if you were sitting at your desk, just on a smaller screen.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Price: Free!
Now2Office is a cloud computing service that allows you to keep any and all of your files, documents, folders, e-mails, contacts, and calendars synchronized across any PC, Mac, Linux, Smartphone, iPod Touch, and Tablet Platform. Sync as many computers, laptops, and mobile devices as you like. By having all your information in the cloud, which uses push technology, all your devices are always up to date.
Requirements: Application does not work on Android versions 1.5 or 1.6.
Price: Free!
Create email filters for BlackBerry® and watch your life go simple! Mail Filters Rule Manager is an advanced system that allows you to create filters on your incoming mails and take follow up actions on mails that meet those filters. You can create an unlimited number of filters based on a set of one or more criteria.
Requirements: BlackBerry®, 4.2.1 software and higher
Price: $2.99
Apps for fun
Can’t decide where to eat? Urbanspoon can help. Spin the Urbanspoon slot machine and it will pick a good restaurant for you to try. Keep spinning until you find a restaurant you are happy with.
Requirements: BlackBerry®, 4.2.1 software and higher
Price: Free!
White Noise Lite provides ambient sounds of the environment to help you relax or sleep. This app includes high quality looping noises such as waves crashing on a beach, crickets chirping at night, and the soothing sound of rain fall.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Price: Free!
Showtimes™ is an app that recognizes where you are and utilizes OneTap® search technology to instantly show you results of the movie theaters nearest to you, movie listings now playing, show times, trailers and additional information based on box office sales.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Price: Free!
That is just a quick rundown of a few popular apps that can be useful for businessmen and women. So, my question for you is – which apps do you use? Any? Which ones do you recommend we use and which ones do you recommend we avoid?
iPhone Image Copyright © 2011 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
I prefer apps for my ipad as it is bigger.
I hope in the near future we would have an bluetooth operated small phone device, that can be hooked to ipad, so we can share the same plan and data, I hate to carry two devices.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for commenting!
Libby,
Some of these I have never heard of, thank you! I think Tia is crazy thinking for thinking such an outlandish thing about iPhones. Ha!
I’m plan to go check out the White Noise & Simple Note. Thanks for the tips!
LOL
Hi Christina,
I’m glad you found some new apps you can try. Hope they are both fun and useful!
thanks for commenting!
Great apps, especially MyEyesOnly and the Office app. Also UrbanSpoon would have a great potential if it had some sort of filtering the results by comparing your gps coordinates with those of nearby restaurants.
Also, Apple does indeed have lots of apps because it was one of the first smart phone to ever come out, but android is catching up being heavily supported by Google.
Hey Alex – Urbanspoon uses GPS to do just that! Are you based in the US? I’m not sure if it only works in the US or not.
Cheers,
Tia
Quite impressive apps and some of them must be install in our device. Thanks for sharing with us.
Glad you enjoyed the post, Rakesh. Thanks for commenting!
Hi Libby,
Some great apps here! A lot that I’m in the process of downloading right now. Thanks for this great list.
Hi Morgan,
I’m glad to hear you were able to see a few apps that you like and could use here. Thank you for commenting!
Hey Libby!
Thanks for the heads up on these various apps. Unfortunately it looks like
if you really want to live up all the benefits of apps, an iphone is the way to
go. I don’t have an iphone and it seems like there aren’t as many diverse
apps for my lovely little Blackberry. Seeing this list makes me feel like it
may be time for a new phone!
Hi Marlee,
I totally agree with you that there are a lot more apps available for iPhones than there are for either Androids or Blackberries. If you are looking for more apps for your Blackberry, here are two links that you might find useful – http://us.blackberry.com/apps-software and http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/.
Thanks for commenting.
Step away from the darkside, Marlee.
I am a Blackberry girl and will always be. Don’t worry. Anyone who’s SERIOUS about their business has a Blackberry. LOL
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