OneNote
First on the list of note-taking apps is OneNote by Microsoft. I’ve been using this app for a long time now, taking important notes from work and also other relevant notes that I need to quickly and regularly refer to. I love the color-coded tabs and neat organisation in OneNote. Apart from text and photos, you can also add handwriting, sketches and audio notes. Unlike some freemium note-taking apps, you can install OneNote on as many devices as you like without any limits. The storage space is limited by your Outlook (Microsoft) account capacity.
Google Keep
My second favourite note-taking app is Google Keep. I put most of my lists here - shopping, groceries, wishlist, etc-etc. Also stored in Keep are my notes that I would like to note and forget. You know notes that are not important enough to go on OneNote but could still be useful for me in the future. Google Keep’s note searching function is second to none.
Evernote
I used to take a lot of notes on Evernote. This freemium note-taking app had been around for as long as OneNote. It had tonnes of my college diploma notes plus other educational notes that I’d like to keep. The Evernote Web Clip feature is especially useful when I want to quickly snap and store a website or articles that I find interesting and useful. Like OneNote, Evernote also offers multimedia note-taking on its app. Like Google Keep, the search function on Evernote is superb, scouring through your standard text and handwritten notes within seconds. Things started to go downhill for Evernote and me though when they started to impose a two-device limit on its free tier users. Sure there is no limit yet for the web version of Evernote but since that version is much slower to load than the app, I gradually started using Evernote less and less. I understand then need for this small company to be making money but still it sucks that I can only download the app on just two devices.
Simplenote
Simplenote is for notes that is not too important for me, disposable notes that I don’t really intend to keep or refer to in the long term. Sure I could use Google Keep note and forget feature but Simplenote offers a neat and minimalist UI design, similar to that of iOS’ Notes app. The reason I don’t just use Notes app is because it is not cross-platform.
Google Drive
The next category of apps that I must have on my phones and devices are cloud storage apps. Google Drive is top of my preferred list and I’ve been using it since it first launched. Yes 15GB is a rather small space to store all of your important files and folders hence why I upgraded to Google One which offers 100GB space across all your devices. If you know me, you know how frugal I am when it comes to paying for online services but Google services have been so interlinked and ubiquitous in my tech life that it is much more convenient to store all my stuff on one ecosystem rather than spread them across several apps, which what I’ve been doing before the upgrade. RM8.49 per month for 100GB is still an acceptable price to pay to store all my important files. Previously I’ve been paying RM3.90 monthly for iCloud Drive but their app’s performance on Windows machine has been abysmal to say the least plus the fact that there’s no iCloud Drive for Android.
Dropbox
Before upgrading to Google One, Dropbox have been my main app of choice for cloud storage. Thanks to its formerly generous user referral bonus policy, I’ve garnered a cool 25.88GB of free storage space on Dropbox. But that was then. Eventually, Dropbox stopped rewarding that referral bonus and then gradually limits the app to just two devices. Like Evernote, that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back hence why I moved all my files to OneDrive and Google Drive before settling on just Gdrive.
Box
Similar to Dropbox, I managed to snag a generous 25GB free space on Box (formerly Box.net) thanks to their one time promo. I store some of my photos on one Box account and all my music files on another. Unlike Evernote or Dropbox, Box fortunately does not impose any limits on how many devices you install their app (yet).
Google Photos
I store most of my photos from 2 years back in full quality on Box but for archival purposes, I put them all up on Google Photos. Photos offer unlimited photo storage for up to 16MP in size and unlimited 1080P video. It’s a no brainer really. 16MP pics and 1080P videos are good enough for me to store all my audio-video files for free, for eternity. Of course I also keep a copy of the full sized photos and videos on my external hard drives.
NordVPN
Why do I need a VPN connection you ask? Well you see, certain streaming service providers like Netflix and Amazon Prime restrict some of their contents to local subscribers because of TV and movie rights. Therefore Netflix customers in Malaysia will miss out about 1/4 of the content available on Netflix USA for example. Other streaming services like Disney+ and Hulu are not available at all in many countries including Malaysia. Hence the need for a paid VPN service like NordVPN which provides a virtual connection to a number of countries such as USA, UK and Australia just to name a few. With the VPN connection on, I can finally watch region locked titles on Netflix and Disney+. It’s an eye-opener.
ePlatform
I am lucky to work in a private school which offers a variety of educational services such as ePlatform. ePlatform is an eBook & audiobook lending system which is accessible via their iOS and Android app and also on their website. The book selection is quite decent with several thousand titles available for loan including some recent best-sellers. Whenever I’m not on Twitter and have some time to kill, I’d open up ePlatform to continue my eBook reading.
Borrow Box
Another lending service that I use often is Borrow Box. Just like ePlatform, Borrow Box offers numerous eBooks and audiobooks titles for you to read and listen. So far, I find Borrow Box provide better audiobook selection than ePlatform.
Google Play Books
Play Books mainly offer paid book titles ala Amazon but the one feature that I find very useful is the ability to upload epub and pdf files. Needless to say, this is where I keep all my bootleg book titles.
Netflix
The next category of apps that I must have on my phone is streaming apps. Top of the list is none other than Netflix. Netflix offers some of the best and more popular TV series in the market right now plus a huge selection of movie titles to watch although I have watched most of the movies on offer.
Astro Go
I don’t actually have Astro satellite TV service at home but my good friend was kind enough to share his Astro Go login with me so I can catch Premier League football and other live football matches. The channels you can watch on this app mirror the kind of Astro plan that you subscribe on the TV box. Apart from local content, Astro Go also offers a nice selection of Hollywood content including many from HBO.
Disney+
Disney+ streaming service is not officially available in the country but thanks to NordVPN, I can sign up for the service and watch my favourite Disney, Marvel and Star Wars titles.
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is a new streaming service launched by you guess it, Apple. Compared to the other streaming juggernauts, Apple TV+ selection is rather limited so there is not much series or movies to pick from. The only reason why I even use Apple TV+ is because I got a free one year subscription when my company bought me a brand new MacBook to use. From the tiny selection of content available so far, it is pretty unlikely that I will continue to subscribe to them after the free trial expires.
Playtv@Unifi
This streaming service is available for all Unifi subscribers which I happen to be one. Playtv offers a decent selection of current TV series and movie titles although not as much as Netflix or Disney+. Another reason to have Playtv is the live TV channels offered by the app. If you can watch the channel on your HyppTV box, you can watch it on Playtv as well.
RTM Mobile
RTM Mobile is mostly a TV streaming app featuring government owned channels from RTM. I don’t use this app much but when I want to catch important news or announcement from the government or to get prayer times for Ramadan, RTM Mobile comes quite handy. You can also tune in to many state-run radio channels on the app.
Pocket, previously known as Read it Later is an application and web service for managing a reading list of articles and videos from the Internet. If I come upon an interesting article or website or videos on the Internet but I don’t have the time or inclination to read it right away, I send them to read later to Pocket via their web clip feature. The free version of Pocket is ad-supported but they are so not obtrusive, I don’t mind having them at all.
Remote Mouse
I use this app as a virtual mouse to control my computer or laptop from a distance. I had Astro Go installed on my Mac mini connected to my TV so having Remote Mouse on my phone is godsend. Otherwise I would need to find a mouse to move the cursor in Astro Go.
Another category of apps that I usually have on all my devices are productivity apps like Gmail, Google Sheets/Docs, Duolingo and myCuaca. For navigation, I rely mostly on Waze and sometimes Google Maps. So there you have it, the list of must have apps that I usually have on my smartphones and tablets. Of course this list is not exhaustive, there are a few more apps that I also have but they are not so important to mention here.
