Tag Archive for: apps

Orchestra To-Do App is Discontinued

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orchestra openingAnother to-do app is shutting down! Orchestra is joining Astrid and closing up shop.

Here’s the story

 

Despite Orchestra’s great success (ranking as the App Store’s Productivity App of the year in 2011,) the Orchestra team is changing their focus. Part of what made Orchestra a great app was its compatiblity with email — you could forward an email to Orchestra and it would turn it into a task on your to-do list. Somewhere along the way, the Orchestra team decided that they wanted to take this idea a step further and created Mailbox, an app to streamline your email.

 

To-Do List App Astrid Shutting Down

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Astrid-loves-moms-v2When the to-do list app Astrid first launched — I was instantly in love. I raved about it’s adorable octopus mascot, Astrid, and I really enjoyed the little nudges she gave to help you get things done. I even interviewed the CEO of the company, Jon Paris, on my YouTube channel. A few months back word got out that Yahoo had bought the productivity app. Fabulous, I thought! Finally one of the good ones made the big time! However…now I’ve heard that on August 5th Astrid will be no more! I don’t know why but they are shutting down the service.

Don’t Panic!

If any of you, as I do, happen to keep a lot of important data in your productivity app of choice, no need to panic! In response to closing their service, Astrid has created a way for its users to keep all of their information after closing up shop. All you need to do is go to this link: astrid.com/home/export and you will be able to download all of your data.

Also, if you want to keep using your lists and other information, Astrid recommends that you upload your data to one of these apps.

They are set up to allow you to pick up where you left off:

1. Wrike

2. Wunderlist

3. Sandglaz

4. TickTick

5. 24me

6. Any.do

I recommend these to-do list apps as alternatives to Astrid:

1. Carrot

2. Don’t Forget

3. Clear

4. Paperless

I’m sad to see Astrid go and I hope you find another productivity app that you love just as much!  If you do — please let me know about it!

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Hail a Cab From Your Phone

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photoEver had trouble hailing a cab? If you’re a New Yorker…I’m talking to you.  Well, as it turns out — there’s an app for that! (Haha) Maybe you’re caught out in the rain, or carrying a ton of groceries. You’d love to grab a cab ride home, but easier said than done, right? Not anymore — with the help of Hailo, you can hail a cab from your phone!

I tried it out a few weeks ago and I have to say it was  quick and easy! All you have to do is choose a location to be picked up and the app will tell you the name of your cab driver, his phone number, and how long you’ll need to wait. You even can track where the cab is on your phone, so no need to waste time waiting outside.

Best Food Apps

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Salumi e vino lucchese.

Salumi e vino lucchese. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s no secret — I love food!  For someone who works in television I don’t actually watch it that often but when I do I’m always watching a cooking show.  I love talking about food, eating it and planning out menus.

So when Mindy Kobrin of Meals on Heels asked me to write a guest blog for her food site I was thrilled!  I decided to write about some apps that make planning, eating and enjoying much easier.  Here’s a look at that blog post: 5 Must-Have Food Apps.

Bonus App

While on vacation in Italy and Paris recently I found another useful app that I didn’t include in my guest post.  It’s called Delectable and it’s a wine app that is very smart.  You just snap a photo of a wine that you’re enjoying and the app does the rest.  The photo is sent to a database that identifies where the wine was produced, what year it was, what type it is, etc.  And it even tells you where you can buy the wine.  It’s a clever and practical app for wine lovers.  It definitely came in handy in Tuscany.  More on that trip soon.  But I hope you find these apps helpful in the meantime.

Flipboard: A Must-Have App

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Flipboard

Flipboard (Photo credit: DavidErickson)

Magazine reading is my guilty little pleasure.  I absolutely love it.  Flipping through the pages and looking at all the photos and blurbs makes me so happy.  Really — it’s the little things in life 🙂

Anyway — I was talking with a few people during my virtual “Lists & Libations” meetup and one of the women mentioned that she’d love to have one place to read all her news, blogs and favorite sites daily.  I told her about Flipboard and realized I’ve never mentioned it here on this blog.  It’s my #1 absolutely most favorite app of all time because it’s just like reading a magazine — except you pick the content.

As a news junkie — I like to see what’s going on in the world when I drink my green tea in the morning but I don’t have much time to do it.  With Flipboard you can choose to include different feeds or channels depending on your interests.  I have a feed set up for my Facebook page, Twitter page, Oprah’s website, this blog, and a bunch of news sites.  And as I sip — I flip.

Flipboard is available for iPhone and Android but I really love the iPad version best because it feels like a real magazine.  It’s a much easier way to scan through Twitter because you can see all the photos that people post instead of having to click on a link.  Everything is laid out perfectly and makes it fun and quick to zip through all your feeds.

Whatever your interest you can find a feed for it — travel, style, cooking, etc. And the beautiful design has won this app all sorts of accolades.  I should also mention that Flipboard just hit a milestone — 20 million users!  Plus they just added video as a feature. Whoa.  So if you haven’t used it already — definitely put Flipboard on your must-have app list!