RoundUp for the best Windows 8 Apps

I just read this round up for the 40 best apps for Windows 8, I though you would also like to read, so here is the link:
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/25-best-windows-8-apps-available-today-1075175

Paper by Fifty Three – An Award Winning App

Paper is more like a digital sketchbook, which is very cool especially those who long drawing. You can find a variety of pens and brushes that you can use to draw, sketch, outline, write and color. Basically it’s free and yes I do mean the basics so if you want to use more special pens and brushes, you will have to purchase to in-app.

I think this is a very useful productivity app for those who often need to sketch their ideas to discuss with the team later or to improve when you get to the actual drawing board. Paper is not only convenient to use; it’s fun too. With this app, you can get what’s on your head directly onto your tablet screen. Years ago we wouldn’t have thought this to be possible but here we are now with an app that let’s you sketch on your screen directly.

Paper is an app for the iPad and a very beautiful one at that. It is an extra ordinary invention that both young and old will surely enjoy. You can easily scribble, draw or sketch your ideas. Any artist would enjoy this even though putting your creativity on to paper cannot be equaled.  This app is an Apple Design Award winner for 2012 and you wouldn’t be surprised to see why. There’s quite a bit of things to explore, which could prove to be very convenient to have right there on your tablet. It could get a bit expensive if you buy all the pens and brushes but since you’re like drawing the traditional way, it would just be like actually buying those drawing tools, all worth it and nice to have.

Of course it is also worth noting here that for every technological time saver, there is a technological time waster and Paper could very well be either. You can spend hours and hours doodling on your journals leaving everything behind. It is easy to lose track of time when using Paper because it does create a lot of fun or to put it better, you are creating a lot of fun. Paper is probably the best sketchpad you will ever need.

EmptyInbox for Gmail

Going through hundreds of emails everyday is not only very tiring and time consuming, it could also be very boring! What the EmptyInbox for Gmail does is to present emails in index cards with a summary of what the emails are all about so you can decide what to do with it very quickly. Don’t be tricked by name because it does not automatically delete all your emails and in a way it is different from getting rid of spam mails. What this app lets you do is to quickly organize your emails so you can identify which ones you have to reply to immediately, ones you can read later and the ones you can just delete.Also you can find more of such app on MobileAppex

Why is it a great app? Because I receive hundreds of emails everyday and reading through them will waste a good 4 to 5 hours of my time everyday. With EmptyInbox, I can sort out important emails and answer them more efficiently. I can also simply get back to other relevant emails later on. This app is not as popular as it should but it comes in very handy. Believe me.

All New Windows 8.1 Video Review

Check out this youtube video for the new exciting Windows 8.

Evernote – Remember Everything

Evernote lets you collect files, photos, links, or anything that gets your attention and put it in one (or several) folders so you can easily find them again. You can use it on your computer, your phone or your tablet. Although Evernote can also be used with your colleagues, I would personally say that it’s best for personal organizing. If you have hobbies, many interests or you like reading; Evernote makes it easy to sync your new discoveries so you can have them added to what you have already collected. You can even use it to plan your trip because it lets you keep documents, maps and plans all in one folder.

If you’re still wondering what Evernote actually does, I could give you an example. Let’s say you are going for a holiday and aside from having all your travel documents in one folder, you can also snap a picture of your car, add a GPS-tag to it and save it for when you get back from your holiday. You never know whether you’d be so hung over from having too much fun that you could completely forget where you parked your car, right? Well, to some people, all it takes is a few minutes at the supermarket to completely forget where they parked their car.

If you want to go premium, there is also Evernote Business for a more powerful productivity tool for you and your colleagues. You can do more because you have more storage and more options. You could even get business level support and simplified billing. Evernote Business is also secure, robust and reliable as the Evernote website describes.

There is really a wide range of features you can explore on this app. You can get an Evernote email and send everything there with hashtags. By doing so, you can automatically sort out those emails to the notebooks they belong to. You can also include audio notes so when you are out and about and you suddenly think of something but you don’t have a pen and paper to put it down with, you can record it and save it to your notebook in Evernote so you could ponder more on that idea later on. There’s an integrated audio player on your Evernote account that will play the audio recording for you without you having to leave the application.  

The thing I did not appreciate about Evernote at first though is how complicated it seemed. It took me some effort to get used to it and if you are not patient enough, you surely will just move on to finding another application instead. Thankfully, I stuck with it and now I am enjoying the benefits of keeping my personal stuff on track. It also looks as though Evernote users have become so devoted to the app that you’d think there’s a conspiracy going on.

Evernote is truly an innovative and intuitive productivity app that proves to be one of the best apps out there. Even with more and more rivals coming onto the stage, Evernote still holds a significant edge. Again you might need to read a manual when you first start using it but once you know the twists and turns, you will easily see how it could make your life so much easier.

Google Drive

So Google drive is not only for the computers anymore. You can get it installed in your smartphone and access all the files from there. You can download the files, edit synchronously and share your files with a few easy steps. It is integrate with your email, preferably your G-mail account. You can get up 15GB of storage for free and your drive is accessible from anywhere you have Google Drive installed. It used to be such a task sending files to and fro especially if both parties are doing some edits and what not. With Google Drive, you can edit spreadsheets, documents and other files together at the same time or one after the other without having to send files back and forth. The changes are automatically saved and you don’t even have to push the save button.

Google Drive works more conveniently with a computer because it is still generally easier to edit files from there right? But if you are accessing files from your smartphones and you want to edit some files too, you can do so just as easily. I love how this app saves me a lot of time. I have way too many tasks and without these productivity apps, especially Google Drive, I’d be spending more than half of my time sorting out everything.

Trello – Keep Track of Everything for Free

Trello helps you organize efficiently. If you have different projects going on and you want to make sure you can keep track of the progress of each project without mixing them up, Trello can help you do just that. You can create different boards or cards where you can create a checklist of to-dos, get updates on your boards from other members, check who is working and track their progress and upload photos and videos relevant to the project.

What I like most about Trello is how easy it can fulfill your needs. Whether you use it on your computer or on your mobile, you can do all the same functions and thus experience efficiency in anyway. Everybody gets the same access to the content needed for every project so you don’t have to send everything to multiple employees. Trello is an intuitive app and so it makes you understand what it does right away. This web-based collaboration tool is efficiency at its best especially if you’re the one assigning tasks. I still ponder why the team who built it generously offered it for free because it’s easy to see how they can make a lot of money out of it.