Talking Your Tech: What's your favorite app?
— -- With hundreds of thousands of apps available for Apple and Android smartphones, you'd think finding new ones to download would be easy. But the bounty of choices can be overwhelming, leaving many of us to turn to friends for recommendations.
Today it's your turn to pass along a tip. Over the past couple of weeks we asked USA TODAY's online readers and consumers we visited at a Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta to tell us about favorite under-the-radar apps.
Folks clearly love their apps, and want to tell the world about them. Over 150 of you wrote to us. The list was so diverse we can't give you a top five, as most apps had one or two votes. No single app stood out over the others. So here are 15 highlights of some of your favorite apps — under-the-radar or not — that you can't live with out:
Audiogalaxy Mobile. (Free. Apple/Android). Streams music from your computer to your device. "I have been using this for quite awhile and LOVE it. Every single song on my home computer is streamed to my device. It has worked flawlessly on my Droid on trips when Sirius or Pandora cut out. I switch to Audiogalaxy and it keeps playing my music. "—Jim Lively, Johnstown, Pa.
AroundMe. (Free. Apple/Android.) Uses GPS to figure out where you are to show you local hot spots. "I get lost easily. I always need to find things, and need to know where there's coffee, where there's food, where there's museums."—Darla Brown, St. Louis.
AstroCantus. ($1.99, Apple). Latin for 'star song,' the app detects stars, planets and galaxies as the earth turns and assigns each a musical value. "It uses the stars going above our heads to play musical notes, which in turn make soothing, serene music. I often start AstroCantus and let it play in my home or office while I'm doing other things. …it just makes the atmosphere so much nicer."—Margie Naylor, Nashville, Tenn.
Checkbook. ($1.99, Apple/ Android). Replaces your paper checkbook to manage daily finances."Enables you to have multiple bank accounts and it helps me keep my accounts balanced with a simple entry of a credit or debit transaction on my iPhone. Love living paperless. …no more checkbooks to balance manually."—Debby Rance, Clayton, Ind.
Evernote. (Free. Multiple platforms). Lets you create notes, snap photos, and record voice memos. "It isn't sexy, but it stores everything I could possibly need and makes it available to me via my iPhone. This includes work stuff, personal stuff, you name it. Simply my most reliable go to app."—Daniel Paul, Los Angeles.
Find MyiPhone. (Free. Apple): "Don't have an iPhone, but do have iPad and iPod Touch. Before this app our couch swallowed up our iPod and it was gone for four months. Now we just push a button and the Touch or iPad is located." —Lisa Chertok, Columbia, Md.
Flipboard (Free. For iPad). The app that turns your friends Facebook and Twitter postings into a daily newsmagazine is "just wonderful for us information junkies."—Jackie Evans, Eugene, Ore.
Gas Buddy. (Free. Apple/Android/Windows). GasBuddy is a community of users working together to update gas prices. "I want the best price on gas, plus it tells me where the nearest station is as well as a chance to win gas," —D. Cole, Aurora Ill.
