My favorite apps for 2014: Dave Caolo
Look at that, another 12 months are now behind us. We see a lot of apps here at TUAW, and I've narrowed things down to my favorites. Here are the apps I grew to love in 2014.
Todoist (Free with a pro option for $29/year). Earlier this year, Jordan Cooper gave me a hard time for switching to-do apps so often. This year I've landed on Todoist, and I'm here to stay. It works on nearly any platform you throw at it, syncs data at lightning speed and is very pretty to boot. Plus, its gimmicky "karma points," which reward you for being a productive person, totally work as a motivator. I'm embarrassed to admit how giddy I get when they increase.
My Fitness Pal (Free). Earlier this year my doctor suggested that there ought to be less of me in the world. In other words, lose some weight, tubby! I figured that a gadget-y tool would keep me motivated, and I was right. I used a FitBit and My Fitness Pal (MFP) for the latter half of 2014 and it's been great. MFP grabs data from FitBit and uses it in concert with data light my height, age and weight to pick a daily calorie target for me. Recording what I eat throughout the day is easy with barcode support. It's fun to use and I'm down ten pounds. Thanks MFP and FitBit!
Sleepy Fan (US$1.99). When I was young, I became addicted to falling asleep to the soothing white noise of a bedroom fan. Today I still like to hear the gentle wussshhhh as I drift off. I've used Ambiance for a long time, but this year I discovered Sleepy Fan. It's got no huge library of sounds to choose from. Instead, it offers three types of fans and minimal options for customizing the sound they produce. There's a timer and a simple tap-on, tap-off mechanism. I'm getting sleepy just writing about it.
Note: some Sleepy Fan users have commented that the "loop point" in the app's audio is obvious and distracting. That has not been my experience, and believe me, I'm very aware of such things.
Haunting Melissa 2: Dark Hearts (Free with in-app purchases). The sequel to the iOS-only, episodic horror film Haunting Melissa is more surreal than its predecessor and the production value is even better. The first few chapters, released on a rapid but unpredictable schedule (enable push notifications for occasional, startling prompts to watch), are confounding in a good way: what the heck is going on? Once the story gets moving, its even more satisfying. A must for horror fans.
Kingdom Rush: Origins ($2.99). I love tower defense games and KR: Origins is by far my favorite implementation of the genre on the App Store. It combines challenging play, great looks and tons of Easter Eggs (fans of Disney's Fantasia will want to keep their eyes open) into a game with great replayability. Also, you get to control a dragon! KR: Origins is a stellar addition to a stellar franchise.
Picturelife (Free with in-app purchases). My struggle with digital photo management is legendary. I have a camera with me at all times, and it's so easy to use, that snapping 200 photos in a day is as easy as ABC. The problem is in storing and sorting the resulting mountain of images. I still don't have a perfect solution, but Picturelife comes close. It automatically backs up all of my snaps so I know they're safe. It sorts them by time so finding what I want is relatively easy. Plus, its "Memories" feature is a very fun way to remember past events.
