Most business leaders realize that a good project management app can have a tremendous impact on how well their team completes projects. Good systems can improve efficiency, boost productivity, and much more. While plenty of apps out there will offers some very basic functions, there are a variety of different features you may find in a project management app that could have an even bigger effect on how your team completes their projects.

Once you take a look at major things like access control and multiple admin capabilities, look at the smaller features that build up the larger picture. For instance, everyone knows that task management is important, but consider just what you want from task management. For instance, you may want to look for apps that allow you to set up subtasks for easier organization and assignment.

Gantt charts are an absolute must these days, and allow you to carefully track and monitor the progress of the system. But what about being able to filter out different elements for an even more detailed look? It’s another way that the best apps can really help make a difference in your final results.

Also in the ‘task management’ area of your project management app, consider looking to ensure that communication is available. If the app allows you to leave notes and comments on different tasks and subtasks, it’s a lot easier for your team to continue collaborating properly and get some serious results out of the system.

That final point brings up one of the biggest features to keep looking for – communication. While most project management app options out there make it fairly easy to handle some basic communication, a better thing to look for is just what kind of detailed conversations and communication plans exist. Being able to connect with those involved in every stage of the project, send emails, set up email alerts, and even have chat is important for getting a project done properly.

Finally, it’s worth making sure that the project management app you’re looking into is an online, web based one. By making certain that the program is online you’ll ensure that connectivity is at a maximum, that everyone involved can access the suite of features no matter where they are, and that it’s easier to manage and collaborate with the team.

It’s important to look beyond the basic two or three features offered by an app and look at the specifics of what it offers. Doing so could help you get the most from your program.

I know from my own experience that many students have iPhones and iPads which they take to university with them, and most seem to get good use out of them, using their devices to record lectures and take notes, but it seems to me that very few are really getting the most out out of them! So, I decided to compile this list of the 10 best iOS apps for students – enjoy! (in no particular order!)

1) Dropbox

Everybody who has an iPad or iPhone, should have Dropbox. In fact, everybody should have Dropbox, simple as. If you haven’t heard of it, basically it’s a free service that lets you store documents in the ‘cloud’. So what? It’s incredibly easy to use, multiplatform and integrated into a lot of apps and websites, including Facebook.

You can install dropbox on your computer so it just appears as a regular folder you can save files into, and then you can access them anywhere, from any device! Forget having to log on to your uni’s undoubtedly complicated remote access service, don’t worry about having forgotten or lost your pendrive or having multiple copies of the same file – Dropbox sorts it all out for you! You can even create ‘shared’ folders which is great if you’re doing group work.

In a nutshell: Store & synchronise files online

Works with: iPhone, iPad, Mac/PC, Web

Price: Free! (premium option available)

2) Goodreader

The most obvious thing to do with your iPad is to store lecture notes and presentations on it. Right now you’re probably using iBooks to open them which is fine but… what if you wanted to draw on and annotate your notes? In that case you’ll want Goodreader! Has Dropbox synchronisation built in so you can keep your files all nice and tidy still!

In a nutshell: Annotate lecture notes

Works with: iPhone, iPad

Price: £2.99 / $4.99 (must buy iPhone and iPad separately unfortunately!)

3) Evernote

You may already have heard of Evernote. I mainly use it for writing notes during lectures. It has a number of advantages over ‘traditional’ software such as MS Word in that it lets you organise your notes into notebooks, rather than ‘files’ which I find makes them easier to look up.

You can paste in rich media such as images, video and recordings easily and it features cloud integration so your notes are available on any device: iPad, iPhone, computer or web! You can also use it to record audio, so you can record a lecture whilst making notes on it!

In a nutshell: Record & take notes in lectures

Works with: iPhone, iPad, Mac/PC, Web

Price: Free (premium version available)

4) Inkling

Inkling is exactly what the iPad was made for: high-quality, digital textbooks that really take advantage of the tablet format. Inkling does not simply deliver the PDF versions of textbooks, it lovingly re-creates them in the digital format, and the result is quite simply amazing!

Some of the world’s most renowned textbooks are now delivered through Inkling with embedded video, audio, ‘test yourself’ images, Multiple Choice Questions, fill-in-the-blanks, hyperlinks and even comments from other students. The app itself is free though they charge for the books.

Book prices tend to be about the same as the print version which personally I feel is a bit steep, but you can buy them by-the-chapter and all in all it’s definitely worth it.

In a nutshell: Beautiful digital textbooks

Works with: iPhone, iPad, Web

Price: Free (charge for books)

5) PDF Printer

I mentioned earlier that you can use Goodreader to annotate and highlight your lecture notes – to do that, however, they’ll need to be in PDF format. This is the best PDF convertor I’ve found, it isn’t perfect (it struggles sometimes converting PowerPoint files, in my experience) but its very good and simple to use. Simply open a file in safari, choose to open it in PDF Reader, convert it then open in Goodreader!

In a nutshell: Convert files to PDF

Works with: iPhone, iPad

Price: £3.99 / $5.99

6) Flashcards++

Personally, I don’t rate flashcards that highly as a revision tool, but obviously a lot of people do and they do have their place – if you’re looking for a good app for flashcards, you can’t go wrong with this one!

In a nutshell: Create & download flashcards

Works with: iPhone, iPad

Price: £2.49 / $3.99

7) iThoughtsHD

I’m not gonna lie… this one is a little on the pricey side but in my opinion it’s worth the price, and I’m not even a huge fan of mindmaps! It really does it well though, definitely worth checking out

In a nutshell: Easily create mindmaps

Works with: iPhone, iPad

Price: £6.99 / $9.99

8) Wunderlist

I’m a big fan of the “ToDo” list, it really helps me get things done and there’s a strange satisfaction in crossing something off your list! There is absolutely no shortage of the bloody things in the app store, some good, some bad, some absolutely terrible.

Wunderlist, in my opinion is the best of them! Some try and get too complicated (Nozbe) and some are just too basic (Reminders) but Wunderlist keeps things nice and simple, whilst also adding some great features such as cloud synchronisation and group ToDo lists… and best of all its completely free!

In a nutshell: “To Do” list

Works with: iPhone, iPad, Web

Price: Free!

9) Kindle

This one is probably more useful for Humanities/Arts students rather than science students, because whilst it does have a huge library, the actual Kindle platform isn’t well suited for textbooks or books that are very graphic-based such as many medical or scientific textbooks, for that I’d recommend Inkling (above) instead!

However, for mainly text-based books you can’t beat Kindle on ease of use or price. A lot of people say “I’d rather read a paper book” or “I can’t read off a screen” but you do get used to it, and the annotating / note taking abilities combined with the ability to carry hundreds of books in your pocket really does outweigh it all in my opinion.

In a nutshell: eBooks

Works with: iPhone, iPad, Mac/PC, Web

Price: Free! (charge for books)

10) All Stuck Up

This one won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I love it! Basically it is a virtual corkboard that lets you pin up different notes and move them around. It’s a great way to display short notes or flashcards on your screen and refer back to them.

In a nutshell: Virtual corkboard

Works with: iPad

Price: £0.69

So there you have it – 10 of the best apps for students right now, I hope you found it useful!

iOS platform has some of the best apps available on any mobile or post PC platform. iOS has revolutionized the way we use post PC devices. While we see android starting to dominate the market share slowly, still there will the release of some of the amazing and awesome apps in the upcoming future for iOS.

Here is why – iOS is a platform that a good developer loves to develop apps for. All the major players in app world had started with iOS. The reason is simple – on iOS there is less fragmentation, as a matter of fact there is no fragmentation at all. While on android fragmentation is one hell of an issue.

There are gazillion manufacturers developing mobile phones or tablets with various versions of android running on them with various different Hardware configurations. While on iOS there is one version of iOS on a carefully selected and tested hardware by some of the best tech guys on the planet. So, as a result, even the underpowered CPU and GPU is very heavily optimized and leaves a seamless experience.

No matter what we predict or say, this will always be an advantage for Apple. The total control was a really nice and smart choice made by the late Steve Jobs. App Store and what goes in and out is totally controlled by the company and gives the best and most optimized experience. And if some friction is caused, we always have Apple to blame and it is fair enough since they have the total control.

Now for android, the reason they are growing is because of growing popularity of Samsung’s Galaxy devices, availability of range with devices and of course the price point.

If android wants to thrive, Google needs to focus on the soul, the operating system and control it.

The one thing they can do is to control the end user experience as much as they can. By restricting download of apps from third party sources and only allow Google play™ platform as an app market place.

They must start approving fully tested apps for the available device configuration and disapprove the incompatible buggy apps until they are fully tested and optimized for the available configuration. They must also control the privacy and security aspects of android as much as they can.

When this will happen, android will move a step forward towards being the app heaven like iOS.

A long time ago, before there were iPhones, if you and your friends wanted to go out to eat, there was a whole ritual involved. You’d call each other on your “dumb” phones, have a whole conversation on who’s hungry for what, then call each other back with restaurant suggestions. Then you’d all call each other some more with competing suggestions based on price, proximity, etc. Eventually everybody would converge on the joint, flip-phones still in hand, and realize you were there.

Now, “there’s an app for that.” You seek out locations, price ranges, cuisines, and even good nutritional choices using your iPhone, and get down to chowing down in record time.

So what’s the best app for finding a place? It depends what features you want. Here’s a quick menu:

Restaurant Finder (Free) – Perfect for travelers, Restaurant Finder lets you enter the cuisine you want and the city/zip code or location, and returns the nearest restaurants that have what you’re hungry for, displaying address, telephone number, and URL, if available. It also gives you a handy weather forecast, so you know when “closer is better.”

Find a Restaurant (.99) – This handy app goes Restaurant Finder one better; it tells you your current location using GPS. Search by cuisine, and it gives you nearby restaurants complete with phone number, GPS map location, driving directions, and one-touch website visit (But no weather). Also includes Tip Calculator (yes, it splits the check if you want. Cheapskate.)

Urbanspoon (Free) – This is the app from the Apple commercials with the “slot machine” randomizing feature to add a little fun to your search. Of course, you can also filter choices by cuisine, price, or location. Urbanspoon also includes access to ratings and reviews and a “friends” feature to add a touch of social networking…but it’s no Yelp.

Yelp (Free) – Yelp isn’t hopping on the social networking bandwagon; it’s the real deal. That’s because Yelp is a website first and an app second (which is both good and bad–but more on that in a moment). With Yelp you search for a restaurant, bar, club, or any business in similar ways to other restaurant-finding apps, or just enter the name of a food (e.g., “Peking Duck”) and Yelp finds a place for you. You can post notes and reviews (although you have to go to the Yelp site to post–hence the “good and bad” comment above.) The “Check-in” feature lets you and your friends track each others’ whereabouts. Fear not: Check-in is voluntary, so if the stalker ex is back, you’re safe. Check into the same place often enough, and Yelp decides you’re a regular. Some user complaints of outdated/inaccurate information; not bad at finding the eats, great at keeping the party rolling.

Where to eat (2.99) – Another GPS-enabled food finder. But WTE has a couple of features that just make sense. Searching is by cuisine or particular food type, and there are separate categories for bars, take-out, and delivery. Emphasizes intuitive experience; typing is optional. Shake-to-Suggest shuffle works on the same principle as Urbanspoon’s “slot machine”.

What if your interest runs to depth rather than breadth? Check out Sushipedia (free) for scads of sushi knowledge, and of course, a database of places to buy it. And if you’re watching your weight, click on Lose It or Nutrition Menu once you get to a place for calorie counts and more. Thankfully, neither tells your friends you’re dieting.

So you have a hot new iPhone or iPad – now which apps should you download and use? Here’s a list of the hottest apps to help you travel smarter and work more efficiently when on the road.

FlightCaster is a free app for the iPhone that claims to predict flight delays with 95 percent accuracy. So before booking your next flight, check if there’s a chance of any delays first.

GateGuru is another free app for iPhones that allows you to search your airport for the restaurants, stores and services that you want and need. You can also bookmark favorite spots, read reviews, and share your travels via Facebook and Twitter.

Kayak is one of the world’s leading travel search engines. Kayak Mobile for the iPad and iPhone lets you use Kayak’s dedicated travel search engine to find flight prices from almost any origin to destinations around the world. Find what you need based on price, comfort and positive feedback.

MySkyStatus.com is an app powered by Lufthansa that allows you to set up auto-Tweeting on your flight status to family, friends and business associates. Your Twitter followers can even track your in-flight progress, even if you don’t have in-flight Wi-Fi.

The Phone Book App from YellowBook. Using technology from Google Maps, this free app can locate nearby businesses in a virtual reality format, including phone numbers, store hours and integrated maps. It also has an automated voice search feature to access information on millions of restaurants, hotels and businesses around the world.

SeatGuru is the right app for someone very particular about their seat assignment. View detailed airplane seat charts, along with crucial information about which seats are broken, have little legroom or misaligned windows.

TravelTracker Pro was named best money-saving app by American Express. The app delivers live flight status reports and live flight map tracking in the U.S. It also integrates with TripIt, so you can carry all your TripIt information including flight info, hotel reservations, car rentals, meetings, weather reports and more – all without needing an Internet connection.

With TripAdvisor’s mobile app, you can search for airline ticket and hotel deals, restaurants and attractions and more. The app also offers information on vacation rentals, hotels, tourist attractions and other international destinations. It’s also available in one dozen languages and includes business reviews from 35 million travelers.

The TripIt Travel Organizer is a free app that consolidates itineraries, reservations and other information, including maps and directions for multiple trips. Check-in for flights, verify flight status and check local weather from one location.

WeatherBug Elite: You know where you’re going, you know a little about the place and you’ve booked a great hotel – but what’s the weather like? Enter WeatherBug Elite and you’ll get beautifully-presented weather forecasts through an easy-to-navigate user interface. Not just the weather, you’ll also get infrared satellite, humidity, air pressure, wind speed, next day high and next day low pressure data. You even get live weather cameras

WikiHood is consistently rated a best iPad app. This virtual guidebook combines Wikipedia and Google Maps to provide you with extensive information on a place’s culture, history and geography. It also uses GPS technology to display local attractions and historic information for destinations around the world.

The XE Currency Converter is a mobile currency conversion tool that helps you keep track of how much you spend when abroad. The app automatically updates conversion rates for 190 international currencies. Available free with download options for all iPhone platforms.

Smart phone app advancement is constantly providing new tools and games for customers pretty much every day. Hard core users are always keeping an eye out for new apps. More customers buy their very first smart phone every day. Of course, then they learn how useful these programs truly are and suddenly can’t go through a day without their smart phone. These apps are attainable on many assortments of smart phones and pads across all platforms. Businesses will make apps accessible for a ton of reasons. One example is a restaurant develops an app that advertises itself. It in theory could allow a user to place his order right from his phone, reserve a well placed table, or get directions to said restaurant.

Another example is teachers utilize these apps by means of pad technology. They use valid teaching methods but make them accessible in a tech-savvy way. It is becoming more and more widespread that schools are trading out text books for pads for students. certain apps are just for fun. Here’s an example: some apps feature a bobble head imitation of a important athlete that fans can shake up and make bobble when the team doesn’t win. One surprisingly conscious app features background noises like running water to give privacy for timid bathroom users. And, as we all know, there’s Angry Birds. The people working to develop these apps have to be deft and informed on several fronts.

It’s imperative that developers are able to work well with the buyer to make the best app possible for that certain business. Their programmers must be able to make the app work on the different platforms and with all of the browsers AND make it appear and be used the same on each one. On top of that, there must be sound, animation, and usability. Besides the technical portions of app development, the developers have to be able to provide support for customers and must advertise in order to get the app heard of. They should know how to capitalize on social media for promotion and they must capitalize on other services that can aid in getting the app found on Internet searches. SEO, or search engine optimization, must be used to get higher rankings so that the app is more notable to every-day web surfers. There are many marketing strategies that come into play.

Businesses have to stay in the public eye in order to advance. Whether you have an app for your whole business, or use an expense tracking app for your employees, it’s imperative to utilize this new technology.

The iPhone has many hundreds of thousands of applications developed by developers worldwide. iPhone applications cover just about any area the mobile phone can cover. Programmers and software developers worldwide create unique softwares that provide infinite capabilities to iPhone and other smart phones. Due to unlimited potential for new applications to be marketed via Apple’s App Store, thousand of developers daily write applications to Apple iPhone.

The most popular Apple iPhone applications cover dictation where users can record and append new audio to existing recording or even add text notes that help in recording interview. One of the popular iPhone apps category is gaming. IPhone users perform mobile shopping from popular sites such as amazon and eBay. There are popular apps for playing music and videos from Pandora and YouTube. With iPhone, many languages apps in foreign language translations, dictionary and thesaurus are also popular. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4G that includes video calling via Facetime with LTE (the new 4G Standard) based wireless cell phone is going to revolutionize new smart phones. Since iPhone has GPS functionality, there are thousands of iPhone apps for GPS base location and mapping. Remote control connections to iTunes over Wi-Fi and virtual keyboard and mouse to control Mac/PC is also another popular app category.

Thousands of free apps from colored flash lights to Flixter’s free movie releases by location to dragon’s dictation can be found on iPhone or iPod touch devices. Since iPhone has thousands of worldwide developer base, you can always find free app to match any category. Smart phone developers consider releasing a iPhone app as a must oppose to Android platform in order to get the most widest exposure and user base.

Currently there is also a rapidly growing developer base for Apple’s iPad. Even though iPad is considered an extra accessory as oppose to iPhone, a Cell Phone which is a necessity, iPad apps development is rapidly growing.

With hundreds of thousand of iPhone applications there are always free apps for any subject you are interested. Free iPhone apps provide the freedom to try them before you purchase the more advanced version or simply have a great functionality app for free. You can discover what functionality and services offered by an app on any category you are interested. Free iPhone applications is a great way to explore unknown subjects. Thousands of free iPhone web apps are also another great way explore and discover other subject you might be very much interested.

Android has a lot of apps for all sorts of people and coffee lovers are not far behind. Here are the apps that are filled with caffeine:

Barista Me – Coffee Guide
Learning how to make the perfect cup of coffee is anyone’s dream especially if you are a coffee junkie. This app helps you have a visual of the different ingredients and quantities in a specific coffee drink. It’s pretty neat and hot too!

My Coffee Card
If you want an easy way to pay for the drinks that you buy from the coffee shops, this is the app for you. You can link it to your credit card, load it up with credits, and then use it to pay when you are at the cashier. Not only is it that convenient but it also helps you go around with less money on your wallet which is safe and convenient for anyone.

Starbucks
The coffee giant will definitely not be behind when it comes to coffee apps. If you are a fan of this coffee shop then download this app. It shows you where the nearest Starbucks is. at the same time, it is also one cool way to pay for your drink. You can load it with credits, use it to pay at the counter, review your previous transactions, and keep track of your rewards.

Coffee Fix
This is probably the best coffee shop finder for Android gadgets. It shows you where you can find the nearest cafe to where you are. It scans your location and then pins the locations of the cafes that you can go to. It provides details and directions for each cafe.

Coffee GO Launcher Theme
Waking up to the smell of coffee brewing may not be enough for caffeine addicts so download this app so that when you look at your phone, you can see a coffee themed interface.

Java Mixing Guide
This is a guide that will help you create the coffee that you would want to have. If you want to brew or mix your coffee drink at home, this is the best app for you.

Coffee Drinks and Cocktails
This is your chance to make your own coffee with anything that you prefer and however you prefer it to be. You can save your coffee recipes and then you can retrieve the recipes once you have friends over and you can impress them with your barista skills!

A Few Basic Guidelines

iPhones apps can greatly enhance the features and capabilities of your already feature-rich mobile device. The fact that most of the best apps for the iPhone are available for free makes it even more compelling to download and use them. But before you rush off to download the latest available app, you might need to find out how to pick and choose the best free apps for your iPhone, so that you can derive maximum benefit from them.

You can follow this list of criteria to help you pick and choose the best free apps for your iPhone:

Requirement

Most people are attracted to iPhone apps based on the wow factor. They hear about a new app or see a friend using one, and they immediately get all excited about it, without ever wondering whether they really need the app. Just because it is free does not mean that you should immediately download and use it. In fact, most people never use a large percentage of the apps that are installed on their iPhones. Understand that you would only use an app which really meets a particular need. So use that as your basic selection criterion to see whether or not you really need a particular app, before you download and use it.

Usability

Judge an app based on its usability. Unlike computer software applications, most apps are used on the go while driving, walking or even running. See how well you can use the app in those circumstances. Sometimes, you might have to wait for the app to evolve to a higher version before it becomes really usable. So unless the app is easy to use on the iPhone, do not go for it.

Value

Unless you have countless hours of free time, you can do without a large percentage of apps. In fact, most apps for entertainment can be very addictive and rob you off your precious time, which you can use productively in other tasks. So judge an app by the value it provides in your life. If it can aid you in productivity and save time, go for it. But if it wastes your time and decreases your income or profits, keep away from it.

Safety

When you have children at home, you should be wary of the kind of apps that you install on your smart phone, especially when you allow your children to use your iPhone. Apps that use geolocation can pinpoint the location of the iPhone user. If your children use such apps without your assistance, they can expose their location to complete strangers, which could be dangerous at times. Therefore, you need to be aware of these aspects when you install certain apps on your iPhone.

Feedback

It is impossible for you to find all the apps on your own. You might have to go by other people’s opinions, which is not really a bad thing. People are doing you a favor by downloading, installing and testing an app, so that you do not have to do it yourself. Therefore, check online for feedback from iPhone app users through forums and social media sites. There are thousands of sites online where iPhone app users share their experience and provide feedback on various different apps. Use this collective knowledge to help you pick and choose the best free apps for your iPhone.

The healthcare profession is a big one. Many people never would have guessed that these professionals would have a use for an iPad. The truth is, these iPad medical apps really come in handy. There are quite a few medical applications that are quite popular and commonly used.

The most popular application is known as Medscape. This is a healthcare professional’s one stop shop reference guide. This is the top application of all time. Any and everything that you can think of that pertains to the medical fields is all here in this app. From drug and disease references to videos, procedures, and images, it has it all. The craziest thing about this app is that it’s completely free.

Micromedexd isn’t as good as Medscape, but it’s the next best thing. This is why it ranks #2. It is quick and very simple to use. It is the organization of your office, away from your office. Here, you are able to look up dosage, warnings, and drug information with a single touch.

As far as the New England journal of medicine is concerned, it ranks #3 falling behind Micromedex and Medscape. This is also is a free app that allows you to have medical resources at your fingertips. You can view pictures and videos, plus learn about many different procedures. Everything is easily accessed because it has already been prepared in mobile format.

Epocrates on the other hand, is said to be one of the best apps in mobile format and ranks #4. There are many different versions of this app. There is one free one and many premium versions. Here, there are quite a few helpful, useful tools. The medical calculator, drug monographs, pill identifier, and the drug interaction tool are just to name a few. As for the premium versions, they are a little different.

There are four different versions of Epocrates. Epocrates Rx is the free version. Epocrates Rx Pro is a premium version and costs $99 per year. Epocrates Essentials is another premium version that prices around $160 a year. Epocrates Essentials Deluxe is yet another premium software and is the last. This program runs about $199 a year.

There are many different perks that come with each Epocrates program. These are known as key features. With the free version, (Epocrates Rx), is great for the pill identifier, drug info, and medmath. Rx Pro includes infectious disease treatment guide, brand name OTC drugs, alternative medicines, and the IV compatibility checker.

Epocrates Essentials includes disease monographs, high resolution images, and diagnostics and laboratory tests. Essentials deluxe is the package of all packages. This includes CPT codes, ICD-9 codes, medical dictionary, and alternative medicines section. These apps are great for any person in the healthcare, medical field. It is a very handy, on-the-go guide for just about everything medical.