Apple Launches 'Get Productive' Promotion for iOS and Mac With Discounted Productivity Apps

we all need several todo lists, one for each calendar app we download. put that in one of your notes app.

You know, I've really turned my iPad in quite the productive little machine.

My 15" MacBook stays docked to a large external monitor at home and I take my iPad 3 with a Logitech Ultrathin Smart Cover to school. I use Word (and occasionally OneNote) to take notes during lectures or annotate professor supplied power points as they talk. I use Excel for iOS for some (very light) spreadsheet organization. I'm using PDF expert to read and annotate over 400 pages of PDFs for this terms classes. I've stopped printing PowerPoint slides and notes and simply consolidate them all into one large (50 to 200 page) PDF to study for exams. All my files stay in sync via Dropbox. I use Calendar and various Reminders lists to stay onto of my tasks and I stay on top of my emails throughout the day instead of letting them pile up until I'm home.

When I get home I pick up where I left off on my Mac to finish papers, work on my online class presentations, and work on my thesis (but I read the thesis PDFs and data on the iPad).

Together they make a pretty good team. My Mac is excellent for my heavy lifting tasks and my iPad works perfect as a light on-the-go device. The ability to use a keyboard in a more traditional laptop fashion when taking notes, but detach it into a more "book" like form factor for reading and annotating PDFs is a big help especially since some of my PDFs are rendered as one image so I can't highlight individual text on my Mac, but I can draw or freeform highlight on my iPad.

farewelwilliams said:

we all need several todo lists, one for each calendar app we download. put that in one of your notes app.

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Technically they all sync together. I use GoodTask on my Mac, and then Fantastical on my iOS devices for that reason.

Finally got GoodNotes, wow, people weren't kidding, I love the features it has.

farewelwilliams said:

we all need several todo lists, one for each calendar app we download. put that in one of your notes app.

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Or you could just use Omnifocus 2.

That is very good news.

pretty excited to have my small indie app, Desk App, represented! pretty honored and humbled, that's for sure!

Perhaps the software development team in charge of quality control at Apple would do well to take a similar initiative.

Saddington said:

pretty excited to have my small indie app, Desk App, represented! pretty honored and humbled, that's for sure!

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Congrats to you! Well deserved.

While it's great that they are providing great apps at a deal, I can't be the only one who finds it ironic that they've put out a promotion called "get productive" immediately after they've just had a major failure in their login system again.

Bad timing for such a slogan. They need to make their security and development team get productive.

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Saddington said:

pretty excited to have my small indie app, Desk App, represented! pretty honored and humbled, that's for sure!

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Great for you. Congratulations.

Anti-productivity. You guys want productivity? Stop investigating and buying / trying apps and just get back to work.

roland.g said:

Or you could just use Omnifocus 2.

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Or just use Apple supplied apps. Hmm ...

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FieldingMellish said:

Anti-productivity. You guys want productivity? Stop investigating and buying / trying apps and just get back to work.

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Omg! This forum has sane people after all.

How is journaling considered productive?

I paid for ProCam 2, quite a lot time ago, but today I had there opportunity to try it again and I'm impressed by the improvements it received in the last year. It's better than the stock app

FieldingMellish said:

Anti-productivity. You guys want productivity? Stop investigating and buying / trying apps and just get back to work.

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....said the man surfing the web forums.

Saddington said:

pretty excited to have my small indie app, Desk App, represented! pretty honored and humbled, that's for sure!

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Congrats well deserved.

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Jessica Lares said:

Technically they all sync together. I use GoodTask on my Mac, and then Fantastical on my iOS devices for that reason.

Finally got GoodNotes, wow, people weren't kidding, I love the features it has.

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Lets hope the makers of GoodNotes make a Mac version.

Gtd

Since we're talking productivity, I follow GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology by David Allen religiously and I was searching for the apps to help me implement it, money is not an issue as long as the app is a one time payment (ex. not Evernote) and doesn't cost more than 100$ (ex. OmniPlan), now it's like this:

1. For time specific tasks I use Fantastical and I'm content.
2. For non-time specific tasks I use Things and it's amazing, I wish Apple can make iCloud as robust as Things Cloud Sync.
3. For brainstorming I use MindNode and it's a beautiful useful app.

Apps I still can't find:

1. Reference system, a wiki, DevonThink was so ugly the last time I tried it, OCD!!!, the closest one was Together but judging by the AppStore reviews it had problems syncing with iCloud (just like any other app that isn't iWork).
2. Project Planning app that is not designed for a multi billion corporation CEO, I want a simple timeline where I can see my tasks and projects presented chronologically.

Especially in the area of iOS this seems to be a response towards Microsoft, which is ramping up at the moment...

Writing becomes effortless eventually if you do it a lot. What probably took you 30 minutes to come up with what to put down, then pretty much comes down instantly later on. Journaling doesn't necessarily have to be about your life, you can just put your general thoughts down.

iDento said:

2. Project Planning app that is not designed for a multi billion corporation CEO, I want a simple timeline where I can see my tasks and projects presented chronologically.

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There is this app called Firetask you might look at.

Has anyone tried Listbook?

AppleInLVX said:

....said the man surfing the web forums.

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Har har - But my post was at 3 AM - har har
Besides, being productive doesn't mean working 24/7! #

Well, I bought one anyway ... #

Saddington said:

pretty excited to have my small indie app, Desk App, represented! pretty honored and humbled, that's for sure!

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Congrats man! Is that a Smith-Corona you used for the icon?

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FieldingMellish said:

Anti-productivity. You guys want productivity? Stop investigating and buying / trying apps and just get back to work.

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I'm definitely guilty of this. Software is a helluva drug.

iDento said:

2. Project Planning app that is not designed for a multi billion corporation CEO, I want a simple timeline where I can see my tasks and projects presented chronologically.

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Been looking for this. Any tips anyone?

FieldingMellish said:

Har har - But my post was at 3 AM - har har
Besides, being productive doesn't mean working 24/7! ��

Well, I bought one anyway ... ��

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Teehee. Yeah, It's surprizing to me how many of these I'd already bought. The kind folks in the online Apple communities who recommend and review apps really do seem to be a good way to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'm going to pick up Dropzone this evening. For 2 bucks, not a bad deal at all.

FieldingMellish said:

How is journaling considered productive?

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It can keep you from going postal; not that there is anything wrong with being a postman.