My Apps of the Year
This has been a year in which we’ve seen smartphones and tablets get even smarter and I’ve tried hundreds of apps over the past 12 months. As 2014 nears the end, here are the three apps I think qualify as my apps of the year.
The first app has me addicted: It’s called SmartNews and it’s the fastest, most comprehensive, and always up-to-date news reader I’ve seen. It scours more than 10 million articles daily and delivers a customized reading list to your mobile device, categorized just the way you want them and easily stored for later reading or shared on social media. It works on Apple and Android devices.
My second favorite app is called SHAREit and it describes itself as the world’s fastest transmission tool across smart devices. What it does is let you swap files – big and small files, photos, documents, videos, even apps – between Windows, Android, and Apple mobile devices. It does it without Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, connecting wirlesslesly with another device using the same app. That has been extremely handy.
My third favorite app of 2014 is CalenMob, a Google Calendar app that syncs with Apple mobile devices, allowing you to use your Google account to manage your calendars on your iPhone or iPad. It syncs perfectly with the Apple calendar, thus letting you share calendar info with anyone, no matter what platform they use.
Mike Wendland
Mike is a veteran journalist whose video "PC Mike" reports have been distributed weekly to all 215 NBC-TV stations since 1994, making him one of the most experienced tech reporters in the country. His tech stories and videos have appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, the Today Show, The New York Times, USA Today and in numerous national newspapers and magazines. In addition to the PC Mike tech blog, he also publishes the Roadtreking.com RV Travel Blog in which he travels North America in an RV reporting about interesting people and places.
