BUSINESS/APPS SPECIAL...10 Best Business Apps of 2012

10 Best Business Apps of 2012  WITH AN INCREASING NUMBER OF TASKS TO BE PERFORMED AND WITH LITTLE TIME TO DO THEM IN, THE OFFICE-GOER IS USUALLY AT A LOSS. BUT THERE IS A QUICKFIX.  1 Paper by FiftyThree FREE FOR iPAD Paper acts like a personal journal where you can sketch, draw or note down your ideas in a easy-to-use interface. You get the basic drawing tools for free with the app. Additional tools can be purchased within the app. Once done, you can share your ideas with others on your social networks, email them or post them directly to your blog. 2 Ovo Timer FREE FOR ANDROID All you have to do is drag your finger on the screen of your device to set a countdown timer. It’s fast, pretty, intuitive and customisable — you can change alarm sounds, keep the screen on, use vibration and, so on. If your device supports it, you can set a timer by speaking (most new Android devices have this feature). 3 Google Drive FREE FOR iOS, ANDROID This app not only lets you upload content from your handheld device to Google’s cloud storage, but also offers other useful features. For instance, you can save files on your device to view them offline, edit existing documents as well as create a new document or spreadsheet within the app. 4 CloudOn FREE FOR iOS, ANDROID Office apps on mobile devices always have some limitations compared to the fullblown Office on a PC. What CloudOn does is host the Office programmes (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) on their servers and streams them to your mobile device. Plus, it ties in to Box, DropBox, Google Drive or SkyDrive accounts for storage. 5 Podio FREE FOR iOS Podio is a customisable, collaborative work platform. You can use it to build your own apps, based on what work you do and the processes you follow. For instance, you can use it to manage a team of people assigned different tasks. No matter where each member of the team sits, they can share documents and check tasks off their lists. 6 CheckMark for iOS 270 CheckMark makes life simple by allowing you to set time-based or location-based reminders. The interface keeps it simple — you can set up a new reminder with just 3 taps. Create a location in the app, choose it on the map and set a reminder for the location. When you reach that particular location, your phone will notify you. 7 30/30 FREE FOR iOS 30/30 is a simple and easy-on-the-eyes time management app. All you need to do is set up a list of tasks and assign a time to each of them. The app will notify you as the time for each task gets over so that you can move on to your next task. You can also increase or decrease the assigned time even when the countdown is still running. 8 Clear for iOS 55 Clear is a to-do list that aims to keep things simple and quick. Everything is gesture based — pull down to create a new item, swipe to mark as complete & pinch to navigate. You can store your lists on iCloud, create and add tasks in Clear from other apps and share a particular item on FB or Twitter. 9 Seatguru FREE FOR iOS/ANDROID This useful tool for travellers comes from the creators of TripAdvisor — just put in your flight number and it gives you a colour-coded seating chart, complete with the type of aircraft, recommendations to choose the best seat available and amenities available on each seat. And, yes, it works with flights within India, too. 10 Wunderlist 2 FREE FOR iOS, ANDROID Hands-down the most beautiful (but also one of the most useful) to-do list managers. Wunderlist has just gone through a major upgrade with native apps for your favourite mobile platforms. Use it for any to-do list that you have and get automatic email reminders and push notifi cations. Note that you can also use Wunderlist 2 on a PC or a MAC.

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