Sparrow
As
is the case as you get older, email (and life) only become more difficult. If
you’re an incoming college freshman, you probably just got your new .edu email
address, which you’ll now add to the list of email addresses you already had
like Gmail, Facebook, iCloud, etc.
You
need something better than iOS’s default Mail application, and chances are you
need something better than Android’s too. That’s where Sparrow comes in. It’s
Mail on steroids. It brings all your messages into a unified inbox, lets you
swipe to reply, star, forward, delete, etc., and even brings in cute little
profile pictures next to conversations (if you use Facebook Connect).
The
only caveat is that it doesn’t offer push notifications on iOS, but
Sparrow was just recently purchased by Google to improve Gmail so I’d expect
the $2.99 app to only get better as time goes on.
Astrid Task/To-Do List
As
much fun as the phone can be, it’s also an incredible tool for productivity and
efficiency. Apps are what help you make the most of your time and energy, and
perhaps the best service to help you stay organized, prioritized, and ready to
ace your life is Astrid Task.
The
app lets you create tasks, complete with due dates, priority levels, and an add
to calendar button. Each task can also be filtered into various lists,
including the default Home, Work, Personal, and Shopping.
Even
better, you can include other people in on your tasks in case you’re working on
a group project for school, have a shared grocery list with your roommate, etc.
You can also create reusable checklists for things you do every week or every
month, and keep from re-creating them over and over. The app is free, easy, and
pretty.
Grindr/Blendr
College
is all about trying new things. Sometimes that means using recreational drugs,
and sometimes that means going goth for a month. Frequently, that means hooking
up with the same sex. But how does a young, bi-curious new college student find
the right “lab” partner for this type of experiment?
Well,
if you’re a man, Grindr, and if you’re a brave lady, Blendr. As it stands now,
Grindr is for men only while Blendr is for peeps of all genders and
orientations. That means that girls seeking girls on Blendr are almost
guaranteed to get hit on by men, so if you can shake that off than by all
means, install and get your gay on.
The
app/s work by pulling in everyone nearby, displaying who is online with a green
dot by their profile picture. When you click on someone you can see their
distance, a little bio information, and start a chat. With 4 million users
globally on Grindr alone, you’re sure to find someone interesting. Plus, it’s
free.
(College
kids only — you must be 18 to download the app.)
TheWhoot
Making
friends, and even making time to hang out with them, can get difficult in
college. On top of classes, you’ll likely involve yourself in other
extra-curriculars like clubs, Greek life, sports, etc. Past that, we’ve become
a progressively flaky generation, constantly cancelling at the last minute.
TheWhoot
helps with these issues quite a bit. It lets you see what your friends are up
to tonight as opposed to Facebook Events scheduled for the future (who knows
how you’ll feel when the big night rolls around?). You start by giving an idea
of what you’ll be up to tonight, within the bounds of four categories: Working,
Staying In, Relaxing Out (as in hanging at a bar or something), or Partying.
You
can choose to add context, like the location, name of the event, etc., or
simply leave it as a category your general mood for the evening. After that,
you’re given access to all your friends’ plans for the evening, and you can
filter through categories to see whose mood matches yours.
For
the new kid at school, this should keep your free nights busy and your busy
nights busier, all for free.
Songza
Music
is a part of every college kid’s life. And knowing the coolest, hottest music
before it’s played over and over on the radio as the coolest, hottest music
definitely wins cool points. There is, therefore, no better app than Songza.
You can know everything or nothing about music and I guarantee you’ll love the
app.
When
you first open up Songza, Concierge (the app’s core feature) serves up various
activities you might be doing based on the time, day, what type of device
you’re on, and your music preferences. This could be Working Out or Studying on
a weekday morning, or Getting High or Getting Naked late at night on a weekend.
Once you choose an activity, you choose a filter for that activity, like Hype
Rap, Heartfelt, Feel-Good Oldies, etc.
After
those two clicks, you have a list of highly curated playlists (assembled by
music experts — Rolling Stone authors, DJs, etc.) at your disposal. Click,
listen, enjoy. Of course, Songza also lets you get to playlists by choosing an
activity, mood or genre.
Thank you for the great app suggestions, Stephen! I am sending my son a Nexus 7 tablet as a surprise back to school gift and I wanted to preload a few essential apps like Sparrow and the Astrid. I included a fun app called DISH Remote Access as well. He knows that I work for DISH and he came to me asking if I knew of a better way then cable to get TV service in his dorm. They won’t let him install a DISH so I gave her the next best thing… the use of my DISH. He can use the DISH app to watch his favorite channels AND DVR recordings right from our DVR at home. I think that is a better option for him then getting cable service; this way, he will even be able to take it outside to relax on the quad.
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