App Access: Take Five

I wanted to give you a detailed list of 5 apps that I’ve used. Read on to see if you know any of these.

Get Organised: 

1. Asana is an app and website to help make your projects and team tasks more organised. 

In a nutshell, you create detailed lists or simple tasks with due dates. It works great for communicating on collaborative projects with colleagues. I have used Asana for work projects in the past, however, I actually only have the app for personal use—mostly using for weekend blogging and freelance projects to separate tasks and deadlines from my grad projects.  

• Pros: You can correspond with your team members directly through the app so that anyone assigned a task or project may leave you questions or comments.  

• Immediate tracking of your tasks, due dates, and the work completed by others can be done easily as the app also sends you e-mail notifications which area helpful reminders.  

• Attachments to conversations and projects can be made as well as photos of your work for team updates and even offline use.  

• All work can be synced across web and mobile devices. This app is for Android and iOS users. The app is free, with additional upgraded features at cost, if preferred. 

• Cons: Font/typography customisation limitations—you are essentially stuck with the default scale and style of fonts provided. This wasn’t an issue for me since I am using this as a simplified organisational tool.  

The Fit Traveller:

2. Spotebi: A website dedicated to providing women diverse at–home workouts. Earlier last year, I randomly stumbled upon this site and found a goldmine, then I continued to use the site occasionally whenever I was travelling for work. Every eight weeks or so, I slightly change my workouts, so I have been using Spotebi in rotation with other apps, along with my usual Pop Pilates workout routine and a walking/running app.  

Although my schedule is quite chaotic at times, I am fairly disciplined because of my lifestyle so when it comes to my workout routine it’s unwavering. I am up at 4:50 a.m. every morning except weekends. I don’t really have “cheat days,” instead I just spend more time working out because as a gastronome, let’s be honest, I‘d rather enjoy life and really good food instead of counting every single calorie. I am mindful of what I put in my body, but I don’t want to take the fun out of enjoying what I consume be it healthy cuisine or an indulgent snack.  

With that being said, everyone is different. Ultimately, the best thing to do is to find what works for your body and your lifestyle.     

• Pros: Convenient, refreshing, and the site is full of information, which is easy to select exercises. There are workouts to suit every need with descriptions and images to show you how to do each exercise.  

• Cons into Pros: For Spotebi full-plans they cost, but don’t worry, there are plenty of freebies, free workouts and weekly trial sessions. I recommend using the flows, core strengthening, targeted exercises which times your intervals and even gives you a playlist to be inspired by. You really needn’t buy anything unless you need more discipline to stay on track. 

Get Discounts: 

3. Uni Days: No matter how much you might love shopping online, there’s nothing like a smart shopper! Uni Days make student life rewarding, at least in the online shopping capacity.  

• Pros: You can save money on sites such as TopShop, The Hut (one of my favourites), ASOS, Lookfantastic, Boohoo, Express, Deliveroo, and many others. The network serves all across England, Ireland and over 30 other countries globally.  

• Discounts and promotions are not solely limited to beauty or fashion brands—savings include the Microsoft store, Hotels.com, Spotify, and Apple, amongst others. You can also earn cash rewards with the app by shopping as well as affiliate sharing.   

• There are tips and hacks available to get you inspired and ready to save more! 

• Cons: With some retailers and brands, the discount percentage is occasionally the same as being a new customer (i.e. 10% Off) however, there are other brand promos that make up for it.

4. STA Travel: Student and teacher travel website full of discounts. I remember using this site years ago and I‘d forgotten about it. Nowadays, STA Travel is far easier and a lot better than it used to be thanks to technology and social media. 

• Pros: This a great website that I like to use now and then. It’s a helpful hub that instructors, teachers and students of all levels can use to take advantage of exclusive discounts on global travel, lodgings and pertinent data relative to their destinations, or even location-based work programmes.  

• Graduate and undergrad students can apply for a STA ID cards (ISIC), teachers may apply for specific cards as well. 

• Cons: For cards, there are some costs involved—to be fair, you can acquire various options, though. The amount of deals and benefits that you receive are worth it, in my opinion. View options here. To be honest, it really depends on your needs. 

5. ProSHOT:

I don’t use this app much anymore but this is a fairly good app that provides you with precision in manual controls. Adjustments can be done conveniently with your thumb with other settings around the screen of your Smartphone. Focus features are simplified by placing your fingers on the screen up and down to zoom in and out—to focus it’s just a light tapping on the screen. This app is for iOS and Android users. 

Cons: 

• Upon first use, it may take a while longer than normal to become familiar with the tools. It does become a lot easier with each use though. I’d suggest using the tutorial to get a grasp of the app to help guide you first of if you aren’t too comfortable. 
• All features are not compatible with all devices. 
• The time–lapse feature seems better at capturing individual images instead of compatible videos so your iPhone 7 time–lapse feature may work better. Although, updates are happening all the time so a lot of features have changed.

Pro-Features: 

• ProShot allows users to define custom modes, shoot in Auto, P, and full modes manually (ratios: 16:9, 4:3, and 1:1.)  
• The app has a Shutter Priority setting with Auto ISO, and various level options can be shot in JPEG (also adjustable compression in the app, users can decrease custom aspect ratios and noise reduction), raw or blended with both. 
• It’s easy to set up and performance is good for selected on-the-go features, therefore it can be used in rotation with your other photo apps.  

In all, this can be viewed as a good app to learn more about precision photography tools using a live viewfinder and shooting raw. If you know some photography, the tools are familiar and settings are likely in your regular vernacular. But, to be fair the app is generally quite easy to use, especially if you already fool around with several camera apps.

I hope that this was detailed enough for you. 

What App would you use? Have you tried any of these?