New Year's Resolution: Not Changing Apps--Want to Join Me?

Great idea! I did this last year and made it about 6 months lol. Iā€™d be reading about a new app and my wife would ask ā€œdo you already have that one?ā€ Lol. Accountability :rofl:

2 Likes

I also get the ā€˜problemā€™ that my wife starts a new hobby on the iPad and wants to try out a free appā€¦then I tell her I already bought a better one a year or two ago that I donā€™t use.

Best successes were Procreate, Notion and Goodnotes, the first two of which have proved to be amazing, err, investments.

1 Like

I agree completely. I think many switch apps in part because they have not taken the time and effort to master the current app they are using. For example, after experimenting and spending sufficient time with it I discovered Apple Notes is far better than I realized, which is why it is now my default. Likewise, I realize that OmniFocus whatā€™s the best app for me but only after taking time to read Davidā€™s and Roseā€™s books on creating perspectives and other features. Once I mastered perspectives I realized that OmniFocus could be as complex or simple as needed.

2 Likes

Youā€™re right. Perhaps Agenda was a fresh new app, but its feature set has plateaued already. On iOS I think there is even less innovation ā€“ the App Store pushes games more than anything else and most of those are tweaks on existing games. Maybe weā€™re in a desert period for software because fewer innovators want to face the cost of coming to market and sustaining customer interest?

I am not sure, if I will join this resolution, but I can definitely understand the motivation behind it.

If I take a look into my software licenses stored in 1Password I bought over the years, I always stumble upon apps that I have not been using for years and I seriously doubt, if I ever used them on a consistent basis. But, they had been must-have apps, when I bought themā€¦ :wink:

So, this year, I tried not to jump onto the latest and greatest. The grass is always greener somewhere else, but if you get there, you eventually will notice that it is the same green grass. For instance, there is one app, I would be interested in: Bear. It looks gorgeous and it probably is a great piece of software.

But I already have so many ā€œgreatā€ apps. For long-form writing, I will stick to Ulysses and for short-form stuff, Drafts is my choice. I will not even try to mention the other apps I have bought a license for that serve the same purpose.

What I will try for 2019 is not to ā€œrenewā€ or ā€œupgradeā€ to newer versions of apps, if I do not really use a piece of software on a daily or at least on a weekly basis. The first app that became a victim to my new policy was PDFPen. I prefer PDF Expert. I like PDFPen, too. But for me, it will be either one or the other and not both of them.

It is great that we have so many choices out there, but I seem to get to a point where there are just too many choices for me.

And changing apps on a constant basis and migrating all the stuff from A to B is not any longer the thing I like to do.

3 Likes

Good thing it is not Jan. 1 yet. :slight_smile:

I may move from Overcast (which I really like) to Apple Podcast. My reason is that I canā€™t speed up playback on Overcast (at least I canā€™t figure out how, which I used to be able to doā€”am I missing something?) but I can with the Apple app.

1 Like

Just swipe from left to right on a podcastā€™s artwork to reveal a card that lets you change playback speed either for just this podcasts or to change the default for all podcasts.

2 Likes

Well, duh! :-). I knew that Iā€™d been able to speed it up but for some reason I forgot how I got there. Feeling a bit dumb but I appreciate it! :slight_smile:

Do you know if there is any difference in using the apps with the HomePod? My two HomePods arrive today.

I think anyone thatā€™s interested in this challenge needs to block this forumā€¦

5 Likes

I wonā€™t quite commit to this, but I expect my usage of OF, Agenda and Notes to deepen this year. Art, audio and dev tools I expect I will change a fair amount, but not in a wishy-washy way! :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

wow, very similar to my set up and good plan. I also have Mellel, still undecided on what to do with that. I have and will keep Keyboard Maestro. Though I really feel I might drop text expander some time as most of what I can do I could use KM for. It is a constant tug of war for me those two. Good idea though I might drop one or two but NO CHANGES. Will that do?

Weā€™ll let that slide! :slight_smile:

tjluoma
I havenā€™t either. If anything I am dropping and quittting apps, even uninstalling quite a few. I dropped Scrivener, EndNote, Mellel and several other writing and note taking apps including some I really like but donā€™t really need now including Brett Terpstras which I love.

I have LaunchBar and KeyCue. For writing and storage for my files etc. I use Devonthink and Ulysses for everything now. I have Keyboard Maestro and that does a lot for me now, I use it for expansions too with no problems and will probably drop text expander when its renewal comes up, I donā€™t have a lot of expansions anyway and KeyCue shows me them in KM which is its main use for me now.

I have the LaTeX suite for Mac and Texpad, I have used it for months though other than the bibliography which I use now instead of EndNote, I havenā€™t had any need to write a paper in LaTeX for some time: I am really retired, well semi-retired I like to say! :wink: I have a working version of Mellel I would use if I needed too. Or I could manage with Pages. I have open office loaded in case I ever need again to put something into Word. That would be something pushed onto me by outside forces though of course.

I feel I have over the last year or so entered into a new space. I donā€™t know if it is me or Mac or the Developers? I really feel I have everything I need already. Sounds like you the same?. What do you think the reason is? I believe you are now a big iPad user. I am not, I use the iPhone a lot though, a lot more than I expected when I got it. I have Devonthink on that and it is enough for my needs. Ulysses too of course and again enough for the occasional note or note/photo. That is what I use photos for nearly exclusively by the way.

I completely agree. Weā€™re been here for a little while, but it started as a rather slow tapering-off and then seems to have been a deep dive to where we are now.

Stability is good. Stagnation is bad. Which we have right now might be a matter of perspective. Iā€™m not sure which I think is the right word for where we are.

I donā€™t find myself often thinking ā€œI wish I had an app that did Xā€ other than ā€œI wish this iOS app had a Mac versionā€. Then again, would I have known to ask for Audio Hijack if I didnā€™t have it? No. So we do need developers who sometimes see what we need before we know we need it.

I believe that the influx of apps that we hope will come from iOS via Catalyst means that we will enter a new generation of new ideas and new apps in new ways, and that might spur some new innovation in ways that we canā€™t foresee yet. But I could be wrong. Iā€™m sure there will be a rough patch of some bad apps. but I donā€™t think that will be all of it.

1 Like

Really interesting remark; the stability v stagnation point I liked too.

Honestly tj I am in a quite ā€˜downā€™ phase with IT this week for some reason: well the way things turned out on the web as compared to the ā€˜dream yearsā€™ we all shared in? :wink:

I have really narrowed my own focus a bit recently onto what I am really here to do: I find I need a lot less than I thought I did. I donā€™t podcast, have any have any data grinding, vid or sound editing, large mail outs or run a web page or business. I will open a new post with a question too, I would really like to know your thoughts, look out for it?

Again the bar has shifted from when producing a simple text doc was laborious and needed, if my memory is right, some considerable skill? I probably should concentrate on improving my ios skills, that seems the nugget hidden in your reply? My wife nearly runs a business from her iPhone!

Year is nearly over. How did this work out?

1 Like

Thanks for asking. I posted an update yesterday. :slight_smile:

1 Like

There is a big difference in the way the speedup is processed! In Overcast somehow the speed up never messes with the pitch of the voices so that it is less noticeable. An amazing feat I wouldnā€™t want to be without!

1 Like

I think itā€™s an interesting idea! I also tried the Apps Apple.

1 Like

Recent discussions/articles about digital surveillance have motivated me to be far more judicious about what apps I install. Until developers provide very solid confirmation about what they do with my information and how they protect it I will minimize what apps I install and or explore.

1 Like