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Comment by jermaustin1 | Hacker News Reader

I like this concept. Using the smart phone more like a PDA than a tiny laptop.

What are your 10 core apps if you don't mind sharing?

Apps I use at least several times a week (often multiple times a day). Leaving out some that I use but where there are likely many good options (e.g. TOTP authenticator apps, alarm clocks, calculators, etc.) and "any color as long as it's black" options like GMail and Youtube.

Apps of particular note that people could easily have missed are at the top of the list. Hope I kept lines short enough.

  - TripLog Mileage in plug-to-start mode;
  - Bouncer (auto-remove permissions from apps after you close them); 
  - DroidEdit Pro (multitab text and code editor); 
  - Join by Joaoapps (Pushbullet alternative);
  - Meteogram Pro from cloud3squared (Weather widget);
  - SMS Backup+ from Jan Berkel (pushes to GMail with label);
  - Nine (multi-account Exchange client); 

  - Firefox (plus "Dark Background and Light Text 0.6.10" and uBlock Origin);
  - Firefox Focus for untrusted links (no default browser set = always prompts);
  - Microsoft OneNote, Office Lens and OneDrive; 
  - PocketCasts;
  - Textra (for SMS) and Signal;
  - Nova Launcher Prime plus Will Windham's Vintage icon pack;
  - Swiftkey keyboard;
  - LastPass;
  - TimeClock Connect Pro from Spotlight Six;
  - Ultimate To-Do List from Custom Solutions, but I recently dropped ToodleDo so this may drop away.

And for frivolity, Pokemon Go and Calcy IV.

For me:

Personal Capital (finance), WhatsApp, Slack, Overcast (podcasts), Kindle, Dark Sky (hyper accurate weather app), Google Authenticator, Lyft, RENPHO (my smart scale’s app), 1Password

Everything else is very situational and totally optional.

Fascinating - not one single overlap. Mine:

Firefox, K-9, Signal, KeepassAndroid, Syncthing, FBReader, Fast Notepad, OsmAnd+, Revolut, OpenVPN.

BlackPlayer Ex (Music), MyBible, EasyWay (public transport), Multitran, WireGuard, Moon+ Reader, Smart AudioBook Player, CF.lumen, YouTube Vanced, Flud (torrent client), and YouTube Downloader (from XDA) are my essentials.

I like trying new apps, and will often go through a lot of apps to find ones I like.

I have Authy instead of Google Authenticator — not that there’s anything wrong with the latter, but if you lose your phone it’s much more of a hassle.

Mine: Firefox, WhatsApp (for family) & Telegram (friends and groups), andOTP instead of Google authenticator, New Pipe instead of YouTube, FBReader, Orgzly (notes), Phonograph for music and trying to move to LessPass for passwords.

andOTP is great, NewPipe is not as great (get YouTube Vanced, https://vanced.app/ instead). Why do you prefer FBReader over Moon+?

Interesting... googled Dark Sky, tried out their web app, will probably download the mobile app. The original article's thesis seems to be on to something :)

off topic of the thread: do you have a strong opinion of Dark Sky vs Weather Underground?

I have found Dark Sky is great in populated areas (NYC, Denver, Houston), but Wunderground seems to do better outside of the metros (Lower Hudson River Valley, Catskills, Adirondacks -- you can probably tell where I live and work, now).

I've found the best data comes from the nearest/best doppler radar(s). Often this is one of the local tv broadcast stations. Obviously this radar data is licensed to various weather service providers but are usually owned by a broadcast television network operator.

Dark Sky : T-Mobile :: Wunderground : Verizon

Got it.

I really like Weather Undergrounds local stations. Being able to see that a location at the top of a hill in town is a couple degrees cooler or windier than one down the street has proven to be really useful when decided to bring a jacket or not. That said Dark Sky's UI is top notch and the data seems to be pretty solid as well.

I love those... Except when those stations start working badly and it's impossible to disable them (a month going where I live in London)

Where I live (Oslo, Norway), the predictions of Dark Sky and Weather Underground are both less accurate than just making an uneducated guess based on how the weather has been developing the last couple of days. I guess they work better in North America

In my part of North America, you can do better than any weather forecasts that I've ever seen by simply predicting that tomorrow's weather will be pretty much the same as today's. And all forecasts beyond three days are essentially worthless.

I was recommended yr.no many years ago and find it very accurate. I'm UK-based.

dang, went to find Dark Sky on App Store and it appears to not be available in Canada? sadness :(

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