This is part three of a series of posts about the software and tools I find invaluable. See Part 1: essential applications and Part 2: Visual Studio tools. In this post I’m covering the online applications and iPhone apps I find indispensible.

Gmail

Does the job.

Lastpass

Everyone needs a password manager.

Pinboard (and the PinSwift iPhone app)

The best bookmark tracking tool. Simple, fast, powerful. The best mobile app for it is PinSwift.

Bear

A very pretty MarkDown editor for Mac and iPhone. I use Bear for all my notes.

Google Drive File Stream

Since I use GSuite, it makes sense to try to put everything there. Google Drive has improved enormously since they moved to a file streaming approach.

Google Tasks (and the GoTasks app)

I need simple task manager with support for multiple lists, hierarchies and available everywhere. Google Tasks is often overlooked in this regard. Check out the Google Tasks canvas. There is also a fantastic free iPhone app for it GoTasks.

Feedly

Feedly is the best RSS news feed reader, in my opinion. I keep up with a few development blogs, a few science blogs and the blogs of my friends. The mobile app is great too.

Xero

I’ve been using Xero for eight years now. Business accounting software done right.

Kindle

I like real books but don’t always lug them about with me, so often I buy both the hard copy and the kindle version (there shoudl be some sort of clever discount for this…). The Kindle app is where I spend my time when I have no connectivity (the London tube, airplanes, etc.)

Chess.com and Lichess.com

I waste hours playing online blitz chess. I’ve even written a couple of Chrome extensions: Pretty print your games and Analyse any chess.com game with lichess.

Chess is a mascohistic, character-building pastime. Progress is elusive. You play a couple of good games and you think you’re improving and then you get thrashed repeatedly by a 10 year old.