Welcome back to my next in the series regarding Android Apps that I find useful. Thanks for the emails I have received letting me know you appreciate the series. Also, you sent in some great questions…keep ’em coming!
Last week we looked at saving money with the GasBuddy app and getting organized and making notes with Google Keep. I hope those of you who wrote to say, “Thanks!” are using them and saving money.
Today I have one for you that is great on phones, tablets and any PC or MAC. It is for people like me who research and keep track of information. This may not appeal to many of you as the previous ones did. If not skip to the next paragraph. However, for those of us needing something like this you will benefit. Trello (Trello.com or at the play store at dblclx.com/gp_trello). It allows you to organize thoughts, research, ideas, pictures and anything else you need in a good searchable and visual way. I used to recommend OneNote by Microsoft for this type of work but no longer. I feel that Trello is more useful to me. There is also a close runner up to Trello called Notion (Notion.so online and dblclx.com/gp_notion at the play store) Be forewarned; neither of these apps are for the newb or faint-of-heart. They both have a learning curve and will take some time to become comfortable using. If you just need to take/collect good notes use Google Keep from last week.
Now, no list of smartphone apps would be complete without one for Podcasting. I have two, Pocket Casts (dblclx.com/gp_pocketcasts) and a new one about a year old, Google Podcasts (dblclx.com/gp_goolepodcast). To be honest, Pocket Casts is the better of the two right now except for one important factor to me. Google’s is free but is not available on your web browser (easily) yet. Pocket Casts will cost you $3.99 for your phone and an additional $9 if you want to play your podcasts on your browser. No brainer for me! Google Podcasts wins! However, Pocket Casts has more functionality.
OK, the last one was about listening to your favorite podcasts so this one is about listening to audiobooks. You can tell by me mentioning the listening apps that I drive quite a bit. To make the drivetime pass more quickly listening to an interesting podcast or a good book helps. There are many apps out there and some may be better but believe it or not, the one I use costs. It is Scribd.com (dblclx.com/gp_scribd) and yes, I used to use the leader of the pack Audible.com; however, again it is price related.
Scribd allows you to rent and return an almost unlimited number of books, audiobooks, magazines and other resources for $8.99 a month. Their selection is not as large as Audible’s. However, with Audible you get approximately one audiobook per month for $14.95 and you get to keep it even if you quit. 
OK, since many people have written about this series as I begin to wrap it up over the next few weeks send me some of your recommendations that I missed. If I have used or use them now, I will toss them into the mix. Go to DoubleClicks.info and you can contact me there.
