<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"The Next Web has covered thousands of apps throughout 2012, from nifty new browser extensions, to fully fledged features on the latest game-changing Android and iOS apps, through to native-like cross-platform Web apps.\r\n\r\nBut productivity apps always seem to get people's attention, perhaps more so than all others. Anything that can help us get one-up on life is certainly appealing, so we sifted through this year's archives and pulled out some of best.\r\n\r\nJoin us over the next few pages as we share them with you.\u00A0Don't miss\u00A0our other 2012 lists\u00A0for more great recommendations.\r\nMac &amp;amp;amp; iOS\r\nClear\r\n\r\nTo-do list app Clear was announced for the iPhone in January and then\u00A0came to the Mac last month.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nClear is, at its core, a list app. It allows you to create, check off and delete items in simple color coded lists. But that\u2019s doing it a major disservice as its interactive elements are absolutely incredible.\r\n\r\nClear for Mac is an unavoidably different animal to the iPhone edition but\u00A0its super clever \u2018pinch apart\u2019 action is still there if you use a touchpad, but you can also simply hover your mouse cursor over the gap between two items and start typing, a new item will be inserted between the two. It\u2019s super neat, and works on click or hover.\r\n\r\n\u27A4\u00A0Clear for iPhone / Clear for Mac\r\n\r\nTrickster\r\n\r\nTrickster\u00A0helps you find all of your recently used apps and files.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Mac app shows itself in your menu bar and keeps track of all the things you\u2019ve used recently. Just click the app and there it is, ready to be clicked on for reopening or focusing. You can drag-and-drop files from Trickster to Finder or any other application. You can also open files and applications from Trickster, preview them or reveal in Finder.\r\n\r\nA cool addition is the ability to preset filters to only display images, audio files, videos, documents, applications, folders and specific locations such as Dropbox and download folders. Users can create custom filters too.\r\n\r\nTrickster is free to trial a basic version and, if you dig it, you can pay is $4.95 for the full version.\r\n\r\n\u27A4\u00A0Trickster | Mac\r\n\r\nCrosspost\r\n\r\nCrosspost lets you simultaneously post to Facebook and Twitter, but there is a twist.\r\n\r\nThis Mac menu bar app packs additional features too, ones that help differentiate posts between Facebook and Twitter, preview links and more.\r\n\r\nThe app can help stop carbon copies of updates appearing on the two social networks when a Twitter account is linked with Facebook, which sees links shortened to t.co URLs and previews of the page disappear. Crosspost solves this by connecting to both your Facebook and Twitter accounts (also supporting Facebook Pages), displaying a small text box that awaits your status update.\r\n\r\nThe app is primed to detect links as soon as they are entered, automatically converting them into a small preview ready for Facebook. If the link you wish to share is in your browser windows, hit the \u201CGet from browser\u201D button and it will grab the URL from Chrome/Safari/Firefox and drop it into your update.\r\n\r\nPerhaps the most useful feature is the \u2018Twitter Selector\u201D option, which allows you to specify a slightly different version of your update for Twitter. For example, a potential status might take up more than 140 characters, but with the Twitter Selector feature, you can highlight part of that message, ensuring it stays below the limit:\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Crosspost | Mac\r\n\r\nSticky Notifications\r\n\r\nSticky Notifications enables you to pin quick reminders to your Mac desktop.\r\n\r\nIt's a small menu bar-based app that lets you drop a quick note to yourself and ship it off to Notification Center. The note then appears as a sticky alert that stays in the top-right corner of your screen until you dismiss it with a click. This is a great way to remind yourself of something that you\u2019d like to do before you leave your desk. Then, when you come back, it\u2019s waiting and you can dismiss it and take care of the task.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Sticky Notifications | Mac\r\n\r\nDunno\r\n\r\nDunno for Mac and iOS could\u00A0change the way that you take notes forever.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nYou\u2019re probably familiar with note-taking apps such as Fetchnotes, letting you jot down your thoughts in free-form quickly. Even Apple\u2019s own Notes app is handy for this, and this syncs to your Mac. The problem is that once you\u2019ve taken the notes, they\u2019re static. What if you could take a note and let a service do the rest of the work for you completely in the background? That\u2019s where Dunno comes in to play.\r\n\r\nThe interface for the desktop version is fairly simple. All you have to do is type down a note or thought and hit enter. You can then go about your business and come back to Dunno later. Once you do, you\u2019ll find a series of search results from sources including Bing, Wikipedia and YouTube.\r\n\r\nThere's also the ability to take notes and forget about them, and you can perform a range of research on any topic without having to stop everything that you\u2019re doing to hone the results.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Dunno: Mac\u00A0|\u00A0iOS\r\n\r\nCheddar\r\n\r\nCheddar is a\u00A0gorgeous and fast list app\u00A0for iOS, Mac and the Web. It's built around the premise that the moment you enter an item into a list, it\u2019s published to your local list and pushed out to the other versions of Cheddar at the same time.\r\n\u00A0\u00A0\r\nThe design is also pleasant on the eye, with typography that complements the list view, and everything about the app is built for speed, down to the details.\r\n\r\nThe focus stays on the entry field even when you hit the \u2018go\u2019 button on an item, letting you enter one item after another without having to tap on it again. The field accepts regular text input, as well as hashtags for categorizing and Markdown shorthand for formatting.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Cheddar:\u00A0 Mac | iOS | Web\r\n\r\nBuy Me a Pie\r\n\r\nBuy Me a Pie lets you create, share and manage grocery lists with friends and family.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt lets you create multiple shopping lists, either by manually entering the name of the food or by selecting from an in-built repository of food items. It automatically suggests a word after you\u2019ve entered a few letters, and to convey quantities, you separate the item and number with a colon (:), for example \u201CApples:8\u2033.\r\n\r\nBut where Buy Me a Pie really comes in to its own is that a single account can be synced across multiple iOS devices, meaning if you leave home first thing in the morning having consulted with your significant other about what to pick up on your way back from work, more items can be added to the list without the need to send text messages back and forth.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Buy Me a Pie | iOS\r\n\r\nEmptyInbox for Gmail\r\n\r\nEmptyInbox for Gmail is an iOS app that helps you hit Inbox Zero.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTaps and swipes are the name of the game here, as you easily manage where each email is dispatched to. You can archive the email if you know it's not a priority, star-and-archive it if it needs action, or simply discard it. The next email in your inbox loads instantly and you repeat this until your email stream is cleansed.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 EmptyInbox for Gmail | iOS\r\n\r\nTimer\r\n\r\nTimer for iOS offers a simple proposition: you need to time things, and it has the features to do so.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTimer is a utility app that features twelve buttons, each one representing a timer. Nine of those buttons are programmable presets and three are \u2018one off\u2019 jobs.\r\n\r\n\u27A4\u00A0Timer | iOS\r\n\r\nInkly\r\n\r\nIn a nutshell, Inkly lets you buy and send handwritten greetings cards directly from your iOS device.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFirst up, you choose a card from the hundreds of designs within the Inkly app. You then take a handwritten message from a white piece of paper and snap it with the camera on your device.\r\n\r\nThe app then removes the paper and leaves your handwriting, placing it on the inside of the card.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Inkly | iOS\r\n\r\nSooner\r\n\r\nSooner is a gorgeous wheel-based to-do list app for iOS, merging a to-do list and agenda in a peculiar wheel-and-clock based interface.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNew to-do list apps sprout like mushrooms after the summer rains, and it\u2019s hard for a newcomer to distinguish itself from the others through anything but an eye-catching design. So this is what Sooner offers, the main interface element of which is something in between a clock-face and a dartboard.\r\n\r\n\u27A4\u00A0Sooner | iOS\r\n\r\nRecall\r\n\r\nRecall for iOS is a beautiful way to help you remember good music, movies, books and more.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFour main sections greet you on launch, including Music, Movies, Apps and Books. Each of these contain the items you\u2019ve asked Recall to remember for you.\r\n\r\nEach section features a + button that lets you add new items. When you tap it, you\u2019re presented with a search box that will update live as you type to find something you\u2019d like to track. In the music section, for instance, you\u2019ll get a list of artists and albums that match your queries.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Recall | iOS\r\n\r\nCheckmark\r\n\r\nCheckmark is an iOS app that lets you set alerts based on location and time. It's perhaps what Apple's Reminders should've been.\r\n\u00A0\u00A0\r\nThere are two basic ways to add reminders. You can do it based on a particular \u2018Where\u2019 or a time \u2018When\u2019. The 'wheres' are set by you using your current location, a contact\u2019s address or by plugging it in manually on a map. You can also just drop a pin wherever. Once you\u2019ve set up your commonly visited locations, you can add a reminder for it in just three \u2018taps\u2019.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Checkmark | iOS\r\n\r\nLift\r\n\r\nIt takes three weeks to build a habit, apparently, and that's what Obvious Corporation's\u00A0Lift\u00A0is all about.\r\n\u00A0\u00A0\r\nThe app lets you choose personal goals that you would like to massage into habits. It then encourages you to check off each one that you partake in daily, tracking your progress and rewarding your continued pursuit of the goals with streaks, beautifully displayed graphs and interaction with friends on similar paths.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Lift | iOS\r\n\r\nBurner\r\n\r\nBurner\u00A0is a brilliant service for when you need a disposable phone number, but it's iPhone only.\r\n\r\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCeJcsW_PFc\r\n\r\nThese numbers, aka Burners, can be used for voice and text, and give a drop-dead simple interface for generating and disposing of your phone numbers. The numbers aren\u2019t free, however.\r\n\r\nThe app will set you back $1.99, and comes with enough credits to try the service. After that, you\u2019ll have to buy credits through the app, with 25 costing you $11.99. You can also purchase additional time for any Burners you\u2019ve created. Check out the official demo video below.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Burner | iPhone\r\n\r\niOS &amp;amp;amp; Android\r\nTodoist\r\n\r\nTask management startup Todoist launched its official iOS and Android apps in November.\r\n\r\nThe team behind Todoist did an awesome job of porting the bulk of its Web app features over to its mobile app. Drag &amp;amp;amp; drop within individual lists, adding and reordering projects is included and it also comes with offline access, a must for any task management app.\r\n\r\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9IQdpvH0Ps\r\n\r\n\u27A4 \u00A0Todoist: iOS | Android\r\n\r\nM8\r\n\r\nIntel-owned Telmap launched a neat app called M8, a\u00A0neat satellite navigation app combining turn-by-turn directions with local information, traffic updates and more.\r\n\u00A0\u00A0\r\nIt offers a rich stream of local information plotted on a map, so you can see exactly where the nearest car parks, ATMs, supermarkets - and everything in between - are.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 M8:\u00A0Android\u00A0|\u00A0iOS\r\nAndroid\r\nRe:me\r\n\r\nThis Android app automatically creates a task-list of SMS messages you\u2019ve yet to reply to, and it's called Re:me.\r\n\u00A0\u00A0\r\nWhen you first install the app, your list of unanswered messages will be blank. It\u2019ll only start from the point when you first launch the app, after which you\u2019ll see the number of unanswered messages in your notifications bar at the top. You can tap on this notification directly, or launch the app from your homescreen.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ll see a list of messages for which you\u2019ve yet to respond, the oldest at the top. Each SMS has a time beneath it that counts up in real-time with each second that passes.\r\n\r\nThis shifts the focus from unread to unreplied messages, and ensures you don\u2019t forget to answer that all-important dinner invite.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Re:me | Android\r\n\r\nFriday\r\n\r\nFriday is a beast of an app that Friday that lets Android users record their lives through their smartphone.\r\n\u00A0\u00A0\r\nAs a location-aware app that detects pretty much all activity on your smartphone, you can have nearly every facet of your life plotted, documented and recorded for posterity. It buzzes in the background, remembering music that you play, places that you go, calls that you make and everything in between. You can then see exactly where you were when you last listened to that song you love...just one of many potential use-cases for this app.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Friday | Android\r\n\r\nGoob Alarm\r\n\r\nHow many times does that 7.30am alarm call, timed to facilitate a quick cup of tea and toast with marmalade, translate into an actual 8.15am rise and smoke-from-your-heels sprint to the train station? More often than you\u2019d care to admit, probably. Well, here is one simple solution that promises to help you out.\r\n\u00A0\u00A0\r\nTapping the WiFi signal strength in your home to determine your position, Goob alarm will only switch off when you are close enough to your router, which means you physically have to get out of bed to deactivate it.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Goob Alarm | Android\r\n\r\nBounce\r\n\r\nBounce wants to help you and your loved ones be on time for things.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\niPhone Bounce as a Gift: Help your loved ones be on time from Justin Wilcox on Vimeo.\r\n\r\nThe upcoming mobile app uses Google Now-style notifications for appointments by monitoring traffic conditions in real-time to let you know when to leave. It also adds in a customizable buffer for all that extra time like walking to the car or finding your keys.\r\n\r\nAn early prototype is available now for Android, with an iOS incarnation on its way shortly. Check out the official demo video below.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Bounce | Android [Protoype]\r\n\r\nWeb\r\nSquadMail\r\n\r\nSquadMail is a little like Dropbox for email, offering an easy way to create and share email folders, or otherwise set up temporary silos to capture emails you don\u2019t want arriving at your main email address.\r\n\r\nEvery folder you create is assigned its own email address which you can use for your own ends to capture, say, daily-deals email, social networking messages or potentially spammy services. Another use case could be you and your housemates might be looking to rent a new flat somewhere, and this can be a good way of centralizing all your communications with estate agents.\r\n\r\nFrom an enterprise perspective, it could be used to give company or department-wide access to inbound emails for temporary events such as recruitment drives.\r\n\r\nSquadMail is brilliantly genius.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 SquadMail\r\n\r\nSanebox\r\n\r\nSanebox helps you manage your inbox, and is compatible with any IMAP email account.\r\n\r\nSanebox essentially serves as a massive filter, defending your inbox from the deluge of email you no doubt get. It creates a\u00A0separate\u00A0folder in your email account and, as email arrives in, SaneBox decides if it goes into the bin, the folder, or if it stays in your inbox. You can check the filtered emails any time you want by going into the folder, and browsing. They aren\u2019t deleted.\r\n\r\nAs you may have guessed, your inbox will become much\u00A0quieter, but how does Sanebox know which emails to filter out, and which to keep? Well, it scans every email in your whole account - which obviously takes some time the first time your run it. You then link up your social networks (yup), after which Sanebox draws relationships between people you're connected with.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 SaneBox\r\n\r\nHypejar\r\n\r\nHypejar is a Wikipedia-style repository for upcoming product launches. Say wha'?\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis future-gazing Web app will tell you anything that's about to launch, it could be a new gadget, movie or album. It's like a cross between Pinterest and Wikipedia for upcoming products and, a few navigation issues aside, it has been really well put together. It may still be early days, but Hypejar is one to watch.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Hypejar\r\n\r\nSortable\r\n\r\nSortable helps you compare gadgets before buying, using impressive visualizations in the process.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt's essentially a decision-engine to help the online masses arrive at the best conclusion regarding what product to buy, with gadgets the main focus of the Web app - cameras, phones, tablets, laptops and TVs are the order of the day.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Sortable\r\n\r\nBetterific\r\n\r\nBetterific promises to help you share ideas for making products and companies better.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAfter presenting at\u00A0DreamIT Ventures\u2018 demo day in Philadelphia,\u00A0Betterific rolled out of beta after raising $650,000.\r\n\r\nAt the time of writing, more than 1,500 Betterifs (ideas) have been submitted, ranging from \u201CWouldn\u2019t it be better if you could cancel a button accidentally pushed on an elevator?\u201C\u00A0to my\u00A0Betterif, \u201CWouldn\u2019t it be better if infinite scroll sites had a sticky footer that you didn\u2019t have to chase?\u201D\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Betterific\r\n\r\nTagMyDoc\r\n\r\nTagMyDoc takes QR codes and makes them useful, with its document-tagging and sharing Web app - it's designed to let users easily share physical documents with multiple people digitally.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA typical scenario could be this \u2013 you have a single printed Word document at a meeting of, say, 15 people. Rather than going through the rigmarole of procuring email addresses to send a copy to everyone, the attendees can use their mobile phone to \u2018scan\u2019 the document and receive a digital copy, there and then.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 TagMyDoc\r\n\r\nBucketlistly\r\n\r\nThose of you that\u00A0 like to challenge yourselves by setting goals (and/or bucket lists) will be interested to learn of\u00A0Bucketlistly, a neat Web app that lets you post your long-term goals, and then strike them off and distribute them across social networks as you surpass them.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Bucketlistly\r\n\r\nAdd-ons\r\nBoomerang Calendar\r\n\r\nWe\u2019ve long waxed lyrical about Boomerang, the suite of productivity tools from San Francisco-based developers\u00A0Baydin. There\u2019s\u00A0Boomerang for Gmail\u00A0for starters, which\u00A0lets you send email at a later point, or choose when you receive it.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThen in October,\u00A0Boomerang Calendar launched into public beta, offering a plugin which\u00A0transforms Google Calendar into what it should really have been\u00A0in the first place.\r\n\r\n\u27A4\u00A0Boomerang Calendar | Chrome &amp;amp;amp; Firefox\r\n\r\nCurrently\r\n\r\nCurrently\u00A0offers a beautiful interface containing just two pieces of information \u2013 the time and temperature.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOnce you have installed the app, you\u2019ll likely want to dabble with the settings to suit your location \u2013 Fahrenheit or Celsius? 12-hour or 24-hour? Dark, light or blue background? And what about \u2018seconds\u2019 or \u2018animations\u2019? It's a beautiful extension that keeps you informed of two key pieces of information.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Currently | Chrome\r\n\r\nInbox Pause\r\n\r\nThis Chrome extension is for when you temporarily want to pause incoming email in Gmail.\r\n\r\nSimply install the Inbox Pause extension, refresh your Gmail and you\u2019ll notice a Pause button alongside your Mail drop-down menu.\r\n\r\nWhen you click that button, new messages will stop arriving in your inbox. Instead, they\u2019ll be held in a special label until you are ready for them.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Inbox Pause | Chrome\r\n\r\nTranscribe\r\n\r\nTranscribe is an awesome audio-transcription Web app for Chrome, one that works entirely offline \u2013 which allayed initial fears that this tool would be heavily restricted by a dependence on connectivity.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nYou choose a file from your computer \u2013 mp3 or WAV, and when you've selected it, an audio player pops up at the top of the screen, which can then be controlled using the keys on your keyboard.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Transcribe | Chrome\r\n\r\nShortcuts for Gmail\r\n\r\nShortcuts for Gmail is a neat Chrome extension that tells you when a mouse action has a keyboard shortcut.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOnce you install the extension, you\u2019ll see little pop-up messages at the bottom of your screen after you perform a certain mouse action.\r\n\r\nFor example, if you click on the \u2018Compose\u2019 button to start a new message, you\u2019ll see a notification that reads: \u2018Press C to compose a message\u2018, so you\u2019ll know next time.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Shortcuts for Gmail | Chrome\r\n\r\nInsync for Gmail\r\n\r\nInsync for Gmail offers a super simple way to store your email attachments in Dropbox and Google Drive.\r\n\r\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JD-5g74JWg\r\n\r\nThe Chrome app adds an Insync link next to your Gmail attachments' download link. Clicking the link then opens up a menu that allows you to select a folder to sync your attachments to.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Insync for Gmail | Chrome\r\nAnd finally...\r\nWunderlist\r\n\r\nWunderlist is in a category of its own, purely because it provides native apps for most of the popular platforms.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIt was way back in November 2010 when\u00A0we first reviewed\u00A0the Mac OS and Windows desktop apps for\u00A0Wunderlist, a gorgeous task-management service courtesy of Germany-based\u00A06Wunderkinder. \u201CSimple, easy and beautiful\u201D were the three words that sprung to mind a the time.\r\n\r\nA lot has happened since then, but the fruits of all its recent labour have just been realized, with the news that it has announced a rebuilt, redesigned task-management app\u2026 just in time for Christmas. The brand new version 2.0 of Wunderlist went live earlier this week.\r\n\r\nWith the new products, we have completely re-engineered incarnations of the apps, including a much slicker back-end (for you, this means grease lightning), a simple UI, Retina-ready graphics and a slew of other new features. It will include iOS, Mac, Web, Android and Windows\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Wunderlist\r\nInterested in other apps?\r\nHopefully you'll be able to find at least a few apps here that have thus far escaped your radar. And if you want to check out the best music, travel, media, education, employment and photo apps of 2012 too, be sure to keep tabs on our upcoming roundups over the next week or so.\r\n\r\nHeader image credit: Ablestock.com / Thinkstock\r\n\r\nDisclosure: This article contains affiliate links. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our\u00A0Terms of Service."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/12/20/35-best-productivity-apps-of-2012/?awesm=tnw.to_k0Ycc>