Keeping your blog up-to-date, stylish and packed with interesting content have become much easier with the advent of smart phones like the Android and iPhone. The apps noted below build on my previous posts 11 iPhone and iPod Touch Apps for Enhanced Productivity and Top iPhone Apps for Teachers and Students, and will show you more useful and effective tools that will help updating and tweak blog posts much easier and also show you specific examples of how some of these applications can be used successfully for both teachers and students.

1. Ego

If you’re looking for a quick way of finding out how many readers that visit your blog, Vimeo, Tumblr, Twitter and others, be sure to download the Ego App for the iPhone. A very simple app in many respects (there are other that will provide more detailed analysis of your visiting stats) and that’s why it’s very useful to have as Ego will provide data on daily, hourly and monthly visitor numbers on one screen.

2. JotNot Pro

This claims to work like a scanner for your iPhone and I hesitated a little before deciding to buy this app as I questioned how it could improve the overall quality of a photo I’d taken of a book page, poster etc. There really was no need worrying. Since buying it I have been using it regularly, particularly when reading magazines, books or even if I’ve spotted an interesting quote somewhere. It’s also great for scanning students’ work and then uploading to the Learning Platform or Department website . It does improve your record keeping (and cupboard!) tremendously particularly when it comes to ‘awkward’ or bulky pieces of work like posters and models. Once you take a photo of a section of a book for example (or import a photo), you just choose which area of the photo that should be scanned. The final image is much clearer and larger so scanning a whole book page (or poster) works very well. There are also several settings you can modify to get the image you seek – although I have not needed to do that yet.

3. Dragon Dictation – Free

If you haven’t yet installed this stop reading and download it. It’s that good. And it’s free. Once installed you will be able to send emails, SMS and updates to Social Networking sites like Twitter and FaceBook and all you do is speaking into the phone. Better still, why not put the phone next to you and continue doing other things whilst sending off a host of messages (yes I can multi-task…).

4. Comic Touch

This is a fun app if you want to create images with speech bubbles and captions. It is very good if you’re in education and want students to create comic strips, freeze-frame stories or interesting caricatures. Simply import an image or ask them to take one and then add captions, thought or speech bubbles as well as effects.

5. TiltShift

Perhaps one of my favorite apps and a real Starter-Generator : ) . TiltShift can transform a scene/photo into a miniature world by simulating a tilt-shift lens that tricks your mind into viewing a photo as a miniature scene like a model railroad for example. You can create stunning images for your blog but as a teaching aide it’s simply superb. For example, import an image of a painting and blur out everything except from the main character and get students to guess the artist; take snaps of presentations and focus in on the core message(s); or ask students to decide which elements of a story they feel are the most important.

Here’s one example of a Y9 History starter: What’s happening in this image? Discuss, then show the final image.

6. iBlogger:

For those of you that blog using other than WordPress, iBlogger can help you connect to most other blog engines using your iPhone e.g. ExpressionEngine, MovableType, TypePad, Drupal many more (incl. WordPress). It also enables you to use Pictures, Tags, Categories, Links as well as Location.

7. ByLine

I started using free RSS Reader apps but none of them cached posts including images for offline reading which is very useful if you travel a lot or live in an area with poor network coverage. ByLine solves that problem and syncs directly with Google Reader, divides posts up according to folders, starred items and categories. What’s particularly ingenious about this app is that it enables you to swipe through posts with your fingers and caches pages that are linked in posts! This is very useful.

If you use other ones which would be worth mentioning please add a comment below.

Most Related Post

• Learning whilst Immersed in Web 2.0 Part 2
• Thinking about Game Based Learning…
• Top iPhone Apps for Teachers and Students (and others)

There are hundreds of apps to use for teachers and students. The problem is that many are either of poor quality or, let’s be honest, too pricey or pointless. I have compiled a brief list of excellent apps that work in the classroom and/or as independent tools for teachers, presenters and other professionals. This post builds on another review of mine about iPhone apps that enhance productivity.

1. Air Mouse Pro

There are free apps that will turn your iPhone, iPad or iTouch into a remote but they are not as powerful and simple to use as Air Mouse Pro. Perhaps the most effective feature for me is the ability to just move the phone to move the virtual mouse on the screen – great for Interactive Whiteboards. The features of this app is too long to list but here’s a quick video to demonstrate what you get:

As mentioned above, the best feature is the possibility of controlling the Interactive Whiteboard from the back of the classroom and allow students to add content to the board from iPod Touches. Air Mouse Pro is worth the £1.19 (!) and you won’t regret buying it.

2. Audio Note

This is one of the best apps for note-taking and recording that I have come across recently. By synchronizing notes and audio, AudioNote automatically indexes meetings, lectures, talks or study sessions.

It is simple to use and whilst you record you can quickly add text and annotations (drawings, diagrams and the like) all of which are added next to the time of the recording. Sharing is possible either via WiFi or email – great resource for both teachers, students as well as people who need a dedicated tool to document meetings, talks and so on.

If you want share the recording over a WiFi connection you will be provided with the address where you can download an HTML file with drawings, text file, PDF or an audio file.

3. Cram

This creative tool provides the teacher or student with the opportunity to create Flash-Cards and Multiple-Choice questions which can be saved on the iPhone/iTouch or synced with the  Mac (separate software). The strongest feature of Cram is the possibility of adding images to your activities as well as keeping scores of past tests. There are other free alternatives available to download on the AppStore but this one gives the teacher or student the power to customise tasks to suit your class or exam – simple and fun.

4. iVocabulary

Create your own content for language lessons with this simple tool. You are provided with a wide range of activities (constantly growing but last count: 2500 tests!) for different languages but you can also create your own text-based tests, Flash-Cards or Multiple-Choice with the typical iPhone buttons, sliders and menus. There is also a free software to download and use to create activities for the iPhone, though you’d need to buy the app (£3.49) for them to work. The beauty of this app is the ability for teachers to create straight-forward tasks that are customised for their students and the added bonus of using the free software to do so from your laptop.

5. iStudiez

This handy little app gives students the possibility of organising themselves using a suite of useful features including:

Timetable: colourful built-in planner lets you input and easy manage all types of schedules including classic, alternating (A & B weeks), rotating and block schedule. Different classes or courses can be colour-coded.

Homework and assignments: iStudiez Pro uses Push Notifications which allows students to set general alarm time for classes and separate alarms for each of their assignments and homework.

Today View: provides a summary of upcoming classes and homeworks.

Back-up: a handy little feature which allows students to email themselves a copy of the timetable at the click of a button.

6. Air Sharing Pro

This is one of the most powerful apps I have come across. It uses your WiFi connection to open up a gateway between your iPhone and Mac or PC. Accordingly, as a teacher you can then transfer documents or other files between your work laptop and home computer, amongst other uses. See the video below for more ideas.

“Air Sharing Pro makes using the iPhone as an external drive easy as can be. Any iPhone user who needs to view and move files on the go should download this app.” — AppReview

Check out this video on using Air Sharing Pro (note: not advertising).

I hope you also found these apps useful and exciting to use in the classroom. If you have come across other ones do leave me a comment : ) . Please also see another post of mine on iPhone apps to enhance productivity.

Most Related Post

• Thinking about Game Based Learning…
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This post follows on from Learning whilst Immersed in Web 2.0 Part 1 where I discuss the origins of WEB 2.0 and why the World Wide Web changed in the way it did around 2004. I also listed 10 WEB 2.0 tools that have helped me in my teaching and some that have been suggested to me on Twitter. This second post will highlight a further 10 tools that have made an impact on pupils learning for many teachers I know. If you find these tools useful why not subscribe to my new series of posts on Ideas for Learning and Creativity?

WEB 2.0 Tools for the classroom

11. Xtranormal

There are many comic and video editors available on the web, but not many that combine the two so well. Once registered you can either create videos online or download ‘State’, their offline video editor (PC only). Xtranormal provides the user with a vast array of different characters, backgrounds, music, effects and pre-made animations that you use to create your movie.

What is especially good about this tool is that you can control the camera as well as character movements and reactions by using the pre-recorded items in the editor. The editor is divided into three main sections which together make up the final movie:

• Direct the Action – camera movements, animations, expressions, reactions
• Write the Script – decide on a single or two characters and then type what you’d like them to say
• Design the Scene – change set, music and background noise

If you want to create a quick movie and you’re not to fussed about camera angles (you can even get the characters to look into the camera – I love that bit) then you only have to select the ‘Magicam’ which sets up auto camera angles for you.

Once the final movie has been rendered you can send it to colleagues, share it on the most common Social Networks and embed it on your school blog or website – it also embeds well on most Learning Platforms. There is also the option of downloading it as a movie file so you can edit it using your favorite video editor.

Here’s an example:

12. Awesome Highlighter

This is a superb tool, particularly for older students, as it can be used to teach them how to underline and read more effectively. It also has the added bonus that everything that has been highlighted is also copied so they later can print off their notes or email them. There is also a firefox bookmarklet so you can highlight on the go and if you register you can also save pages including annotaed videos. Quick and effective.

13. Browzmi:

This tool gives the user the possibility if co-browsing or social browsing sites as well as sending each other instant messages. Google Wave is more powerful of course, but this one is quick and easy to use and only does one thing. This is a very effective for group work and for research, well worth a look.

14. Go Animate!

There are many good WEB 2.0 tools that provide possibilities for students and teachers to create comic books of various kinds, some of which I have already mentioned in other posts for example ToonDoo, Pixton, Memoov and Pikikids. GoAnimate is slightly different as it provides the user with the possibility of creating talking characters as well as full animations. This tools is as featured-packed as Xtranormal but uses more comix-styled graphics. Here’s a simple example of an animation (3 minutes to set up):

15. ShowDocument

If you are looking for an easier to use tool to Elliminate then ShowDocument is a good choice. Although it’s not as powerful as Elluminate, for example lacking many of the administrative features, ShareDocument is  quick to set up and fun to use. Here’s a brief list of what you can share and collaborate at the same time using the Quick Start menu:

• Watch Youtube videos
• Files from your machine
• Google Maps and Docs
• Whiteboard

16. Scribblar

Scribblar shares many of the features of ShowDocument. Unlike the latter students can use audio chat and not only text-based chat (like in ShowDocument) and Scribblar’s Pro account ($99/month) enables you to integrate the entire functionality of Scribblar into your existing website – pretty powerful. Although Scribblar is very good, ShareDocument has a few extra functionalities that makes it just that little better.

17. MovYlo

This surprisingly powerful resource provides you with the tool to create mobile websites. All you need to focus on is to add the content – MovYlo will take care of the rest. There are several features that you can use to produce your mobile site including:

• RSS feeds from e.g. your blog, Youtube, Flickr
• Create newsletters
• Adding mini blog and pages
• Polls and contests
• Videos
• Images

See this example of a mobile site that was set up in less than 10 minutes. For about £3.50/month you get 5000MB of space and your pages will not be covered in ads, which is the only set back of the free option.

18. Mobile Study.org

If you’re looking for an easy tool to help you create quizzies for mobile phones then look no further.

MobileStudy.org is suprisingly effective and with its ‘Add Explanation’ feature you can produce good activities that will support students in their learning by providing them with feedback for each question. The website has evolves since it first started and you can now install each mobile quiz in different ways:

• Install the quiz on a mobile phone via SMS
• Install the quiz on a mobile phone using QR Code
• Download directly to your phone or PDA

There is also installation guidance available on the website. Here’s are a couple of examples:

KS2 French Quiz (PC version) (mobile version)

GCSE Quiz + Explanations (PC version) (mobile version)

19. QR Generator

If you are looking to use mobile phones in the classroom, in school or even for outdoor learning then QR codes could help. QR stands for ‘Quick Response’ as the inventor Denso-Wave intended to have the code decoded at high speed. For more information about QR its history and usage please visit Mobile Barcodes.

QR Generator

This tool is very simple and very powerful so you don’t need to know any coding as the website will generate that for you. You need a mobile phone that has a camera + software that can decode QR codes (most barcode apps do a pretty good job). Here is a list of recommended softwares. I use QR App on the iPhone which works very well and it’s free.

The QR Generator allows you to create a number of different QR images:

• website url
• vCard
• 100 character text message
• Phone number
• SMS
• Email address

As a result you can create a suite of interactive tasks for students to do, particularly if you combine the different tools. For example:

• Setting up a Thinking Skills Mystery using a combo of website urls and cryptic messages which finally ends with students having email their answers to the teachers.
• Hook QRs: teachers stick up images outside the door of the classroom which students can access before the lesson starts
• Revision: create a series of images and add them to the departmental ‘Revision Board’.
• QR Challenge: split class into a number of teams and get each one to create questions that the other teams have to answer
• QR Debate: same as above but get teams from different sets/classes to have a running debate on a key topic over a half-term. Add QR images outside each others’ classrooms.
• PowerPoint aide: students scan the image and can link to a website, article or task instead of having to remember the Url.

Here are couple of examples of code generated by the website just use a QR decoder which is compatible with your camera, take a snapshot and see what happens:

QR website

QR Message

For more ideas about using QR in the classroom and for more articles on QR please visit the brilliant blog Don’t Waste Your Timeby David Hopkins and also watch this example of using QR code in the classroom (worksheets linked to YouTube):

20. FaceBook

This application is blocked on schools’ network and most teachers don’t wish to share their FaceBook profile with students. Judy Hart explained at the NAACE conference 2010 that there is an alternative so you don’t need to add students as ‘Friends’ to your page, just create a Fan Page. This is different to a standard FaceBook page because authors of the fan page can’t add fans as friends. This is a great way of  providing additional opportunities to engage students as autonomous learners by adding resources to your Fan page.

Scroll down to the end of any page and click ‘Advertising’, then ‘Create Page’ and off you go. There are several applications that are useful to add to your Teacher Fan Page e.g SlideShare and Poll to name a couple.

Here’s an example of a Fan Page – at the time of writing I had no Fans…

Mr. Ahrenfelt

Hopefully these two posts have provided you with 20+ tools that can be used in the classroom to help the delivery of lessons, content-generation as well as a series of engaging tools for your pupils.

If you liked that, you'll like these:

• Learning whilst Immersed in Web 2.0 Part 1
• Thinking about Game Based Learning…
• 7 Brilliant iPhone Apps for Teachers and Bloggers

When the dot-com bubble burst in 2001 many regarded the World Wide Web as defunked and on its way out. Others disagreed and saw changes of the Web as a significant turning-point . These individuals argued that there had been bubbles and consequent shakeouts in many other technological revolutions throughout history. Tim O’Reilley from O’Reilly Media, stated in his 2005 article ‘What is WEB 2.0?‘ that these “shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage”. Cue WEB 2.0.

The definition of WEB 2.0 has been fiercely debated since 2004 although it was at a brainstorming session with O’Reilly and MediaLive International of that year that marked the birth of the concept. They discovered that many of the surviving companies and Web developers of the dot-com crash had many key features in common. Whereas WEB 1.0 allowed users to passively view information available to them, WEB 2.0 enables users to interact with both content, other users as well as help in generating content in the form of ideas, text, videos, or pictures. For a quick overview of key characteristics of WEB 2.0 please see this article.

Watch this brilliant video about the development of the World Wide Web by Michael Wesh, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Kansas State University:

A more advanced feature of many WEB 2.0 tools is the ability to synthesize different services using the Application Programming Interface (API) to create a new application also known as a mashups. This means you can blend social media tools such as Twitter with your own application to create a new, or at least a heavily modified, tool. Some commentators are now talking about yet another transformation namely from WEB 2.0 to 3.0. This presentation explains the evolution from WEB 1.0 to WEB 3.0 very well.

20 WEB 2.0 Tools

In March 2010 Google listed more than 8.5 million citations of WEB 2.0 and thousands referred to WEB 2.0 tools. This list will attempt to narrow that down significantly (!) and hopefully provide you with a few interesting reources that can be used to aid the delivery of lessons, content creation as well as be used with your pupils in the classroom. The following tools are in no particular order:

1. VoiceThread.com:

Enables you to collaborate on images and videos by adding text, doodles, voice or video comments. One clever feature is that you can record from your webcam and add it to the image. Other users can also add their comments which makes this tool stand out from similar ones out there. Therefore a superb opportunity to spice up Peer-Assessment! If you purchase a Pro Educator account then you only pay $10 – once. Check out this 60 second guide about using VoiceThread.

Here’s an example of a group of Primary pupils using VoiceThread.com:

2. PictureTeller:

Created by E2BN and is hidden deep in the jungle of their amazing resources and eventually appears in the Cook IT section. E2BN has said that they are about to launch an Activity Generator section to make it easier to find tools such as PictureTeller. PictureTeller allows you to upload an image, add your own voice over, text bubbles (lots of different kinds to choose from) and then establish the direction of where you want the ‘camera’ to zoom. Essentially you create a movie which can be embedded (although this didn’t work as well as I’d liked) downloaded or simply copy the link and use your favourite social media tool to share the creation. See this example of a mini movie created using this tool.

3. Wallwisher:

Works as a wall of interactive ‘stickies’. Users start a new wall, enter a suitable title and description so others know what/how to use it and then they simply double-click the wall to add a sticky note. Each note has some customizable features like adding not only text but also an image, audio, or video link to each note. Wallwisher is a superb tool and very versatile:

• Homework wall: get pupils to add their stickies prior to the lesson and then read out a few examples as a starter activity (also great ice breaker for older students who, lets face it, sometimes struggle to talk in big groups)
• Interactive sorting task: quick activity where you create a series of stickies which pupils have to rank, sort, organise etc
• Writing frame; where pupils drag the piece of writing into the correct order; or where pupils add content to ‘Intro’, ‘Main paragraph 1′, ‘Main paragraph 2′ and ‘Conclusion’ sticky.

Here are two examples of using Wallwisher both in the classroom as well as during INSET or Department meeting:

In the History classroom

Tips on becoming a creative teacher

4. Issuu:

Simple tool where you can create stunning digital editions of worksheets, articles, comics, drawings and so on, simply by uploading a document. Register, upload, embed – done.

5. Phrasr by PimPamPum

Phrasr uses the Flickr API by matching images to words you choose. It’s all very straight forward really, just type a few key words and select which images you want to match with each word. It can be quite a powerful tool in the classroom as it provides opportunity for students to really think about the meaning of words from complex underlying abstractions of key concepts to producing presentations about contrasts, differences and similarities.

Here are a few examples:

8 O’Clock

Future Technology

A Different World

6. Spezify

Spezify is a great way to get pupils digging deeper into research, source material and their own projects. Add a key word and watch the screen populate with search results from a range of different sources. What is particularly good about this way of searching is that you can filter out certain types of sources e.g. only show images or videos, comments, text or even audio like this video shows:

7.Voki

Create talking avatars that can be embeded on the Learning Platform or Department website. This clever tool can enhance the learning experience for pupils and can be used in a variety of ways:

• Characters welcome visitors to an area on the Learning Platform
• Avatars explain tasks to pupils who are working independently from home or in lessons
• Great for creating Thinking Skills mysteries where Voki Avatars give pupils info bursts which together complete the mystery
• Fantastic for improving listening skills – ask pupils to listen to the character and answer a series of tasks
• Give pupils a range of images which they have to describe or explain using their own Voki avatars.
• Pupils use their Voki to talk about a book they just read

8. StupeFlix.com

If you want pupils to create a quick presentation or video then this is a good tool to use. One great aspect of this tool, at least for techers, is the ability to upload to Youtube without leaving StupeFlix. Genius. Take a look at this example from of a StupeFlix video produced in less than 5 minutes.

There are other similar resources out there like for example Flixtime which is also easy to use.

9. StoryJumper

This is an online children’s book creator where you use a vast library of graphics like scenes and props to make your very own book. Pupils can also upload photographs as well as add text. The final product can be read online or bought in hardback format from the company (round $25 – approximately £15). A great tool for younger pupils in particular. For older students I would recommend for example ToonDoo and Pixton.

Here’s a Primary example of StoryJumper.

10. Creaza

If you are looking for a one-stop tool which combines comic strip creator, Video and Audio editor as well as a mind-mapping tool then Creaza might be of interest to you. Each tool has a suite of features that are pretty decent; you would have to spend a few quid to get something that works as well and in tandem with the other tools. After registering you are provided with a basic demo account (free), although some features are locked until you join and pay for a full account which costs . Another strength is that it can be fully integrated with the Learning Platform Fronter if you have bought into their extension.

Here’s an example that took 3 minutes to set up in the mind-mapping software Mindomo:

Mindmap from Creaza

That was the first 10 WEB 2.0 tools to enhance Learning and Teaching. The next post will look at another 10 tools that have proved to be successful in the classroom.

If you liked that, you'll like these:

• Learning whilst Immersed in Web 2.0 Part 2
• Engaging WEB 2.0 Tools to use in the classroom
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The dedicated website owner, blogger or Social Media enthusiast used to be confined to their office or at the very least laptop and broadband dongle. Nowadays however, these creative individuals can run their online empires from the comfort of, well, anywhere. Cue devices like iPhone and iPod Touch.

Below follows my top 11 Apps that I use to keep track of trends in education, communicate with colleagues and other creative professionals and update my websites and blogs with text as well as files and graphics. This list is by no means exhaustive and only contains apps I personally find effective, some of which are free whilst others come with a modest price tag.

If you use other ones which would be worth mentioning please add a comment.

1. WordPress 2 (free)

This is a simple, fast and effective application that enables you to update your WordPress blogs at the press of a button. It focuses on adding and editing posts, pages as well as handling comments but has left out other WordPress features like changing themes, plug-ins and major administrative settings.

2. EverNote (Free)

I started using EverNote way later than most it seems and it’s got to be said that it really does improve your workflow as well as your organisation. This app lets you save ‘snippets’ from your online as well offline experience including photographs, text (whatever you copy like hyperlinks and standard text) and you can record audio and save it on the EverNote app. After you press save it will automatically sync with your online (free or premium) account that you set up via the app. Similarly, it’s a good idea to install the software on all the machines you use as it will sync with all. There’s also a handy web widget to install for most browsers so that saving to EverNote becomes a breeze. Many productivity apps now allow you to save directly to EverNote (like Qipit below). Superb.

3. Documents ToGo Premium (£8.99)

A very handy app to have as it allows you to open, edit and create Word, PowerPoint and Excel files straight on your device. I have found it invaluable particularly when I really need to do last-minute amendments to a presentation or handout. A tad pricey for what it is but hey it’s still under a tenner so won’t break the bank and coupled with DropBox and FTPOntheGo you’re invincible!

4. Drop Box (Free)

To put it simply, DropBox is outstanding. It syncs all files saved on its server to all computers (PC and Mac) where you have the software installed. It’s as if you saved the document to all of your computers in one go. There are also other powerful features which makes DropBox superb:

• File Sharing: share an entire folder or specific files on DropBox with friends and colleagues. A great way of using DropBox is to open a ‘Public’ folder which you can use to link to files from websites and emails.
• Back-up: use DropBox as your online back up. The free account allows you to upload 2G of data which is a pretty good start. If you need to backup all your music and video files then upgrading is very cost effective.

The app does not allow you to access all of these features from the handheld device, but you can still:

• Access media, photos and documents you can’t fit on your iPhone
• Sync photos and videos from your iPhone to their secure online storage
• Download files from your dropbox to your iPhone for offline use (just select your favourites and they will be downloaded straight to your device)

5. FTPOntheGo (£3.99)

I love this tool! Upload your files straight to your server without any hassle. It will also allow you to upload using secure FTPS. Perhaps the best feature is the ability to edit files within the App and upload on save ( (Word/PowerPoint and any text file such as PHP/HTML) as well as take a photograph or video with your phone, resize it and upload, all witin the App – clever.

6. Mocha VNC (£3.99 or Free)

I started using this app initially when my daughter was a newborn as it was difficult to access my Mac when she was sleeping (generally on me). I just launched Mocha VNC and controlled the Mac from the iPhone. Hmm a bit fanatic I know. However it will also allow you to use your machine from anywhere – very clever and immensely useful particularly if you need to send larger files and you haven’t got access to a fast connection or PC/Mac.

7. Qipit (£1.19)

QiPit turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a scanner! This handy little gem will turn any photographs of written and printed materials into scan quality digital documents so if you are in a lecture theatre or workshop and want to save time, then take a snap of the Interactive Whiteboard, Flip-chart or handouts and QiPit will digitize the photo and tweak it until it’s readable. Then just send it to EverNote or email, all within the app. Genius.

8. ColorSplash (£1.19)

Originally I wasn’t going to add any design or graphics apps but the following two apps are too good to miss out.

ColorSplash is a stunning application for what you pay. You start by taking a photo with your device or import a photo from your Photo Album. ColorSplash will then convert the photo to black-and-white and it is your job to ‘add a color-splash’ which really does draw people’s attention to the image. You can zoom in and out of the image which means that you can create very detailed and sophisticated images. Fantastic for your blog posts or department website.

9. Sketches 2 (£1.19)

Sketches 2 is the web designer, blogger, artist or doodler’s dream. You can use it to just draw images using the various painting and drawing tools (very similar to PhotoShop), sketch ideas for webpages, prototypes, layout of your own iPhone app or whatever else you’d use the various backgrounds, shapes and icons for. You can also add your own images as backgrounds. Perhaps the most clever feature is the ability to add a background map (satellite, map or hybrid) based on your location! It also offers extensive export features of your amazing canvas to the Photo Album, Twitter, email, PDF as well as JPG/PNG.

10. EchoFon Pro for Twitter (£2.99)

I tried eight different Twitter clients before realising that EchoFon is the most efficient and easy-to-use of them all. The most significant features I use are:

* Multiple accounts (Pro version)
* Searching for people you follow auto-list their usernames for quick selection
* Creating lists
* RT your own Tweet menu
* Who has RT you menu
* and a lot more!

11. Skype (free)

I always question how this can be a free service everytime I speak to my friends and colleagues abroad. Even when there were 21 million users talking and VC:ing at the same time, the quality was still good. Skype is the ideal tool to stay in touch and signing up only takes a few seconds. All you have to do then us to search for your friends and colleagues and add them to your Skype list – if they haven’t got Skype tell them to download it ad it works on both PC and Mac as well as most mobile devices.

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