App Convergence- Sometimes Silly- Sometimes Superb

It wasn’t long ago that Twitter client Tweetie added two key functionalities- a flashlight and fart sounds by way of a "Popularity Enhancer" setting. It was totally logical… who doesn’t want a twitter client that includes flashlights and farts?

Then, this week a Swiss army-type app was released that merged key functions into the most jumble of apps possible. iCatchall Tools is an "integrated "utility app" suite. You would fill nearly a whole screen with icons just to get the same functionality found in iCatchall! Features Include: * File Storage * Flashlight * Hourglass Timer * Level * Ruler * Tip Calculator * Counter * Personal Massager and more… iCatchall 13 does even more!

Yup, doesn’t everyone need an app that does all that?

Fact is, while these two examples make little sense, the IDEA of one app offering a number of complementary functions IS worth considering. Fortunately there are a couple of standouts worth noting.

iTV
We posted on iTV’s update yesterday but before the release of version 1.3, iTV was the post/child for multifunctional apps. Sure you can get one app to track tv shows (TVGuide offers a free one), one app to browse movies and movie trailers (the app Hot Popcorn had a slick new update and is just $1.99) and one to manage your NetFlix queue (iPhlix is sweet!) but you can instead use iTV to do all of this. Better yet, the multifunction iTV does it all without compromise and for free!

Evernote
There are great choices for note-taking apps that include TakeANote, Iconic Notes and Notebook. There are also apps for taking voice and photo notes. I love Note2Self for voice notes, and PhotoNote has received good reviews. While each individual app in this example does a better job performing the specific task, Evernote not only does all of them but also automatically syncs notes for later access from any device.

While Evernote’s customer service is the worst I have seen (usually when developers thank you for your email and say "a representative will follow up shortly" they actually DO! Evernote hasn’t- five times no less.) the app/service is excellent!

Pocket Informant
There are individual calendaring apps that sync with Google calendar. (Saisuke is one example), and, since last week, you can use the native calendar app to sync with Google calendar (via MSExchange). Similarly, there are individual apps that sync with Toodledo (Appigo’s ToDo, Ultimate Todos and Toodledo iPhone are all Excellent!).

Or… You can use Pocket Informant to do both in a single app when it is released in the near future. It will, at first have less functionality than any of the stand-alone Toodledo apps, but it does bring calendar and tasks together in a single app the way it should (more details on it on a later post.)

Each of these three apps bring multiple functionality together in a single app and, in the case of iTV, holds it’s own against each individual app that provides similar functionality!