Jason Snell

http://www.intertext.com

Jason Snell is editorial director of Macworld, publishers of Macworld magazine, Macworld.com and Mac OS X Hints.com. He’s been covering the Mac for 15 years.

I don’t like crowded home screens, so I try to leave the last row on every screen blank. I’ve set up my first screen to give me quick access to the stuff I might need on a moment’s notice, including Safari, Mail, and the Camera app. Maps and Weather (in my case, the AccuWeather app rather than Apple’s) are musts, as is Settings.

Beyond that, I’ve been taking advantage of AIM’s push notifications feature, so it’s moved to the home screen—for now. I use Cultured Code’s Things as a to-do list manager only in fits and starts on my iPhone, but it’s still clinging to a spot. Similarly, I use SlingPlayer enough that it resides on the home screen, but like Things, it’s in line to be knocked off as soon as something else takes its place. (I actually play a couple of games all the time on my iPhone, but have opted to file all my games on a single screen rather than migrating the faves out to page one.)

Firmly ensconced on my home screen is MLB At Bat 2009, with live scores and game audio and video, and Instapaper, where I store all sorts of web pages to read when I’m on the go. And of course Twitterrific gets a coveted place in my Dock, next to Calendar.