Ryan Block

Ryan Block is co-founder of gdgt, a consumer electronics media startup, and former editor-in-chief of Engadget. He routinely neglects blogging on his personal site, and lives in San Francisco with Veronica Belmont.

March 8, 2011

It’s been almost a year and a half since I checked into First & 20, but not much about how I use my phone has changed. I still think the iPhone (4) isn’t an especially good productivity device—but it’s gotten lots better with time. My home screen is still mostly about getting down to business, though, and the overall layout of apps is largely the same since late 2009. There have been a number of upgrades (and a new app or two) along the way:

Instapaper: I have no idea how I ever lived without it. Everyone should aspire to Marco’s level of product design.
Apple’s notes app is out, and good riddance. Simplenote is fast and amazing, I can’t recommend it enough.
Reeder took the place of NetNewsWire, and is definitely the best mobile news reading app I’ve ever used.
37Signals bought Ember and made it the official Campfire client. Unfortunately, it no longer works much of the time.
Twitter bought Tweetie and made it the official Twitter client. Fortunately, it works better than ever.
Instagram is definitely my favorite way to share photos these days, but I hate how the photo masters are square, and that only Apple’s camera app does HDR. If Instagram saved the full-aspect images and had HDR, I’d definitely toss out Apple’s camera app altogether.
For Bay Area residents, Transporter is by far the most elegantly designed and delightful to use public transportation app.
Super minor detail: the Bluetooth icon is missing. I stopped using Bluetooth devices with my iPhones, which I’ve found to be an overall sub-par experience. Apple’s in-ear headphones are pretty damn reliable, so they’re what I use.