My Favorite Android Apps

Snapseed is how I edit all my photos on my phone and just recently started using it within Google+ as well. I do basic edits and crops as well as heavier grunge and HDR effects.

Ingress is a way of life. Just kidding, it is a game that might take over your life for a couple months if you are a geek. It uses your location and google maps and creates a virtual capture the flag game with two teams, the Resistance and the Enlightened, battling over portals and mind units. I got addicted earlier this year as I wanted to get to level 8. I have a couple invite codes if you want to try it out as it is still in beta. You must have an android phone and you must join the enlightened side!

Pocketcasts is the best podcast player. I am addicted to podcasts and I listen to about 50 different shows. I use this app for at least 8 hrs a day during the week. Definately worth the $4 for me.

Duolingo is a fun app that turns language learning into a game. It just takes a couple minutes a day to keep my brain up to date in Spanish since I am slowly losing it after learning it in high school. You can learn french, german and they are adding more all the time. Oh and it is free!

Google - Keep, Maps, Youtube, Gmail, Now, Drive, Google+ 
Google apps and their integrations with Android phones is the reason I have stuck with android even though I am usually an Apple person. I use Google services for email, notes, maps, calendar, videos, docs, photo storage/editing and backup. Since I use all these services Google Now always has super helpful reminders and recommendations for me.

Twilight is not about vampires. It controls the brightness and warmth of your devices screen according to the time of day. Recent research suggests that exposure to blue light before sleep may distort your natural (circadian) rhythm and cause inability to fall asleep. Twilight starts to fade and turn my screen warmer around 7pm every night so that my brain doesn't think the sun is still out. I also use f.lux on my MacBook to do the same thing. Which isn't great for a designer/photographer but I try to get stuff done earlier in the day and save my reading for later. Now if I could get a similar thing for my TV.

Fast Reader is how I read on my phone. You might ask yourself sometimes, "How is Riley so well read and up to date on everything?". I use Fast Reader. I first heard about ReadQuick on a couple of my podcasts and it is iOS only so I ended up finding FastReader which does the same thing and is free. So what I do is send my articles or long emails and newsletters to this app and it brings up one word at a time really fast. You can set the speed and increase it as you get used to it. Currently I can follow along at 300 words per minute. Which is crazy to me. I am usually a slow reader because I always get distracted with all the other words and my eyes jump around too much. Fast Reader helps me focus on the word I need to read.

Umano is another way I consume information. They have professional readers read online news articles. I listen to them at 2 times speed so I can get as much info crammed into my head as possible. It is free with some pro features for $4 a month if you want.