I haven’t posted one of these in a really long time. Given the attention to screen time concerns over the past couple of years, I’ve really slimmed down the applications I use – and have installed – on my phone. Currently I’m using an iPhone XS. My structure is 2 pages worth of apps and I keep an empty row between the apps and the dock. I’m also immune to the red notification dots.
Page 1
Everything should be self explanatory. But some quick thoughts: Yes I use Apple Maps. Carrot is the best for weather. I still prefer third-party Twitter clients over native apps, in this case I still love Tweetbot. I don’t play many games on the phone, but in that folder I have a couple for passing the time. I occasionally play Destiny 2 on Xbox and PlayStation, and thusly have the official PlayStation app, Destiny 2 companion app and the Xbox app.
Simple is an online banking service. Alamo Drafthouse is my theater of choice. Overcast for podcasts. Authentication for Two Factor Authentication. 1Password for password management. Apollo is my Reddit client of choice and wallet.
Messages, Phone, Safari and Gmail in the dock. I have a personal Gmail account and my company uses GSuite for our mail. The official Gmail app works much better than the default Apple Mail app for my needs.
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Here is where things get clustered. As I mentioned, I only use two screens for apps, so I use several folders. Apple Apps for all of the default iOS apps as well as the others which I use. Next to that is a folder of Photography and Video editing apps. This is followed by a folder for all of the relevant Google apps I use. The last folder on the top row is labeled Managing, but it has bank apps, crypto wallets, loyalty program apps, etc.
Row two gets the Files app. I do use iCloud Storage, so I’m in here fairly often. And then the Utilities folder which is like the junk drawer of my iPhone. It has a mix of things that either don’t fit any where else, or that my usage is common enough to have it handy, but not a priority. Productivity apps is next followed by some health-related apps: meditation, yoga and white noise apps.
Row three gets the MLB app with the icon changed to the KC Royals. Green Mountain Grill app for managing my grill. Pocket Procreate – which I’ve been using regularly since it is new, but will find its way to the Photography folder eventually and the Brew Guru app (American Homebrewer membership).
On row 4, we have the Apple TV Remote, Orbi for managing my home WiFi system, Ring for my doorbell and Wyze for various security cameras.
Finally, we have the Amazon app, ProtonMail for my additional email accounts, MySudo for some OSINT-related efforts and a beta app for Uphold (crypto wallet).
The background is a shot of Apollo 11 launching.