I’m a stock iOS guy. I don’t jailbreak my iPhone. (Go #TeamPure!) I don’t tweak it. I do install apps, games, and utilities. But my every day go to apps have always been the stock Apple apps: Mail, Safari, Calendar, and Siri. Until today.
Starting today, I’m going to try out some third-party applications as my every day go to apps. Why? you might ask? Well, I’ve been reading a lot about how Apple is being ‘out Appled’ by Google. In other words, Google is getting much better at hardware design faster than Apple is getting better at software and services. That doesn’t really mean much to us common folk, but it has inspired me to try out and use new software and that is a good thing.
On my iPhone and iPad 3, Mail has been replaced by Gmail, Calendar by Fantastical, Safari by Chrome, and Siri by Google Search. I also installed Google Maps in addition to Apple Maps, but honestly, I don’t use either maps app on my iPhone very often for it to make a difference.
I though about using Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Cloud Player or Rdio to replace iTunes but I didn’t want to switch to a streaming service because I don’t want to run my iPhone’s battery down any faster than it already does.
I’ll run my experiment for 2-4 weeks and then post my thoughts about things here.
If you have a favorite app that replaces a stock Apple app, let us know and post it in the comments section below.