I’m back with another Top 7 apps write up for you all. Today Dave Tucker from Sonocent is going through his favourite apps.
Sonocent was founded in 2007 by speech technology expert, Roger Tucker, Sonocent is an edtech firm specialised in helping students and professionals alike harness the power of the spoken word. Originally created to aid those less able to write, its flagship software solution Audio Notetaker, a revolutionary interface for speech capture and manipulation, is now used by over 100,000 people worldwide from a wide variety of sectors and backgrounds, enabling them to work with audio the way you would with text – from highlighting and annotating to editing and reorganising, creating the perfect set of notes. The company, based in Leeds, is currently headed up by Roger’s son, Dave Tucker, with a mission to create the ‘codex’ of speech.
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SimpleMind+ – A great app to help organise your thoughts, make amendments, and structure them in a way that makes sense to you through neat mind maps – a bit like brainstorming with yourself. It takes a lot of hassle out of planning content, presentations and strategies, and I only wish I’d known about this as a student.
Cold Turkey – It’s easy to get distracted from work or study; sometimes it’s hard to resist the temptations of online shopping or scrolling through our Facebook news feed. Cold Turkey is an app that blocks apps and websites, which means you can stay on task and be more productive. Currently available on Windows PCs and some tablet devices. For a Mac equivalent, check out Self Control.
Noisli – Working around noise is fine for some people, but it can be incredibly distracting for others. Noisli is an app which offers ‘white noise’ background sounds for you to listen to while you work – from crackling fires to wind, forest noises and even a coffee-shop murmur. For people who get distracted by their favourite lyrics when trying to work to music, this is a great alternative.
Mendeley – At Sonocent we conduct regular research, so need to keep our reference material well organised. Mendeley is an app that can help you manage your reference material so your research is easy to search and sort.
Sonocent Recorder – Unless you are a master of shorthand, taking notes in meetings, seminars or interviews can seem nigh on impossible. It can be hard to know which bits are the most important until afterwards, meaning you take down plenty of insignificant points along the way. The Sonocent Recorder app, a companion to Sonocent Audio Notetaker for Windows and Mac, visualises speech on your mobile device as chunks, enabling you to colour highlight the bits of audio you want to come back to, just like using a highlighter pen with a book. You can then edit, rearrange, highlight, annotate and add slides and photos to your recording after sharing the file with the Audio Notetaker software.
StudyBlue – This is a really clever app for anyone needing to revise. StudyBlue helps you create custom flashcards and also browse flashcards from other users. These are brilliant memory triggers when preparing for an exam.
Any.do – There are plenty of apps out there to add some sparkle to to-do lists, and to notify you of events on your calendar schedule, project deadlines and more. But Any.do is my favourite – it helps sync your personal tasks and work projects in a way that will supercharge your productivity.
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Thanks to Dave for his list of apps today. I’m already a big fan of any.do and always love heaing other people use it too!
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