Voxer

Some friends coerced me into installing Voxer, a walkie-talkie app for iOS and Android. I remember trying out HeyTell once upon a time, but never got hooked. I’m going to give Voxer a real shot, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

The benefits are clear–you can quickly record a short audio message (or a text, picture, or video, I believe) and send it to someone else using Voxer. It’s a lot faster than typing out a message and hitting send because all you have to do is pick the recipient, hold down a button and record your message, and it takes care of the rest.

The few downsides include the fact that you can’t really “draft” a voice message; it is what it is, and you only get one shot before it’s sent off. Also, I imagine I’ll miss the ability to communicate through a browser. The thing I love most about Google Voice is that I can receive and respond to text messages through a website–and the entire history is tracked and searchable. That’s especially nice if you need to reference an address or phone number quickly.

Do you use Voxer or another walkie-talkie app? What features do you enjoy, and what drives you crazy?

GrooVe IP

When we were in Europe in 2010, I wanted an Android app like GrooVe IP that would allow me to make phone calls with my Google Voice number over WiFi. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a decent solution, so we made due with Skype. But now that GrooVe IP is around (and only $2.10 today in the Android Market), I can ditch Skype and use my Google Voice number for just about everything (for free), even when I don’t have a cell signal.

You might wonder when I would ever have a WiFi connection but no cell reception. Happens all the time on my WiFi-only Samsung Galaxy Tablet. It’s got speakers and a microphone, which means that GrooVe IP can turn my tablet into a phone, and I can use my Google Voice number to do it!

So if you’ve been looking for an app to let you make calls over WiFi, check out GrooVe IP.

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Evernote

Evernote was recently spotlighted in Inc. Magainze, and for good reason–it’s a fantastic app for helping you remember stuff. It goes beyond simple note-taking and makes it easy to take quick notes, record a quick sound clip, or save a picture for later.

The best way I can describe it is a brain dump repository. The pain Evernote solves is the fact that your brain can only handle so much information. Evernote solves that by making it quick and easy to take notes, tag notes, and find them later.

One of the best selling points of Evernote is that you can have it on just about any platform–Mac, PC, Android, and iOS. There’s even an open source version for Linux that is built using the Evernote API. This means that I can take notes on my tablet and have them show up on my phone, my computer, and in any browser.

The Evernote widget for Android is especially great, making it even easier to quickly jot down a note or record a clip on the go.

If you’ve never used Evernote, it’s worth a look. Do you already use Evernote? What’s your favorite way to use it? Let me know in the comments.