15. Evernote (Productivity) is rated 4.5 stars with 2938 ratings. The app has won plenty of awards & was even inducted into the Apple “App Hall of Fame.” Evernote calls itself “an extension of your [...]]]>  

Part 1 (1 – 7) | Part 2 (8 – 14) | Part 3 (15 – 21)

15. Evernote (Productivity) is rated 4.5 stars with 2938 ratings. The app has won plenty of awards & was even inducted into the Apple “App Hall of Fame.” Evernote calls itself “an extension of your brain,” by providing the best note and idea platform/database. Create text, photo and audio notes and sync them across just about every platform. It’s quick and easy to search and find notes you need. I have almost 100 notes that consist of study material, manufacturer information for appliances, vehicle information like my vin number, passwords and plenty others. Dropbox is a close 2nd for me in this category. (Free)

16. WolframAlpha (Reference) is rated 4.5 stars out of 361 ratings. This app specializes in computation, using algorithms and data to compute answers and generate reports. WolframAlpha is also integrated into Siri provides solutions and a reference for math problems, statistics, physics, chemistry, materials, engineering, astronomy and more. ($2.99)

17. MyPad+ (Social Networking) is 4 stars out of 1053 ratings. It’s the 5th highest grossing Social Networking app. You’d think this category would be loaded with quality apps with the big three in Facebook, Twitter, Skype and Google+. However, this isn’t the case as the official apps have both issues and limitations. MyPad+ has a nice user interface and does best with Facebook, but also integrates Twitter. It sports a similar panel view to that of Twitter’s official app, displaying multiple window panes on the same screen.

18. College Bowl Guide 2011-2012 (Sports) is rated 5 stars out of 31 ratings. The app was just released this month, but bests a weak class of Sports applications. The interactive app will look familiar as it’s from the makers of The Daily. You’ll get the latest news, full pages for each Bowl game, videos and more. (Free)

19. TripIt – Travel Organizer – FREE (Travel) is rated 4.5 stars with 590 ratings. This app does all the work for you scanning your email for hotel, airfare and rental car confirmations and automagically builds your itinerary so it’s ready when you need it. It takes all your trip details and organizes it into one useful itinerary, syncing with your iPad calendar. TripIt is my go-to app when I’m on the road. (Free)

20. Air Video (Utilities) is rated 4.5 stars out of 49 ratings. This app lets you stream your video collection on your iPad with live conversion. The app works over your WiFi connection and 3G. You’ll need to install the free desktop software for your PC or Mac to stream and convert the videos. Either stream videos from your computer or let the app convert and store it for you. ($2.99)

21. Fahrenheit – Weather and Temperature on your Home Screen (Weather) is rated 4.5 stars out of 447 ratings. It’s the 4th highest grossing Weather app for iPad. There are some other great weather apps available, but I personally prefer a more feature-based app, than visual. What I like about this app is that it displays the current temperature on the app icon and notifies you when there is a change in the weather. The app has a ton of other features such as feels like temperature, 10-day forecast, sunrise/sunset, wind direction and more. ($0.99)

Choosing one app per category sure was tough to do, but I had to mention a few other favorite apps that are worthy of being among the Top Apps in 2011.

Dropbox (Productivity) is 4 stars, 648 ratings. Save files, pics, videos & more on Dropbox and access them from anywhere. (Free)

AppAdvice (News) is 4.5 stars, 531 ratings. All the best app news & reviews. They are also giving away some great prizes for the holidays. (Free)

Spotify iPhone App (Music) 3 stars, 92 ratings. The app is just ok, but the service is amazing letting you stream music you want.

Did I miss any of your favorite apps? Surprised to not see any apps in particular? Let me know what you think of the apps listed.

Part 1 (1 – 7) | Part 2 (8 – 14) | Part 3 (15 – 21)

Hello FiveFreeApps!

My name is Mad Man from madTREEHOUSE.com. This is my first post [...]]]> Today’s post is a guest post by MadMan, the founder and author of madTREEHOUSE. Enjoy the post and be sure to follow him on Twitter @madthouse and visit his Facebook Page.

Hello FiveFreeApps!

My name is Mad Man from madTREEHOUSE.com. This is my first post on FiveFreeApps and I’m excited to share my topic with you. Also, you better like it or you might make me mad! Lol.

I did a previous post on madTREEHOUSE about these 4 social networks – facebook, twitter, linkedin, and myspace called “The Social Network Craziness.”  Here’s the link if you want to check it out: http://madtreehouse.com/?p=1833.

Even though, I did touch on it a little bit and posted a poll on the home page (hint); I thought that I needed to touch on it a little more with regards to which is really the best social network out there.  I don’t really hear and see in studies on this issue.  Is facebook the best because they have hundreds of millions of members?  Is twitter the best because more celebs use it?  I asked the general public and the madTREEHOUSE club to assist me with their vote, so we can have some conclusion on the matter. We had a little bit of participation, which I’m grateful for but didn’t receive enough to make a final decision in this social network hierarchy.  So, I’m going to expand on this topic, define & rank them. The poll is at the bottom for you to submit your vote and comments. It’s easy to say facebook with the 9 digits in users/members on there, but that doesn’t mean they are the best social network out there. Let me explain further. I’m not going to use stats because like Tampa Bay Buccaneer Head Coach Raheem Morris said, “Stats are for losers.”  Each social network serves a specific purpose and the number of users one has over the other has no value in this argument. That will be like saying the Yankees are the best team every year because they have the largest and biggest payroll. I want to judge this competition on the merit of ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ with the opinion of the general public. So, let’s get into this argument!

facebook – Is a social network that allows you to communicate and share content with your network of friends.

Likes – It’s a personal assistant for keeping up with friends and what is going on at the moment. It allows you updates on birthdays, events, status, likes, and etc. of all your network of friends. I can see uploaded photos, comments, and who’s online. If you’re a business, business person, or activist, then facebook has a great community fan page that you can create. You see a lot of businesses incorporating this into their marketing strategy only because of the popularity of facebook and the number of members (friends) they have.

Dislikes – It’s not the place to network or get to know anyone new.  It’s not inviting in that way. There are unwritten rules & bylaws that you must know someone personally in order to be friends with them on facebook. Its overall appeal is to be the gateway in privacy of friends where certain country clubs are forbidden. They blast you with ads on the right side of the page from information that you and your friends submit on your facebook page. They use that information to sell to advertisers to spam you on your page. It’s a parasite and host relationship. Most people don’t mind because they use it for only one purpose, which is to connect with their personal circle and the spam doesn’t interfere with their enjoyment of the site or go to them directly. facebook is always doing updates to your page which becomes frustrating with a ‘new facebook page upgrade’ all the time!

Census - facebook is great if you already have your set of friends or personal circle. If you’re looking to network or make new friends, then it’s not the best recommended place for you. If you want a personal assistant to go with your friendship(s), then facebook is an excellent social network for you to use. For businesses or any other personal endeavors, facebook gets a grade of okay. It does a great job of collecting information from its millions of friends and give an advertiser the ability to pinpoint its target down to the teeth. But it’s original design is to be a fraternity/sorority house for friends of friends to communicate throughout the day.

twitter – Is a social network that allows you to text message updates to your loyalists of followers in the form of tweets. I know that twitter has expanded to twit pics and videos, but it’s primarily used for text message updates. twitter is hugely popular with celebs because they can easily engage, promote, and keep in touch with their fans and followers. It’s easy or easier to be associated with someone on twitter as oppose to facebook and linkedin because the restrictions are softer. It’s meant for you to follow or unfollow someone by choice and network with anyone with a twitter account.

Likes – It’s easier to follow or be friends with anybody who has a twitter account. It’s much more inviting and networking is more acceptable. You can tweet (text message) to promote, network, engage, and etc. with an audience and its encouraged to do so as oppose to do with your facebook friends. facebook people act like sharing or promoting something is taboo and frown upon.  They almost make it seem like you are saling something to them or spamming them personally. I guess it’s just better to tell the world that I just got out of the shower like anyone cares or do they? Lastly, they don’t spam you with advertisers from your personal info like facebook.

Dislikes - People will follow you one minute and not the next. It’s seems like it’s more about a race to get the most people to follow you instead of just connecting with people. At least on the other social networks, when you get a new friend – that person is part of your network and doesn’t unfriend you the next minute.  You don’t know how many times that has happen to me. On facebook, when I get a friend request notification I’ll accept it or deny it and that’s it. There’s no “GOTCHA!” or “so-&-so uses a validation service.” Like who the hell are you!  Thank Gosh! Jesus doesn’t use twitter! Personally, I don’t care for it. It’s a popularity & bragging contest of who has the most followers and no I’m not jealous because I don’t have over a thousand followers on my twitter. Furthermore, I don’t care if you tweeted how fun it was to shop today or I went outside and came back in.

Census - If you love gossip or want to keep up with the latest from somebody or something, then twitter is for you. Yes, facebook, linkedin, myspace, and etc. all have their own tweeter like functionality but remember that I said you have to be a part of the familia or country club. And I’m not talking about only having a membership account. You have to be inside the circle of friends to get those tweets. That’s why you never see any media outlets refer any other social networks tweets besides twitter.

Myspace – Is a social network site that known more for entertainment purposes. It does have the same functions that twitter & facebook have, but is less popular in those areas because of its appeal in the entertainment (music, movies, and etc) genre.  You can upload media, photos, updates, and etc. There is custom stuff you can do with your page and you can add a music playlist to your Myspace page. Sometimes you can have too much of a good-time thing and this is the reason it is not as popular as it was before. With all the numerous social networks out there, being specialized and a niche-filler makes you popular these days such as facebook, twitter, and linkedin has done. All of these social network are known to the public in one main area. Twitter is known for tweets, linkedin is known for professional networking, and facebook is known for friends-only communication. Myspace was known for all of this, but lost members due to this.  Most older people are conservative and don’t appeal to the same stuff that young people do like having loud music playing every time you go to my Myspace page.  Those older people don’t have patience and they want something that is simple and easy for them to use. Also, by having and being known for one main functionality, it makes it clearer and less confusing to a new prospector or seeker who rather have something simple to go to and use.  I believe that Myspace has now found its niche in the field of entertainment. This allows them to compete with the other social networks and appeal to a young demographic and audience.

Likes – If you like something that has a lot going on or a lot of flavor and is hip, then Myspace is your thing. You can add or embed a music playlist or a video on your profile page and you have more options with customizing your page. It has all the same features and specs as the other popular social networks (facebook, twitter, and linkedin).  They have even allowed you to incorporate twitter and facebook features into your Myspace. It’s pretty much everything under one roof.

Dislikes – Unfortunately, being the Wal-mart of the social network industry makes you not as popular as you would think. For example, It’s like when you are saling a house. What is one of the most important deal-breakers that can happen?  Yes, having too much going on. Any real-estate expert will advise you to keep your place neutral because that’s what appeals to the majority of people. Can that buyer change the color of that one room’s wall to white or whatever color that they like?!  Yes, they could easily do that but people are what they are and the customer is always right.  All the cool features and specs can get annoying after some time and you have to keep getting my attention when you want to entertain me.

Linkedin - Is a social network that allows you to network with other professional friends and colleagues. It operates very similar to facebook in establishing a network of friends. This means you have to know the person you want to add to your network and that person has to accept you. I’ve always said that high school is the best proven-ground and education in a person’s life because it teaches you how the world operates. It’s similar to how networking works in the real world.  In order to get in with certain people, you have to have a relationship with so-&-so to get in so-&-so’s network or circle.

Likes – It’s a resume of yourself on a Careerbuilder like formality. People are involved in professional networking and professional advertisement of their experience, skill set, current/previous occupations, and etc. You can reach decision-makers or hiring folks directly (if you are able to get within their network).

Dislikes – It only appeals to one thing and one thing only; professional networking. Linkedin restricts you from networking or reaching people you don’t know but want to know and it’s a tougher process than facebook in that regard. Personally, I only go on there only when I need to go on there such as a person would do with Careerbuilder.

Census – If you’re looking to network for a job or with a certain professional, then Linkedin is for you. You can connect with colleagues in a facebook-type format.  If Careerbuilder added the facebook-type format tomorrow, then Linkedin would be out of business.

Results

Now, that we have talked about each of these social networks enough, it’s time to rank them and crown which is #1.  I told you that I’m letting you (the general public) do that.  I’ve included a poll at the bottom for your personal vote. Here is my conclusion of who is the best social network site:

Best Features & Overall – Goes to Myspace.

Most Popular – Goes to facebook.

Best Social Network Functionality – Goes to twitter

Take Our Poll

MadMan is the founder and author of madTREEHOUSE. Follow him on Twitter @madthouse and be sure to visit his Facebook Page.

(polls)

Which One of These is the Best Social Networking Site to You?
(polls)

Today, I wanted to share [...]]]> Through my two years of blogging, I’ve used Blogger, then switched to WordPress, Foursquare and then back to WordPress. Why did I return to WordPress? For me, it’s all about the powerful plugins WordPress developers bring us. There is a WordPress Plugin for just about everything.

Today, I wanted to share some of my current favorite plugins. I trimmed the list to bring you 5 of the best. The plugins within this post range from social networking, SEO and Guest Blogging. Let me know what you think!

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARRP)

This plugin is all about providing relevant content to your readers. Back in my old Blogger days I did all this manually. With each post you write about, the plugin takes a unique algorithm and pulls a list of all the relevant posts and pages and even provides a rating displaying how close a match the post is. The bottom line is, your reader is exposed to not only your post, but all the closest matches. One click can lead to many more.

TOP 10

Similar to YARRP, Top 10 further engages with your readers by showing them the most popular posts. The app gives you the ability to automatically display the most viewed posts and pages from a widget. It tracks both daily and overall total views. TOP 10 is customizable; you can display small icons, view counts, etc. Not only does it show your readers what your hottest posts are, but gives you a helpful snapshot.

SEO Smart Links

This plugin benefits you by automatically linking keywords in a post to your corresponding posts and pages. You can set keywords and setup the matching URLs. Similar to the two plugins above, referencing some of your other links in posts can bring your readers your relevant content and bring you more clicks and a better page rank.

Fixed Social Buttons

This plugin is not only useful to allow your readers to both network with your social networking profiles such as Facebook and Twitter and to share your content with Digg, Stumble Upon, MySpace, Flickr, Delicious and more. Best of all, the appearance of the buttons are elegant displaying vertically or horizontally on the right hand side.

Guest Blogger

Have you ever had trouble finding a good guest blogger when you need one? This plugin does the work for you by, creating a guest account, searching for a post through the EzineArticles database and allowing you to specify the criteria you want. It allows you to quote up-to 25 articles per year, which matches EzineArticles terms of service.

In my quest to find the best Twitter Applications, I’ve found no better resource than oneforty.com. One Forty tracks, reviews and provides information on over 2000 Twitter Applications in 21 categories and 16 different platforms. Using this outstanding resource, please find the overall top 10 most popular Twitter applications.

10. Screenr (iPhone) – 5 rating, 116 reviews, used by 292 people

“Instant screencasts for Twitter. Now you can create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. With Screenr’s web-based recorder, there’s nothing to download. Your screencasts play everywhere, even on iPhones. Record one now, it’s completely free! Try it now at http://screenr.com/“

9. TweetStats (Analytics) – 4.5 rating, 137 ratings, used by 931 people

“Graph your Twitter Stats including – tweets per hour, tweets per month, tweet timeline and reply statistics.”

8. Digsby (Facebook) – 4.5 rating, 180 reviews, used by 867 people

“A multiprotocol IM client that lets you manage all your IM, email, and social network accounts from one easy-to-use application. For IM, it brings all your buddies into one merged contact list with support for AIM, MSN, Facebook Chat, Yahoo, ICQ, GTalk, and Jabber. For email, it offers notifications of new emails with message previews, as well as, the ability to perform actions such as “Mark as Read” and “Delete” right from the notification with support for Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, POP, and IMAP. For social networks, it provides a newsfeed of events on the network and the ability to set status with support for Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.”

7. Friend or Follow (Networking) – 4.5 rating, 349 reviews, used by 755 people

“Friend Or Follow helps you manage your Twitter contacts. Submit your Twitter screen name to find out who you’re following that’s not following you back, and who’s following you that you’re not following back.”

6. Brizzly (Web) – 4.5 rating, 107 reviews, used by 1,712 people

“Thing Labs’ new browser-based Twitter client allows you to use multiple accounts, monitor searches, share photos, save drafts, interact with Facebook and edit trending topics. It’s in public beta, but you can try Brizzly at http://brizzly.com!”

5. TweetDeck (AIR, Facebook) – 4 rating, 283 reviews, used by 7,129 people

TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organized and up to date.”

4. HootSuite (Web) – 4.5 rating, 229 reviews, used by 2,250 people

“The professional Twitter client. Monitor keywords, manage multiple Twitter profiles, schedule tweets, and measure your success. We’re in free beta! HootSuite lets you manage your entire Twitter experience from one easy-to-use interface.”

3. Tweetie (iPhone) – 4.5 rating, 167 reviews, used by 3,974 people

“Tweetie is a fast, full-featured twitter client for iPhone and iPod touch. It offers everything you’d expect – from your timeline to trends – all with an incredibly polished user interface, fantastic performance, and unparalleled ease-of-use.”

2. TwitPic (Photo Sharing) – 4.5 rating, 204 reviews, used by 6,901 people

“Share photos on twitter by posting them to a site and tweeting a link to it.”

1. Bit.ly (URL Shortener) – 4.5 rating, 210 reviews, used by 2,469 people

“bit.ly allows users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). Reducing the URL length makes sharing easier. bit.ly can be accessed through our website, bookmarklets and a robust and open API. bit.ly is also integrated into several popular third-party tools such as Tweetdeck. A more full list of third party tools can be found on the bit.ly blog. Unique user-level and aggregate links are created, allowing users to view complete, real-time traffic and referrer data, as well as location and metadata. Tracking stats are available after users shorten their long links with bit.ly by clicking on the “Info+” link on bit.ly, or just adding a “+” sign to the end of any bit.ly link (for example, http://bit.ly/n0og+).”

Twidroid

“Twidroid is [...]]]> I’ve been looking into potentially switching from my current BlackBerry smartphone to the Google Android. While I further explore the Droid, I thought it was fitting to share some of the different features and Apps I explore. Today’s posting centers around the current Free Social Networking Droid Apps.

Twidroid

“Twidroid is the first full-featured twitter client application on the android platform with features like native photo posting, location support, auto-completion, a fully integrated notification system and the latest news from twitter buzz.”

FBabble

“FBabble lets you stay in touch with your friends on Facebook wherever you go! Features include real-time chat, uploading photos, changing current status and even automatic tweets to your Twitter account.”

MySpace Mobile

“If you love MySpace, you’re really going to love MySpace Mobile for Android. Simply download the free application to stay connected with your friends, share photos, and check out the tour schedules of your favorite bands… anytime, anyplace!”

Comeks Fun Photo Blogger

“Create and share funny cartoon-like images. Take and filter photos, add stickers and text bubbles on them. Lots of stickers and text styles to choose from. When done, share the funny image in Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, Bebo, Twitter or Comeks.com. You can also send it as an email or MMS.”

Loopt

“Loopt connects you to your friends and the places around you. See where your friends are and what they’re doing. Connect on the fly and instantly share photos, comments, and cool places. Turn your phone into a social compass and never be bored or lonely again!”

If you currently have a Droid, I’d love to hear your input. Do you have any other great free Social Networking Android Apps I may have missed?