In this world of choice, when it comes to software, we are
literally bombarded by tons of options. I recently have taken interest into
certain software and applications to increase the quality of my miserable
commute. Since I now primarily use my Note 3 when on the go, I set out to make
is as much of a portable workhorse and entertainment centre as I could. After
all I spend 2 hours a day commuting to and from work so may as well use the
time efficiently. And reading the Metro paper does not cut it.
First and foremost, I wanted to be able to watch videos. So
I looked around and was very happy to find that VLC was available for free
download from the App store as VLC has been a staple of media player apps as it
opens virtually all audio and media formats. I have been using VLC on PC, Mac
and Linux for the longest time.
A secondary priority was to be able to view and edit
documents on the go. There is a plethora of free office apps available for the
phone, but since I use Microsoft Office at home and on the office pc’s so I
wanted to pursue that. Thankfully, Microsoft has released a FREE MS Office for
apple and android mobile devices. The downside is that you have to store
documents on the cloud. That means that if you are off the grid then you are
out of luck. So I got Office Suite 8 in a free giveaway promo to create docs
off the cloud.
For news content, I recently installed the Montreal Gazette
and La Presse apps. I just briefly scan those while on the train to get recent
headlines. For other day to day activities such as banking, I have installed
apps from my banks. They are all available free of charge. Also all of the
major retailers and etailers have free apps or at the very least mobile format
websites. The one that I did not find was American Express Canada.
The reason why I say that the free is sometimes bad and ugly
is due to the limitations of free software. As with MS Office and the access to
cloud documents. Or the fact that most free apps are infested with ads or
banners.
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