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Bobby Travis

This is a post by Bobby Travis, who wrote with me at 40Tech from 2009 through 2012. Bobby has since moved on to bigger and better things, but I've left all of his great contributions up on the site. - Evan

Latest posts by Bobby Travis (see all)

• Easy Access to US, UK Streaming Services From Anywhere - August 18, 2012
• 5 Fresh Android Games Released in 2012 - July 5, 2012
• Google Chrome Explodes On To iOS, Puts Desktop Experience In Your Pocket - June 30, 2012

So I’ve had an iPhone for over a year now, a smartphone for at least three, and an iPad since December. I went through my initial app insanity a while back, unable to resist the call of the thousands upon thousands of different apps out there — a feeling that was only amplified by my innate geeky curiousity, and the fact that I write for a tech blog. Hell, I’ve even done about a hundred or so freelance reviews of iOS games in the past year, with all of the purchases reimbursed — talk about having an addiction enabled!

Well, I’m all done with that now. I’m no slave to my devices! Really! I’m not!! Okay, so I might be… but maybe you are too?

I’ve taken stock of the apps that I own, and the ones that have taken up long-term residence on my devices, and I have come to the conclusion that I actually use less than 10% of my library on anything even approaching a regular basis. The rest just sit there, mooching off the storage space on my iPhone and iPad, hanging out in their folders and doing nothing all day. They should get a job or something. Seriously. They should get a job or get out — but they play off my weaknesses, you see. Every time I go in to delete them, I get bombarded with reasons that justify their existences, often using phrases like “just in case” and “but this app is just so cool!”

It’s all lies, though, and I keep falling for it. The only apps I regularly use are Evernote, Springpad, my RSS readers (MobileRSS, Zite, Flipboard), iBooks and Stanza, Facebook/Friendly, Twitter, Producteev, and Card Shark Solitaire (the free version). Of course, I use the stock apps like Mail, Safari, and the like, and I also occasionally use the Google app and Google Maps, but that is a pretty good snapshot of my average usage. I still seem to be unable to let go of the others, though… go figure.

How about you? How many of your apps do you actually use on average? What are they? And do you also suffer from app hangers-on? Have the app stores made us their bitches? Let me know!