Finding the Best Mobile Apps for Your Needs

Since I started this column, one of the most-asked questions I get is, "How do you decide which apps to review?"

That is actually simple: I review the ones I use, apps that people recommend to me or ones that I find. How I find them breaks down into two camps: New apps (which I find in the online Apple Store) or ones I stumble upon using another app. Namely: The Discovr App ($1.99).

This mobile app — using a technique similar to the spider-web-like matrix employed by ThinkMap's Visual Thesaurus — will find apps for you by category, based on its internal recommendations or based on apps you already have on your phone. You can then share or email these apps with friends.

Earlier:

For example, I've been addicted to the Shazam app, which allows me to grab a snippet of a song that's playing in a store, bar, out in the street, etc — and it tells me the song title and artist (and then, of course, tries to sell that song to me).

When I enter Shazam into the Discovr App, it builds a visual map of other apps like Shazam, each icon connected web-like to my original search (see my slideshow for examples). Its recommendations include, SoundHound, MusicID and six others.

The best part? You can click on any one of those icons and get more recommendations, which is how I found Songify (which turns everyday speech into songs) and how I found a ton of apps that now show up in this column.

Patch also has its own iPhone app, which will connect you to local news, weather, events and business listings in your town.

Do you have any favorite apps you'd like to recommend? Sound off in the comments. I'd love to hear from you.