Keep your business agile and responsive with these mobile apps
On their own, smartphones don’t seem like the obvious tool for web developers, but the right apps can help you diagnose problems, hone your skills, and improve your content on the fly. The more work you can do on your smartphone during down time, the more effective your office hours can be. Here are some of the best of the best:
1. Dropbox (Android, iOS)
Dropbox is the leader in cloud-based storage and backup, and as long as you stay under the 2.25 GB cap, it’s free. You can drag and drop any file you need to access into your Dropbox folder, and then share it across all your computers, phones, or tablets. With Dropbox on your smartphone and your home and office computers, you can start editing at home, revise on the subway, and touch up at the office. If your phone plan has limited data, you might not want to maintain constant sync – but it’s easy to deactivate Dropbox, and you can still edit your Dropbox files and folders even when it isn’t actively sharing. (Cost: Free)
2. Ego (iPhone)
Web development isn’t just about creating great content – it’s also about ensuring the visibility of your content, and that means monitoring your analytics. Ego lets you monitor multiple analytics tools at once, including Tumblr, Mint 2, Ember, Vimeo, Squarespace, Google Analytics, and FeedBurner. Ego can help you determine what’s working – if your updates are improving traffic, and whether your navigation structure is effective in leading users to what you want them to find. (Cost: $1.99)
3. WhatTheFont (iPhone)
Typography is a huge factor in conveying professionalism and originality for any project. If you see a font you like, even if it’s on a poster or the side of a bus, WhatTheFont can identify it, preview it, and put you in touch with the font’s owner. It’s a great tool to explore new styles and make sure your content stands out. (Cost: free)
4. AndFTP (Android)
If a client’s website (or your own) is having a meltdown while you’re out of the office, you don’t want to have to wait to do something about it. AndFTP allows you to update, upload, and view files from your phone or tablet, so you can make necessary fixes from wherever you are. It supports multiple domains from FTP, FTPS, and SFTP connections, with a lean, simple interface. (Cost: free)
5. View Web Source (Android)
This app allows you to view the source code of any page loaded on your smartphone, which means you can crack open anything that catches your eye online, and see what makes it tick. It’s a great way for aspiring designers to learn from sites they admire, or for professionals to diagnose problems in their own sites when they’re out of the office. View Web Source can make you a more skilled, agile developer, which will make you much more valuable to your clients. The app suffers from a clunky interface, but it’s worth learning to navigate it. (Cost: Free)
6. Adobe Photoshop Express (Android, iPhone)
Even with great apps, professional-level editing is hampered by your smartphoneís hardware and design, so this app is intended to supplement rather than replace at-home editing. Photoshop Express offers a lean editing tool that sticks to the basics, and does them well. You can adjust saturation, brightness, and contrast, as well as applying simple filters and cropping photos. If all you need to edit is small photos for your online content, you may not need anything more sophisticated. This app obviously works better on devices with large, responsive touchscreens, like an Android tablet from T-Mobile, but itís surprisingly effective on smaller devices as well. (Cost: free)
Guest article written by: Julia Peterson is a writer for AndGeeks.com, a popular website that provides up-to-date news, detailed commentary, and unbiased reviews on cell phones and related topics. Julia resides in Galveston, Texas in a cozy little house in the country with her husband, young son, and their Labrador retriever, Darby.
These applications make our lives so easy, that I cannot even imagine not using them . The great part about these applications is their price: they are either free or come at a very low cost.
Most FTP protocols are blocked at work for me. Mobile apps like AndFTP help me access my website via FTP from mobile whenever the need arises and sometimes even on the go.
Great applications! Surely a web developer needs a lot of gadgets to help creating pages,and these software presented here are really helpful. Some of them are already used by me, some will start soon enough 😀
Dropbox is an excellent tool. Some files are just too big to be sent by email! I am excited to see that you can now use it on a smartphone.
My favorite one is on the top 🙂 that is “Dropbox” . For me, it just an awesome app for uploading and sharing data.
Great collection I must say. Thank you for sharing.
Julia, I would like to thank you for covering the applications and being so brief and precise. The mentioned applications are very important for “Apple phone users “and eased out the life of these users. Users can download these applications free of cost or by paying a very small amount and enjoy loads of benefit from these applications.
I’ve been using adobe photoshop express for few months now, and I think, it is really awesome. The ease with which I can adjust the looks of any image, so as to suit my blog is amazing. It has added icing to the cake, as I can now do all this at the comfort of my iphone. Thanks to the developers of this awesome innovation.
Awesome applications list 😀 .Among those apps Dropbox is a extraordinary app i suppose. Being an android user i’m dejection as i can’t use all the above apps.
Anyways, Thanks for the awesome list
Good list of apps. it makes so much more easier to use apps like these.
I like dropbox application very much because it very useful for me
Thank you for suggest another application 🙂
nice list of apps. currently i am using andftp and photoshop, works great.
All are really useful applications and definitely could be helpful to web developers. These are really important to have in order to skill up or to be updated. Ego and Dropbox are really great. Thank you so much for sharing such awesome applications.
Except Dropbox all are new to me. I must say, its a Great collection. Thanks for sharing.
nice informative post . All applications are useful web developing tools . These apps gave a lot energy to mobile use as well .
very nice site with lot of info for web developer…..Thanks
you should try Geany, it’s an open source text editor, im using it to code php
Incredible applications! Unquestionably a web designer needs a lot of devices to assist with making pages, and this product introduced here is truly useful.
Very decent article, the most ideal approach to advance one’s business and reach anyplace whenever is having a decent planned site. A debt of gratitude is in order for the post