Best apps for productivity
Dragon Dictation
A voice recognition app, ideal for transcribing meetings. Dictations can be posted straight to social networking sites – though the accuracy is a bit suspect, so probably best check first. Free; iOS.
Task
Tasks keeps a note of your appointments, meetings, notes, to-do lists and other things more typically consigned to Post-It notes. £0.69; iOS.
Astrid
A personal assistant without the paycheck, Astrid is an organisation app with reminders, subtasks, lists, and widgets that synch across phones, tablets and Astrid.com. Free; iOS and Android.
Locale
Always forget to turn your phone off before meetings? Locale lets you set up quiet zones so that whenever your phone is in a certain location it automatically switches to silent – and turns the ringer back on as soon as you move on. Free; Android.
Best apps for virtual meetings
Google Voices
Styled after Google’s Gmail service, Google Voices is a Skype-like system for PC-to-phone and PC-to-PC voice and video calling, which also lets you read voicemail as email. Free; iOS and Android.
Skype
Perfect for smooth business calls over wireless connection – cutting costs and letting you see the whites of your colleague’s eyes. Free; iOS and Android.
Best apps for ideas on the go
AK Notepad
Text-based and supposedly “hassle-free” notepad and reminder system, which lets you jot down bright ideas in the pub – and send them to your boss via SMS. Free; Android.
Evernote
A multimedia scrapbook – lets you take down snippets of text, photos, voice memos, files or handwritten “ink” notes and organise them into files. Includes synchronisation and backup. Free; iOS and Android.
Paper by fifty three
Specially designed for the iPad, Paper is an intuitive use of the touchscreen interface to let you take notes, sketch diagrams and doodle – great for creative meetings (and dull ones). Free; iOS.
Best apps for presentations and pitches
Scatterslides
Lets you view and controlPowerPoint and Open Office slideshows from your phone, unshackling you from the projector. Free; iOS and Android.
Keynote
Lets you create presentations with easy-to-use tools and a range of effects using the touchscreen on an iPad or iPhone, then save and send them as PowerPoint files. £6.99; iOS.
mbPointer
No more frantic hand signals to get the next slide up – mbPointer turns your iPhone into a wireless remote control for a PowerPoint slide show. £1.99; iOS.
Best apps for marketing
Quicklytics
Who’s watching you? Provides information on realtime data about the sites on your Google analytics account from your iPhone. You can check out visitor information for multiple websites in a matter of seconds. £2.99; iOS.
Not just for Hipsters, major fashion and consumer brands are picking up this social photo app – now owned by Facebook – as a marketing channel. Free; iOS and Android.
Not only for 140 character updates on what you’re reading or eating, Twitter is a bona fide newswire, recommendation service and marketing channel. Free; iOS and Android.