Best new iPhone and Android apps for the modern promotional products professional

Keeping up-to-date in the promo industry involves more than just knowing the best products. We’ve put together a list of the best new apps to help educate, inspire and entertain you, all while keeping you productive.

BEST NEWS AND CONTENT APPS

QuartzPrice: FreeDownload on iOS

This interactive news app feeds you a few top headlines per day and presents them to you in conversational texting format. The app gives you a headline and provides some choices to reply – one will prompt the app to elaborate on the story, the other will fast forward to the next story.

MediumPrice: FreeDownload on iOS | Android

Medium lets you create an account with a personalized reading list, custom-tailored to your interests based on what the people you follow are writing, reading, and recommending. If you’re looking for something new to read, you browse Explore for a rotating selection of topical content.

Nuzzel
Price: Free
Download on iOS | Android

Connect your Twitter account to see the top news stories shared by your friends, or just discover feeds of top news covering thousands of topics and communities. You can also search for top news on any topic and receive personalized news alerts.

NYT VR
Price: Free
Download for iOS | Android

The New York Times has jumped into the fresh new VR tech. NYT VR will let you experience a few stories, shot in captivating 360 video. You can either use a set of VR goggles that accepts your phone of choice, or just use your finger to control the camera in videos, while they are playing.

BEST PODCAST SEARCHING APPS

We love podcasts here at commonsku. We’ve shared our podcast recommendations, but downloading an app that allows you set some taste preferences will help you discover the podcasts you love all on your own.

Otto
Price: FreeDownload on iOS

Want to get into podcasts but have no idea where to begin? Otto lets you set a number of preferences and then browse through thousands of podcasts that you might find interesting.

Podcast AddictPrice: Free
Download on Android

Podcast Addict is a beautiful app because it piles an excellent free service on top of free service — that is, listening to awesome podcasts. Podcast Addict itself is a free download and it lets you search for, download and listen to podcasts (with its integrated audio player), as well as create playlists of the upcoming shows you want to tune in to.

Sticher
Price: Free
Download on iOS | Android

Get the freshest episodes of your favorite podcasts and radio shows streamed directly to your smartphone – no downloading or syncing. “Stitch” together your favorite shows into customized station playlists and save them for easy access. Create a news playlist for your morning commute, and a comedy playlist for the weekends. Let Stitcher give you personalized recommendations based on your listening preferences.

BEST PRODUCTIVITY AND ORGANIZATION APPS

Slack
Price: Free
Download on iOS | Android

OK, Slack is not new, but it’s such a great tool for organization and communication. It’s real time messaging and file sharing that supports one-to-one and group conversations.

AppBlock 
Price: Free
Download on Android

This app helps you temporarily block distracting social apps on mobile like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram so that you can stay focused in your work. The blocker app can get activated for a precise time and date, and once the pre-set time duration gets over, the barring gets automatically over.

Doo
Price: $4.99
Download on iOS

Doo helps you get things done by encouraging small, achievable reminders. Each reminder you create becomes a card. Swipe cards away to mark them completed and power through your to-do list – think Tinder for productivity.

Any.do
Peice: Free plus in-app purchases
Download on Android

This app lets you capture ideas, make check lists and keep track of everything you need & want to-do. You can easily share your check lists & tasks with anyone to get more done, faster.