iOS
Sleep Cycle For a non-traditional but highly effective wake up call, Sleep Cycle definitely has a lot going its way. The app monitors how you sleep by using the iDevices accelerometer to gauge how deep a sleep you’re in. The app then uses a light phase of your sleep cycle and gently wake you up all within a half hour time set for wakeup; instead of being jarred awake, you’re gently nudged into the day. Several tranquil chimes can be used to accompany the light, alongside the option to tap into your own music library. $1

Clock Pro The Swiss army knife of iOS apps offers a multitude of clock modes. Chess timer, stop watch, music alarms, nature times, sleep timer, egg timer, world clock, charming analog clock (which I got a kick out of), metronome, count down clock and a countdown clock for projects. The main difference that sets this app apart from most of the other alarm apps is that it doesn’t need to be open to work should you require that option. There are literally over a hundred alarm apps that all look the same and do less and require the app to be open and propped on your bedside. $1

Android
Gentle Alarm Gentle Alarm is Android’s soothing solution to the wake up call. To start, the interface is completely up to you with different font and color choices. Aside from the standard features such as using songs from the devices library and a large snooze button, Gentle Alarm has a pre-alarm feature, chiming half an hour before the desired wake up time. As implied by the name, the alarm is played lightly and can either wake you up or elevates from deep sleep to prepare for the inevitible alarm. Should a silent, personal alarm be required it has a vibration only option that also increases in cruelty to shake off the Sandmans work. $3

Alarm Clock Xtreme We know ourselves best but are we prepared to diminish the duration in between snooze buttons to force ourselves to get up? Alarm Clock Xtreme has a lot of customising options and one that has us especially intrigued is to set a maximum number of snoozes, decrease the duration between them and turning off the alarm by answering a math question. Additional features include increasing volume alarm, random song alarm and shake to snooze. $2

Windows Phone 7
Night Stand Clock They say that simple is best and if all that’s needed is a reliable bedside alarm that’s charming too look at then the search is over. From an option of 8 themes to choose from and a sleep timer set to your own music, Night Stand Clock is an invaluable partner at night and won’t steer you wrong. The interface is very nifty with a slide to brighten/dim the screen built right into the app. Should the need for an unscheduled walk in the night arise, it also has a flashlight feature that’s activated with a quick shake of the phone. Truthfully Night Stand Clock’s not fancy with over the top features like the others on this list however what is there is done with style, grace and is easily reachable with an incredibly intuitive user input system that’s natural with human movement. $1

SleepMaster To compare SleepMaster to Sleep Cycle would be fair since they both have the same idea of using the accelerometer to monitor sleep patterns. However I give the edge to SleepMaster in the looks department. The user interface is absolutely gorgeous and streamlined in a clean manner that draws you in. Sensitivity can be adjusted for those who barely move an inch overnight or are all over the place. Going over Sleep Cycle it features a sleep relax function that plays soothing music or an audiobook / music from the Zune library to help us get to the land of nod for those restless nights. $2

By Jason Rodway.

iOS App Discovery With hundreds of thousands of apps available through Apple’s App Store, finding the best measurement convertor can be a daunting task. AppShopper helps by not only providing recommendations, but also showing update history, reviews, and even price changes. AppShopper also has an iOS app along with RSS feeds so you never miss a chance to discover the next great app.

Android App DiscoveryBecause of the “open” nature of the Android platform, there are quite a few more resources that allow for more robust discovery on Android. AppAware is an application that allows users to find new apps by tracking installs, updates, and removals. AppAware goes a step further by adding location into the mix. This provides great exposure for local apps who thrive based on usage in a specific area rather than around the globe.

Chrome Web App Discovery Playing off the fact that there really is an app for almost everything, the Google Chrome extension – aptly named There’s a web app for that – provides users with app suggestions based on their browsing history. No need to randomly guess if there is a an app that could replace your web browsing. Now just browse normally and this extension will search for you.

If none of these work for you, or if you are looking for a more curated way to discover apps, the be sure to check out Unplggd’s Weekly App Recommendations, where we cover everything from mobile, to desktop, to web apps.

By Jesse Leikin

IrfanView: Great for beginners and experienced users, IrfanView is a freeware graphic viewer that has many unique and interesting features. This application supports a plethora of file types including Adobe Photoshop filters. For the incredible price of free, it’s hard to find a better option for the last majority of your photo needs (pictured above).

VirtuaWin: The vast majority of us no longer work in one application at a time. All too often we find ourselves switching between a few browser windows, an email client, photo editing software, and maybe even word processing documents. If this is the case using VirtuaWin to create virtual desktops is a great solution. Similar to Spaces on Mac, VirtuaWin gives you up to 9 virtual desktops to help reduce clutter on your screen.

Fences: On your PC the desktop tends to get cluttered rather quickly. While some go out of there way to keep their desktops clear, for most this isn’t practical. Instead of trying to remove everything from the desktop, use Fences to keep everything organized. Fences helps you create logical groups of the different icons floating around your desktop.

Force Empty Trash: If you use your computer long enough, you will inevitably run into the problem where you can’t empty your trash because a file is supposedly in use. If you have seen this then you know the frustration that it brings. Fortunately there a nifty little program called Force Empty Trash that overrides your system to empty the trash. Just make sure you know what is in there and that you are not trying to delete important system files.

Alfred: An incredibly useful productivity tool, Alfred allows for you to navigate and search your Mac as well as web apps within seconds. Alfred also allows for quick keyboard shortcuts to increase the speed at which you can navigate your machine. A great replacement for Quicksilver and Spotlight, Alfred is one of the best productivity tools available for Mac.

Laundry: Desktop backgrounds help set your computer apart and give it a unique style. Unfortunately, no matter how awesome your background image, after a while it becomes old and boring. Instead of letting this happen, liven up your desktop by using Laundry to rotate your desktop background in predetermined intervals. Laundry is able to pull from RSS feeds or even from Flickr to keep your desktop images lively and exciting.

Flickroom (Windows, Mac, Linux): Unlike GeeMail, Flickroom does not mimic the user interface of its web app counterpart. Instead, Flickroom takes an opportunity to enhance and redefine the user interface for Flickr. Just like Flickr, you can view and search for photos, but Flickroom adds a nifty and well designed photo stream for enhanced viewing. With Flickroom you have all of the functionality of Flickr on the web with an enhanced and redesigned interface.

GeeMail (Windows, Mac, Linux): Needless to say there are a lot of GMail users out there. And while having your email in the cloud is great when you are not at your own computer, its always nice to have a native client that doesn’t require sorting through multiple tabs just to find your email. GeeMail is a free application that gives Gmail a home one the desktop. With zero configuration and the same user interface as the web based version of Gmail, this desktop app is sure to be a hit for any avid email user. Also, with offline support, no need to remember to send that draft later. Hit send while offline and next time you have a connection, GeeMail will automatically send your email for you.

NoteSync (Windows, Mac Linux): Google Docs is great for storing documents in the cloud. But if you want to just take a quick note and save it to your Google Docs for later it s a pain. Typically you have to log in to open your browser, login to you Google Account, and go to Docs before uploading or typing what was supposed to be a quick note. With NoteSync you can now quickly open up your native app, type the note, and then it automatically syncs to your Google Docs for viewing and editing later.

Desktop apps that are extensions of your favorite web apps can be very useful and powerful. If you have a website that you would love to use as a desktop app then check out Fluid or Mozilla Prism for a quick and easy way to create native apps.

By Jesse Leikin.

My husband is chief technology officer in the family. He’s my IT guy and general wizard when it comes to things you plug in (thankfully not in that weird Charlie Sheen wizard way). He is also a serious early adopter. I only realized how much I appreciated that when he decided we really should wait for the second generation iPad to come out. What!? We were going to have to wait for that gorgeous piece of design? Yep. Surely I need it for work. Surely.  But after much discussion we agreed to wait. And the wait seemed eternal.

Tomorrow we have a date at the Apple store  It’s our 11th wedding anniversary and we’re going to treat ourselves to the iPad 2. Romantic? For some, no. For us, yes! And let’s hope there are still some in stock. I am too old to camp out so we definitely wont be first in line at 5am when the store opens. I called Apple to find out if there was anything we could do to ‘book’ one and the guy just laughed at me. I even tried the wedding anniversary line and he wasn’t buying it. We’ll just have to line up like everyone else.

Let’s say that we will have that iPad in our hot little hands tomorrow. I would really like to know what apps you use. Which ones help your work life run more smoothly? I use Simplenote but there’s got to be so much more out there. Take the Twtpoll and I will report back in a week or so the results. Hopefully we’ll have a great list of apps to share.