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My Home Screen: December 2014

Posted by Matt Birchler
— 2 min read

Ok, now things are getting back into a groove on the home screen front. I'm happy to say that not much has changed since I last checked in a month ago. Most changes over the past 30 days have been centered around getting the things I actually use all the time on my home screen, not just what I feel like "should be there."

Download my simple wallpaper here.


What's changed?

TabCellar is gone. I've taken up using Next Glass, which works much better as a companion to my beer shopping.

Ello is also gone. I just wasn't using it on my phone often at all, and have since relegated that service to a "desktop only" part of my life.

Transmit is also gone, but I still love this app. It's sitting comfortably on another screen, but I just didn't have to use it everyday. Thanks to iOS 8, amazing extensions, I am able to interact with my FTP and S3 servers directly from other apps and don't need to use the base app that often.


Pocket Casts, YouTube, Apple Maps, Unread, and Google Music are gone but have been replaced.

Overcast is a really great podcast app that works for me. I still love Pocket Casts, but Overcast has won me over. I am addicted to "smart speed" and, "voice boost" is a magical feature when you really need it.

ProTube is a much better YouTube app for my needs. I wrote a lengthy review last week, and I stand by this app. I have no intention of going back to the official app.

Google Maps got much nicer with their latest update. Material Design is nice, even on iOS.

Reeder has taken over all of my RSS needs. Since getting updated for the new iPhone screen sizes and making some nice tweaks to how sharing works in the app, I am in love again. I subscribe to a lot of feeds and at the end of the day, the best news reader for me is the one that lets me get through my feeds fastest.

I've found that iTunes Match is actually more reliable, so I've been using Ecoute to stream my music collection instead of Google Music . Ecoute is a great app that I have been a fan of since the AltStock days, but and it's still better than any other MP3 music player out there.


Alien Blue was promoted to front page status as I just use it all time. Like all...the...time...

Finally, I have been doing more writing on the go, and Byword remains the best fit for the type of writing I do.

See you back here in 2015!