Software

Five Apps: New iOS tools to sharpen your job performance

By // September 15, 2014, 9:40 AM PST

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  • Introduction

    Improving job performance is a pretty broad realm, but we can all use a little help. You can think of it as boosting mental function or simply finding tools that will help you do a specific task a little faster or easier. Studies have shown that memory games can boost brain function, stave off dementia, or at least make you smarter in the short term. Whether they can be believed is up for argument, but it can't hurt. On the task-specific side, doing something more efficiently makes everyone's life a little better.

    In this gallery, we look at several new iOS apps that can help you boost your job performance. Some of them are brain-builders; others are task-specific. We selected these particular task-specific ones because you can use them in a variety of jobs.

    Note: This gallery is also available as an article.

  • Adobe Sketch

    Adobe Sketch is a free-form drawing app offering several pen types and a full color palette.

  • Adobe Sketch

    The Adobe Sketch ruler helps you draw straight lines when needed.

  • Adobe Sketch

    Each Sketch project is a set of five sketches.You can also share your work with the world via the Adobe Creative Cloud.

  • Babbel

    Babbel helps you learn languages using a game-like interface. It has 12 language options (plus your base language).

  • Babbel

    You can run the initial Beginner and Advanced levels for free for all languages.

  • Babbel

    One of the games has you select the appropriate word from a multiple-choice list.

  • Brainbean

    Brainbean includes eight games (plus the Surprise Me option that pulls from all eight), four of which are free.The additional games are $0.99 each or all for $2.99.

  • Brainbean

    The first game is Letter List, where you try to come up with as many words as possible that start with the given letter within the timeframe.

  • Brainbean

    Incomplete Drawing asks you to complete the drawing using your imagination.

  • Brainbean

    Word Scramble gives you a pile of letters and has you assemble as many four-letter words as possible.

  • Brainbean

    Lost Connections gives you a set of six tiles containing pipe segments that you have to rearrange to line up with the pipe start and end connections on the edges.

  • Photoshop Mix

    Photoshop Mix is a free Creative Cloud-enabled product from Adobe that gives you a few features of Adobe Photoshop on your iPad.

  • Photoshop Mix

    Photoshop Mix contains several preset “Looks” to choose from.

  • Photoshop Mix

    Photoshop Mix harnesses the power of Creative Cloud to perform some more intensive features.

  • Skitch

    Skitch is an annotation app that allows you to write and draw on photos, maps, web pages, and PDFs.

  • Skitch

    Here is a map with a few annotations.

Introduction

Improving job performance is a pretty broad realm, but we can all use a little help. You can think of it as boosting mental function or simply finding tools that will help you do a specific task a little faster or easier. Studies have shown that memory games can boost brain function, stave off dementia, or at least make you smarter in the short term. Whether they can be believed is up for argument, but it can't hurt. On the task-specific side, doing something more efficiently makes everyone's life a little better.

In this gallery, we look at several new iOS apps that can help you boost your job performance. Some of them are brain-builders; others are task-specific. We selected these particular task-specific ones because you can use them in a variety of jobs.

Note: This gallery is also available as an article.

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