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25+ apps that the TED staff swears make their everyday lives easier. At our small, fast-moving nonprofit company, everyone does a couple of jobs — and productivity apps help us manage roles that shift between coding, writing/designing and running a full-scale conference twice a year.

25+ apps that the TED staff swears make their everyday lives easier

We asked the TED staff what apps they can’t live without. And beyond the classics—Instagram, Google Maps, Spotify, Uber, Seamless—we found some great apps that might help you too. (A star denotes that the app is free, or at least has a free version.) For random life stuff… Dark SkyA weather app with startling accuracy, its interface tells you things like: “Light rain starting in 22 minutes.”

*SunriseLike your Google Calendar with key improvements, several staffers swear by this app. *KeyMeCommunications manager Samantha Kelly was excited to download this app, as she recently got locked out of her apartment. *Think DirtyThis app tells you exactly what’s in the personal care product you’re about to buy. *Camera360This app has more than 200 photo filters and 10 modes. Microsoft Now Lets You Download Windows 7 ISOs with a Valid License.

CryptSync Keeps Folders in Sync and Encrypts One of Them. FlipBeats Is a Good-Looking, Gesture-Powered Music Player for Android. Top 10 Incredibly Useful Windows Programs to Have On Hand. Lifehacker. 10 Annoying Apps We're All Stuck Using (and How to Make Them Better) The Best Experimental Chrome Features You Should Check Out. The Best Browser Extensions that Protect Your Privacy. 8 Apps to Save and Back Up Texts on Android. If you're reading this, chances are you spend a lot of time texting.

8 Apps to Save and Back Up Texts on Android

Like, a ridiculous amount of time. Some might say too much time, but we wouldn't know anything about that — this is a judgment free zone. The point is, texting is a huge part of our daily lives. We use texting to make memories, share secrets, send complex late-night film ideas. So why are you erasing all of them? If you're looking to back up and save the texts on your Android, look no further than this gallery. Know of any other good apps for backing up SMS and MMS?

Mashable composite. How to Encrypt Your Email and Keep Your Conversations Private. SafeMonk Encrypts Your Files Before Sending them to Dropbox. History Eraser Offers One-Click Destruction of Your Browsing History. Ninite - Install or Update Multiple Apps at Once. TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux.

The Best Browser Extensions that Protect Your Privacy. Restore An Older Version of an App After a Bad Update from Your Backup. Lift. The Assumptions You Make About Your Slow PC (and Why They're Probably Wrong) Definitely agree with Atnevon and omnichad here.

The Assumptions You Make About Your Slow PC (and Why They're Probably Wrong)

I do a lot of pc repair for friends, family, and their extended whatevers. I've worked as direct computer repair before and as Tier 2 technical support for HP laptops. Warning: Incoming text well. None of these are really myths. Myth #1: Almost half of the time, in my experience, it IS malware of some kind; be it actual virus or scareware. Myth #2: People are usually pretty cheap and buy systems with RAM I wouldn't suggest for the OS: WinXP with 512 KB of ram or Vista/Win7 with 1 GB.

Myth #3: This has some effect on computer speed but it is by far the lowest impact. Myth #4: A system reinstall is often a good idea though it isn't required. Myth #5: MSConfig falls right into this list and it is a pretty strong way to remove things from automatically starting up. Some programs even make their own services and those can be removed but it's generally a bad idea to mess with services. Also under Myth #5 would be Disk Cleanup. Monitor a Computer's Temperature from Afar (and Other Neat Soluto Features)

The Most Useful Apps You've Probably Forgotten. Top 10 Underhyped Windows Apps. I have a few Metro Apps that I can recommend.

Top 10 Underhyped Windows Apps

As a Desktop Explorer alternative, I can recommend My Explorer for simple browsing and Metro Commander for moving files from A to B, or C:\ to D:\. If you use Dropbox, then you also might want to install the official Dropbox App. For your YouTube needs, there is YouTube Player or, if you need a few additional features, YouTube RT. However, there yet has to be an official YouTube App for the Metro interface. Aside from that, Win8/RT already comes with a lot of good Apps. What I can NOT recommend, tho, is Skype, as the Desktop version still works much better and does not screw up when you use Steam in OpenMic mode, the default Music app stand-alone as the Playlist manager is horrible (but the player itself is fine otherwise) and any App that lets you throw a more Metro-styled tile for your Desktop programs on the Start screen (OblyTile works better and is free)

F.lux: software to make your life better.