There is a difference between iPhone Apps “I Can’t Live Without” and iPhone Apps that are simply frickin’ cool. Let’s start with the ones I am completely addicted to.

Facebook

Yeah, it’s kind of a given, but the latest version of this app totally kicks ass. It allows you to view your ‘Notifications’ as well as all ‘Recent Activity.’ Basically, it’s the same Facebook you have on your computer, only on your iPhone. It helps you take your addiction on the road.

New York Times

Even though it’s been closing randomly on me, I still read two or three articles a day via this app. It doesn’t have all the articles from NYTimes.com but it has the important ones. It would be nice if they intergrated their videos and their other web content, but for now, I’m just happy I can read the paper on the train.

WeatherBug

Yes, the iPhone comes standard with their ‘Weather’ app, but it’s very limiting. I mean, who just wants to know the average temperature for the day? The WeatherBug will give weather alerts (snow storm, thunderstorm, flood warnings, etc), show the high and low temperature and is updated every 15 minutes. It doesn’t allow for many loctions, but they are easy to change.

Flashlight

Seriously. How do you think I stumble through my dark apartment after a night of “wine tasting?” This is how I find my keys, look for outlets under my desk and search for pots and pans in the labrynth that is my kitchen cubbord.

Yelp

Although it has yet to get me out of a jam, it did help me find a killer pizza place in NYC during a business trip. I keep trying to use it, but find there could still be some significant improvements. First, it would be nice if it told you cool places to eat within a few blocks of you. Also – if the money filter worked better, that would help too. All in all, I’ll keep trying to use it but will look forward to the day it really hooks me up.

Since starting The Second Glass I’ve been amazed at all the new software that we’re using. When we first started the magazine, in 2006, we edited all of our articles in Writely, which is now Google Docs. Writely was the first web-based word processing software. Not only did it allow you to write, edit and email documents, it allowed for multiple editors. This meant, that no matter what computer you were on you, and anyone you shared the documents with, had full access to everything.

Now, Google Docs is a cornerstone for our business. At least five times per meeting someone will say, “I’ll put it on Google Docs.” Spreadsheets, word processing, databases… the docs never end.

In our last meeting, we realized that Google Docs weren’t cutting it for our now large list of business contacts. Our team needs to share these contacts and keep track of communication so today I signed us up for Zoho CRM software. It compares with SalesForce, but it’s free for up to three users, instead of $25 per month.

After talking it over, we decided to say screw it. Worst comes to worse we can always export the info and start paying for Sales Force. Best case, we save some cash. After taking a look at Sequoia Capital’s 56 Slide Presentation Of Doom I’m pretty much sold on anything that’s free and can be compared to the paid version on the same chart.

Finally, the last online program I haven’t been using as much as I should, is Picnik. This is an online photo editing program, similar to Adobe Photoshop. It’s suprisingly powerful and can link directly to your Flickr, Picassa or Facebook photos. The nice thing about running software not hosted on your own computer is that a team of servers are processing the information, instead of your potentially, crappy, five-year-old junkbot. In the very near future you’ll be able to do some cool stuff with a device such as your iPhone.

It seems simple enough, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. Even two out of three wouldn’t be bad, but it’s amazing how easy it is to skip a meal or even two. When you work at different hours and staying up past 1am three or four nights a week, it’s difficult to maintain a regular eating schedule. However, today, I felt the effects of not eating anything until 3pm.

Your body doesn’t function as well when you skip meals. It’s hard to concentrate and in many cases, it’ll take two hours to complete a one hour task. Here are some tips that work for me:

• Keep your office stocked with nutritious snacks. Apples or carrots and hummus are my favorites.
• Emergency energy bars can save your life… or at least productivity. Odwalla makes decent ones.
• Cook dinner in bulk so you have lunch for the next few days. Pasta, rice dishes or Mexican food works well.
• Have a quick and standard breakfast ready at the office. A good morning routine helps get work done.
• Don’t get over hungry, because there is no going back!

Even though it doesn’t seem like it, eating well is an important key to a successful business.