Thomas’s Tech Advice

Apps

Google Earth (Mac/Windows/iOS/Android): Best earth imagery app.

Rescuetime (Mac/Windows/Chrome/Android, $0 or $79/yr): Amazing time-management app that gives a real-time assessment of your productivity.

Avast Security (Mac/Windows, $0): Scans for viruses and prevents them from reaching your computer.

Mailbox (Mac/iOS/Android, $0): Helps you get your email inbox to be empty.

Surfeasy VPN (Mac/Windows/iOS/Android, $0 or $49/yr): Helps protect from hackers while on public wifi networks and prevents malicious logging of internet activities- but watch for the bandwidth limit.

LibreOffice (Mac/Windows, $0): If you don't want to buy Microsoft Word again, this is a completely free, open-source solution.

Dropbox (Mac/Windows/iOS/Android): Self-explanatory.

Xmind (Mac/Windows, $0, $79, or $99): An amazing graphic note taking tool: it can insert photos, documents, and links to websites for free.

Todoist (Mac/Windows/Chrome/iOS/Android, $0 or $29/yr): The best to do list manager out there.

Flux (Mac/Windows/iOS, $0): Automatically adjusts screen color schemes based on time of day.

Bartender (Mac, $15): If you install all of these apps, your status bar will be crowded, and this can help clean it up.

Chrome Extensions

All of these are free and available in the Chrome Web Store. 

1-click timer: Really simple timer app.

Clipboard History 2: Makes sure that you never lose the content on your clipboard by accidentally copying something else.

Cloudy Calculator: Simple but very powerful calculator.

Dark Reader: Turns all white on web pages to black and vice versa while leaving most color alone.

Data Saver (Beta): Reduces bandwidth usage on many sites.

Disconnect: Blocks advertisers/trackers/companies from tracking you; by doing this, it makes webpages load faster.

FlashControl: Blocks flash videos from playing unless you tell them to.

Grammarly: The much-awaited grammar-checker.

HTTPS Everywhere: Forces many websites to provide you with a more secure version of the website that you're on.

Pushbullet: Easily send a webpage or note to your phone in an instant.

StumbleUpon: Discovers your interests and lets you “stumble” to a random web page that you might like.

Tab For A Cause: Gives money to charity for every tab you open.

Wikiwand: Improves the interface of Wikipedia automatically.

WOT: Warns you if you are entering a website with a bad reputation from other WOT users.

Zenmate: Like Surfeasy, but completely free. However, it only works in Chrome.