Although TechSpot regulars are mostly about desktops – and all the tinkering, tweaking, customizing, and performance-squeezing that comes with it – there's no denying that for most of us mobile devices are increasingly becoming must have items in our tech repertoire, whether for work or play.

But your devices are only as useful as the software they are able to run. We've asked about your essential PC software before; now we want to know what are some of the smartphone and tablet apps you can't live without.

To get the ball rolling here are some of mine:

  • Mailbox (email)
  • WhatsApp / Telegram / Hangouts (messaging)
  • YNAB (personal budgeting)
  • Dropbox (cloud storage)
  • Evernote / Drafts (note-taking)
  • Fantastical (calendar)
  • Things (to-dos)
  • Google Maps / Waze (navigation)
  • 1Password (password management)
  • Spotify (music)
  • Netflix / 60Hz (movies and TV shows)
  • Instagram / Tweetbot (social)