15 Sep 2008
TechnologyiPhone Application Recommendations
Despite my previous o2 troubles, I have been able to download some iPhone apps and give them a bit of play-time. There are lots more I have yet to use, most aren’t relevant to me, but I thought I would share my recommendations so far. Check them out and add yours in the comments!
- Remote - this app works perfectly with iTunes on either mac or windows. Just as the name suggests it is a remote for browsing your iTunes library and controlling playback. Quick and easy to set up.
- Twitterrific - An iPhone version of the popular mac client, this gives you your recent friend’s tweets and allows you to update your own with photos from the built-in camera.
- Last.fm - Official app for one of my favourite sites on the web. Your radio stations, charts and library radio in an easy to use interface.
- Facebook - While I’m not a huge Facebook user, I found the official app to be great for quickly checking friend updates and using Facebook chat. Nice interface and works fine for me!
- Palringo - While this app requires sign-up with the Palringo service, it works well for using IM on the go. When you close the app it keeps your connection alive on their servers for a little while, so you can still check messages if you switch apps. I could never seem to get the themes to work though…
- Movies - Want to know what is on at the cinemas near you, and book tickets? That’s what Movies does. Using GPS/postcode it located cinemas near by, sorts them by distance and allows you to bookmark favourites. Select one to check what is on and when, then either check the directions with the map integration or book tickets right then and there. Nice!
- Shazam - This near app listens to music being played around you and tells you the artist and song title, with options to buy on iTunes. Handy if you’re always hearing songs you like but don’t know the names.
- Pennies - I have yet to fully use this app for a month, but what I have seen of this handy expense logging app is good. Quickly set up your monthly earnings and start noting your expenses, then see reports of where your money is going. Yes, maybe you do spend a little too much on coffee…
Fun and Games
Of course, there many games and silly things in the store for brief entertainment sessions:
- Super Monkey Ball - Yes, I payed for this fun little game, but it is definately entertaining and addictive! Still trying to get the hang of tilting…
- Sudoku - The classic game comes the iPhone with the ability to adds notes to each square as if you are playing on paper. There seems to be a way to cheat though but I won’t spoil it for you.
- Bubbles - Swipe around to create bubbles then pop them with a poke!
- Koi Pond - Your own portable pond with sounds to create an atmosphere and nice water effects.
- Bubble Wrap - Pop as much bubble wrap as you can in the time limit. Not as addictive as you would think…
- Aurora Feint - A puzzle RPG, match 3 or more similar symbols to get resources and exp. Can get repetitive.
- Dactyl - Tap the bombs as they get ready to blow, see how long you can keep up with this reaction testing game.
Finally, this entire post was written with the Wordpress iPhone app, which really needs a Rich text editor or HTML auto-complete. Ouch, my poor fingers! The app needs online draft editing and landscape view. Still, it seems to work well for small posts. Better moblogging!
Share your app recommendations in the comments :)
Tags: application, download, iPhone, mobile, recommendation
Mike, you forgot a few really good apps. Understandably as there are so many of them. :) Here are a few of my personal favs.
Google: for providing accurate location based searches as well as access to your your online email, gtalk, reader, docs, calendar and all the rest of the best google apps… It also supports multiple accounts to boot!
iWant: Location based searches for all the basic things that you need the most like restaurants, gas stations, and of course coffee shops.
Here I Am: Send your GPS location to your friends so they map directly to you.
VNC: Connect to your home or office computers and take control of them.
MoPhoTo: View your photos from flickr or your friends photos.
SplashKey: Generate strong passwords for sites and email them to yourself so you don’t forget them.
My fun and games picks are few.
Crash Kart: Great graphics and you steer by tilting the phone.
iDoodle2Lite: Sometimes you just need to be creative and doodle. Works great as a whiteboard in case you don’t have a pen and paper handy.
iPint: Ridiculous yet fun and parties. (at least until everyone has an iPhone)
Hi, I found your blog on this new directory of WordPress Blogs at [removed]. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, i duno. Anyways, I just clicked it and here I am. Your blog looks good. Have a nice day. James.
I forget the name of it, but does anyone know what happened to that Beer App they had? It looks like they replaced it with crappy iBeer and you have to pay for it now.
Tim, do you mean iPint?
I think he does, and it was free from what I recall! Are you sure you’re thinking of the right one, Tim? :)
I actually don’t have an iphone right now. And I’m still not sure if it’s practical for me to get one. But with this cool applications, I think I don’t have to think twice ;) Thanks
-M from Mexico
Twitteriffic, Shazam, Amazon mobile and FaceBook are all solild and great calls.
I found a few other decent ones at:
http://www.igoapps.com/search/do_search/popular_all/13/2/1/10