I’ve had my iPhone for almost 4 months now so I thought I’d do a run down of the apps I have installed in case anyone is looking for recommendations.
Some of these apps I use every day, some every now and again, and some very rarely – but they’re useful to have ‘just in case’.
To take screen shots of anything on your iPhone like this press the ‘lock’ button (top right) and the main button on the front of the phone at the same time. Images are saved to photo gallery.
1. Safari – default and best browser.
2. Calendar - default app, I have 6 or 7 Google Calenders synced with this.
3. Contacts – default app.
4. App Store (self explanatory)
5. Opera Mini – recently released and very quick. Still a litte buggy, pages don’t tend to render as well as they do in Safari. One for the future! (free)
6. Simplenote – free notepad app, syncs with web account and there’s a Google Chrome plugin for quickly adding/editing/deleting notes. I love this app. Unobtrusive ads (free), or there’s a paid version.
7. Tasks – this is a homescreen bookmark to my Gmail tasks, nice little Google web interface.
8. Reeder – RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader. Really nice interface, much more intuitive than the Google Reader Mobile interface. Paid, but not expensive.
9. Facebook – official app, very good, lots of options to manage personal account and ‘fan’ pages. (free)
10. BBC News – Homescreen bookmark which will have to do until/if BBC release official iPhone Apps.
11. Sky Sports Football Score Centre – Lets you add your team so you can get the info/scores you want first, also includes scores for most other major leagues. Doesn’t like 3G very much. Free.
12. Foursquare – location based game/social app, fun but a little unreliable on slow connection.
13. Camera (default app)
14. Photos (default app)
15. Mailroom – Replacement Gmail web app – lets you log into multiple Gmail/Google Apps email accounts, also includes functionality such as archiving, labelling, deleting which default Mail App doesn’t support for Gmail.
16. Hootsuite – Twitter app, syncs with web account, allows multiple Twitter accounts plus Facebook accounts. My main reason for using this is that it allows you to schedule tweets/status updates, which is very handy as I need to send messages from profiles in other timezones when I’m asleep! (Paid)
17. Phone (default app)
18. Messages (default app)
19 Mail (default app)
20. Tweetdeck – Twitter app which I’ve used since I had my phone. Generally very good, ability to add multiple search columns, multiple accounts etc. A little grumpy on slow connections and like it’s desktop partner tweets sometimes disappear and get missed out. I’m waiting for Tweetie to be launched as the official Twitter for iPhone app and will probably switch to that as my main Twitter app.
1. Settings (default app) – always useful to have close to hand in order to change things.
2. iPod (default app)
3. Clock (default app)
4. Calculator (default app)
5. Convert Units (default app)
6. XE Currency Converter – brilliant just like the website. (free)
7. Google Maps (default app) – not as good as on Android or other OS like Symbian due to scaled down features.
8. Google Earth – not use this much but seems as good as the desktop version, albeit scaled down. (free)
9. Google Mobile – Really good, includes Google Voice Search, as well as links to all other major Google services. (free)
10. Met Office – Weather updates from the Met Office website, allows you to set ‘hometown’ and other favourites. Seems pretty accurate. (free)
11. Weather (default app)
12. Dropbox – allows you to view/download files stored in your Dropbox from web/computer. Also gives you the ability to email files from your Dropbox to contacts – very useful! (free)
13. FTP On The Go – Only used this once, but it really saved my bacon – was able to update a website when I didn’t have my laptop with me, not used often, but essential! (paid)
14. WordPress – allows you to add/edit/delete posts & pages as well as moderate comments on multiple WP blogs. Only downside is the post/page editor is in raw html, no ‘visual’ editor. (free)
14. Google Docs – homescreen bookmark to the Google Docs mobile web interface – pretty good but you can edit docs.
15. bamAnalytics – Google Analytics app which lets you delve into your analytics. Pretty good. (free and paid ‘pro’ version)
1. Nextbuses – Uses GPS to locate which bus stop you’re at and provides info on the next bus, as well as general timetables for buses servicing that stop. I used this during a trip to Cardiff recently and it was pretty useful. (paid)
2. Quicktaxi – Uses GPS to provide you with a list of the nearest taxi companies and their phone numbers which you can call from the app. This is brilliant! Use it lots and it’s saved time trying to find taxi companies, and money waiting for taxis coming from miles away! (paid, but cheap)
3. Travel News – YouGov app with travel news, not really used this yet. (free)
4. RAC Traffic – does the same things as Travel News, again not really used it – will probably get rid of one of them. (free)
6. theTrainline – UK rail app, pretty good for train times, although no prices are available. (free)
7. TrainSearch – another train times app, will get rid of one of these. (free)
8. Tube Status – Does what it says on the tin – info on service status of all London Tube lines. (free)
9. London Tube – Tube journey planner, includes lots of features, find nearest station by GPS, plan routes, save them, set a home station. Also provides London bus info. (free)
10. Nosey Parker – finds nearest UK car park by GPS and provides prices and opening times. Not used it yet, but useful to have in your pocket. (paid)
11. Layar – Augmented reality, shows real life places ‘virtually’ through the phone’s camera. Search for pubs, point your camera in a direction and it pinpoints them on the screen for you with info. (free)
12. Wikitude – does the same thing as Layar.
13. Does the same as Layar and Wikitude, but includes user recommendations.
14. UK cash point finder (free)
15. Wifizone – apparently finds wifi hotspots that the iPhone’s built in wifi doesn’t, I’m not convinced! (free)
16. Urbanspoon – takeaway finder – you can select area, food type, price range, or just shake the phone for random suggestions. (free)
17. Square Meal – London & UK restaurant guide. Find places to eat and read user recommendations. (free)
1. Skype – Official Skype app, works brilliantly and I’ve used this when I had wifi but not 3G signal. Only problem is (until OS4) you have to leave the app open to be able to receive calls/messages. (free0
2. Meebo – multi-client instant messaging app. As brilliant as the website version, the only IM app you’ll need! (free)
3. Remote Pad – Lets you control a PC/Mac via wifi – clicking, scrolling, the works. Great for presentations or remote control of computer – requires app to be running on computer too (free)
4. iTunes Remote – Apple App that lets you control iTunes over wifi from your phone. Great!
5. iLoader – Facebook uploader app, lets you upload images and videos, add desriptions, tag people. Seems to be the best one out there. Free and paid version available – I upgraded to paid as it allows multiple uploads.
6. iTunes Music Store (default app) – Used it once and it worked!
7. Last.fm – Listen to music on last.fm (I’ve never used this!) (free)
8. Shazam – Hold you phone near music playing and it will tell the artist/song. Works pretty well but charges after the first few ‘tags’. (free)
9. UK Charts – Provides all the latest UK music chart positions (paid)
10. MySpace – don’t think I’ve ever used this!!! (free)
11. Pearl Jam – Official app, some cool features, mainly taps into official website. Record Player music player lets you stream songs from online as well as any PJ songs you have on your phone – you drop the needle on the record to play the songs – a nice touch! (paid)
12. Nine In Nails app – One of the first/best band apps, lets you access tons of content, as well as find other fans with the app nearby (GPS) and talk to them IM-style. (free)
1. Photoshop Mobile – pretty good amount of features, don’t use it much though. (free)
2. PicPosterous – Lets you post pics to posterous and keeps ‘live’ photo galleries/posts open on the web. (free)
3. CameraBag – lots of cool camera effects, old school lenses etc (paid)
4. Gorillacam – Additional camera functionality (free)
5. Hipstmatic – similar to CameraBag (paid)
6. Aging Booth – Take a photo of someone and watch the app age them 20-30 years! Highly entertaining when at the pub (paid, but cheap).
7. Photo-share – lets you bluetooth photos between iPhones because Apple suck and forgot to build the ability in (free).
8. Paypal – Mobile friendly version (free).
9. Amazon UK – same as Paypal. (free)
10. Starbucks – GPS powered store finder. (free)
11. 63336 – find the answers to questions no one knows!
12. pastfire – lets you copy text from computer and paste it on your iPhone. (free)
13. Google Latitude – homescreen bookmark to mobile web interface. Good, but once again Google stunted the features.
14. Ustream Broadcaster – broadcast live video online. Not used this yet. (free)
15. Flashlight – turns the entire screen white so you can use your phone as a torch. (free)
1. Endmondo – Open source running/cycling tracking app. Plan routes, track your progress via GPS, provides speed, distance, etc. Very good! (free)
2. Runkeeper – same as above!
3. Compass (default app)
4. Jamie Oliver 20 Min Meals – Super app, simple instructions, video tutorials and auto-generated shopping list. Saved me on Valentine’s day, so worth the £3.99 price tag!
5. Your Orange – crap attempt at providing customers with a way of accessing their account online.
6. Notes (default app) – replaces with SimpleNote
7. Mercury – additional browser I tried. Nothing to write home about.
8. Stocks (default app) – wish you could remove this!
9. Boxcar – gives you push twitter notifications – can’t believe non of the apps do this themself! (paid)
10. iPhone Secret Tips – some useful tips that aren’t obvious (free)
11. iDisk – Mobile Me app – free with paid Mobile Me account, I’m doing the free trial. Best thing about Mobile Me (£60 per year) is that you can remotely lock and if you want kill/wipe your iPhone if it’s lost/stolen.
12. Mobile Me Gallery – syncs web galleries.
13. On this day… – really good free app with tons of ‘on this day in history’ info.
14. Bump – Allows you to bump your phone against another and share info such as contact details.
15. Notifio – more push notifiactions, not used this yet.
16. South Africa – World Cup 2010 – App that includes World Cup fixtures, groups, stadiums guides. It will be updated live as the tournament happens – if this is the case it’ll be superb for a free app!
The final screen I have is a selection of games for TBK when we’re out and he gets bored!