Recommended apps for iPhone?

[Shag]

I finally got an iPhone. Can anyone recommend some must-have apps for geeks like us?

Shag

Sent from my iPhone

[Shag]

To be more specific, any must have apps (even regular people) would be good.

Thanks

Shag


Sent from my iPhone

[Edward Crosby]

I wrote this up specifically for Serv years ago. Some of the apps may not be relevant, or available, any longer since it was such a long time ago but check it out any way.

http://www.edwardcrosby.com/2009/10/13/iphone-apps/

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Have a Better One,
Edward Crosby
http://about.me/edwardcrosby

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[Cary Preston]

Some more recommendations (free unless otherwise noted):

Stitcher- best podcast app out there. Apple has released their own podcast app (podcasts don't show up under 'music' anymore) but it's still not as good as Stitcher. 

BBC/NPR- both are outstanding apps for news.

Kindle- While I will pick up stuff from the iBooks store on occasion, having the Kindle app is a no-brainer

some kind of maps app- Apple Maps in iOS 6 isn't as bad as the press has made it out to be, but it's still not ready for prime time. You can still use Google Maps (as a web app, proper app is coming), but there are a host of map apps that range from acceptable to very good. I've installed Waze, a free crowdsourced app. 

The Weather Channel- the weather app in iOS6 is pretty bare bones; having access to weather radar has saved me getting drenched a couple times (especially important if you drive a convertible). 

RunKeeper- great app for exercising. Maps where/how far/how fast/how many calories burned (including verbal updates during your exercise), logs it and will upload the data to Twitter or Facebook. Can play audio playlists inside the app or accommodates the Music app running in the background. I've used it for cycling, running, and walking; but it's compatible with just about any activity. 

your bank's app- almost all banks have an iOS app now, and many offer some really valuable features. Mine allows me full access to all accounts, including the ability to deposit checks via the camera. 

anything by PopCap- PopCap is the king of casual gaming. Bejeweled, Chuzzle, Plants V Zombies, the list goes on. Most are 99 cents. 

TuneIn Radio- my favorite tuner app; but there are others just as good. Great for accessing stations no matter where you are; I've used it to listen to college football games that aren't carried in my area. 

Pandora- My personal fave for streaming music. I have a paid account ($36/year) that provides better sound quality (although I'd be hard pressed to recognize it), no ads, and unlimited skip/dislikes, but the free version is fantastic too. 

[Race]

Dude!  Awesome!  Congratz!  Which one did you end up getting?

Some apps I'd recommend (apologies if any of these are repeats from Ed's article):

Evernote:lets You make notes and store them on the cloud.  This has saved my bacon a ton of times.

The default Apple Podcasts app has been working well for me.  As an alternative I would recommend Instacast.

Swap out Safari for Chrome.  I find its fast and a touch more stable.

Slice.  This one is kind of a 'nice to have' app.  It looks at an email account you define and conglomerates all the order information from it.  So if you order stuff from, say, Amazon it'll alert you when stuff shipped and make it easier (slightly) to view the tracking info.

All the social media apps are nice.  Almost not worth mentioning really. Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Pandora.  Again, almost too obvious nowadays.

Yelp and OpenTable are good tools if you like to eat out a lot.

That's all I can think of offhand.  I keep the apps down to a minimum for the most part.

[Shag]

You guys rock!  Thanks so much!  The wife and I took advantage of the sale on iPhone 4s right now.  We each got an iPhone and are learning our way around it.  These app suggestions make a great start!

If anyone has a favorite app for their Droid device, let us know.  It's likely there is a comparable app in the iTunes App Store.

Shag

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[Edward Crosby]

Surprisingly, the app I seem to use the most and is probably one of my favorites is TeslaLED that turns your phone's flash into a flashlight. Into my older age I am finding it more difficult to see in the dark so this utility app is priceless. Other than that, it's difficult to choose a favorite Android app since I have so many and use them all regularly. However, I think I can pick my top 10 that I like and use the most.

1. Google Plus - social media

2. Google Voice - for my Google phone number for calls, voicemail, and text messaging

3. You Tube - you know

4. Google Talk - video and instant messaging

5. Skype - video and instant message

6. Gmail - you know

7. Netflix - you know

8. Google Listen - for podcast

9. DI.fm - listen to streaming Trance music

10. Grocery IQ - shopping list

...okay...top 15

11. Evernote - cloud sync notes

12. Google Play Music - listen to my music collection in the cloud

13. Google Reader - read all the blogs I follow

14. KeePassDroid - password database

15. Key Ring Rewards Cards - to hold all those cards you get from retailers and restaurants

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Have a Better One,
Edward Crosby
http://about.me/edwardcrosby

[Van]

Dude!  the DRAGONCON app!!  Get it now, to reflect on the glory that was.  And it will remind you when it's time to update to the glory that shall be.  It's really cool-- you can cross-reference by guest, panel/track, day/time, etc.  You can choose the events you wish to attend and mark them, and they'll show up on the calendar inside it. I used the thing constantly this year.

Others I use a lot:

YouTube-- they've removed the built-in version in iOS 6, so you have to download it now.

TuneIn Radio is fantastic-- you can record stuff like it was a radio DVR.  And there's stuff on it aside from "radio stations"-- for example, you can listen to the opening segment of Chris Matthews' show from the day before, the entire Rachel Maddow Show audio, and the opening segment of the Norman Goldman Show, the Best of the Left Podcast, the audio from Real Time with Bill Maher, the audio from This Week with George S, the audio from Meet the Press, the Solid Verbal football podcast, etc.  Your tastes may vary, but there's all kinds of stuff like that-- not necessarily radio shows OR podcasts--that you can get with it.

Square-- a great app that allows you to charge people's credit cards. At the arts festival here last weekend, nearly all the vendors had it.

Justin.TV-- not that great, but allows you to watch live streaming TV, IF someone is streaming it.  I've been able to see big football and soccer games I would've otherwise missed using it.

Every year they put out an NCAA Basketball app for the big tournament, which streams ALL the games live for free.

The Twitter app is okay but they constantly change/update it.  Infuriating.

The Facebook app has been CRAP for most of its existence.  The new version would actually be usable (it's now much faster) except that it randomly doesn't post an entire comment, deletes words, doesn't show all comments, etc etc.  I don't know why they can't get this right.  It's updated several times in the last month, too.

NetFlix and HBO GO are great if you want to watch streaming movies and shows.  I don't use them as much as I figured I would-- I tend to use my phone more than just passively watch it-- but Mira watches NetFlix on it (or on her mom's) every time we go out somewhere.

Messenger  is good for using just the instant message feature from Facebook without fooling with the rest of it.

There's a U-Verse app that works great for programming your DVR when you're away from home.

Audible lets you play Audible audiobooks with some really nice playback controls (like the speed of the playback).

Wikipanion lets you quickly and easily look up stuff in Wikipedia.  I use this all the time.  Much quicker than looking for the page in Safari.

Dropbox-- obvious.

IMDB-- obvious.

ESPN ScoreCenter-- obvious.

ESPN College Football-- lets you track just CFB, ignoring the many lesser sports.

My wife got me to install Chirp and Yelp and HeyTell, but I haven't used them yet.

5-0 Radio is a free police/emergency scanner.  Useful at times.

Audiobooks is an app that gives you access to tons of free audiobooks from Librivox.

CamCam lets you watch via your phone whatever is going on in front of your computer's webcam.

Yahoo PremiereLeague tracks the Barclay's Premiership.

Fandango for movies/showtimes/tickets

Trivi.al Free is pure trivia contests with friends or strangers

Pages is the word processing app I use, mostly on my iPad but occasionally on the phone.  It automatically updates and saves to iCloud, so it's always backed up on every device.

Find iPhone.

--Van

[Shag]

Again, thank you!  These are all great sounding apps!  I've downloaded many of the apps you guys have suggested!  I'm looking forward to checking them all out!

Thanks,
Shag

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