I read my optus bill today and it reminded me that I’ve had my iphone for just over a month now. My affection for the product isn’t just a fad and I have found it has easily integrated in to my life in such a way that it is now indespensible. The biggest change really has been that my online life is now with me all the time, which mainly comes down to emails, web surfing and of course twittering (my substitute as a quick blog post). The other side effect is that I’ve been buying quite a few applications which luckily is around the cost of a cup of coffee, although I have lashed out and bought a $25 app. For those of you considering purchasing an iphone, these are my top apps that don’t come standard:
1. Twinkle – Free
This is the most used application on the iphone, purely due to my current twitter addiction. There are a few twitter clients but I like this the best because of it’s “nearby” feature. Nearby is cool because it uses the iphone’s gps to know who is making twitter posts in my immediate area, so that I can know what’s going on. What this theoretically means is that I can rock up to a new town (i.e. Sydney) and see what people are talking about. Because I’m making posts in that area, people also using twinkle can see my posts, so if I ask for a good coffee shop in Manly I could potentially get a local person making a suggestion. Social Networking at it’s finest.
2. Omnifocus – $23.99
My “getting things done” application which is essentially a to do list. I make a list of things to do and put them in to contexts, i.e. home, office, errands and then allocate gps co-ordinates to those contexts. When I’m in those contexts it will tell me all the things I need to do while I’m there. There are cheaper versions of this application (like “things“) but I bought this because I used to use the desktop client of this app (in an older incarnation). If I was shopping now I’d probably end up with “things” but since I paid the cash I’ll use it. I’m not paying $70 for the desktop client though!
3. Pennies – $3.99
Makes spending money fun! (sort of). Basically just a budgeting application that lets you know how close you are getting to your limit. It’s a beautiful design and it’s easy to add each item. I quickly know my average spend each day as well as my biggest expenses (if it wasn’t for my guitar purchase it would be food!) . This application is standalone though, so it makes me a little nervous that I could lose the data if my backups don’t work.
4. Zenbe Lists – Free
An excellent way to make a shopping list, but the best thing is you can share the list with other people so they can update it. Plus there is a web interface so you don’t need to have an iphone to update the list. I’m not only using it for groceries, but also music, restaurants and birthday present wants.
5. Diggerific, and Facebook – Free
Diggerific seems to have dissapeared but Facebook is still around. Basically that are iphone frontends to the well known websites of Digg and Facebook. A good way to see cutdown versions without needing to open the browser and put the url in.
6. Guitar Toolkit – $12.99
I bought a cheap guitar and amp from Aldi and this allows me to tune it since my ear is maybe 10 years out of practise. It’s also good for showing my all the chords I’ve long since forgotten – plus it keeps time with a metronome. It’s not useful for everyone but it suits me.
7. Whip, Light Saber and Crazy Lighter – Free except for CL which is $1.19
Just some fun stuff that offends people. Whip sounds like a whip, light saber sounds like Star Wars and Crazy Lighter is for slow songs at concerts.
Some other potentials are Qik, which is live streaming from my iphone (only just installed it so we’ll see – requires the jailbreak) and PathTracker which will eventually allow me to upload my trips to google maps so that I document where I’ve been using the gps. I like the look of Byline because it allows for downloading of large rss articles for offline viewing – which is great when you are out of range (god forbid!) but I haven’t yet coughed up the cash to get it.
I do have a few games but I’m finding that I don’t play them, I guess because I don’t seem to be a handheld gamer.
I can’t wait to see what else the iphone platform brings in terms of software, but at this point I already feel spoilt!
Good post! Just downloaded one from your recommendation (the list one) and going to have a look at some others.