iPhone – Apps Ahoy! (Part 2)
Posted on Thursday, Aug 27, 2009
Today continues the review of Apple iPhone apps that I have installed on my phone. Don’t forget to check out Part 1!
Note – I have only included apps that are available in the iTunes App Store. Apps that require jailbreaking to install have been left off of this list. Prices for apps are current as of 8/27/2009.
Apartments.com – Rental Search (free) – I’ll have to admit a bit of a bias here, as I am employed by Apartments.com, but I really do think that our iPhone app is pretty amazing. If you’re in the market for a new apartment, you can use this app to search either based upon city, state, or ZIP code – or based on your current location. The property listings include high-quality images (including floorplans) and even walk-through videos. Even if you’re not looking for a new apartment, I recommend checking this app out because I think it’s super cool. [Install Apartments.com – Rental Search]
The Weather Channel Max ($3.99) – There’s a free app from the Weather Channel, but I decided to splurge on the paid one, mostly for the “future maps” feature – on the radar map, you can see what the storms will look like in the next few hours, which is REALLY nice. Your mileage may vary, and you might want to just stick with the free version. [Install The Weather Channel Max]
Evernote (free) – This, to me, is a MUST HAVE app. I’ve tried various different note-taking methods, including Microsoft OneNote, but Evernote has really been my go-to for notes. I can access all of my notes from any web browser, as well as use a pretty robust application on my laptop – and they all sync with the cloud. The Evernote app for the BlackBerry was a JOKE – it was just a front-end to the mobile website. The iPhone version is lightyears beyond that. It’s a well-designed app that makes using Evernote on the iPhone a very pleasant experience. [Install Evernote]
Byline ($4.99) – In the comments of Part 1, this app was pointed out to me by my friend Jess. I didn’t understand at first why anyone would pay for an RSS reader that did a sync with Google Reader, as the Google Reader webpage works super great on the iPhone. But I always have trusted Jess, so I gave it a shot. And it was five bucks well spent. Perhaps the best feature is that it caches my feed content so it is available offline – my train ride is the time that I do most of my feed reading – and there are a couple of dead spots in coverage while I’m riding. It’s great to be able to still read through all of my feeds without worrying about signal. Don’t get me wrong – the Google Reader HTML5 page is a joy to use on the iPhone…but Byline blows it out of the water. I’d suggest skipping your Starbucks this morning and picking up Byline instead. [Install Byline]
WordPress (free) – If you run your blog on the WordPress platform (either WordPress.com or self-hosted), you owe it to yourself to install this app. It’s free, for one thing. For another, it lets you approve/manage comments on your blog from your iPhone. Granted, I am now using Disqus for my comments, so this feature doesn’t help me anymore, but I still think it’s great that it exists. If you do a lot of microblogging with WordPress, you’ll want this app as well – the iPhone is not well suited for long posts, but for a quick little update, or if you’re doing liveblogging or a blog marathon, you’ll get value from this app. [Install WordPress]
LinkedIn (free) – Facebook is fun and all, but for us professionals, we need another social network. At least that is what the theory is behind LinkedIn. I can’t argue too much, as LinkedIn helped me get my current position, so I am a bit of a success story. The iPhone app is somewhat useful, although unless you spend a LOT of time with LinkedIn, it might not really offer a lot of value to you. You’re supposed to be able to look up contact information with it, but I haven’t been able to find any cases where that actually works. [Install LinkedIn]
Darkslide ($3.99) – This is the premier app for using Flickr, which has been a major part of my internet use for the past many years. There is a free version of this app available as well, so don’t let the price tag scare you off. This app makes it possible to actually browse and search on Flickr easily from your iPhone, which the mobile site just doesn’t. There are a couple annoyances though – you cannot download a picture directly from the Darkslide app, so you have to open the picture in Safari…and since Darkslide doesn’t remember state, when you go back into the app, it doesn’t take you back to the set of photos you were previously viewing. This is very annoying. [Install Darkslide]
Quickpedia (free) – I assume there are other Wikipedia apps, including the “official” app. I’ve found this one to work easily for quick searches. I’m not a Wikipedia “power user” so I’m sure it’s missing a lot of features that someone who lives in the ‘pedia would find necessary. But it’s easy to use and I’ve not run into any issues, so I give it a recommendation. [Install Quickpedia]
Shazam (free) – Another “gee whiz” app – this is the app that can identify a song you hear on the radio for you. I can’t tell you how well it works, since I’ve not tried it yet (I installed it because “everyone” says it is awesome). Apparently the latest version is crash-prone and now has ads, which seems to piss off a lot of users. What’s been YOUR experience? [Install Shazam]
Pandora Radio (free) – The industry standard in free, streaming, personalized radio. I used this app a LOT on my BlackBerry, but haven’t put it through it’s iPhone paces – but the theory is the same. Pandora builds a customized “station” for you based upon songs and artists you like. I’d be interested to hear from you in the comments on what the impact to your battery has been (assuming you use Pandora) as it drained the hell out of my BlackBerry. [Install Pandora Radio]
Yelp (free) – Oh, Yelp, how do I love thee? While Yelp has been less useful to me since I moved to the suburbs (there just are not as many interesting places to look up when trying to find somewhere to eat), their iPhone app is a thing of beauty. In fact, the experience on the iPhone is, in some ways, superior to the website. And the latest version even includes an augmented reality feature, which just blows my mind. This is a MUST HAVE if you ever leave your house. [Install Yelp]
TwitVid (free) -Sure, Twitter can be fun for quick little updates, but what if you want to show your beautiful face and voice to your followers? Enter TwitVid, which lets you record videos using your iPhone 3GS, and the upload them into your Twitter stream. It’s actually pretty slick, and I’ve tried a couple. Not that anyone’s that interested in any of my videos, but I figure it’s more important to have the ability to upload video to Twitter and not need it, than to need the ability to upload video to Twitter and not have it. [Install TwitVid]
Skype (free) – I have not tried ANY of the voice features in Skype on the iPhone (heads up – the voice and calling features only work when you are on wifi). I’ve just it just for some quick IM testing with people who I IM with on Skype. The main use case for Skype in our house is video chatting with my in-laws or my niece, so as long as you cannot do video chat with the iPhone app, it’s not going to get a lot of use from us. Still missing push notifications, and with the wifi limitation, this app just isn’t quite taking the cake. [Install Skype]
Pano ($2.99) – Absolutely fun app for creating panoramic photos with the iPhone’s camera. I’ve played with it a few times, and it’s dead simple to use – with pretty good results. The biggest problem is that since there’s a bit of a lag between each capture, if there are items in the photo that are moving, it can be difficult to get everything to line up properly. The results have been great every time I tried it though. [Install Pano]
Remote (free) – Another must-have app. This allows you to control iTunes on your computer from your iPhone (assuming that the iPhone is on the same network as the computer). Really nice if you stream the output of your iTunes to other speakers using an Airport Express, but even if not, if you aren’t right in front of your computer and want to change tracks, the Remote app is super handy. [Install Remote]
_What apps did I miss? (don’t forget to check Part 1) Are there apps that are superior to the ones that I am using? What’s been YOUR experiences with these apps? Let me know in the comments!_