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iPhone Apps

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by efusco, Jul 1, 2009.

  1. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    In a thread in the staff forum that went totally awry (as usual) the subject of favorite iPhone Applications came up. Tony made some great recommendations for me, many of which I immediately adopted, a few didn't really fit what I would use. Ultimately I suggested a couple as well that I found. I thought I'd start a thread here for others to post apps they can't live without, really like to have when needed, or tried and found they just didn't work out. Tony used a format I think is really useful so please try to base your suggestions similarly.
    Be sure to include:
    1) Whether it's free or the price.
    2) What it does, why you like or dislike it.
    3) Full name of the App so it's easy to search for.

    *Most of this list are Tony's suggestions, I've inserted a few of mine.
    Use Often:
    - Facebook
    - The Weather Channel
    - Weather
    - Flixster
    - MLB.com At Bat
    - SnapTell
    - Flood It-game
    - UnblockFree-game
    - Toobz-game
    - Radar ($0.99)-gives a nice weather radar image for your location
    - ESPN ScoreCenter

    Use Sometimes:
    - AT&T myWireless (pull up your AT&T bill and usage logs)
    - Google
    - AOL Radio
    - iheartradio
    - CatchaMouse (game)
    - Speedometer--tells you how fast you're going. I plan to see how fast my e-bike actually goes.
    - TapTap Revenge2--sort of like guitar hero game (my kids insisted)
    - Trailguru--very cool little program that tracks your route, max and avg. speed, allows you to take pictures along the way, tells you altitude, then upload it to the trailguru web site from which you can upload to Facebook. It creates really nice trails/maps. Should be great for bikers, runners, skiers, etc.

    Use Rarely
    - Dictionaire (I've needed to look up one word in two months and that was only to settle a bet)
    - Scramble (Boggle-like game)
    - Dots Free (game)
    - WiFi Finder (would be more important if I didn't have a data plan)
    - Lightsaber (just fun to play with)

    Nice to Have When you Need It:
    - AroundMe
    - DexKnows (evan-tried this out and REALLY like it )
    - iWant
    - Have2Eat
    - Flashlight (turns out iPhone into a flashlight)

    Good for Wow Factor:
    - Google Earth
    - HP Print (wirelessly print to any wireless HP printer in the vicinity)

    Tried and Don't Like:
    - Live Sports (takes too long to load things)

    Really looking forward to you guys' suggestions and favorites.
     
  2. Stev0

    Stev0 Honorary Hong Kong Cavalier

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    Use Constantly:
    iCatchall

    What I use in ICatchall 99% of the time - Tap Counter.
    Reason: Put it here, slip iPhone in your pocket, you don't have to worry about butt dialing somebody, and it keeps track of how many times it was accidentally hit. The other things on iCatchall are icing on the cake (eg, flashlight - no need for a separate app; file storage - nice way to transfer files from PC; etc.).

    ToDo's - sorry about the apostrophe abuse, but this is the best Todo list I've found for the iPhone. I use it so often I replaced the Mail icon in the bar with it.

    AccuWeather
    Google
    Zakks (my favorite iPhone game)
    Scramble (was my favorite iPhone game until I discovered Zakks)
    Sleepmaker Rain (best white noise app)
    Random #

    Use Sometimes:
    Shoutcast
    Y! Music
    Public Radio
    Breakout
    Yahoo!
    c@rds

    Use Rarely
    Zippo Lighter
    ER Ultimate
    Cookbook
    AllRecipes
    Pandora
    Inquisitor
    Kindle
    Audiobooks
    myWireless

    Nice to have when you need them:
    Talking Timer
    Seafood Watch
    Smart Alarm
    Handy Level (iCatchall has one, but this one is much better)

    Good for Wow Factor:
    Game Of Life
    Bloom
    Flux
    Heat Pad
    Frotz (will only impress old-school computer geeks)
    300 Arcade (ditto)
     
  3. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Thanks Stev0, I actually thought more people would be posting up here.
    A few of yours I couldn't find (ER Ultimate), Game of Life.

    Also, iCatchAll and Heatpad are $0.99 each.
     
  4. Stev0

    Stev0 Honorary Hong Kong Cavalier

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    Life is "Conway's Life - Cellular Automaton"

    ER Ultimate is "Easy Relax Ultimate" - I have the $2.99 version with all the bells and whistles, but there's a stipped-down version (eg, not as many sounds) called "Easy Relax" for $0.99 and even a free Lite version which is still pretty good.
     
  5. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Anyone got a favorite shopping list or grocery shopping organizer? We tried one today but found its interface clumbsy and we actually lost our entire shopping list when we inadvertently did something wrong--I still don't know what.

    it was just called shoppinglist
     
  6. Bica2go

    Bica2go New Member

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    We're searching for a shopping list app and may try Foodle. The $2.99 version allows multiple lists (ie by store). Has anyone tried it?
     
  7. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Evan turned me on to TrailGuru. I like that it records elevation and wanted to see what the elevation difference is between home and work. My only problem with it is that it can only record when it's in the foreground. I drained half my battery just driving home this evening and have a gap in my recording where my wife called.

    Is that right? Am I doing something wrong? How could someone actually record a hiking trip with an app that drains their battery in only a couple hours?
     
  8. Stev0

    Stev0 Honorary Hong Kong Cavalier

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    My girlfriend uses ShopShop. I don't (I use the Piece of Scrap Paper method), so I can't comment on it.
     
  9. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Just looked at the free Foodle--very simple listing tool with prompts for common items. I like it.
     
  10. apriusfan

    apriusfan New Member

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    HP 12C Emulator - 12C Lite. HP also sells an 'official' 12C calculator app. I have been addicted to RPN since approximately 1977, when I took a college Physics class. The 12C is a quintessential financial calculator that is now available for the iPhone/iPod Touch.
     
  11. apriusfan

    apriusfan New Member

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    +1 on the piece of scrap paper method....:)
     
  12. moxiequz

    moxiequz Weirdo Social Outcast

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    I just got my iPhone this past weekend so I'm still in the "download-the-top-50-free-apps" mode but here are my experiences/thoughts so far:

    Still Looking For...


    - A simple photo album app

    Any suggestions? For some inexplicable reason the iPhone does not have the ability to sort your camera roll photos into different albums/folders. I'd just like a simple app that can take your camera roll and let you sort your photos from there. Most of the apps I've seen are more for photo manipulation or online sharing, which isn't what I really want.

    - A book collection app (not an eReader but a little database like thing where I can keep track of my collection, what I'm reading at the moment, "To Read", etc). I've looked at what's available so far and nothing has really stood out as worth the money to buy. What I really want probably doesn't exist but I'll keep dreaming/looking. :)

    Games

    Peggle ($4.99) & Bookworm (2.99) (Both by Popcap) : I love these games. I was already familiar with them from the PC versions and I play them pretty consistently.

    LineUp (Free or $0.99 for the "Pro" version, by LabPixies) : I grabbed this one just because it was free. I didn't have high hopes for it but I confess it's an addicting little game. I ended up coughing up that extra buck for the paid version just because I liked the app so much.

    TanZen Lite
    Moonlight Lite


    Utilities & Reference

    Yelp, Amazon.com, Flixster, Facebook, Google : All free. Standard "nice-to-have" apps. Yelp came in handy when I was up in SF on Sunday. My friend and I were able to find a nice place to have lunch close to where we were. And we've had notoriously bad luck in picking places to eat.

    iBart
    : free. Nice little app for those in the Bay Area who use the BART system. There's a paid version that has live train arrival/departure times and service announcements, updates. I don't commute via BART so I'll probably just skip that.

    Flickr
    : free. Pretty decent interface to their site. If you have a Flickr account I'd recommend this one.

    iCatchAll : Free or various paid versions with different "sub-apps" available. Thanks Steve! This was a great suggestion. Very useful.

    Have but haven't used much so far...

    Google Earth
    Pandora
    DoodleBuddy
    (not really that exciting. I'll probably end up deleting this one)
    Shazam
    Trailguru (haven't had the opportunity to try this one out but I'm looking forward to it.)
    aNote Lite
    MyStuff Lite
    Mariner Calc Lite
    Spikey
    (game)
    FlingFree (game)
    TicTacToe Lite
     
  13. bighouse

    bighouse Active Member

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    Pandora Radio
    Doodle Jump
    SiriusXM Radio
    Yelp
     
  14. Trebuchet

    Trebuchet Senior Member

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    Wobble without a doubt all the rest pale in comparison. :rockon:

     
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  15. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    I just found this thread. The OP says Tell what the app does, and then proceeds to list a bunch of mystery apps, and most of the other posters have followed suit. :(

    I've got the following apps on my Touch. (It really ought to be called the iTouch, rather than iPod Touch.)

    iDragPaper. Free. Silly/stupid/fun. You spin a roll of t.p. until you've unwound it all.

    Audubon field guides: Mammals, and Flowers. I think they were $10 each.

    Moonlight Mahjong. Pretty good Mahjong game. I think maybe it was 99 cents.

    Fritz Chess. Very strong chess game. One of the best. $7 and worth it if you want a strong chess program. Not a lot of features.

    Doodle Jump. I think it was 99 cents. A little guy jumps and you move the Touch to control where he lands. Mess up and he falls all the way back down and you lose.

    Free Blackjack. Self-explanatory.

    The pay version (99 cents) of Jumbline, which allows no-time-limit play. You have to make as many words as you can out of a short list of letters. You can re-arrange them or make them jumble at random. Very nice game.

    I'll be removing iChess Lite and Free Sudoku next time I sync apps. The first is not as good as Fritz (of course) and the latter needs a bigger screen for my eyes.
     
  16. JayGoldstein

    JayGoldstein Member

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    I use ShopShop on my iPod Touch. It allows multiple lists. Learning to use it is mostly a matter of trial-and-error, but since it's free, I can't complain.
     
  17. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    I downloaded catchamouse, but it wants to connect to the apps store, and since I have no wi-fi at home, it would not run. There seemed no way to bypass the store. At least it was free, so nothing lost.
     
  18. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    You should get it working at home. I (and 2 of my iPhone 3GS friends) seem to prefer browsing and installing straight from our phones instead of going thru iTunes. For me, it's partly because of the closer to instant gratification and iTunes being rather pokey to sync and worse to backup.

    BTW, you don't need to sync to delete apps from your iPod Touch. Press and hold an icon to get all icons wiggling then tap the x to delete the app.

    This isn't a complete list, maybe I'll add more in another post or edit this one later. All apps below are free

    Use often:
    USA Today - to read short news stories during downtime
    Pandora - great for listening to streaming music in the car
    Navizon - war driving app - useless app by itself (to me) except to get a little cash on the side. Gotten $68.67 out of it so far. If you use it, please sign up for an account via my referral link. :)
    I wouldn't bother if you have an iPod Touch since you can't get any $ via that.
    Facebook
    Sci-fi Wire - to read up on sci-fi news

    Use sometimes
    YPMobile - yellow pages app
    NPR News - to read up on news and listen to a ~5 minute news summary
    Paper Toss - game
    ParaPanicLite - game

    Pretty cool
    GorillaCam - self-timer, time lapse, 3 shot burst (very cool), bubble level and more for camera
    PSMobile (Photoshop.com Mobile) - great for doing very light image editing
    Zillow - mobile version of zillow.com (real estate info) houses on maps seem off though
    Galcon Lite - game
    Flixster - movie info and surprisingly high quality trailers

    Semi-funny to show people:
    Offender Locator Lite - shows you 10 registered sex offenders around you
    Sit or Squat - shows you details about toilets around, their cleanliness, pictures, etc. You can submit your own ratings and pics.

    Nice to Have When you Need It:
    AroundMe

    Good for wow Factor or to at least demo to people:
    Priceless
    Labyrinth LE - marble w/holes game
    MiniPiano
    Air Hockey or Touch Hockey: FS5
    Shazam - tells you the name of the song that's playing - Heard that they have a 5 song/month limit now. :(
    Midomi - similar to the above (used to be free but now its' $6.99, which is IMHO too much)
    Lightsaber
    Wolfenstein 3D Classic Lite - 1st 3 levels of 3D Beyond Castle Wolfenstein
     
  19. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    It's not worth the cost of hardware to set up wi-fi at home. Installing apps directly may be faster, but browsing the store is faster and easier on the computer. And in a month I'll probably be all done installing apps, other than the occasional recommendation or glance around the store.
     
  20. User37

    User37 Can spell PRIUS

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    Today I stumbled over Vehical ( http://www.redcubecanada.com/vehical/vehical/about.html)

    It is yet another mileage tracking app, but I like it because

    • it has a neat interface and data is easy to enter
    • displays statistics all on one screen
    • can handle more than one car
    • support imperial and metric units
    • is free!
    What I did not figure out yet is how to enter a new trip and to have the start odometer populated with the end reading from the last trip. Still looking ... :)