My favorite iPhone apps to date

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(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Nov 12

With the iPhone 2.0 OS update, there are now hundreds of iPhone applications being added to the iTunes app store. With over 3 months of use under my belt, I’m picking out a few of my favorites so far.

Overall Top 12

Applications Summary

Rank	Application	Price	Pros	Cons
1	Twittelator Pro	$4.99	Slick interface, lots of extra features	Lots of very small buttons close to edge of screen makes selection difficult
2	Facebook	Free	Nice intuitive interface featuring most used Facebook functions	Different navigation than website, not all features available.
3	Beejive IM	$15.99	Multi network support, great interface, works well with lots of features	Pricey for iPhone app, but in line with mobile chat apps on other platform; plus, you get a product that works with lots of features.
4	Sportacular	Free	Customize to track fantasy players, great interface	Server busy messages during games
5	eWallet	$9.99	256 bit encryption for secure storage of passwords and personal data. Add-on support for multiple computer synchronization.	Synchro add-on will cost additional $10. However, if you have multiple computers, this is a blessing.
6	Pandora	Free	Popular Pandora Radio service on the iPhone over WiFi or cellular network connections	As with all current 3rd party apps, can’t play in the background.
7	iNeedStuff	$8.99	synch lists, price tracking, location aware	Would like to see alpha thumbtabs for better navigation of long lists.
8	Mobile News	Free	Muli-category feeds, images and video	Local news, not specifically local, but pretty close.
9	i.TV	Free	TV, movie listings with appealing visual display. Also, now searches Netflix DVDs. Better than most pay TV listings apps on iTunes.	Movies interface not quite as good as Showtimes (below) although reviews feature is better.
10	Showtimes	Free	location aware sorts by nearest theatre. Slick, easy-to-use interface	Movie reviews could be more robust with more detail. Relies on links to other sites.
11	GPS Kit	$9.99	Topo view, waypoints, GPX output, screen lock (great workaround for background processing). Full blown GPS features.	Only nits I have are inherent limits to 3rd party apps by Apple or iPhone tech limits.
12	Weatherbug	Free	Weather conditions (with alerts), radar, video, cameras	Resizing radar maps can be slow. Would like to see animated radar maps.

Note: Developers tend to change their pricing frequently on the pay apps. Check iTunes for current pricing. Good news is they usually lower it over time.

I’ve also provided a quick overview of the applications to give you an idea of what they do and why I like them. Click the link below to read more detail on each application and see screenshots.

Twittelator Pro

For all you Twitterers out there, this is a must have. Twitterific was first out on the iPhone, so I used it, but then tried Twittelator when it was released and have not gone back. I started out with the free version, but really like the extra features in the Pro version so I upgraded.

Filter tweets by type:

Friends tweet view:

Enter new tweet:

Some of my favorite features are:

Integration of adding snapshots and location maps to tweets
Pasting tweets and easily adding URLs to tweets from Safari and Safari bookmarklet
Easy filtering by groups

For more features, check out the developer’s web site.

Facebook

The popular social networking web application ported to the iPhone allows you great mobile access and an intuitive user interface. Note that it is a bit different than the web interface and not all Facebook features are available. However, the ones you really use in a mobile environment are there and each version Facebook adds a few more features.

Facebook status feed:

Profile page:

Photo album view:

BeejiveIM

Free instant messaging through the iPhone! I had used the web application from Beejive and loved it and now the native iPhone app is even better. Several other IM clients, most of them free apps, were released prior; however, they were not as full featured and many user complaints on the reliability ensued. BeejiveIM is a little on the pricey side, but if you want a full-featured IM client that works, it does it.

Select from all the widely used IM platforms:

View of the buddy list:

Active chat view:

Sportacular

Sports nuts like me will love this app as it tracks live scores from all the major sports. Check game action, player stats and more all in pretty close to real time. For fantasy players, it also allows you to create custom teams and add players from your fantasy teams so you can track player stats.

Selecting a sport to track:

Scores:

Individual game stats:

Individual player stats:

Create custom/fantasy teams:

Custom teams stats:

eWallet

Always have your internet site passwords, credit card info, car license plate number and more ready in an instant. All this is secured with 256-bit encryption technology.

In addition, if you have several computers and want to have 1 wallet that is current and updated, there is an option to add-on Windows wallet synchronization. The synch upgrade will cost you $9.95. See the ilium software site to buy or for more information.

Wallet info by card type:

Card view (can be customized by card):

Pandora

The popular Pandora Radio web site is brought to the iPhone. Link to your Pandora account and access saved radio stations and add new ones.

Pandora station display:

iNeedStuff

More than just a grocery list, it’s a smart list. You create your shopping list and once you start shopping, it recognizes your location and stores your shopping order for that location based on how you shopped the last time. Next time you are in that store, the list is sorted in that order. It also allows for list synchronization.

Create shopping list:

Shopping list:

Mobile News

Very nice mobile news feed that sources Associated Press stories on top news, sports, showbiz and many more categorys. Even has photo and video feeds.

i.TV

Pick your local service provider and this app will list your current TV shows. Nice visual list with details ready at the touch. It also comes with movie lists by theatre with reviews and a link to your Netflix account.

TV show listing:

Movie review listing:

Showtimes

Location aware theater finder lists available theaters by closest proximity to current location. Drill down into movie listings, descriptions and showtimes. Links to 3rd party reviews on movies.

Theater listings by proximity:

Movie listings drill down:

Movie description:

GPS Kit

As wonderful as the GPS feature in the iPhone 3G is, you’ll find a lot of GPS features missing from the Maps application. GPS Kit provides experienced GPS users the full set of tools needed to get the most out of the device. Elevation, odometers, waypoints, compass, tracks, downloadable GPS log files, and more are all well integrated into this application.

As many well know by now, Apple does not permit applications to run in the background. This is a problem when running around or hiking with your phone out. The developer’s cleverly created a screen lock to keep from interacting with the device while pocketed as well as a display dimmer to reduce battery drain.

For more features and details, check out the developer’s web site.

Main dashboard view:

Topographical mapping:

Record tracks and save:

View recorded tracks:

Visual of recorded track:

Weatherbug

Great weather information on the go. Get current and forecasted conditions, weather maps, cameras and videos all on the go. Save up to 10 locations.

Conditions view:

Weather map:

Weather camera:

These are a few of my favorite applications so far on the iPhone. What are yours?

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gwiegand: Published a new post: My favorite iPhone apps to date ( http://tinyurl.com/5dc55b ) 11/13/08 03:14am

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3 Comments

3 Responses to “My favorite iPhone apps to date”

Meatty said on November 17th, 2008 at 6:56 pm

What about Showtimes? That is a freakin awesome app!!
Greg said on November 17th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

Yes, Showtimes is a great app and #10 on my list.
Shazaam iPhone Application | Greg Wiegand said on December 9th, 2008 at 9:14 am

[...] been using the Shazam application for several weeks now, but not in time to make by Top iPhone Applications blog post. Oh, and did I mention it’s [...]