My top ten (or twelve) iPhone apps
June 28, 2009 by Simon Goudie
I’ve had my iPhone for a while now, and with the new iPhone 3GS on its way to me this week, I thought I’d share a few of the apps that I’ve come to use and value most. I’ve picked up a few good tips from similar posts, so hopefully there’s something in here you haven’t come across and might find interesting.
1. Google Reader is by far the most accessed item on my iPhone and, while not an app, it certainly deserves pride of place on the homescreen. The iPhone interface is so easy to use and move around it makes reading feeds simple. Being online, it perfectly compliments the full web version and no other RSS reader I’ve tried has come close to touching it.
2. Stanza is a great app that I use to read ebooks. The online catalogs make downloading new titles a no brainer and the desktop app enables painless sharing of texts you already have. I’m a bit concerned that Amazon have bought the app, but I’m optimistic that they will use it to greatly improve the Kindle app (although I’m expecting that they will hobble future versions with more Kindle-like features)
3. OzWeather. This is basically a better weather app than the default iPhone app. Current conditions, forecasts and the radar images using the Bureau of Meteorology data, which is the critical point for an Australian weather app. While it might seem strange to pay money to replace an app that is included for free, this is a good example of a superior replacement. On my wishlist are push notifications to update the app badge with the current temperature, but I think that’s pretty unlikely. Overall, very nicely done.
4. Balance is a tiny app, but one that does the job it needs to do. I don’t keep a full budget on the iPhone, but I do use it to keep track of the money I spend. Balance lets me do this easily and quickly without any unnecessary bells and whistles.
5. TweetDeck and Tweetie. This is still a tie at the moment. Tweetie has been great, but after using TweetDeck for a while now, I’m starting to like it (even if I still haven’t come around to the desktop version yet). Both have an amazing range of features and stand out among the dozens of Twitter apps in the store at the moment. This is one category that is still exploding on iTunes at the moment, so there’s bound to be more apps that let you tweet on the move. Birdhouse, from Sandwich Dynamics, is one example of an interesting take on using Twitter from an iPhone.
6. Metlink Melbourne. Public transport in Melbourne can be a bit of a hit and miss affair, but at least with this app, you know when things are meant to turn up. Metlink supports saving favourite stations/stops and covers trains/trams/buses/VLine all in the one app. It’s just recently replaced the MetroMelb app and is worth getting if you rely on public transport. There’s versions for other cities under the ‘Metro’ title as well.
7. I like to use Instapaper on the desktop to save long articles I want to come back and read, so when the iPhone app came out, it really made sense. The Instapaper app downloads the saved sites, so once you’ve synced, you can access everything on a plane, in a tunnel or anywhere, regardless of reception. A great app.
8. Remember the Milk and Todo. This is another tie. As a GTD nut, I live and die by the lists I keep in Remember the Milk, but still haven’t found the perfect way to tie this in on the iPhone. The RTM app is nice and now supports push notifications, but has surprisingly poor support for smart lists and tasks with no deadline, which is what I need most of all. Todo offers full syncing with RTM and, while it doesn’t actually support smartlists, you can use the focus list and the filter to achieve a similar list. However, I’ve noticed that the sync hasn’t been working that well lately and I can’t rely on the app as much as I would like. It’s a relatively expensive app (and worth the price), but hopefully this issue will resolve itself soon. I know the crew at RTM are always developing their product, so I’m hoping a new version will arrive soon that will fit the bill – it’s one that I would use constantly if it fit my workflow correctly.
9. Aussie Rules LIVE is my pick of the AFL apps. It offers all the team information and news, as well as past scores and head to head information that you’ll need, but I find their live data to be the best. It’s easy to check the scores around the grounds and the commentary is a great way to get a feel for how the game is going. They’ve recently added DreamTeam scores as well, which is exciting, but unfortunately this doesn’t include the SuperCoach competition I play in – hopefully this is for a future update…
10. The final app on the list is Facebook. At the end of the day, it is just Facebook, but the way the app works just makes it perfect for the job. It’s easy to use and has most of the features you need. I would love support for more applications on the iPhone, similar to what Lexulous offers, but for catching up on news, photos and messages, you can’t beat the app.
I must give honourable mentions to a host of other apps as well, there are heaps that I use on a regular basis and some of the innovations and interfaces the developers have used are pretty amazing. WordPress, AppSniper, Weightbot, TripIt, CommBank, Snatch, Dropbox, AroundMe and eWallet are all apps that I could have added to this list. If you use this as a shopping list on the App Store, you’re sure to find some great applications.
Note that there’s no games on these lists. There’s plenty of those on my iPhone as well, so that is a list for another day.
I’m constantly looking for great new apps, so I’d love to hear any feedback about these lists, or suggestions for anything I may have missed.
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