The wonder of rubbing our smart-phones with a fingertip to do stuff has been upon us for several years now, as well as the glory of the App Store, a treasure trove of stuff that you can do in your browser with badly-written flash made into programs. As such, I thought I would consult you plebeians on what you feel is worthy to keep in your iPhone, and instruct you on the greatness of my own.
Or, in not seventy-six words, here’s the standouts on the iPhone I keep coming back to.
Pandora: Streaming internet radio of pretty much every genre imaginable over 3G. This is why I don’t listen to radio anymore. This app has stayed on my front page since I acquired it, and I use it almost daily.
Now Playing: A listing of movie releases and DVD releases that is fully integrated with rotten tomatoes and imdb reviews as well as Netflix. It does trailers, too. The app will find you and show you all the nearby theaters, what’s there, and what’s worth watching. Or what to ignore at the theater and throw on Netflix. It’ll also throw it on Netflix for you.
Urban Spoon: There are many, many better restaurant finders on your iPhone (AroundMe and the Google Maps app to name two), but there’s something compelling about rolling the slots and taking what comes up as your dinner choice.
Kindle/Stanza: I have both, but which you use will probably depend on what you like. Stanza has the best selection of downloadable, free, e-books available for the iPhone. The Kindle app syncs with your Kindle and remembers your place across both devices. This is witchcraft and utterly delightful.
Facebook: Yeah, if you have an iPhone you probably already have this app, but it bears mentioning as it works really, really well. Often better than the site itself. How about that?
Lux Touch: I mentioned this in one of the very first things I wrote for the site, and it’s been on my phone getting playtime since then. The free version of this app is Risk with AI bots. I’ve never bought the full version because this is all I need. Controls perfectly, runs well, and it’s Risk. What more do you want?
RogueTouch: This was a dollar or some such amount when I got it. Now it runs for $3. Totally worth it. It’s Rogue, the old-school dungeon crawl, on your phone, with a decent interface. Rogue has about fifty levels, and is in the “I hate your family” level of difficulty. This means that you’ve got a lot of replay value if you enjoy this sort of thing. Also a ton of variety in loot and a fairly large number of baddies to face. Saves anywhere, but you die and it’s back to the beginning.
Field Runners: Field Runners is a $3 tower defense game. When it came out initially it was barely worth that. Since then they’ve added new units, two new maps, unlockable game modes, and a ton of game modes. It has a pause/save anywhere function that is delightful (and should be on every game app, period).
Words/Chess with Friends: Every multiplayer iPhone game should play like this. ALL of them. It’s pass and play (or play by e-mail, if you prefer that image) Chess/Scrabble/whatever else they come out with that I will totally buy on your phone. The beauty of this is that you can take a turn anywhere.
Frotz: This one is hard to recommend for everyone. Frotz is Stanza, only for text-based adventures. If you can get by the iPhone keyboard (it has some shortcuts to help), this is a treasure trove of nostalgia. If not, you’ll hate it. Potentially has unlimited playtime, but again, some of the text-games are…not good. Free, so worth a try.
AP News Feed: Another one I’ve spoken of before, but this is a great little tool. Customizable homepage with stories from your area and all over. Video and photo. Updates and will do push notifications. If you want mobile news this is probably your best bet.
Midomi/SoundHound: Two names, one app. SoundHound literally listens to music you play/sing/hum for it, then finds you a title and group. Not as much useful to me as simply witchcraft. I can now hear a song in passing, identify it (provided I can listen to or hum 15 seconds of the tune), then purchase it myself (Midomi is linked right into your iPhone purchases, because these guys aren’t idiots). You also get a full lyrics page and links to YouTube videos, as well as Pandora radio tie-ins and similar artists. Essentially this is Now Playing for your music, as it can work with all your other cool music apps and devices to provide an awesome experience. I really should use this more.
Anyway, while I have six pages of apps on my iPhone, these guys are the standouts, and most of them are totally free. As of last look everything but the games can be acquired without paying a dime, and at $3 a pop you’re out lunch at Five Guys if you buy everything here.
So what’s on your phone?
The iPod was my gateway drug to the iPhone. Two years ago, being tired of carrying around a phone and an iPod, I decided to take the plunge and invest in a 16GB iPhone 3G. It was the best purchase I’ve ever made. I fully anticipate snarky comments, illuminating me to the wonders of the other smart phones on the market or dismissing Apple as a cult of hipster-Jobs-worshipping-zombies. But you know what? I don’t give a shit about any of that. I have no brand loyalty or nerd rage either way. I just know what works for me. And for two years, the iPhone 3G was my best friend and my most-used tool. I took it everywhere, used it constantly, and rarely did it let me down.
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