My Favorite iPhone Apps
Google Reader is, without a doubt, my favorite iPhone application. And it’s not even a native iPhone application, it’s a web application that works beautifully on any phone with a good mobile browser like my iPhone or the Motorola Droid or HTC Hero. And that’s good news because I’m really anxious for Android to mature to the point where I can leave my iPhone and AT&T behind. (Yes I’ve already tried and no, Android is not even close to as useful as the iPhone in its most current version). I launch Google Reader from my home screen using the well-designed icon but instead of launching a specific app, it launches my web browser and takes me to an optimized view of my RSS feeds. I can read through my feeds, expand, collapse, add stars, add notes, email links and mark items as read. All without requiring an iPhone or the App Store. Pretty impressive.
Following closely behind Google Reader is Tweetie 2. Tweetie was an absolutely great Twitter client for the iPhone but then the developer made it even more so with Tweetie 2. I use this app every day. I could also add Tweetie as one of my favorite Mac applications.
As with Tweetie, 1Password resides on my favorite list of both iPhone and Mac applications. 1Password has become indispensable and I would be lost without it. It’s the one application I could not live without and that’s a huge bummer for me moving forward. If I’m really interested in switching to Android at some point then 1Password’s “1Password Anywhere” is going to need to mature. It did not work at all on the HTC Hero I tried out.
Birdhouse is an app I love in its design and approach. I would use it more often if I were more prone to think things through. But I often send out tweets on a whim and bypass Birdhouse. I want to make a more conscious effort to use it as my buffer.
Grocery IQ is one of those apps I didn’t realize I needed until I had it. I use it to keep lists for shopping, regardless if its groceries or not. It helps me both save money and remember everything I need to get. I couldn’t find anything even close on the Android Market.
The best photo-editing app I’ve found is Tilt Shift Generator. It’s supposed to help me make cool tilt-shift photos out of every day photos I take with my iPhone. And it does a good job at that. But it also helps me add blur and depth of field to my iPhone pictures that give them so much more depth and vibrancy.
I’ve been losing weight since September and I’ve been keeping track of it in Weightbot. It’s such a simple app that really only does one thing but it does that one thing really, really well. It’s gratifying to see the graphs and information of my progress.
And last, but certainly not least, is the USAA banking application. I wish this were available for everyone since banking in the US sucks but unfortunately it’s not. USAA is always ahead of other banks and their iPhone app is no different. I can deposit checks by taking a photo of the front and back of the check with my iPhone, I can transfer funds or check my balances, and I can even use it when I’m in an accident. It allows me to take notes at the scene, get the other driver’s information, take photos of the accident and submit it all to USAA Auto through the app so they have real-time data of the accident. I am very hopeful that the USAA team is working on an Android equivalent.
As far as games go, I feel differently about them than I do applications. Games come and go. Games I loved when iPhone OS 2.0 was released are games I don’t play anymore. Not because they’re bad but because I just move on. There are a lot of great games for the iPhone. But the games I come back to and play again and again are the simple games like Words with Friends, Bejeweled 2, Solitaire City, NYT Crosswords, Unblock Me, and Peggle.
