This is the email I send friends who’ve recently bought an iPhone, thought I may aswell share it here.
Must Have iPhone Apps – 2010 Edition.
Dropbox. http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/dropbox/id327630330?mt=8
Creates an automatically syncing dropbox between your computer/s and iPhone. I use it to store documents like Cv’s, invoices, etc, so i can check them/email them from the phone, and so i’ve always got an offsite backup of those kind of things. I also use the public folder to share larger files with friends… You can also create shared folders between two dropbox users; a useful example of that is i had a client and his accountant create a shared folder between them for all his invoices, receipts, etc – and because of growl notification, they were always aware of changes to the folder.
Evernote: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/evernote/id281796108?mt=8
I use this as my main notepad for stuff i need to use right away, or stuff i want to forget instantly but get back to if i need it.. (does that make sense?) Evernote lets you create text, audio, photo notes, and like dropbox will sync these files automagically to desktop versions for mac/pc. Stuff i use it for: quickly cutting and pasting links or text from the iphone to the desktop, writing down little reminders or how to’s on my mac’s full size keyboard and knowing it’ll sync immediately to the iphone, for taking photo’s of business cards, receipts, and in tech support taking a quick photo of the printer model number so i can go back later and google the damn manual, etc.. The other cool thing about evernote is it scans the photos you take for text, and then the text becomes searchable. So a few weeks ago i took a photo of a Melbourne Comedy festival poster so i could plan a trip there, yesterday i searched for “comedy” on the app and the poster popped up. Without evernote i’d have to remember stuff.
Google Mail / Calendar / Address Book.
Google already know so much about me they could create a fully functioning clone if they wanted. So now they handle all my email, contacts and calendars too. I have three google accounts (personal, work, and spam/bacn) using IMAP to sync between iPhone and Mail but its the Calendar/Contacts that are cool on the iPhone. Google supports Microsoft Exchange for iPhone, so i use it to keep my calendar and contacts syncing over the air between phone and computer. Google calendar also makes iCal more useful cos you can set calendars to have auto reminders – for instance, anything i add to my work iCal calendar adopts my google reminder settings, so i get a reminder 1hour before and then 10 minutes before. That means i adding stuff in iCal is way faster.. My work and personal accounts are tied to domain names i own, which google support for free. I’ve set up google on domains for many clients, which adds a few intranet style features to the calendars too. A few other cool things i use with google calendars: i subscribe to a few public Google calendars – Australian Public holidays, Sydney Swans Games, school holidays, so i don’t have add those manually, as well as facebook birthdays and events, so i don’t have to ever look at facebook. I also used to share my calendar with my partner and she’d share hers, you can set it so the other person can see what you’re doing or just see “busy”, which was handy.. On the mac side iCal is set to subscribe to Google Calendar via CalDAV and address book has a ‘sync to Google’ preference.
Flight Control: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/flight-control/id306220440?mt=8
Still the most simple, addictive game on the app store.
Consume: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/consume-mobile-isp/id337064413?mt=8
Just a beautiful app to monitor your phone/net usage across a bunch of accounts. I monitor my iphone usage, my ISP usage, and my dads iPhone cos he’s terriefied he’ll go over his download limit. By the makers of iStat which you probably know. All the Bjango apps are worth a download actually.
Meebo: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/meebo/id351727311?mt=8
Brand new, but the best IM client for the iPhone, with free push and no advertisements, if you’re into that kind of thing.
TripView: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/tripview-sydney/id294730339?mt=8
Save your most used bus, train and ferry journeys, and quickly check the timetables for them. Grab the free Metlink Melbourne and Tram Tracker apps next time you’re visiting Melbourne.
ShopShop: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/shopshop-shopping-list/id288350249?mt=8
There are far better/prettier shopping list apps, but this is dead simple and the fastest to use. And really, thats all you need for a shopping list app.
TVGuide: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/tvguide/id284944379?mt=8
It’s, um, a Tv Guide.
Photoshop Mobile http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/photoshop-com-mobile/id331975235?mt=8
The enhance menu is pretty useful.
Showtimes: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/showtimes/id285018181?mt=8
What movie is showing at the nearest cinemas..
Put Things Off: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/put-things-off/id309622930?mt=8
There are heaps of to-do apps, but this is the quickest, simplest, and pretty enough that it looks like a native iPhone app. BUT i wouldn’t recommend buying it just now, version two should be out by the end of the month, which will be a paid upgrade.
Honorable Mentions: Skype, Facebook and eBay apps are actually nicer to use on the iPhone than their godawful desktop/website companions. The Westpac app is suprisingly not shit anymore, you can actually do things with it now. Shazam was good, then they crippled the free version, still its a cool app to show off to non iPhone users, however Midomi SoundHound works better on most occasions, but its a ripoff.
And thats the short list…
Pete.
