Thursday, June 17, 2010

Rave: Cool iPhone Apps

In light of the new iPhone 4 coming out next week i wanted to rave about my favorite apps that I have on my phone. Some may change next week after OS 4.0 comes out. Most of these either are or were free.

Geocaching: This is one of my favorite games. People hide stuff and leave the GPS location and you can go find it. It is fun when you have some spare time, or just want to explore outside. It is a bit pricey but I think it was worth the cost, it is seriously the only app I have ever paid money for. Here is a free version that shows you the closest three caches.

WHERE: Find out what is near by. I use it for the cheapest gas prices around, even if Cheap Gas! is a bit simpler.

Fandango: How can you go wrong with knowing what movies are at the theaters near by, and if you want even order tickets.

Movies: Flixster and Rotten tomatoes got together to make this app. It gives pretty good movie rating and so much more.

Kids In Mind: I have used this web page for a long time to know if a movie will be crude or not. If you want the explicit details of how bad a movie, or just want to know the exact amount of F words used, this is an app for you.

Convertbot: If you every need any conversion possible this app is for you.

TuneWiki: Have you every just wanted to sing along with your music. This app has scrolling lyrics that move with the music, so kind of like your own free karaoke app.

CheckPlease: A really nice tip calculator, I use it every time I go to a restaurant.

ShopSavvy: If you every are wondering if you are really getting a deal at a store, pull this app out, scan the bar code and find out what other pricing there is locally and on the internet.

Urbanspoon: This app is just fun for going out to eat, shake it, and it will tell you where to eat, including reviews and a price gauge.

Bump: The coolest way to exchange contact info. They even have it for Android now, it works with almost any smartphone.

SoundHound: Everyone has heard of Shazam this does the same thing but better. Shazam works for music on the radio, but SoundHound can also pick up songs you sing, which helps to find out who sings that song that is stuck in your head. The only downside is it is kind of expensive for an app so they have a light version that lets you try five songs a month.

Pageonce Personal Finance: This tracks all your money and bills so you know what is due and when, with alerts, and even when your checking account is running low.

Meebo: By far the best chat app on the iPhone. It looks beautiful, and it is always logged in, so you will get push notifications for the rest of your life if you want them. eBuddy, Nimbuzz, Palringo and fring are okay in that order, but Meebo beats them all out of the water.

Speed Test: is nice to find out if you are imagining it or if you internet is really laggy.

Here are a few cool church apps:

Gospel Library: If you are LDS, or Christian in general, you should have this app. It give you access to scriptures and anything else you could want, Sunday School manuals or even General Conference Talks.

LDS Hymns: When you need a hymnbook this is always here for you. There is even a Spanish Version.

Mormon Channel: This app lets you listen to the Ensign, Conference talks, Scriptures or the "Mormon Channel" which is some radio station put on by the church.

Lastly everyone has there favorite games. These are mine:

:Shift: If you get easily dizzy this isn't for you. This is the best use of black and white I have seen in my life.

Parallelus: Test your coordination while trying to collect hearts and avoid bombs at the same time with two parallel screens, one for each thumb.

Tunnel 3D: Just fun use of the accelerometer in your iPhone.

Falling Balls: Use your accelerometer to avoid getting crushed. Super basic graphics, but downright fun.

Action Heroes 9-in-1: A good small fun collection of games.

I have gone through tons of apps, and those listed are my favorites. I know I am forgetting some that everyone has (lightsaber, facebook, FS5 Hockey, IMDB, Pandora, iHandy Level, Remote), some just good reference (Background Check, iTranslate, Dictionary, Google, Zillow, Computing Assistant, Pi Cubed), convenient ones (inside redbox, Dropbox, Air Files, GPS Box, Apple Store, scanR) or ones to just show off (iSeismo, SnapTell, Koredoku, Remote Pad).

While linking all of those I noticed that some are no longer in the app store. Also a lot of them have gotten pretty expensive, but you can use a apps like apptizr or PandoraBox to find apps on sale (aka free for a limited time).

Let me know if you have any favorites that I missed.