June 22, 2011
Top 10 iPhone Applications |
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 Top lists are important. So
everybody has one. Search the web on "top iPhone applications" or "best
iPhone applications" or "most popular iPhone applications, and you'll
get pages and pages of results. This is our list of Top 10 iPhone applications.
Obviously, it reflects our personal preferences. You won't find
applications whose primary purpose is to make animal or human sounds.
You won't find many games or short-term distractions. You will find
that our list tends to gravitate towards "useful" applications. And you
will find that we cheated: we simply could not limit our list to 10. So
we extended it with "honorable mentions." Here we go:
1. MOG
by Mog.com. $9.99/mo for computer + mobile service. Free trial
available. We first recommended MOG in September 2010, when it just
came out. Since then it gathered a number of awards, including
Billboard's Best Music Streaming App. We liked it better than Pandora:
better
search, better playlists, better social discovery, better user
interface. We liked the slider functionality of the MOG radio where you
can control the diversity of the artists starting from one-artist radio
(something you don't get with Pandora). And the most important - you
can download playlists to your mobile device and play them without
wireless access. You pay for MOG but we think it's worth it (try it for
free and decide for yourself). We look forward to comparing MOG against
Spotify when Spotify finally comes to the US, but for now MOG is #1.
2. MapQuest 4 Mobile
by AOL. Free. We are biased because we use MapQuest on our computers
and like
their interface. If you’re in search of restaurants, hotels, gas
stations, coffee shops and post offices, MapQuest 4 Mobile makes them
easy to find. Recently added Voice-Guidance provides a hands-free
experience. In fairness, there are other good navigation apps - just
make sure you have one.
3. World Wiki + Factbook
by Tech Lumina. $0.99. Detailed demographic information of almost 250
countries around the world: Map, Geography, People, Government,
Economy, Communications, Transportation, Military, Transnational
Issues. Play the instrumental version of the national anthem of most
countries. Enhanced Google Map view allowing zooming and scrolling to
explore neighboring countries.
4. Netflix video streaming app
by Netflix. Free if you have a $8.99/mo Netflix subscription. Browse
and watch movies and shows from their library over
Wi-Fi and 3G. The good: easy browsing and searching for titles, access
to your
Queue, good video quality (especially over Wi-Fi).
The bad: video quality sometimes deteriorates on
3G (in fairness, not Netflix' fault).
Between small
screen and bandwidth limitations, we think iPhone is better suited
for music - rather than video - applications.
5. Wallet Pro
(password manager) by Memengo. $4.99. Helps you store passwords,
records and other secrets on your iPhone, encrypted for security. You
can also chose to sync the data to memengo.com web site. In that case
you can see and edit your passwords from your work PC, home Mac or
other Web-connected computers. If you want to be able to store
sensitive information on your iPhone, you need a password manager (or a
similar app). Wallet Pro is one of the better ones.
6. OpenTable by OpenTable, Inc. Free. Make restaurant
reservations at more than 15,000 OpenTable-enabled restaurants. Search
by restaurant name, find restaurants nearest to your current location
& see real-time table availability, map results with an
interactive, location-based map, refine results by cuisine, price,
reservation time, or points awarded, see restaurant menus &
OpenTable diner ratings and reviews, reserve your table. Earn Dining
Rewards Points redeemable for Dining Cheques good at any OpenTable
restaurant.
7. SymptomMD by Self Care Decisions. $3.99. Health
problems can arise anytime – evenings, weekends, when you’re traveling
or when your doctor’s office is closed. SymptomMD helps you make
appropriate decisions on what level of care (if any) is needed and how
to provide symptom relief for minor illnesses and injuries you can
manage on your own. Each symptom care guide contains: 1) Definition
which describes the focus of the care guide so you can decide if it’s a
good fit for your problem. If not, there are quick links to related
care guides; 2) Decision Chart which helps determine what action is
suggested based on the severity and description of your symptom. Once
you have a match, simply follow the corresponding action, such as Call
911, Call Your Doctor Now, Call Your Doctor within 24 hours or Manage
at Home; 3) Immediate Connections to 911, your doctor, your child’s
doctor or nearby Emergency Department are available if you have phone
service.
8. Pandora Radio
by Pandora Media. Free. It's been displaced from the #1 spot by MOG,
but it's still the best free music app. Create your own personalized
radio to
stream music on your iPhone or iPad. Just start with the name of one of
your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will
create a "station" that plays their music and more music like it. What
separates Pandora from the rest is their ability to find "similar" (as
subjective as it is) music. it will lead you to other artists
which you would probably never find out about otherwise.
9. Showtimes
by Avantar. Free. Showtimes recognizes where you are, and utilizes
OneTap® search technology, to instantly show you results of the movie
theaters nearest to you, movie listings now playing, show times,
trailers and additional information based on box office sales. Includes
FANDANGO ticket sales to participating theaters.
10. Google Earth from Google. Free. Fly to far corners
of the planet with just the swipe of a finger. Explore the same global
satellite and aerial imagery available in the desktop version of Google
Earth, including high-resolution imagery for over half of the world's
population.
Honorable Mentions:
Tipulator
by Sophiestication Software. $0.99. Unless you are a mentat (any Frank
Herbert's Dune fans out there?), figuring out how much to tip and how
to split the bill can be the least pleasant part of the night out.
Enter the Tipulator: punch in the bill amount, select a percentage, and
Tipulator will calculate the tip. And it’ll split the check among
friends.
Echofon Pro for
Twitter by naan studio. $4.99 (you can get a free version if
you are willing to be subjected to ads). Makes it easy to do common
Twitter tasks such as
viewing your timeline, messages, replies, lists and favorites. Echofon
has a powerful tweet-authoring where you can write tweets, take photos,
record video (3GS only) and update your current location. If you get
your friends to use Echofon, you can send each other Twitter messages
instead of SMS. With Echofon’s search tools you can search
Twitter, view trending topics (with explanations), nearby tweets and
find users easily from the search tab.
All-in-1 Gamebox
by Triniti Interactive. $2.99. We recognize that we have to have some
games in the list. We chose this gamebox with 40 different games:
Robo Rush, Iron Commando, Ancient War, Archer, Jailbreaker, and many
more.
Shopper by
MidCentury Software. $0.99. Because we all have to do shopping and this
is the most feature rich shopping app available for the iPhone.
Built-in, customizable item catalog for Groceries, Home Improvement,
Electronics, Beauty and Baby. Local flyers and discounts from top
retailers including Target and Walmart. Coupon tracking. Multiple
Lists/Multiple Stores. Budget tracking w/ tax and discounts.
ABContacts
by Andrea Vettori. $4.99. Full featured contacts manager with many
advanced features. If you use your iPhone for business, you need
contacts manager - and the one that comes with iPhone falls short in
many areas. Particularly useful feature is ability to organize your
contacts based on rules.
Mental Maths
by Trilliarden. $0.99. Improve your mental calculation skills through
various exercises. Image puzzles are an incentive to carry on
practicing. Choose math exercises from many categories: Basic
Arithmetic, Division with Remainder, Percentage Calculation, Reading
and Writing Roman Numerals, Common Multiples and Divisors. There are 4
Difficulty Levels, an adjustable Time Limit, Statistics for
multiple users, etc. From elementary school to high school (and beyond).
Star Defense
by ngmoco, Inc. $0.99. Voted "Best Tower Defense Game". Use multitouch
to spin and zoom entire worlds. Maximize your recon and plan carefully
– each planet has unique pathways to protect, weapons to deploy, and
enemies to overcome.
Pocket Cocktails
- Drink Recipes & Pocket Bartender by Pocket Cocktails Inc. $0.99.
Hundreds of today's most popular drink recipes, all with full-screen
photos. Pocket Sommelier with over 100 food/wine pairings. Search by
drink name or ingredient.
And to go with the one just above: DrinkTracker
Breathalyzer by slappmedotcom. $1.99. Keep track of your BAC
(Blood Alcohol Content) while you’re drinking. DrinkTracker
automatically compares your alcohol intake and your metabolic removal
rate and updates your current BAC every 60 seconds. Based on where you
are and where you want to be, use Google Maps to get travelling
directions, find a taxi in your immediate vicinity, or email a friend
with your current location for a pickup. It also allows for phone or
SMS contact via your Contacts list from within the app.
U.S. Historical
Documents by Standard Works. $0.99. Contains over 200 of the
most influential documents in U.S. history which will be stored
directly on your iPhone. Quickly and easily find any text from any
document. Have the documents automatically scroll for you in both
portrait and landscape modes while reading. Create notes for each
paragraph which can be displayed inline. You can assign bookmarks to
any paragraph in any document for future reference. Highlight important
words or phrases.
Photogene
by Omer Shoor. $1.99. A comprehensive set of professional editing
tools. Crop. sharpen, color, rotate and mirror, text bubbles, special
effects, sharing options. Take photos from with in the application.
Received PC Magazine editor choice award. It's not Photoshop but then
it's iPhone and you pay only a couple of bucks.
Bloomberg by Bloomberg LP. Free. Bloomberg offers
news, stock quotes, company descriptions, market leaders/laggers, price
charts, market trends analysis, and more. You are also able to create a
customized list of stocks that you want to follow from markets around
the world.
NikeWomen Training
Club by Nike, Inc. Free. Set up and access your personalized
training program on your iPhone. NikeWomen Training Club programs use
the latest dynamic training drills to focus on the five fundamental
areas of athleticism – cardio, core, strength, balance and flexibility.
Use your iPhone for anywhere access to dynamic training videos and your
training schedule.
WordBook English
Dictionary & Thesaurus by TranCreative Software. $1.99.
It's a great combination of comprehensive contents and fast intuitive
browser-like interface. Features: 150,000 entries with more than
220,000 definitions, 23,000 root word origins,120,000 pronunciation
guides, real human voice pronunciations, built-in thesaurus and word
links connecting words semantically, index, wildcard, anagram search
capabilities, bookmark (with user's notes) and history management,
words of the Day: you get to learn new words daily, shake the device
for new random words.
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