Ten on Tuesday: Ten Best iPhone Apps

Carole speaks.  I listen.  I understand that all she REALLY wants is what cool apps to download onto her new iPhone.  But that is fine with me, because who isn't an app 'ho?

1.  Don't Look Outside.  Uses GPS to figure out where you are, and gives you several days of high/low temps and predicted precipitation.  I love it.  I like knowing what temperature it is RIGHT NOW.  When the day comes that I use it to figure out where I am, you may take the iPhone away from me.

2.  Moon Phase.  More data.  Useless data.  But how many times do you look up at the night sky, scratch your head, and ask your companion, "Does it look like a full moon to you?"

3.  Ski Report (from skireport.com).  Love!  Not just inches of snow, but also when it last snowed, and when it last snowed the time before that, and how many inches each time.  I'm probably completely alone with this love.

4.  Shazam.  Everyone knows about Shazam.  This prevents me from more head scratching, and trying to remember to look up the playlist on the radio station's website when I get home.  That NEVER happens.  Now I know what the song is.  I wish it did classical.

5.  Gate Guru.  So cool.  Where is the nearest Dunkin Donuts at the airport?  You can choose the airport you are in, or one from the list.   It sorts by terminal.  Where is the mailbox for that last minute bill mailing I always need to finish?  Where is the nearest....fill in the blank.  More love.

6.  Occasions.  I paid for this.  Now I finally have all my reminders in one place.  It links with your contact list.  I can finally remember birthdays and Yahrzeit dates.  (Look it up.)

7.  Epocrates.  Free drug information at your fingertips.  When I graduated from my institute of higher education, we really COULD keep it all in our heads.  No more.  Too many competing manufacturers, generics, substitutions.  Every doc I know has some version of this.  (Tarascon is the other, and I'm not sure they are digital yet.  Probably.)

8.  Peak.Ar.  Uses GPS and compass, tells me what the mountains' names are around me.  You view the skyline through the camera.  The locator is only so so in terms of putting the name right on the peak, but it is close enough.  Very fun.

9.  UYH.  You can make notes in Your Own Handwriting.  Your finger draws the letters.  Very clever.  Frees me from having to tap the pseudokeyboard.  Nicely done.  Fairly rudimentary organization, but that is all I need from this app.

10.  Cor.kz.  Best for last.  Costs a small amount of money.  SO worth it.  Just like the drug app, no one can be encyclopedic on all wines, all regions, all vintages.  Tasting notes from the wine community, assessments of when the bottle might be drinkable.  Clearly this is only as good as the taster posting the note, but the group slant is usually spot on.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good travel app?  Is TravelPro worth the $$? 

One of the most fun things on the iPhone 3Gs is the video capability.  Saturday, Divine Bird Jenny casually plyed while walking and talking, at Connecticut Sheep and Wool.

Comments

[Caroline M]

Someone showed me one for spinning, it had a projector for measuring twist angle and some guide lines of given thickness that you could set your single over. As I don't have an iphone that's all I can give you.

I will ask my son about the game with the angry chickens and the pigs, he thought that was excellent.

[Carole]

Excellent recommendations and almost all are new to me! yay!

[maryse]

this is a great list and most are new to me. my latest favorite is the hipstamatic. it costs a little money but so worth it. so much fun to take cool retro looking photos.

[minnie]

i don't have an iphone, but my eldest boy told my friend who does about shazam last year, and she thought he & it were brilliant, lol.

so Yahrzeit is kinda like a jewish memorial day, kinda sorta? (i looked it up, lol)

[Kathy]

Nope. No apps for me. Not an iPhone grrl. (That is, until it comes to Verizon!) :-)

[Melissa G]

Were I not a technical dinosaur you would not be alone in loving Ski Report. I still look up dosages in the well-thumbed formulary as I have long taken the stance that my head needs to be full of things other than those I can quickly, accurately reference.

[Lorette]

I wants an iPhone. Hubby keeps giving me reasons I don't need one. I'm printing this list. I saw that spinning app on somebody's phone, it has a WPI measuring thing, and a twist angle thingee. Very cool.

[margene]

Wishlist= iPhone, Netbook, $$.
Apps sound so-o-o cool.

[Marcia]

I'll have to check your apps out when I get home, but my favorite is Flick Fishing, which keeps my 8 yr old grandson absolutely quiet for HOURS when I'm babysitting. Yeah, bad Grandma, bad Grandma!

[Judith in Ottawa]

Most of my favorite apps are useless amusements, but when one has 5 minutes and no knitting to hand...

My favorite game is Moonlight Mahjong followed by Sheepstacker ('cause it's wooly!) and Green Harvest. For completely idle brain-numbing there's Koi Pond and the hilarious parody Piranha Pool. A purely pretty thing is Meshmerizer. Make sure to try enabling sounds-affect-patterns or whatever it's called. I haven't found a Solitaire game I like as much as the one I had on my Palm PDAs for years.

Interesting astronomy app is Pocket Universe, and for moon phases, Perpetuum. A good multitool is App Genie.

For amusing kiddies try Dinosaurs by The American Museum of Natural History or "Jackson Pollock". When I need to block kiddies or coworkers out so I can concentrate I listen to Sleepmaker Storms (I don't use enough of the options to justify the expense of the Pro version, but I will eventually.)

[kmkat]

I sent the paragraph about Epocrates to #1 Son, who took pharmacology last semester in med school. He hated it, total memorization, very little logic. Title of email: "Why it was a waste of your time to take pharmacology." He loves to know the flaws of the med school curriculum.

[Marcia]

I just located the spinning one: iSpin ToolKit. Very handy! Probably even worth the $5. I'm still working on gift cards for iTunes, so what do I care?!

[gayle]

No iPhone. I don't even use the camera on my cellphone. I barely use the cellphone.
Living in the Land of Ludd, I guess...

[Chris]

All you people with your iPhones. Maybe someday I'll get with the program.

Love that video! Could have used you at my demo cause I'm constantly asked if I have video of clipping a bunny.

[Hillary]

Your list of apps sounds perfect to me. I love geeky apps. I guess it's the librarian/info junkie in me.

[Teyani]

but you forgot "Words with Friends" .. you gotta join - you know you want to!! :-) Scrabble-ho's unite!