Free apps:Pandora:
Pandora is a music player that takes your favorite songs, and streams continuous music using songs that match similar attributes to your favorites. It's like a radio station that only plays your favorite songs. The more you use it, the better the music selection gets. And it introduces you to new artists you might not otherwise encounter. I've used it for months now - it doesn't introduce me to as much new music as I'd have liked, and about 10% of the songs are way off target, but I still use it a lot. (There's an interesting New York Times article about how much human listening goes into making the site work.)
$5
Seattle Bus Map
One of my favorite applications: shows where Seattle buses are in real time, using the GPS transponder signal from every bus. So you don't have to stand there wondering 'When will that bus ever get here?' Worth the price if you take Seattle buses often. Doesn't yet work for the Seattle-Tacoma express buses, unfortunately.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299293359&mt=8
$10
mboxmail
Finally, finally, I can get hotmail on the iphone. I can't tell you how much time I've wasted trying to sign into hotmail only to get odd redirects and answering 'Is this going to be your primary phone' over and over again. Now I have rapid access to fully functional email with swipe to delete, move to folders, and click contact list features that are so handy on the regular iphone email program. However, since the program can't run in the background unless it' open, there's no change in the screen icon when you get new mail. And it has a maximum attachment size of 1MB which hardly bothers me, but seems to have some reviewers on the Apple app store pretty steamed.
$20
iBird
Love this one. Used to do a lot of birdwatching, and here's more than a field guide now conveniently tucked into your iphone. (Lugging that field guide was always a nuisance, but ya gotta have it.) You can identify an unknown bird by answering a series of questions (size, color, location etc) and then have illustrations, photos, recordings of its song and maps of its range at your fingertips. Layout looks great on the screen, and all info is stored on board the iphone so it works where there's no phone signal.
$10
Anchor alarm
OK, I don't have this one yet, but next time I go sailing overnight, I'll get it. Last time I was anchored overnight, I kept waking up at night wondering if the anchor was still holding. Peering out in the darkness, it took my sleepy eyes a few minutes to figure out if we had drifted more than a few feet. Here's an app that sounds an alarm if you drift more than a specified distance from your original anchoring point. Granted, you'd need a power source to keep the iphone GPS up and running all night, but peace of mind is worth it.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/anchor-alarm/id304892917?mt=8
Pandora is a music player that takes your favorite songs, and streams continuous music using songs that match similar attributes to your favorites. It's like a radio station that only plays your favorite songs. The more you use it, the better the music selection gets. And it introduces you to new artists you might not otherwise encounter. I've used it for months now - it doesn't introduce me to as much new music as I'd have liked, and about 10% of the songs are way off target, but I still use it a lot. (There's an interesting New York Times article about how much human listening goes into making the site work.)
I think this link should take you to it.
phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284035177&mt=8
Glympse:
A free app to share your continuously-tracked location with someone for a defined period of time. It sends a text or email to a recpient(s) you specify, for a duration you specify. If you keep it running in the background (or lock the screen) it continuously updates on the recipient's screen - easiest (but not essential) if they're running the same app.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glympse-location-sharing-made/id330316698?mt=8
Snaptell:
Here's their idea: you're in a store, and you wonder if the online price for the item you're looking at would be cheaper. Take a photo of any item (book, CD, game) with the phone, and it finds online prices of that item from sites like ebay and amazon. What a great use of iphone technology - camera, browser, web. Very cool.
Here's a techcrunch review, and a link to the app in itunes store.
phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284035177&mt=8
Glympse:
A free app to share your continuously-tracked location with someone for a defined period of time. It sends a text or email to a recpient(s) you specify, for a duration you specify. If you keep it running in the background (or lock the screen) it continuously updates on the recipient's screen - easiest (but not essential) if they're running the same app.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glympse-location-sharing-made/id330316698?mt=8
Snaptell:
Here's their idea: you're in a store, and you wonder if the online price for the item you're looking at would be cheaper. Take a photo of any item (book, CD, game) with the phone, and it finds online prices of that item from sites like ebay and amazon. What a great use of iphone technology - camera, browser, web. Very cool.
Here's a techcrunch review, and a link to the app in itunes store.
There's now another new app for this purpose called Shopsavvy, for any product with a barcode (not just books and CD's) http://www.biggu.com/apps/shopsavvy-iphone/ and one for 2-D barcodes from AT&T.
Yelp:
Find reviews (usually by techno-savvy twenty-somethings) of restaurants and services by location. The advantage of reviews by everyone and anyone is that they're unbiased and have personality, the disadvantage is that they're untrained reviewers, so they can be overly negative for a single fault, or immature. I have found I can easily sift through a bunch of reviews and see if a restaurant or service is right for what I want.
Find reviews (usually by techno-savvy twenty-somethings) of restaurants and services by location. The advantage of reviews by everyone and anyone is that they're unbiased and have personality, the disadvantage is that they're untrained reviewers, so they can be overly negative for a single fault, or immature. I have found I can easily sift through a bunch of reviews and see if a restaurant or service is right for what I want.
You do have to register with the website (free, no junk mail so far).
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284910350&mt=8
Showtimes:
Uses your current GPS location to tell you what showtimes are available for movies near you.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=285018181&mt=8
Uses your current GPS location to tell you what showtimes are available for movies near you.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=285018181&mt=8
What's on:
Automatically updating TV listings - set your locations and the provider at that location.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289190113&mt=8
Automatically updating TV listings - set your locations and the provider at that location.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289190113&mt=8
Where
This app combines what several apps used to do for me - it constantly updates your location, and searches for gas prices, restaurants, weather, events and so on near your location. I've found it very useful when traveling.
Repairpal: tells you, by make of car, how much local garages are likely to charge you for a given repair, and gives advice on what related repairs might be required. When you need this app, it's very useful and informative.
REI snow report
The latest update greatly improved this formerly slow app, and includes trail maps of resorts.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snow-and-ski-report-by-rei/id299120437?mt=8
WSF schedule:
This one tells you what time the next ferry will arrive at any WSF dock. Very handy if you ever take the ferry. Supported by unobtrusive embedded ads.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288902938&mt=8
SoundHound:
Hold your iPhone up to a radio, and it will identify the song. Or you can hum a tune into the phone... I tried it in a store playing a nice song over the speakers, and it worked very well.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284972998&mt=8
Trapster:
A map showing (user-reported) speed trap locations. Keep it running in the background, and choose one of several funny voices (redneck, NY taxi driver etc) to alert you to upcoming speed traps, construction zones, and road dangers. It has been refined with a feature that looks for possible alerts only in a narrow cone in front of your direction of travel, so you don't get alerts about a schoolzone near the highway you're on, for instance.
Wikipanion:
Search wikipedia quickly, and have the result already formatted for the iphone screen.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288349436&mt=8
Charts and Tides
This 'teaser' app shows nautical charts only for the Seattle area and uses your phone's GPS to locate you on the chart. It's to convince you to buy the full $50 version to have full North American coverage.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300499486&mt=8
Units:
convert any imaginable unit into another unit - area, temperature, speed, you-name-it
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284574017&mt=8
Youversion:
Raed and search the Bible, and add your comments to any verse.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=282935706&mt=8
Everytrail
Use your iPhone to record a hike or bike ride, link pictures to their location, and figure out how far you went. Can show a live terrain map of your location, and has a nice minimal-battery-use lockout function so it'll record up to (say) four hours of hiking. Afterward, it can send a link with an animation overlaid on a map, showing your speed and route.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=290954446&mt=8
The Weather Channel
Can show a live Doppler map of precipitation.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=295646461&mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288902938&mt=8
SoundHound:
Hold your iPhone up to a radio, and it will identify the song. Or you can hum a tune into the phone... I tried it in a store playing a nice song over the speakers, and it worked very well.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284972998&mt=8
Trapster:
A map showing (user-reported) speed trap locations. Keep it running in the background, and choose one of several funny voices (redneck, NY taxi driver etc) to alert you to upcoming speed traps, construction zones, and road dangers. It has been refined with a feature that looks for possible alerts only in a narrow cone in front of your direction of travel, so you don't get alerts about a schoolzone near the highway you're on, for instance.
Wikipanion:
Search wikipedia quickly, and have the result already formatted for the iphone screen.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288349436&mt=8
Charts and Tides
This 'teaser' app shows nautical charts only for the Seattle area and uses your phone's GPS to locate you on the chart. It's to convince you to buy the full $50 version to have full North American coverage.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300499486&mt=8
Units:
convert any imaginable unit into another unit - area, temperature, speed, you-name-it
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284574017&mt=8
Youversion:
Raed and search the Bible, and add your comments to any verse.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=282935706&mt=8
Everytrail
Use your iPhone to record a hike or bike ride, link pictures to their location, and figure out how far you went. Can show a live terrain map of your location, and has a nice minimal-battery-use lockout function so it'll record up to (say) four hours of hiking. Afterward, it can send a link with an animation overlaid on a map, showing your speed and route.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=290954446&mt=8
The Weather Channel
Can show a live Doppler map of precipitation.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=295646461&mt=8
Epocrates:
Drug compendium - handy reference. It also lists a couple of noteworthy new articles each week, if you want. Have to register (free, and no junk emails so far).
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=281935788&mt=8
Paid applications:
GPSdrive
Finally, turn-by-turn directions that automatically reroute if you go off route. This is almost what my Garmin used to do, and works well. The cost is about $26 a year for all the features, which is a lot cheaper than the map updates I used to have to get every few years for my Garmin. You can play your music collection on your iphone, and it seamlessly interrupts the music to give directions and returns to the music.
$5
Seattle Bus Map
One of my favorite applications: shows where Seattle buses are in real time, using the GPS transponder signal from every bus. So you don't have to stand there wondering 'When will that bus ever get here?' Worth the price if you take Seattle buses often. Doesn't yet work for the Seattle-Tacoma express buses, unfortunately.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299293359&mt=8
$10
mboxmail
Finally, finally, I can get hotmail on the iphone. I can't tell you how much time I've wasted trying to sign into hotmail only to get odd redirects and answering 'Is this going to be your primary phone' over and over again. Now I have rapid access to fully functional email with swipe to delete, move to folders, and click contact list features that are so handy on the regular iphone email program. However, since the program can't run in the background unless it' open, there's no change in the screen icon when you get new mail. And it has a maximum attachment size of 1MB which hardly bothers me, but seems to have some reviewers on the Apple app store pretty steamed.
$20
iBird
Love this one. Used to do a lot of birdwatching, and here's more than a field guide now conveniently tucked into your iphone. (Lugging that field guide was always a nuisance, but ya gotta have it.) You can identify an unknown bird by answering a series of questions (size, color, location etc) and then have illustrations, photos, recordings of its song and maps of its range at your fingertips. Layout looks great on the screen, and all info is stored on board the iphone so it works where there's no phone signal.
$10
Anchor alarm
OK, I don't have this one yet, but next time I go sailing overnight, I'll get it. Last time I was anchored overnight, I kept waking up at night wondering if the anchor was still holding. Peering out in the darkness, it took my sleepy eyes a few minutes to figure out if we had drifted more than a few feet. Here's an app that sounds an alarm if you drift more than a specified distance from your original anchoring point. Granted, you'd need a power source to keep the iphone GPS up and running all night, but peace of mind is worth it.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/anchor-alarm/id304892917?mt=8
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