Some Basic iPhone Apps

by Michelle Lentz

It’s all the news. Literally. Everywhere I’ve turned on the Internet today, I’ve run into iPhone news. So much so that I caved and manually downloaded and installed v2.0 on my original iPhone. Why? I wanted the app store.

It’s almost 5 pm here and I’ve wasted the entire day playing with various applications for the phone. Some of them are useful, some are useless. Some I haven’t figured out yet. They were all free. And I haven’t even started downloading games yet. The Apps store has taken the mobile phone and extended it in ways I hadn’t thought possible.

So far I have downloaded some basics. Here’s a quick rundown:

- The Typepad blogging application allows me to easily blog to my Wine blog and instantly post an update to Twitter about the new post. Pretty nifty.
- Twitteriffic is a local Twitter client for my phone. It has a nice interface, so I look forward to using it.
- Pandora is amazing. I can stream music from self-created stations. Fantastic!
- The Remote application let me access my iTunes playlist from my phone. I hit the Play button and music poured out of my desktop machine. That made my day! I don’t know if I’ll ever use it, but I’m highly entertained by it.
- I downloaded the uber-userful Jott application. I use Jott a lot as it is. Now it’s easier than ever to record off what I’m thinking. The iPhone application syncs with the web-based version.
- Along the same lines, I downloaded Evernote. I use Evernote online and on my local machine. Those locations now sync with my iPhone, which is fantastic. I tend to use Evernote in place of bookmarking when I’m researching things.
- I downloaded the simple but useful Google application that puts me quickly into search, maps, and other Google tools.
- The new Facebook application not only gives me notifications but also lets me use the Facebook chat function.
- AIM was a necessity. Sometimes you take that Twitter conversation off-Twitter, and it becomes an IM conversation instead.
- Whrrl looks fun, as does Loopt. As of right now, I’ve only downloaded Whrrl. None of my friends are on it though, so I’m missing a lot of the social part of the social application. I do love the idea of finding where my friends are based on Whrrl mapping.
- BoxOffice is a simple but useful application that will eliminate endless conversations about whether or not, and when, we should see a particular movie. It includes reviews as well as locations and times.
- I haven’t played with Exposure yet, but I understand it’s an easy way to access my Flickr account, and everyone else’s Flickr photos, through the phone. I’ve been waiting for an iPhone Flickr app.

Finally, I downloaded what is probably my favorite (albeit silly) application. Called UrbanSpoon, it uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to help you find a restaurant – by chance. Select your city, style of food, and price range. Lock those in. Then shake the iPhone! The dials spin and a restaurant appears. I love this! My husband and I have these endless conversations – “what do you want for dinner? I don’t know, where do you want to go? I don’t care.”  Now I’ll just shake my phone and let the fates decide.

So there you go. I’ve wasted a day and I haven’t even started in on games. The world of the mobile phone is changing by leaps and bounds, all with the addition of extensible apps.
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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.