My Favorite iPhone Apps

I know there are lots of new friends who have recently joined the iPhone family or iPod touch family. I often get asked what my favorite apps are. I have LOTS, but I like to try things out and then decide whether I want to keep them or not. Some I keep because my kids like to use them, others because "you never know when you could use that." 

Categories
Games (paid)
Home Run Battle - the 3D experience alone is amazing! You play to win gold balls, which gets you the opportunity to "buy" different uniforms and bats. The better your outfit and bat the longer you can hit the ball. You can also match up against random opponents or people you know.

Angry Birds - lots of variety in game play, GREAT sounds, and tricky golden eggs (ultimate win).
Tiger Woods - great golf game!

Popper - this is a fun game. It's hard to describe. The sounds are almost worth it alone. Very satisfying. 

Sniper vs. Sniper - amazing first person shooter game. If you like that kind of thing. Play against others all over the world.
Frank Further - put a pig (or a vegetable for you vegetarians out there) in a chopper and then shoot a hotdog (or carrot) down the hallway. See how far you can get it to go.
Jelly Car (1 and 2) - drive your car through a jelly cartoon world. VERY fun and addicting!

Games (free)
Smiles Drop - Bejeweled-esque game. It's my favorite of all of them. The more yu swap before it counts up your points the more points you get.

Words with Friends - this is scrabble...basically, that you play turn by turn with your friends. There is the free version with ads, but it was worth it for me to upgrade. 
Invaders World Tour - remember Space Invaders on the Atari 2600? This takes that and steps it up!
Paper Toss - flick a crumpled piece of paper into a garbage can. There is a fan that blows it at varying degrees. Toss it way off in the office and listen to the sounds. Buy Paper Toss World Tour and get even more action!
Doodle Bowl - fun bowling app with very satisfying sounds (theme here? yes, I like my apps to sound good!)


Utilities
Things - a great ToDo app!

Dragon Dictation - speak your texts and emails! This is great if it's illegal to drive and text. It's great even if that's not illegal...it's dangerous!
AroundMe - search for any business and it will give you a map and a phone number. You can also see weather and movie theaters.
Tripit - if you fly, this is the best app out there. Keeps track of your flight number, time, weather in city you are landing, gates, etc.
Flashlight - uses the BRIGHT light on the back of the phone. So bright!

YouVersion - a great Bible app. I particularly like the MANY different reading plans it includes.
Vlingo - do google searches by speaking into your iPhone. Call someone with your voice. Pay the extra and text or email, but I'll stick to Dragon Dictation for now.
Evernote - take notes, take pics or record voice memos. Then it loads it all online. It will even search pictures with text in it for specific text you enter in.

Social Networking
Facebook - it's even better than the actual website.

Simplytweet - this is my twitter app of choice. It's just really good.
Fring - not on wi-fi and still want to do video chat like FaceTime? You can do it with Fring. The video quality is not quite the same, but still works.
Foursquare - location based game. Read more about it in an earlier blog post of mine.
Gowalla - same as above.






Random Apps

FAAD - free app a day. One way I get TONS of free apps.

Sleep Cycle - this app reads your sleep cycle, when you are in deep sleep and when you are dreaming and when you are near awake. Then it sets off an alarm within a 30 minute window that you set when you are most naturally awake and wakes you gently. It's amazing. And it keeps record of your sleep patterns.
Runmeter - I think this is the running app I am landing on. I just don't have any other friends who are using it yet. It helps to have others to motivate you to exercising.
Geocaching - if you don't know what this is about you need to go here. Basically it is a world wide treasure/scavenger hunt. It has an amazing community of people and is a lot of fun.

SLingbox - this let's me watch my TV from my iPhone. I have a Slingbox in my home and the app works like a remote control for my DVR. So you can watch live TV, change the channel and watch anything that is recorded. This is the MOST expensive app I own, but I won $75 in iTunes gift cards, so it really didn't cost me anything.
Netflix - you can watch movies and TV shows right on your iPhone!
Yahoo Sportacular - get all your favorite sports score. I get push notification every time the Red Sox start a game and every three innings and the final score. Must have app for sports nuts!
**There are too many photography apps out there to have a favorite right now. I don't have the one that Bex has, but all her pics are really cool, so I am considering buying it.

Music
I Am T-Pain - although I don't like the music that is included, the app used as a Microphone is AWEsome! Autotune yourself.

Soundhound - want to know what that song is playing on the radio or at the store? Just start this app and it will tell you and give you a link to the youtube video, lyrics and more. You can even hum a tune and find the song. And no monthly fee like on Shazam.
Pandora - free internet radio that plays only the song style you want! Simply the best!
Ocarina - like a flute. You blow into the microphone and put your fingers over the holes on the screen. You can even download music sheets to play songs.




OK, I think that's enough. Obviously I love my iPhone! And yes, I like it as a phone too! What are your favorite apps? I would love to add to the list for others out there!

Gowalla and Foursquare

At the beginning of the year I jumped on to these 2 location based games/social networks. The basic concept is that when you go somewhere you "check in" there. Opening the app it will show you the closest places to you and you check in. Anyone who is a friend will then know where you are. It is an interesting thing to me. Out of all the social networking things I am involved with it is the thing I have the least "friends" on. I don't really want all the world to know where I am at all times.

With each one you get different things when you check in. On Gowalla you get points and there is a leaderboard that shows you who has the most check ins at a certain place. You can also add pictures to places you check in at that anyone can see. Occasionally you find virtual items at places. You can use those items to drop or swap at establishments to become the founder of that place.  You also receive stamps for certain things, like I have a stamp for creating 50 places. Basically because I have been in on it early there were stores that were not on there and I added them.

Foursquare is the one that currently has most prominence because it is working with so many companies. When you are the person who has checked in the most at one place you become the mayor of that establishment. There are some places that are working with Foursquare that give out incentives to visiting them the most. Starbucks was giving $1 off cold frappuccinos for a couple of months to the mayor. I am the mayor of 2 Starbucks (even with Scott trying to dethrone me at one of them). My favorite has been Mio Gelatos. The mayor there (me) gets a free gelato and cup of coffee any time they want. I have cashed in on this several times!

I had been thinking I was going to give up Gowalla when I checked in to the Apple store last month. As I checked in a screen popped up that said, "Click here to see if you won an eye-fi card." I clicked and I won! It's a 4GB SD card that goes into my digital camera and it automatically uploads my pics to my pic site of choice when I get on wifi. No need to put it into a card reader or anything! It arrived last week and it's awesome!

So, for now, I will keep checking in on both. But if you get on there and try to add me as a friend, please don't feel rejected if I don't add you. For now, I am just enjoying trying it out. I know, you may think, "But you always tweet and interact on FaceBook." True, but I am relatively generic when it comes to where I am...sometimes.