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My favorite iPhone apps - August 2010

By | August 17, 2010, 2:00pm PDT

Summary: A list of my current favorite apps for iOS and the iPhone 4 for August 2010.

If you ever have to restore your iPhone, I highly recommend setting it up as a new phone — especially if you sync your mail, contacts and calendars over the air with Mobile Me.

While it isn’t nearly as convenient as restoring from a backup, setting up as new removes a lot of the crud that can build up on your iPhone, especially of you install a lot of apps (or if you’re a jailbreak aficionado.)

The main problem with restore/set up as new is app data — if it’s not synced to the cloud, it’s often gone forever. Before going this route, make sure that you back up your photos. Photos aren’t backed up automatically (unlike most other aspects of the iPhone) and a restore will delete them.

After you’ve restored and want to set up your iPhone as new I recommend just installing the core apps that you use on a daily basis and adding the rest incrementally — as needed.

Following is a list of my favorite iPhone apps:

Front Page apps

  • Google Mobile App (free, App Store) – Quickly search Google using your voice and location. A feature sorely missing in iOS.
  • TweetDeck for iPhone (free, App Store) – My favorite Twitter client. My review (November 2009).
  • Twitter for iPhone (free, App Store) – My second favorite Twitter client.
  • Foursquare (free, App Store) – While I’m not a prolific check-in app user, I do like using it while traveling.
  • Skype (free, App Store) – Unbeatable way to make free/cheap calls from the iPhone when traveling internationally (although I prefer video iChat when on OS X).
  • Light-O-Matic ($0.99, App Store) – My favorite flashlight app for the iPhone 4.

Weather/Surf

  • Accuweather Web app (free) – Yes, my favorite weather app is a Web app. Bookmark http://apple.accuweather.com and save it to your home screen.
  • The Weather Channel Max ($3.99, App Store) - While I prefer the compact interface of the Accuweather Web app, I like the GPS feature and 10-day view in TWC Max.
  • AyeTides ($9.99, App Store) – Simply the best tide app out there. If you need to know that tides in your area, this app is for you. My review from 6/27/2010.
  • Surf Watch ($9.99, App Store) - Beautiful app that monitors the wave heights at the NOAA buoys and has fully configurable push notifications and alarms that warn you when big waves are coming. Sweet!
  • Surf Report (free, App Store) – This one gives you the current wave heights and ocean temps for your favorite surf sports. Use its GPS to find new surf spots when traveling.

News

Travel

  • Flight Update Pro ($9.99, App Store) – The single best way to track your flights, with push notifications and TripIt support.
  • Talking German Phrasebook ($0.99, App Store) – Great for learning some basic German phrases.
  • German Audio FlashCards (free, App Store) – Learn German words with audio from native speakers. The free version has 6 word files, the $14.99 paid version has 64 word files and 2400 words.

Automotive

  • Road Trip ($4.99, App Store) – Still the best fuel economy tracker out there. My review (November 2009).
  • MotionX GPS Drive ($0.99, App Store) – Best turn-by-turn navigation app.

Productivity (a generic catchall I use for several types of apps)

  • 1Password Pro ($9.99, App Store) – The best password manager for OS X comes to iPhone and now has automatic syncing via DropBox. (My review from November 2009)
  • TextExpander ($4.99, App Store) – Type faster on your iPhone with text snippits that expand to larger words/phrases.
  • Dragon Dictation (free, App Store) – Fills a hole in Apple’s missing voice recognition, uses the widely praised Dragon NaturallySpeaking engine.
  • AirMouse Pro ($1.99, App Store) – My must-have application for controling VLC on the Mac mini media center in my living room.
  • PasteBot ($3.99, App Store) – Clipboard manager for text and photos.
  • DropBox (free, App Store) – 2GB of free could storage. Indispensable on OS X and on the iPhone.

Music

  • Pandora Music (free, App Store) – What else is there to say? Should be part of the default iOS 4 installation IMHO.
  • Live Phish ($1.99, App Store) – Innovative streaming audio app from the band Phish. Access to all of your purchased music and streams a random free show — now with background audio. My review from June 2010.
  • Midomi SoundHound Infinity ($4.99, App Store) – What’s that song? This app will tell you.
  • TWiT ($0.99, App Store) – While technically not music per se, I store my favorite podcast app in my music folder for lack of a better location.
That’s my short list. What are the first iPhone apps that you install?

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Apple iPhone, Twitter Inc., Web Application, $PRICE, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve

    • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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RE: My favorite iPhone apps - August 2010
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
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RE: My favorite iPhone apps - August 2010
panic man 17th Aug 2010
no IM apps, no movie apps, no photo or video apps, no NYTimes, no dropbox, or menu pages, No tripit even though you are using fight update pro, no MLB, no angry birds, no f#ckng games?? Seriously your list is lacking big time!!
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Don't Panic, panic man
markmai 17th Aug 2010
There are lots of reviews on the iTunes App Store where you can find the highest rated apps in the categories you are looking for.
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How?
NonZealot 17th Aug 2010
@markmai
you can find the highest rated apps in the categories you are looking for

How? (and the very fact that I need to ask this question shows how unintuitive the app store is).

Seriously. I go to the App Store on my iPhone, I tap on Categories at the bottom, and I click on Sports (for example). At the top I see "Top Paid", "Top Free", and "Release Date" but the apps in "Top Paid" and "Top Free" are not sorted by number of stars. Nor do they seem to take into account that a 5 star app with 100 votes is better than a 5 star app with 1 vote.

Like I wrote below, I found that buying an app like AppAdvice helped me find the highest rated apps in the categories I was looking for because I was totally unsuccessful at accomplishing that goal using Apple's built in tools.
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RE: My favorite iPhone apps - August 2010
rynning 17th Aug 2010
@NonZealot
I realize I don't watch for Apple-related (on non-related) articles on a daily basis, and I've been away for a while. But you seriously bought an iPhone??? I have trouble believing that. I mean, you can't install WinMo over it. Why? Or more indicative, why not an Android? (I have heard of a guy who installed Android on an iPhone...)
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@rynning: I did buy an iPhone
NonZealot 17th Aug 2010
I have trouble believing that.

Sounds like your problem, not mine. happy

why not an Android?

I truly believe that the iPhone 4 is a fantastic piece of hardware, better than any Android phone I could easily get on my provider (the best being the Motorola Droid, called the Milestone here in Canada). Finally, FINALLY Apple released an iPhone that didn't have one of the worst displays on the market. Instead, they jumped to having the best display on the market.

And finally, FINALLY, Apple decided that copy and paste and multi-tasking (although still somewhat limited) were things that intelligent people wanted.

So with the iPhone 4, Apple removed all of the absolute showstoppers that I'd identified in previous iterations of the iPhone. Previous versions of the iPhone were vastly inferior to what was out on the market at the time. iPhone 4 is the first version that I believe is at the top of the pack. It isn't necessarily alone at the top though since I've read fantastic things about a couple of the premier Android devices.

As for all the publicly reported problems with iPhone, I've never cared much about a removable battery, I decided that I would risk Apple's closed App Store approach with the hope that I wouldn't have need of apps that Apple won't let in (and so far, I haven't been disappointed). I always stated that Antennagate was overblown although Apple deserved every single delicious slur and insult that was thrown its way. While I was easily able to recreate the Touch of Death using nothing more than the tip of my finger on the gap in order to drop a call in a weak signal area, a case fixed that to my satisfaction.

As for things I miss? How about being able to see real information (like my next appointment, today's forecast, and the ability to do things like toggle wifi right from the home screen) without having to open 10 friggin' apps?!?! WM and Android crush iOS in that regard. While the OS has been stable so far, not all the apps have been. I honestly expected there to be no application crashes since Apple rejects unstable apps but that is yet another lie from the Apple zealots on ZDNet. There is, of course, the size of this thing. It is a brick. A heavy brick. I really, really liked the form factor of my HTC Touch Diamond. Anyone who said that the iPhone is only slightly larger than the Diamond and that the difference isn't noticeable simply hasn't owned both. There is no comparison. I believe many of the Android devices are even bigger. iPhone is already too big. I simply couldn't stand anything even bigger than this thing. Also, the keyboard is nowhere near as functional as the keyboard on my Diamond. I purchased TouchPal for WM which is a fantastic keyboard. Apple, of course, won't let you replace any built in functionality so you have to learn to live with Apple's rather weak implementation of a keyboard. Finally, iOS4 still doesn't implement real user controlled multi-tasking. It is up to the app developer to upgrade their apps to take advantage of iOS4 multi-tasking. So the app I mentioned below, AppAdvice, handles users leaving the app in a terrible way. When you leave and then come back to AppAdvice (and you will do this often to check out the Apps they mention), you don't go back to where you were when you left off. Ugh.

Things I really, really like? This thing is fast, again, compared to my Diamond. Very fast. I know there are faster Android and even WM devices than the Diamond but I can only compare with what I had. The browsing is also very good, mostly due to the speed and the very high resolution of the device. I find that with many sites, I don't even have to zoom in at all. I also think the battery is very good. While it isn't BlackBerry good, it isn't a totally fair comparison since I use my iPhone much more than I use my BlackBerry. Even with what I would consider to be moderately heavy usage, iPhone has no difficulty making it 16 hours without a charge. I believe it would easily last 2 days if I didn't use it as a smartphone. My Diamond would also last 2 days if I didn't use it as a smartphone but it would only last 3-4 hours (maybe) if I used it as heavily as I do my iPhone.

Overall, I'm satisfied. While it hasn't exceeded the unrealistic expectations that the Apple zealot crowd had set for me, it more than meets the expectations an intelligent person would have for a smartphone.

I won't say anything bad about Android though. I truly, truly hope that Android continues to do well and that WP7 does really well because it is important that Apple stay scared of the competition.
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I like AppAdvice
NonZealot 17th Aug 2010
While not free ($1.99) and I'm sure the info available in it is free if you spent the time to find it, I found that as a new user to the App Store, this app was very helpful. The sheer number of apps in the App Store, the very poor ratio of good apps to very, very, very bad apps, and an App Store that I personally find very difficult to navigate both on the iPhone and in iTunes, makes finding good apps a difficult and daunting task for anyone, much less a new user. I found that AppAdvice at least gave me a starting point to getting good apps on my iPhone.
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Tamil alphabets 1
stone005 1st Sep
Tamil alphabets 1this application is a great and easy way to start reading and writing the basic alphabets that are the foundation of the Tamil language just by tracing over the letters.
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RE: My favorite iPhone apps - August 2010
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
Greetings, I delight within your subject matter. mulberry bags That is certainly a interesting website and I wished to document a remark to inform you, fantastic work!

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