Tech

5 Good apps for the new iPhone 4S owner

Those of us who are new iPhone 4S owners are looking for a few good apps. These five have become mainstays in my toolkit, and cover productivity, Twitter, and entertainment apps.

Written by James Kendrick, Contributor Oct. 16, 2011 at 9:00 p.m. PT

Like many of you I am the owner of a brand new iPhone 4S (white, 32GB). I have shared my thoughts on the phone after just a day of ownership, and am getting overwhelmed with queries about which apps I am using. Apps and iPhones go together like music and iTunes so it's a fair question.

Like everyone else, with only a few days to play with the iPhone, I haven't had time to try a bunch of apps. I have settled on five of them that I use more than the others. These are third party apps available in the App Store; no Apple apps are in this list. There are about a million apps in the store so this list is a bit incomplete and I will be fleshing it out over time.. If you have a favorite app on your iPhone give it a shout out in the comments below as we're all looking for gems.

Tweetbot. By any standard I am a heavy user of Twitter, and a good app is a must for me. While iOS5 has Twitter integrated into the OS, Tweetbot is a stellar app for playing around on the social network. It has custom gestures for interacting with tweets and tweeters, and special features for entering tweets that make it as good a Twitter app as I have used on any platform. $2.99.

Reeder. I spend far too much of my day using Google Reader, and a good mobile app is an important part of my app toolkit. After trying several on my iPhone, I have settled on Reeder. In addition to having lots of nice features for working with my hundreds of Google Reader feeds, it's even faster than using the service on my desktop. The operation of Reeder is smooth and did I mention it is lightning fast? $2.99.

Pocket Informant. I have used Pocket Informant on every phone and tablet I've used for years, and the iPhone app is as good as it gets. It handles all of my Google Calendars and syncs with my online Toodledo task manager. Customizing the many calendar and task list views is as simple as tapping on the screen. There is no better way to display lots of information on a small screen. $12.99.

Instagram. After months of failing to understand what the big deal was about Instagram (as an Android phone owner), after installing it on my iPhone 4S I am hooked. The outstanding camera on the phone is put to good use with Instagram, and sharing photos online couldn't be easier. My photos on Instagram are instantly tweeted, but I could also share them on Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, and Foursquare if I wanted. Free.

Instacast. I don't have as much time to listen to podcasts as I'd like, but after Twitter friend @thegadgetmom recommended Instacast I gave it a try. The app makes it easy to find, subscribe to, and listen to podcasts on the iPhone. I find I can listen to favorite shows when I have time, and pick up where I left off later when I need to work. Instacast works well in the background so you can listen to podcasts while doing other stuff. $1.99.

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5 Good apps for the new iPhone 4S owner

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