Software Spotlight: Top Seven iPhone Apps

In an effort to broaden the scope of what we offer here at Thoughts of a Random Gamer, here is a list of the top seven Non-Apple Apps I use on my iPhone. This piece is not designed to convince you to get any of these apps or an iPhone, my goal is purely informative. So without any further ado, on to my top seven Non-Apple iPhone Apps. Also, forgive the censoring of the images, some of my friends would probably not appreciate their information just placed on the Internet.

Tweetie - $2.99

Tweetie As most of you are probably aware, there is a massive revolution of micro-blogging going on right now. I am of course speaking of the juggernaut known as Twitter. One day the future will look back on Twitter (and Facebook, the next app) and use them as warnings of the addictiveness of the Internet! I cannot go for more than a couple hours without checking one of them, how sad is that? Hi, my name is Ammon. And I am addicted to the Internet (and Twitter).

I first heard of Twitter shortly after it first launched in 2006, but dismissed it as a waste of time. Oh how right I was. This last summer I succumbed to the temptation partly because a co-worker wouldn’t shut-up about it. Like most people, I started slow and would sometimes go days without checking it, how quickly that changed. Mid-September I started the process of choosing which app to use on my iPhone. And after going through several apps, I finally settled on Tweetie which has no major issues and several things going for it, such as:

A Clean, easy to use interface
An Intuitive, functional design
The Ability to have multiple accounts
Excellent usage of GPS chip and Camera
Relatively quick updates (depending on connection)

I am only going to touch on one of the points above, partly because I really put it through its paces around Christmas time. I took a trip with my brother and some friends to the Bahamas and blogged the entire trip using Twitter. In the Tweetie App you can add a link to Google Maps with your location and upload an image to TwitPic all from the Tweet creation screen. With 3G service, it took less than 30 seconds to type a message and attach the image and location info. This came in handy when traveling, because my family and friends at home could follow me as I went. Unfortunately I had a nice little roaming addition to my bill the following month. Note to self, less Twitter while out of the country.

Facebook - Free

The other addictive social networking site, oh how you have wasted so many hours in my life. Before I got my iPhone I was only able to check Facebook on a computer, but now that I have the Facebook app, I find myself checking it numerous times a day. The app does a lot of things right like a clean, easy to use interface and quick updates (depending on connection). It also does a great job keeping track of where you have been. Each link you follow keeps a bread crumb trail in the upper left hand corner of the app, which you can use to follow back to where you started.

Unfortunately the app has one major issue that I hope will be resolved soon, lack of Events access. My primary use of Facebook is to see what events my friends have planned in my area. Due to this limitation, I have to launch the mobile Facebook site in Safari. I hope that the Facebook team fixes this soon because I other than this one limitation, I have no issues with the App.

Mint.com - Free

I very recently discovered Mint.com and have fallen in love. The ability to aggregate your financial data in an easy to use interface that is accessible online in a read-only mode is amazing. I was searching for a free and easy to use application to budget and monitor my finances, when I stumbled upon Mint.com. At first I was a little leery of my financial info being on the web outside of my bank, until I read all of the reviews about how secure and easy to use it was. The review on PCMag’s website is what helped me make up my mind. That and the fact Mint.com does not store your account info, your social security number, your address, or even your name.

Login access to your information is through a email username and a password that you can set. After my initial log on, I set up some fairly robust notifications such as low balance, purchases over a certain amount, and even bank fees. I was able to add my credit card and both bank accounts with very little trouble. There is also functionality to add in information about your possessions such as vehicles and your house.

After going through the initial setup and defining my budget, I installed the iPhone App. As soon as I input my credentials, the App downloaded the relevant information and away I went. Unfortunately there is not much you can do in the App in terms of changing settings or your budget, but being able to check my balance without accessing the web portal is awesome. I highly suggest this site and App for anyone looking for a free and easy to use, though limited personal finance application.

Shazam - Free

Shazam Have you ever heard a song on the radio and wanted to know what it was? If so, this App is for you. Shazam is one of the most useful Apps in the store because it allows you get information about a song just by playing it. I have used this App to tag numerous songs so that I could get them later from the iTunes Music Store. It is incredibly easy to use as well. Simply launch the App, press Tag Now, hold the phone near the speakers, and wait for it to tag the song.

There are some limitations to the types of music being tagged. Orchestral, Jazz, Blues, and other live performances are harder for the App to tag accurately, due to minor changes in how the song is performed. Finally, the other day I discovered a cool feature. If the App is unable to send the recording to the server for processing, it will save it for processing when you are back online. Unfortunately you have to manually kick off the process, but this is most likely due to applications not being able to run in the background.

White Pages - Free

Carrying the White Pages and Yellow Pages on your phone, enough said.

Imangi Word Squares - $0.99

Imangi I discovered Word Squares purely by accident. Just over a week ago, The Portable Gamer was having a promotion and I managed to snag one of the promo codes for this App. I had never heard of it before the promotion and had really no idea what I had won. Boy did I ever win a gem! This inventive game takes two highly successful ideas, Boggle and Sudoku, and combines them to create a game that both challenges and entertains. Like Boggle, you are given letters that you need to make words. However, like Sudoku, you place the letters in their spot to spell a word in every column (top to bottom) and every row (left to right). There are two versions of the game: a Lite version containing only 25 puzzles, and a Full version containing over 1,000 puzzles.

The game has varying degrees of difficulty through a combination of grid size and the number of hints given. You can adjust the slider from No Hints to Lots of Hints and choose a grid ranging from 3 x 3 all the way to 6 x 6. The image is of the 4 x 4 grid with Few Hints.

This game can be quite challenging on the higher grids with few hints, those with poor English skills should definitely try the Lite version first. I thoroughly enjoy this game and would most likely have bought it if I hadn’t won it.

Bejeweled 2 - $2.99

If there has ever been a game series that has sucked more of my life away than the Bejeweled games have, I don’t know of it. Ever since the first Bejeweled game was released in 2001, I have been hooked. I had been resisting the urge to purchase the game on my iPhone as soon as I knew it was coming out, but was unable to resist the urge to play. I have a confession to make, I royally suck at the game. I don’t mean the “I am decent and can hold my own except against masters suck”, I mean the “I am lucky to pass level 5 suck”. But for some reason I am ok with it.

The interface for the iPhone is great, the gem selection is accurate and moving a gem is as easy as swiping on the gem in the direction you want it to go. Occasionally the game will move the wrong gem, but this is a rare occurrence. Another nice feature is the ability to turn off the in game music and listen to the tunes on the iPhone. Sometimes its more fun to play this game with classical music playing. Closing the App also saves your game to be resumed the next time you decide to indulge the obsession.

Final Thoughts

These are my top Apps on the iPhone. I know most of the list is probably a repeat of someone elses list, but I really don’t care. Hopefully I will be able to find the time in the future to discuss my top games on the iPhone (even though two of the Apps were games). Until then, keep gaming!

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