iPhone apps

Lately, people have been asking me which iPhone apps I use. Here’s the ridiculously long list of the ones I’ve downloaded, with notes about each one (I’ve marked my favorites with a *)

*1Password: This is an awesome app that goes with the indespensible 1Password desktop app. Truth be told, I don’t use the iPhone version often, but it gives me a warm feeling all over to know that I have it.

2D Sense: This is a barcode scanner app. I don’t really use it.

A Free Level: This app purports to be a level, which would be handy if it worked. It just seems… well… off. Maybe my accelerometers are broken.

AdHoc: This app is useful for developers who need to see the SSID of their iPhone. For normal people, not necessary.

AdrPoolLite: Want to play billiards? This app does the trick, but only online. Boo!

Aerolite Free: This is Asteroids. I don’t like it.

AIM: This is AOL’s instant messenger. It would be useful if it stayed connected when not in the app, but it doesn’t, despite Apple promising that feature.

Air Sharing: Excellent app for using your iPhone as a wireless thumb drive. I wish I had a use for it.

AirMe: This tells you what’s on TV, I think.

*Aki Mahjong: Great Mahjong game.

*Amazon.com: Have money to spend? Get this app and find yourself browsing Amazon.com all the time.

AOL Radio: A radio app. Cool. Don’t use it.

Arcade 2: I think Sammy uses this app, which is some kind of game. I don’t.

AroundMe: Who is near you? Eh.

Art Gallery: A virtual art gallery. Another app I don’t use.

*ASL Ultimate: Learn American Sign Language with this ASL dictionary. YES!

Audi A4: This driving game should be more fun.

*Banking: Bank from your iPhone. Sweet app!

Barcode: Another barcode scanner. If there were barcodes worth scanning, I might use it.

BClassicLite: This is Breakout for the iPhone.

Black and White: Othello.

Bloomberg: Cool finance news/stock ticker app. Watch your money vanish with great graphics.

BoxOffice: See what movies are playing near you.

Brain Toot Lite: A trivia game. After a couple plays, it’s boring.

Brain Tuner: See above. Same thing.

Brushes: iPhone, meet MacPaint. People with talent can make this app do crazy stuff.

Bubbles: For my five-year-old. She loves “blowing bubbles.”

BubbleWrap: See above. (Except, in this one, she gets to pop them.)

CannonGame: Learn physics with this cannon game. Fun for a while.

CarriesDots: Classic “dots” game.

Chase: Banking app for Chase customers. Nice.

*Checkers: A checkers game that is maddeningly difficult!

CheckWord: Scrabble dictionary.

*City Guide: A guide to Washington, D.C., establishments. Worth it, if you ever go out. (I don’t.)

Classics: Great books on your iPhone (in text form). Why not?

Cowabunga: Cow sounds.

*Crash Kart: Fun driving game. Addictive.

*Crayon: A sweet physics game where you draw rocks to move other rocks around.

Crazy Eye: Just plain silly eyes. Sammy loves it.

Crazy Mouth: See above. For the mouth.

*Cro-Mag: Another wicked fun driving game.

Cube: I’m not really sure what this is.

Cube Runner: A first-person shooter. I can’t make it work.

Currency: See how little the dollar is worth. Yippee!’

Darkslide: Something to do with Flickr, I think. I don’t use Flickr, or this app. (note, I use Flickr now, but still not this app.)

*Darts: A darts game. Pretty fun, I have to say.

Dialer: I think this is a voice-activated dialer. I don’t use it.

Dictionaire: A dictionary, if I’m not mistaken.

*Dizzy Bee: A fun accelerometer-based game. Really fun, actually.

*Easy Wi-Fi: Make connecting to AT&T wifi hotspots a cinch. This is a must-have.

*eBay: Follow your activities on eBay. Handy, if you use eBay.

Enigmo: A fun desktop game that doesn’t translate well to the iPhone, IMO.

eReader: An electronic book reader.

Evernote: A notes recording app that I have yet to find a use for.

EyeTricks: A collection of optical illusions.

*Facebook: Probably better than the full-fledged Facebook site!

*Flight Update: An awesome flight tracking app.

FlightTracker: Same as above, except far less awesome.

Flixster: I don’t even know what this is, to be honest.

Football: A paper football simulator. About as stimulating as the real thing.

*FourFree: Connect Four. I’m addicted to this game.

French: A French-English dictionary.

Frenzic: A fun game that gets a little old after a while. It’s kind of like Tetris with Trivial Pursuit pieces.

GarageBuy: An eBay app that I don’t really use.

gingerbread: With this, Sammy can make gingerbread houses.

*Go Out: Want a good place to go to? Look it up in this app.

GoodGuide: Look up “green” products. Seems kind of time-consuming to do this, if you ask me.

Google: Google’s search app. It’s cool, but I just use Safari search.

*Google Earth: The coolest app ever, I dare say. Google Earth in the palm of your hand.

GPS Tracker: Track your movements. (Wait, that doesn’t sound right.) I don’t get the point.

Hangman: Not hard enough for me, but Sammy likes it.

*HoldEm: Great Texas Hold ‘Em game.

i Say Free: Simon Says. Fun.

i.TV: See what’s on TV, at theaters, etc.

iBowl: iPhone bowling. All the fun of bowling without the grease.

iDoodle2lite: A doodle app

IM+: A multi-service instant messenger app. Works well.

iMaze: A maze game.

iPet Pets: Tomagachi (sp?) comes to the iPhone.

iScopes: Horoscopes. (Cynthia downloaded this…)

*iStat: See your iPhone’s stats, as well as those of your Mac(s).

iSteam: A goofy app in which you blow on your phone to make it steam up, and then draw on the steam.

*iTalk: Make your iPhone an audio recorder.

iTarot: Tarot cards. (Cynthia bought this app too.)

*iWant: Look up stuff (ATMs, gas stations, etc) around you. Really handy.

*iWOL: Wakes up your computer over the Internet. Wicked.

iXmas Tree: See gingerbread app. Replace gingerbread house with Christmas tree.

*Jaadu VNC: Control your computer via the iPhone. Oh yeah.

JawBreaker: Not sure, actually.

JellyCar: Cute game. I don’t really get it. Sammy loves it.

JirboAvatar: Set up an avatar for the Jirbo service. Eh.

JirboBounce: Game with above service.

JirboMatch: Ditto above.

Jobs: Find a job. Pretty relevant these days.

Joost: Watch crappy Internet TV on your iPhone.

Jott: Another note-taking app that I don’t have a use for.

Knots: Twister for your fingers.

Labyrinth: Cute maze game.

Lander: This “chopper” game never works for me.

*Last.fm: Great Internet radio app.

Light: Funny how handy the iPhone is as a flashlight.

Lightsaber: Fun, once. Then really, really annoying. It makes lightsaber sounds.

LinkedIn: For the LinkedIn service, a service I have yet to see the value in (thus, the same is true for the app.)

Loopt: Social network locator app. Eh.

Mancala: Fun game that takes a lifetime to master.

Metronome: Well, it’s a metronome. It does what it says.

midomi: Very cool app that can translate singing or wistling into the name of the song.

MiniPiano: Fun app in which you play a little piano!

Mobile News: The Associated Press’s news app. I just visit news sites instead.

*MobileFiles: Access your files on MobileMe (.mac). I love it.

*mondo: Great solitaire games. Hundreds of them.

*Monkey Ball: Super Monkey Ball. Great fun, really hard.

Moo: Cow sounds.

MooBox: More cow sounds. (Really? More cow sounds?)

Moonlight: Mahjong game.

Motion Alarm: Alarm goes off when your iPhone is moved.

myLite: Flashlight.

myTo-Dos: Another to-do list.

NBC DC Traffic Cam: See traffic cams live. Sounds better than it is, but for those for whom it’d be helpful, it’s great. (If also slow.)

NearPics: See pictures taken near you.

*NetNewsWire: RSS reader that syncs with the desktop version. Nice!

Now Playing: See what movies are playing near you.

NYTimes: Nice iPhone app from the NY Times.

Obama ’08: Obama’s iPhone app for its volunteers. Interesting use of the technology.

Othello: It’s, um, Othello.

PAC-MAN: Yeah, Pac-Man. So-so.

Pandora: Great Internet radio app.

PapiCatch: Catch flying sandwiches or something. It’s a game Sammy enjoys.

*PayPal: Use PayPal from your iPhone. Really handy at times.

Pboat: Powerboat racing game. Kind of fun.

PegJump: You know that peg game at Bob Evans? It’s on your iPhone too.

Penguin: Access Penguin books from your iPhone. Unimpressed.

People: Look up people’s addresses, etc. I should use this more.

Pets: Another tomagochi thing, I think,

PhoneSaber: Another lightsaber app.

*Quordy: Best. Boggle. Game. Ever. Play against other people via e-mail.

RC Physics: Use your iPhone to determine acceleration. Great for Tesla owners.

*Remote: Control Apple TV or iTunes via the iPhone. LOVE IT.

reMovem: A game in which you remove contiguous-color balls. Funnish.

*Rolando: Pretty cool game that is hard to describe. It’s kind of a moden-day version of Sonic or something, but way better.

Say Who: Voice-activated dialer. I don’t use it.

*Scrabble: Scrabble for the iPhone. Fun, though would be better if it had non-real-time multiplayer capabilities. For example, if it interfaced with Scrabble on Facebook.

Scribble: A doodling app.

Shakespeare: Complete works of Shakespeare, on your iPhone. That’s a no-brainer.

Shazam: Like midomi. See above.

Simplify: Hmmm… I forget. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, eh?

Slots: Slot machine for your iPhone. Too bad the iPhone doesn’t have a change dispenser.

SnapTell: Take a picture of something and have Amazon put it in your cart.

Sol Free: Solitaire. Fun enough, I guess.

SpaceMonkey: A monkey game I haven’t had a chance to play with.

SpeechCloud: Honestly, I don’t know.

Speedtest: See what kind of Internet connection speed you have to your iPhone.

*Spore: Pretty fun pint-sized version of the new Spore game.

Stars: See the constellations on your iPhone. Boy, wouldn’t this have been handy 400 years ago?

Sudoku: It is what it is. Not a sudoku fan.

Tap Tap: Like Guitar Hero, but without great music.

TapDefense: Desktop Tower Defense for the iPhone. Just as addictive.

TicTacFree: Tic Tac Toe. Sammy likes it.

TicTacTouch: See above.

To Do: Why so many to-do lists? I guess they were free. I don’t use this one either.

*touchPhysics: Another game in which you draw objects in order to influence the motion of other objects. It’s drop-dead fun… and cool.

Toy Bot: Hmm, I don’t know what this one is.

Trace: Some kind of drawing game. Haven’t played with it.

Traffic: Tells you the traffic situation around you.

Translator: Guess.

Tris: Tetris.

*Truphone: Voice over IP for the iPhone. Sweetness! Esp. useful for those making overseas calls.

TWC: The Weather Channel app. As ugly as the cable station.

*TwitterFon: Best. Twitter. App. Ever.

Twitterrific: Pushed aside by the above app.

TypePad: If you have a TypePad blog and want to post remotely, here you go!

*Units: Phenomenal unit conversion app.

Urbanspoon: Cute way to look up restaurants by shaking the iPhone.

USA TODAY: The USA TODAY news application.

Virgin Radio: Another Internet radio app.

VNC: Similar to Jaadu VNC, this allows you to control your computer remotely.

Voice Dialer: The name says it all. I don’t use it.

WeatherBug: Cyn LOVES weather apps. I just look outside.

WhitePages: White pages on your iPhone.

Who is Hot: Links weather information with your address book. Always crashes my phone.

WhosHere: Locates people around you.

Whrrl: Same as above, I think.

WiFinder: Tells you where to find WiFi hotspots.

Wikipanion: Wikipedia in your pocket.

*Word Warp: Fun game in which you look for all the words you can make with a set of letters.

WritePad: Really cool gestures app where you can write on the phone with your finger and it recognizes the text. In other words, turns your iPhone into a Newton.

*X-Plane: A flight simulator for your iPhone. I don’t use it, but cripes, is it cool!

Y. Painter: A painting app. Fun.

Zenbe: MORE to-do lists. Pass.

ZIPcodes: Look up ZIP codes.

Zippo Lighter: It’s a lighter. Virtually.