So what can I do with my new iPhone?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Just had some great news at work: they are giving us all iPhones! Sure, they are for ‘work use only’, but in a very wink-wink-nudge-nudge sort of way. My current cell phone is a $15 pay-as-you-go model I bought at Walgreens, so this is quite the upgrade.

So what can I do with an iPhone? What apps should I get? Do you have to pay for apps, or are they free? What’s the usual cost? Since my job involves being out in the field a lot, a good GPS/map system and access to email is a main priority. Can I put some mp3 files on it? How about video? What’s thing Angry Birds thing I keep hearing about? What other apps MUST I have?

I’m giddy with excitement.

2

[ul]
[li]Some apps are pay, some are free, the price is listed in the app store.[/li][li]The phone comes with a default Google Maps and Apple Mail program. If you want GPS navigation, you have to pay.[/li][li]Yes, use itunes to sync your music library with the phone.[/li][li]Ditto, for iTunes although the movies have to be in MP4 format. iTunes can do the conversion for you although it takes quite a bit of time. Alternatively, you can buy new movies from the iTunes store that are already in the correct format.[/li][li]Angry Birds is one of the most popular games on the iPhone. It costs a buck last time I checked.[/li][li]I’ll leave app reccomendations to everyone else.[/li][/ul]

3

[quote=“Shalmanese, post:2, topic:602725”]

[li]The phone comes with a default Google Maps and Apple Mail program. If you want GPS navigation, you have to pay.[/li][/QUOTE]

Actually, MapQuest makes a pretty good, free app that will do turn-by-turn navigation.

As for app recommendations… what do you want to do?

Some of my favorites:

  • Yelp: restaurant and other recommendations - I used it to find a well-rated Ford dealer with a garage when our car started having problems when we were in Boston
  • OpenTable: make restaurant reservations on the go
  • Facebook, Twitter (obvious)
  • Pocket Informant: better calendar than the default, Calvetica is another good one
  • Paprika: awesome cookbook program for collecting various recipes - or, if you just want a premade cookbook, try:
  • Epicurious: online recipe database
  • How to Cook Everything: electronic version of Mark Bittman’s classic cookbook
  • TextGrabber: really decent OCR program that can analyze text in photos
  • OmniFocus: Getting Things Done-compatible app for keeping track of projects and miscellaneous to-do stuff
  • Convertbot: unit conversions with a cute interface
  • 1Password: keep all of those usernames and passwords for work secure. App itself is secured with a 4-digit PIN, but you can set a long Master Password for special accounts, as needed.
  • Bank account app: do banking from your phone, get alerts about low balance/overdrafts, make transfers, pay bills electronically, depending on your bank’s app’s abilities. I have Chase’s app.
  • Car insurance app: I have GEICO’s - with it I can pay electronically, pull up an image of my current insurance card and have it E-mailed to me as a PDF too, look at my policy coverage, call for roadside service, and do a bunch of other things.
  • Work-related apps: depending on your workplace, you might find some that are more useful for you. I have Epocrates (prescription drug lookup), Medscape, WebMD, and GoToMeeting, among others.
  • NikeGPS: I track the duration, distance, and average miles/minute of my lunchtime walk; it’s intended for running but will track walking speeds just fine.
  • TransitGenie: useful in Chicago to plot travel via the CTA (mass transit: bus/L train), and get time/location for the nearest available transport
  • My Medical: keeps all of my medical history in one place
  • Shazam or Soundhound: can listen to music playing nearby and identify the song for you, plus give a link to purchase it on iTunes if you like. These don’t work on live music.
4

[quote=“Shalmanese, post:2, topic:602725”]

[ul][li]The phone comes with a default Google Maps and Apple Mail program. If you want GPS navigation, you have to pay.[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]

Incorrect. Google maps on the iPhone will provide you with directions and real-time map tracking, no additional fee required.

5

Google maps wont give voice guidance. It doesn’t do much more than google maps does on a regular computer other than being able to access it while on the road.

There’s a free GPS app called Waze that is user editable. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks.

6

No, it won’t give voice guidance, but it will plan a route for you and show where are in relation to that route in real time. But yeah, you have to look at it.

Sorry if that wasn’t what was meant by “GPS navigation”, but to me, when a GPS is showing me where I am and where I want to be AND the best way to get there, it’s “GPS navigation”.

7

FYI, Mapquest’s app does do voice directions in addition to listing them on the phone.

8

If you’re literally out in the field, you might want a good weather radar app. I’ve tried various free ones and finally bought NOAA Hi-Def Radar, which I really like.

Another app that I highly recommend is ACTPrinter. It’s a virtual printer that allows you to “print” documents to your iPhone wirelessly.

There are lots of document scanner apps that use the iPhone’s camera. I have CamScanner and use it a lot.

You might like something like AppBox, which has a bunch of smaller apps within it, including a level, which I use more than I ever thought I would. It also has a tip calculator, unit converter for measurements, sales price calculator – that sort of stuff.

There are also a couple of apps that will tell you about free apps – ones that are always free as well as ones being offered for free for a limited time. I use App Deals.

You’ll probably find all sorts of things particular to your interests. I have a pitch-pipe app, for example, and a caliper app.

Have fun, and don’t feel guilty about downloading a free app, trying it for a while, then ditching it.

9

Plenty of good, free, radio apps. Pandora, Shoutcast, Slacker. Also, if you have a favorite local radio station, many have apps that will stream their internet feed to your phone.

10

A lot of us use Tapatalk for accessing message boards, like the Straight Dope. :wink: You can still get in using Safari, but this app makes it a little more readable. It does have some drawbacks, though, like not putting things in spoiler boxes.

There are also lots of news sites. NPR’s is great, and I like AP’s as well. Meebo lets you put all IMs into one place, so you can get instant messages from AOL, gmail, Facebook and more all there instead of scattered around different apps.

Fruit Ninja is a pretty fun game. And some of the special-interest apps that I have include iBirdPro, which gives you bird identification, and iMissal, which provides Mass readings for daily and Sunday Masses, plus some other Catholic features. In this realm, I also like The Catholic Directory’s Mass Times app, which uses the GPS to give you Mass times for nearby Catholic churches, if you’re out of town. You hit the address, and it plots it for you on the map and then you can hit “directions” on how to get there.

TomTom is a good GPS app that gives you turn-by-turn directions.

11

If you like TV, there is an app called Into_Now that is pretty cool. It is like Shazaam for TV. It samples a few seconds of the show you are watching and identifies it. Then you can chat or tweet about it, look it up on IMDB, see stats for some sports. etc. I am simply mesmorized by this thing. Free too!

12

Dropbox is a useful way to back up a lot of different things on the phone - the mention of 1Password (which we use) reminded me of it. You can also use it to share files among computers - e.g. I can edit a spreadsheet on my Android, my iPod Touch, my work laptop, my home desktop…

If you want to get Dropbox, which is online cloud storage and is free for the first couple gig, PM me and I’ll send you a link that gets us both a bit more free storage :).

If you do purchase stuff, I assume it would be on your own iTunes account vs. a work-based account. If so, synch it to your own computer at least once and everything you buy will be stored there as well, so if you do have to give up the iPhone, you will have access to it in the future if you get your own iPhone or iPod Touch. You can re-download apps even if you haven’t synched, and now you can redownload music as well, but that was not always the case.

Utilities that are nice to have: We use PlainText as a text editor - it links directly to your Dropbox account, vs. the built-in notes application. Simplifies note-taking.

CamScanner: lets you snap a picture of a document and turn it into a PDF. I’ve taken such documents and OCR’ed them on my desktop; there may even be an OCR tool available for the phone. There’s a free version of it with some page limitations; I plunked down a couple bucks for the pro version of it on my Android. Typo Knig has an iPhone and hasn’t used it much… yet.

1Password is a godsend. Using the Dropbox sync, you actually have to sync it once from a desktop computer. You can get the trial version of the desktop software, do the setup / sync, then after that you don’t have to have the desktop version installed. Of course you might find it useful enough on the desktop that you want to pony up the 30ish dollars (the handheld version is 10ish, I think).

Games: Cut The Rope is cute, addictive, and a lot of fun. Like many games, there’s a limited version for free, 15ish levels, and you can pay the 99 cents to get the full version.

13

Oooh - one thing we were really looking forward to was a grocery shopping app. We had one on the Palm (Handy Shopper) that had a feature we liked, a LOT, the abiity to track aisles for an item in a number of stores. Only one out there is SplashShopper for the iphone, however, and that’s unusably slow. There are a number of others available that don’t track by multiple stores, however. Grocery IQ is one that comes to mind, but I haven’t played with it enough to recommend for or against it.

The Android now, has one that was actually coded specifically as a HandyShopper replacement (see ToMarket). Not on the iPhone and not planned to be, as far as I know.

Anyway, such an app can be used for all sorts of listmaking needs, such as a travel packing list, a list of books you want to read, etc.

14

Correct, Google Maps will provide GPS tracking and navigation. However the Google Maps on the iPhone isn’t nearly as good as it is on the Android. I started a thread about that in GQ and it seems that Apple throttles the software compared to the one for Android.

I was advised to get the Mapquest app. I downloaded it and it works great. And best of all it was free!

15

If you like to watch TV and movies streamed to your phone, there are also a few apps for that (all free). TV.com has full-length episodes of current CBS shows such as CSI, Craig Ferguson, and David Letterman. As well as 60 Minutes. Crackle has full episodes of shows such as Married With Children, All In the Family, and Seinfeld, as well as recent box-office smashes. They are advertiser supported, so there will be brief interruptions for commercial messages. Also, PBS has a free app with episodes of their programs such as NOVA and MotorWeek. And being public broadcasting, their episodes are not interrupted.

I use an app called Shopper that will save lists for multiple stores and will track items by aisle. And the lite version is free.

16

I pointed this out in the Games forum, but it is worth mentioning.

Scribblenauts Remix is a $5 game that is currently on sale for $1. Worth it. Short game, but easily worth the 99 cents.

17

Oh, and here is the thread I made about Ipod Games(also Iphone games).

18

Not to change the subject slightly, but has anyone had success making telephone calls with their Ipod Touch? I have seen a couple guides, but have had little luck so far.

Anyone know how to do it? I tried with Whistle and Google Voice, but when I called, I could hear my wife on the other end, but she could not hear me(and my Ipod Touch is a version 4 with a mic.).

19

Skype.

20

It’s that simple? I can call all land lines and so forth? Free?