# What are your favorite iPhone applications?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 19, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672 "2008-10-19T22:36:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/1 "2008-10-19T22:36:56Z")

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I just got an iPhone, and while I don’t want to clutter it up with a bunch of junk I’ll never use, I’d definitely like to download some of the most useful/entertaining applications. All I’ve got so far is Pandora.

Free apps are preferable, but I’m okay with purchasing a few if they’re awesome enough.

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**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/2 "2008-10-19T23:26:45Z")

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I got my iPhone about a week and a half ago. I am also all about the free apps, but I have bought one that I am in love with - Grocery Gadget.

I have the following Free ones:  
Cycles - a free menstrual cycle calendar  
Easy Relax - white noise machine  
I Can Has Cheezeburger - updated every day with new pics from LOLCatz, I Has Hotdog, Pundit Kitchen, and more.  
iGas - uses your current location and tells you the 10 cheapest gas stations closest to you  
iTV - TV schedule, and theater times  
Rimshot - a button for a rimshot sound, chirping crickets, or my favorite and used almost daily, the Wah Wha Waaa trumbone  
Wooo Button - Gives a wooooo!  
Pandora - I love this app  
iheartradio - radio stations from around the US  
SportsTap - Sports scores  
TideApp - tidal charts  
UrbanSpoon - restaurants in your area  
Trailguru - keeps your run or walk stats - time, distance, elevation and downloadable to the website  
Cheapskate - if you see something someone you know (on your contact list) would like, take it’s picture, note the location and price and have a handy list come gift giving time  
Lightsaber - who doesn’t need a lightsaber?  
Cameraman - ESPN spot the differences in two pictures game. Very fun  
Zenbe - list maker  
To Do’s - a nice to do lister

I’ve downloaded one or two that I’ve since deleted, but of course I don’t remember what they were. I will be watching this thread for other awesome apps.

Oh yeah, one of the ones that I deleted was a level, but it was too annoying to use. It played “whoomp there it is” over and over when the level bubble was level.

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**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/3 "2008-10-19T23:30:09Z")

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My favorites (some were free, some I paid for):

Aurora Feint - strategy game  
Motion Poker - very cool, you shake your phone to roll dice, lots of levels and specials to unlock  
Wurdle - word search game  
Diner Dash - just like the PC game  
eReader - great utility and tons of books you can download immediately to your phone for free (Little Women, Gone with the Wind, for example)  
Feeds - my favorite RSS reader, I entered the URLs to my favorite RSS feeds and I can get to them in one convenient place  
Fire Drop - game  
Jewel Quest - game  
Now Playing - uses your current location to find theatres/showtimes/movies near you, also has a link to reviews (I use this one a lot)  
Shazam - hear a song and you want to know what it is? Start the app, hold the end of the phone towards the music, send off a 30 second clip. Works great - you can buy the song right away if you want  
Spore - a pricey game, but very fun  
Tomatoes - Rotten Tomato movie reviews  
Units - converts measurements  
White Noise - makes all kinds of sounds  
Wikpanion - Wikipedia in an easy to read form

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/4 "2008-10-20T00:23:27Z")

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I paid for TrailGuru, but it isn’t much and it’s really cool (although it’s a little touchy - to work it has to be in the foreground with nothing popping up and interrupting it.) You tell it to start and then you go out on your walk or run or motorcycle trip or cross country skiing or whatever, and when you’re done you tell it to stop, and you hit “upload track”, and it uses the GPS and the accelerometer to give you a map of where you went, along with data on your top, bottom, and average speed, change in elevation, etc. It’s been very motivating for me to see myself running farther.

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/5 "2008-10-20T00:58:08Z")

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All of these work on the Touch (which is what I have):

AOLRadio: Streaming Audio  
FlyCast: ditto  
Twitterrific: Twitter client for iPhones/Touches  
AIM: AOL’s IM client  
Brain Toot Lite: Keeps yer brains from rotting, in theory  
Sol Free: Solitaire for the iPhone  
TextGuru: Light word processor. It costs, but is pretty handy to have  
Files: Lets you store files on your device and you can open/read PDFs, .Doc files, PowerPoint and others, it costs as well  
Labryrinth LE: One of those titlting table ball games  
myLite: Turns the your device into a flashlight/cigarette lighter (for concerts)/police flasher  
MindWave: Binaural tone generator, costs a bit.

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**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/6 "2008-10-20T01:11:31Z")

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WritingPad–Allows you to drag your fingers over the keyboard to make words. Pretty cool once you get the hang of it.  
oneConnect–lets me chat on Yahoo Instant Messenger  
Movies by Flixter–finds your location and then lists all the local theaters, as well as upcoming releases, and dvd releases.  
Livejournal–lets you update your Livejournal.  
Air Sharing–This one cost $7, but it was worth it to me. You can use it to transfer various files from your computer to your iPhone through the wireless connection. I have a crapload of pdfs and docs on there now.  
eReader–for ebooks.  
last.fm–Great if you have an account with last.fm and want to listen to your stations.

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**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/7 "2008-10-20T12:11:34Z")

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> [@Hockey\_Monkey](#):
>
> Wooo Button - Gives a wooooo!

The. Best. Application. on my iPhone. (Particularly fun during conference calls).

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**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/8 "2008-10-20T14:51:15Z")

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Great suggestions so far! Keep them coming!

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**Author:** ![BrknButterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@BrknButterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrknButterfly)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/9 "2008-10-20T16:31:19Z")

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I have

Shazam.  
Sportacular - I used this alot for the red sox games I couldn’t watch. I like it.  
Movies - It gives you all the movie theators in the area. The movies playing. Times and trailers.  
Word Wrap - A bunch of letters you make words out of.  
White Nose - Different noises to listen too if I don’t have a fan and trying to sleep.  
and Labyrith LE.  
Oh and Koi Pond, though I am thinking about deleting it. Not exciting enough for me.

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**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/10 "2008-10-20T16:39:15Z")

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Like beer? [iPint!](http://www.carling.com/ipint_details.html)

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**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/11 "2008-10-23T04:23:54Z")

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Any more?

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**Author:** ![Cowboy8467](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Cowboy8467](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowboy8467)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/12 "2008-10-23T16:44:28Z")

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Well let’s see, I jailbroke my phone so that I would have a few more options than Apple chooses to give me out of the box. With that in mind I have the following:

Snapture- Advanced camera application which allows you to control the focus, zoom, color mode, multi-shot, timer, etc. (jailbreak only)

Cydia- Think of it as an underground app store. Lots of cool stuff in there. (jailbreak only)

Cycorder- Videocamera for iphone. Works pretty darn well acually. (jailbreak only)

Winterboard- Application which allows you to change up almost anything concerning the visual appearance of your phone that you like. That includes the lock screen, charging indicator, background of your homescreen, icons, animations, etc. (jailbreak only)

BossPrefs- Advanced setting which let you quick toggle some things like wi-fi, bluetooth, and 3g. Also lets me view my battery as a numerical indicator instead of a graphic. (jailbreak only)

Shazam- explained above  
Airsharing  
Pandora  
Whitepages  
LOLCats- I freaking love this one  
Facebook  
Sportacular

Mxtube- Just like youtube except it allows you to save the videos directly to your phone and view them any time (jailbreak only)

Cro-Mag- Great racing game using the accelerometer.  
Taptap- Kinda like guitar hero for your phone. Best of all, it’s free!  
iBowl  
Urbanspoon  
Cameraman- Think photohunt for iphone  
Firemail- Lets you compose e-mails in landscape format…very useful.

That’s all I have for now.

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**Author:** ![Figaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Figaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Figaro)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/13 "2008-10-23T17:06:22Z")

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I’ve got…(and like)  
**Pitch Pipe** : Just what it sounds like. A digital pitch pipe.  
**Asphalt 4** : Top-notch racing game. Pricey, though.  
**IQ Boost** : Fun brain-teaser game. Can’t remember if it was free or not.  
**FAA Test Prep** : Review questions for the private pilot FAA exam. Not interesting to all, obviously…  
**Tao Te Ching** : Printed copy of the text.  
**Trulia** : Mobile real estate search app. Works surprisingly well.  
**Stanza** : Mobile book/magazine/newspaper downloader and reader. I currently get full versions of The Atlantic and Wired Magazine this way.  
**Hold 'Em** : Awesome Texas Holdem app. Very not free.  
**iTick** : Digital Metronome  
**Pandora** : Free streaming radio  
**Hanoi** : My current favorite game.  
**Sol Free** : Free solitaire  
**Enigmo** : Most awesome physics-based puzzle game eva! Not free.  
**[i.TV](http://i.TV)**: Genuinely awesome TV/Movie listings software from TV Guide. Works flawlessly, and free.

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**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/14 "2008-10-23T17:38:01Z")

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I have a 1st gen 8GB iphone, with a lot of Sesame Street stored on it for emergency kid entertainment, so I don’t have much room for apps. I have a few I like though:

**Pandora** : Streaming radio  
**Remote** : I can control my itunes on my Mac in the loft from anywhere in the house, awesome.  
**AIM** : AOL instant messenger, but I use it for ICQ  
**Harmonica** : it’s funny, you can put your mouth on the edge of the phone to play it (or use your fingers)  
**Everest** : really fun find the hidden object adventure, I needed something to mess with when I didn’t have Edge or WiFi available, and this works quite nicely.

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/15 "2008-10-26T11:10:29Z")

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Not that I use this app, but it struck me as damned funny that it exsists. It’s the Homeland Security app!! It let’s you know the “threat level” we’re at!! ROTFLMAO!

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**Author:** ![Superfreaknduper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Superfreaknduper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfreaknduper)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/16 "2008-10-26T13:57:31Z")

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No love for Photoswap?! Best free app out there… take a picture and it trades it with another picture from a random other person!

I also have and use:

Shazam, Sol Free, Light Saber, MotionX Dice, NYTimes, MLB.Coma (only paid app), yelp, twitteriffic, zippolighter, and pandora.

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**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/17 "2008-10-26T16:25:51Z")

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> [@Tuckerfan](#):
>
> Not that I use this app, but it struck me as damned funny that it exsists. It’s the Homeland Security app!! It let’s you know the “threat level” we’re at!! ROTFLMAO!

Wonder if Threat Level Green would crash the app…

**RDP** lets me remote control my desktop PC when I travel, but it makes me wish for BlueTooth keyboard support.  
**Remote** lets me control my Apple TV, and type in searches with the iPod keyboard.  
**Solebon** is a nice little solitaire app.  
**Crosswords** loads the USA Today crosswords. As a novice, they’re about my speed.  
**WootWatch** pulls up today’s Woots, including Shirt.woot, Wine.woot, and Sellout.woot.  
**Sudoku** is what it is, but it plays nicely.

But my two favorite iPod Touch/iPhone apps don’t run on the Touch/iPhone:

**Handbrake** lets me import my DVD’s to iTunes in an iPhone compatible format.  
**TDM** (TiVo Download Manager) does the same thing for shows on my TiVo (invisibly watermarked to satisfy DRM requirements).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/18 "2008-10-27T08:35:26Z")

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Google Earth has just been released for the iphone and Touch!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/19 "2008-10-27T12:44:55Z")

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> [@Hockey\_Monkey](#):
>
> Oh yeah, one of the ones that I deleted was a level, but it was too annoying to use. It played “whoomp there it is” over and over when the level bubble was level.

Pardon the slight hijack, but I would love to know how the iPhone senses inclination. **Hockey Monkey** mentions a level game above, and Labryrinth LE seems to do something similar.

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**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-iphone-applications/468672/20 "2008-10-27T13:05:57Z")

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Favorites of mine include:

AIM  
Air Sharing – got in on this one while it was free; well worth it  
Facebook – used to suck, but is actually very nice since the latest upgrade  
iTV – free; I love the ability to mark a show as a “favorite” and have it tell you when and where it’s on again soon  
MySpace – not the best app by any means, but a requirement to read new MySpace messages on the go  
Remote – lay in bed, listen to music. Not bad.  
Shazam – I haven’t stumped it yet… though I don’t use it often, really  
UrbanSpoon – I haven’t actually tried any of its random suggestions yet, but one day!

I also have:  
WeatherBug – free, and has more detailed (and seemingly accurate) info than the default weather app. Plus it has a radar.  
Obama '08 – just because.  
AirportStatus – not useful for many people, but useful for me for quick reference

I’ve tried the white noise apps, but they all seem much more… irritating than useful. I had plenty of the iPint-like apps, but they wear our their charm quickly.

I installed Pandora, but have yet to really find a use for it. Then again, the “music player” aspect isn’t something I frequently take advantage of.

Just downloaded Google Earth – thanks for the heads up. Very nice so far.

One of our more Mac-friendly users should work on an SDMB app. That’s something I’d buy. 😃

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