iPhone Apps I Can't Live Without (or actually just really like).

I'm not an App Store addict, but I definitely bought the iPhone to consolidate my on-the-go kit; I carried a Palm and a clamshell/Razor type phone for quite some time, then rolled over to a Dash for a while, which allowed me to cut loose the PDA for the most part (I loved the Dash, best speakerphone ever). It still wasn't the whole package though; the screen was small, Windows Mobile with ActiveSync could be problematic and apps frequently never worked properly...I wanted more function, less trouble.

A friend of mine had a line on three iPhones the day they released. He called me, said cough up the $600, and I would be among the cel phone elite. Funny how back in the day, people would've given an arm for an iPhone, but now it's, "there's no way I'd have spent that much money". Even all the "I don't need an iPhone and touch typing sucks" people now can't put their iPhone 3gs down. I always said, the only people who say they don't need one are people that don't own one.

Note: I never upgraded to the iPhone 3g, and still think it was the right thing to do. I'll be eligible for upgrade to the iPhone 3 (4g?) right off the bat, and from what I can see, there just isn't enough difference between the first and second gens to compel me to print more money for Steve Jobs (I also own a MBPro 17, a Macbook 13, and a Mac Mini). I bought my girlfriend a 3g, and have done a pretty close comparison; at the outset, I was a bit jealous of not needing wifi for some things, and the 3g is a bit faster, but over time that's evened out to the point where it doesn't bother me at all.

People say, "I have the 3g", I say, "I have the OG".

Regarding apps, I'm not an "app of the day" type. I select mine carefully because I'm looking for something specific, and when I buy one, I tend to use it hard; if I find it's not useful, I get rid of it quickly, and I've gotten rid of lots of apps. My phone isn't completely cluttered with freebies and all that; the apps in this list I find truly useful every day because they are part of my workflow and/or appeal to my interests directly. I don't look for distractions or time-killers, I look for ways to continue pursuing my interests.

Listed in no particular order, other than the order I keep them in on my iPhone:

- ToDo 2.0. I was totally disappointed in the ToDo list on the iPhone, just like everybody else as far as I know. ToDo is a robust, easy to use app with great sorting options, customizeable lists, a great and organized display, alerts, iCal todo list synchronization via the Appigo Sync desktop app (very unintrusive), a "focus list" for critical tasks, item tagging, drag 'n drop this 'n that, badge notification...it's absolutely what the iPhone ToDo list needs to be. It also syncs with ToodleDo, which I don't use, but people tell me it's really useful, so who knows, maybe I'll sign up. "It's freakin' great," pretty much says it all.

- NoteBook (www.appigo.com, the same makers as ToDo). A great notepad app in it's own right. Create notebooks to organize notes, have links in your notes, email notes, etc. etc. Way better than the standard "Notes" app (which I actually used all the time until installing NoteBook). The best thing though, is it integrates directly with ToDo; you can save a ToDo item as a note, or vice versa. Notes can contain web page and phone number links...again, it's freakin' great.

- Skype. I've been a Skype user since it got up and running, and have saved a fortune using it, not to mention giving me the satisfaction of stickin' it to the man. I do most of my communication through email, text and chat; phone conversations are brief, frequently cut short with a request to just email me the details. I also live and work in and around the NYC area, so wifi is usually close. Skype lets me bottom out my minutes plan, taking my monthly bill down significantly. The UI is completely in sync with the desktop app and I've never encountered any bugs. Freakin' great; saves me money and works fine.

- FireBox. Encrypted storage for personal info, passwords, etc. I've tried some others, but Firebox allows you to set up your own form templates and categories in a way that appeals to me. I store my credit card numbers and info, server logins, and all my website logins, etc., right on the phone. Lose your phone? No problem; the encryption is industrial strength, and there's a desktop app that syncs the encrypted store to your desktop. In fact, you can add and remove forms, categories and entries in the desktop app. This app has made the iPhone as important to me as my wallet, possibly moreso, since I don't actually carry a traditional "wallet" (I use a large business card holder, silver and fancy people compliment it frequently, and just fold up my money in my pocket). FireBox appeals to me more than other solutions because it is extremely flexible. I can configure my categories and entries exactly as I like, whereas other solutions I've tried have things like a "credit card template" that either wants too much or too little info, has fields named in ways unintuitively (at least to me), and so on.

- Twitterific. For me, the best Twitter app. Admittedly, I'm not the most experienced Twitter user, but I checked out Tweetie and a couple of others; I like the look and feel of Twitterific best. It's easy to use, exposes the functionality that's important to me very plainly and simply, multiple accounts and timelines are easy to navigate...I know, people are religious about their Twitter apps. For now though, this is the one for me. I use Tweetie as a backup (and have never actually had to use it, I really got it because so many people are like TWEETIE for god's sake!).

- Guitar Toolkit. I've been playing guitar for 23 years, with very few extended breaks, and usually take it more seriously than your typical non professional; lessons and all that. GuitarToolkit has a metronome, chromatic tuner, scale and mode reference with root tones indicated (all graphic on the fretboard, and interactive; touch the fret, hear the note), a chord finder for identifying and locating various chord positions and fingerings, and more. It's by far one of the most fully functional music/guitar apps period, let alone just on the iPhone. True, the tuner can bork in noisy settings, and some of scale generation logic needs a little tweaking (the positions are always right, but for example, sometimes an A sharp will be used in stead of a B flat, making the scale appear to be missing a note until you look at it twice), but since it's not intended to be a teaching tool and the positions are always correct, it doesn't bother me. The GuitarToolkit guys are affiliated with Agile Software, a dev shop in NYC that I actually do work for as well.

- GuitarChords, basically just a breakout of the chord reference by the guys at GuitarToolkit; useful because you don't have to init the whole app every time you want to just browse some chords to refresh your memory. They give this one away.

- Grand Pro. Imho, the best piano keyboard simulator for the iPhone. You can record and store your diddling, replay it, etc. Nice display options (single or double octave, small or large keys, etc.). Great for theory study on-the-go, comping ideas, and retrieving them later for notation.

- Karajan. A very interesting music learning tool, primarily useful for ear training. Sounds out series of chords, intervals, scales, etc., and you have to guess which one you're hearing, either from a list, or right on a keyboard. Ear training is an essential and overlooked part of many non-pro musician's study regimen, even serious ones. This app without a doubt helps me keep my ear in-tune while on the go.

- BofA iPhone app (Bank of America). I bank at BoA. Originally, the app was just short of a clunky web page shell. Now it's pretty slick, enables me to do transfers, balance checks, all sorts of online banking, with a glance 'n tap. I use this all the time.

- Kindle Reader. I'm a Kindle 2 (and soon DX) fan. I use the Kindle Reader to continue reading in settings where pulling out the Kindle and a booklight might not be appropriate, or just to browse and purchase reading material that I'll pull down on my Kindle later. A great complement to a great product. For reading though, the Kindle 2 rules, or I think so anyway.

Games:

- Chicktionary. A word game, create lots of words from a starting combination of letters, which is fun, but the graphics and sounds are really fun; I want a Chicktionary stuffed chicken that squawks when you squeeze it! The game is actually harder than you'd expect, sometimes frustrating in fact, but I prefer that to being too easy, which many iPhone games are.

- Caissa Chess: Challenging, great UI, great features you'd expect in chess software. I looked over a number of chess apps, and believe this is among the best. I'm not a pro or even advanced player, but I do enjoy the game and play on and off.

- Chess Player: A chess app, but you don't play, it steps through classic chess games of all kinds, allowing pause, replay, etc. Great for game analysis and allows a glimpse into the minds of the greats. Sometimes it's nice to just kibitz.

- Learn Chess: an interactive e-book, great for the learner, nice for the hobbyist. Lets you learn and/or brush up on all the rules (e.g. many don't know what En Pasante is), basic strategy, and some nice extras. Probably not for the advanced player, but still fun, and a great example of the "interactive e-book" genre, which is something I'd actually not heard of in the context of the iPhone. Might be worth a blog post of it's own.

- Trism. One of the first "featured" game apps in the App store. Sort of a Bejeweled kind of game, but uses the accelerometer to allow collapsing and shifting the tiles in any direction. Interesting features like bombs, tile locks, and so on. I still play this game when I'm too fried for chess, word games, or music study. Updates have made the game a lot smoother.

- Light Bike, the game right out of Tron. Can get kind of tiresome after ten or so minutes, but is still fun, and a great example of a 3d game working really well on the iPhone. Also has head-to-head play, which I've never used, but I've heard it works great.

That's pretty much it: I've got some other miscellaneous apps on there, but the ones I've mentioned above are the ones I use all the time; those apps have made the iPhone far more than just a phone and/or PDA to me. Naturally I also use it to watch movies, email, text, and all that as well, but if you're not sporting at least a handful of apps, you're not getting the full bang out of your iPhone.

As always, thanks for reading, any questions or comments, feel free, tcoz@tcoz.com.