iPhone Apps?
Thanks for everyone’s input on my iPhone vs. Droid X debate last month. After thinking about it, I ultimately decided to go for the iPhone.
People made a lot of good points about providers and coverage, but a few people also asked what I’d primarily be using it for. It sounds odd, but I don’t actually use my cellphone for a lot of calling and texting. I expect to use this more for web-based updates (Twitter/Facebook), e-mail, and as a convenient camera for taking pics/video of the family and anything else that looks interesting.
It was the camera that ultimately pushed me over to the iPhone. The Droid has more megapixels, but in pretty much every comparison I found, the iPhone just took better pictures and video.
I’ve been notified that my shiny new phone should show up by the weekend. So I should have just enough time to figure the silly thing out before heading to World Fantasy, which means I can finally be one of the Cool Authors posting updates and pics from the con.
For those of you who’ve used these things, what apps do you recommend? What are the must-have additions, not to mention the fun stuff?
Ken Marable
October 11, 2010 @ 11:24 am
I joke with people that my cellphone is 95% really just a pocket watch. The other 5% it’s a “Honey, I’m leaving work now, do I need to pick up milk or anything?” device.
So I certainly understand not using a cellphone for much phone-related activities. For the mobile web/email I found an iPad 3G fit my need the most (the e-reader functionality especially for journal articles for grad school pushed me that way). The only thing I don’t have is a camera with me all the time. I suppose it would be handy, but for now, I’m fine just taking a camera with us when necessary. I’m sure I’ll have a fancier phone with camera and all within the next couple years. But for now, I’m happy with a pocket watch that I occasionally use to call home.
As for apps, I mostly focus on the iPad ones, but some that I used even on my iPod Touch before I passed it onto my son were:
– Dropbox – Getting a dropbox account has incredibly streamlined sharing files between computers and mobile devices for me. Although now I actually access it more through GoodReader, but I don’t know if they have an iPhone app.
– Weather channel apps are more robust than the built in ones, although I’m sure with some hunting there are even better ones out there
– There’s a ton of good RSS apps out there to the point where the best one is on personal preference (if you do much RSS’ing). I have tried Feedler, Reader, MobileRSS, RSS News Reader, and River of News. Currently, I prefer River of News because it nicely shows the entire article, whereas most only show title. I have the iPad versions of these, so again I don’t know what iPhone ones there are.
– Some sort of free flashlight app is stupidly simple, but sometimes actually quite handy.
– I have wound up using SoundHound more than the built in iPod/Music app. It can both access the playlists and songs you have on there (thereby replacing most of the iPod apps functionality), but has a bunch of other cool features including identifying songs by listening. Even just singing or humming a piece of it works.
– I haven’t gotten much into gaming yet other than mindless time-wasters when I need to wind down and veg for a bit. Chain Rxn Free is particularly soothing.
Whatever you wind up loading onto it, enjoy the new shiny!
Andrew Nicolle
October 11, 2010 @ 12:36 pm
I second the Dropbox recommendation. For weather, I like WeatherBug Elite. I also find the Twitter, Facebook, Bill Minder, and IMDB apps pretty handy. I don’t do much writing on my phone, but there do seem to be a lot of options other than the built-in Notes app. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my own app for writers, Story Tracker. This is basically a mobile submission tracking app which comes in handy when you’re on the road and don’t have your PC and submission info handy. Have fun with your new iPhone!
Andrew Nicolle
October 11, 2010 @ 12:40 pm
Oh, and games: Angry Birds, Pocket Frogs, Canabalt, Solipskier, Real Racing, Fruit Ninja, and Monkey Island 1 + 2. That ought to get you started 😉
mattw
October 11, 2010 @ 1:21 pm
For a flashlight, Just Light can’t be beat.
IMDB is good for when we’re watching a movie and we say “where have we seen that guy before?”
Undercroft is a good, free dungeon crawler that’s currently eaten up about 16 hours of my life. They were fun hours, mind you.
Steve Buchheit
October 11, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
And here I was also looking at a Touch to do the same thing (because I’m tired of hauling the laptop around, and it’s getting older and crankier).
Jim C. Hines
October 11, 2010 @ 2:46 pm
I’ve had my laptop for three or four years now. It was so fancy and shiny and new, but these days it just seems … big. Clunky.
Jim C. Hines
October 11, 2010 @ 2:46 pm
Oh, no. Telling me about Undercroft may have been a very bad mistake 🙂 Thanks!
Jim C. Hines
October 11, 2010 @ 2:47 pm
Thanks! Weatherbug makes me nervous, only because in my days as an IT technician, I spent way too much time removing that little applet frmo people’s machines. But Dropbox sounds like it would be a good one to have.
These days I don’t write/submit enough short fiction to need a tracker anymore, but I wish I’d had something like that 10 years ago!
Jim C. Hines
October 11, 2010 @ 2:48 pm
Thanks, Ken! And yeah, the one thing I use the current phone for more than anything else is the pocketwatch function 🙂
I appreciate the recommendations!
Ken Marable
October 11, 2010 @ 2:50 pm
Oh, also I’ve never played it, but many people have told me they have lost hours upon hours to some form of Civilization on the iPhone. Even a telecom professor who isn’t into video games brought it up in class several times because he’s so hooked on it.
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AdrianCharles
October 12, 2010 @ 4:46 am
Nethack.
Adrian Charles
October 12, 2010 @ 5:45 am
If you use Dropbox, PlainText is a simple editor for Dropbox text files.
The iPhone Twitter app is free, simple, and good.
What kinds of games do you like?
Jim C. Hines
October 12, 2010 @ 7:28 am
They have Nethack for iPhone? That’s so dangerous…
guttaperk
October 12, 2010 @ 7:51 am
It Rocks. There’s Slash’Em, too.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2447617/Mobile%20Photo%20Oct%2012%2C%202010%207%2047%2057.jpg
guttaperk
October 12, 2010 @ 7:53 am
Oh- photo uploaded and comment posted from my iPhone. 🙂
Bill Pearson
October 12, 2010 @ 1:16 pm
It is not dangerous… it is your own personal time machine. Start playing at the beginning of winter, next time you look up it is spring! 🙂