My Favorite iPhone Apps

a review applications by Christopher Tan

Lately, I have many friends who just bought an iPhone for the first time, and I keep getting questions like … "What's the best app for this or that ?" …

So, to make all our lives easier, I have compiled a list of the main apps that I use =) …

Please feel free to share this list with your friends ... and do share your favorite apps in the comments =) ... I would like you guys to introduce cool apps to me too =)

Productivity

• Life Browser - It's a nice web browser with some very convenient features not available in Safari
• Todo - Powerful todo list manager
• abcNotes - Like a virtual post it note
• GoodReader - The best PDF reader with annotation features, yes, I tested most of them
• iCurrencyPad - Currency converter
• Convertbot - Unit converter
• Bento - Personal database, kinda like a mobile DBase/MS Access, so you can create custom database to store anything
• Brushes - Nicest drawing app I tested
• Evernote - Keeping notes and syncing it with your Mac/PC/iPad over the air
• Xmarks - Sync browser bookmarks from your Mac/PC
• iProRecorder - Professional use voice recorder
• QuickOffice/Docs To Go - Kinda like a mobile MS Office
• iBooks - This is Apple's book reading app, can read PDFs too
• Genius Scan - It's like having a portable scanner for scanning documents, etc

Entertainment

• OPlayer - Plays AVI/RMVB/etc without conversion (Do turn on Skip Frame in the settings to play RMVB more smoothly)
• F1 2010 Timing App - Get live timing, stats, etc for F1
• Wine Ph.D. - Nice app for wine drinkers

Communications

• Whatsapp - It's like SMS/MMS, but it's free
• IM+ - App for MSN/Skype/FB Chat/GoogleTalk/YahooIM/Twitter/etc
• Facebook - If you don't know what this is, you probably don't need a smartphone
• Foursquare - App to share your location with friends
• Twitter - There are tons of Twitter apps, but my current fav is the official Twitter app
• Skype - Call/chat with your friends
• Tango - It's like FaceTime, but it works over 3G as well
• Yahoo Messenger - I like this is because it lets me video conference with a Mac/PC
• Vonage - Kinda like Skype, but it uses your Facebook contacts instead, so it's easy to see which of your friends you can call

Photography

• Filterstorm - Very nice photo editor, I think the best now (http://filterstorm.com/)
• Photogene - Another nice photo editor, lots of features
• Instagram - Nice app for taking pics, apply a cool filter, then share it automatically on FB/Twitter/etc.
• PhotoShake - Very nice app for combining multiple photos
• Diptic - Another nice app for combining multiple photos
• MoreBeaute - Girls will love this app … Hehehee
• Polarize - Makes your pic look like it came out of a Polaroid camera
• LiveEffects - Take a pic with various choices of special effects
• PhotoFunia - Try it, put you and your friends on billboards, t-shirts, whatever
• Flickr - Official Flickr app
• Hipstamatic - Apply old camera/film effects to your pics
• Pano - Shoot panoramas
• You Gotta See This! - It's sort of like for taking panorama, but it's also very different, so you gotta see it yourself
• TiltShiftFocus - Applies a tilt-shift like effect on your photo
• ToonCamera - See the world like cartoon, and snap pics of it
• SlowShutter - Allows you to take slow-shutter pics

Videography

• iMovie - A truly truly amazing video editor for iPhone 4, a must have ! Here's my crash course on how to use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPZmUGc8W7w
• ReelDirector - Another nice video editor, more powerful, but much harder to use and less convenient than iMovie
• FlexiCorder - Lets you switch between front and rear cam seamlessly while shooting video
• Qik Video Pro - Lets you live broadcast video
• VideoZoom - Live zooming while recording video

Utilities

• Remote - This nice app from Apple lets you remote control your iTunes on your Mac/PC
• Google Mobile - Search by entering search term, or by voice, or by snapping a pic
• PlumbBob - Uses augmented reality to let you see if something is really vertical
• iHandy Level - Virtual bubble level
• Dragon Dictation - Turns what you say into text

Turn-by-turn Navigation

• TomTom Malaysia & Singapore - Nice user interface
• Papago! (Singapore+Malaysia) Pro - Uglier user interface, but has more up to date maps

News

• Zinio - Subscribe and read magazines, very nice. I saved RM1k+ on subscriptions.
• Engadget
• Wired Reviews
• AppAdvice
• Bloomberg
• Pulse News - RSS reader

Games - Too many, so I shall just list some

• Angry Birds
• Plant Vs Zombies
• Veggie Samurai
• Cut the Rope
• Monster Dash
• Mega Worm
• Pigrush
• Pinball HD
• Fieldrunners
• HeavyGunner
• The Creeps
• Real Racing
• Need For Speed: Shift
• N.O.V.A.
• Archetype
• Mirror's Edge
• Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2
• Modern Combat 2
• FIFA 11
• Banzai Rabbit

Shopping

• Ebay - Very handy if you shop on eBay, it uses push notification to let you know various status of your bids, etc.
• RedLaser - Scans barcodes/QR codes and find more info/shops selling it online
• Delivery Status Touch - Keeps track of all your packages sent using various courier services

Cool Stuff

• ARSoccer - Augmented reality football game
• ARDefender - Augmented reality tower defense game

Misc

• AppShopper - Makes it very easy to find paid apps that are having free promos. See http://on.fb.me/bQL9HD
• Google Earth
• AcrossAir - Augmented reality app for finding various places of interest, like restaurants, etc.
• Layar - Kinda like AcrossAir
• IMDB - Internet Movie DataBase app
• Maybank - Lets you find the nearest Maybank ATM/Branch
• Epic Citadel - Unreal Engine 3 tech demo
• Talking Tom - Try for yourself … LOL
• FoodSpotting - Find eating places around you
• Now Playing - Shows movies currently showing in the cinemas near your current location

More Apps !

There are now over 300,000 apps, and there are apps for almost any need you have =) ... But to make life easier for you, check out http://appadvice.com/applists ... they provide many different list of suggested apps for various purposes. You can also Google for apps or search the AppStore in iTunes.

Photographers

iPhone photography & videography blog - http://www.iphoneography.com/

The Best and Latest Pro Photography iPhone Apps - http://bit.ly/9lvYoF

10 Awesome iPhone Apps for Photographers - http://bit.ly/bvSpkB

Business Users

There are almost 8,000 apps for business users, but here are some of the ones featured by Apple:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/apps/app-store/intelligence.html

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