Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone, App Store
Favorite iPhone apps: Giles' take
We're all taking turns at this. My turn:
- SMS - the built-in SMS app has changed the way I use text messaging, and for the better. My contract with O2 includes 600 text messages per month, and in the UK where everyone texts everyone about everything all the time (and no-one gets charged for incoming messages), that's extremely useful. On old phones, even using predictive text software, I found composing messages too long-winded and dull, and consequently didn't text much. Now I can compose as fast as I can tap-type, and my friends are all wondering why I've suddenly become so flippin' chatty.
- Cube Runner - Andy Qua's super-simple game is the only one I keep returning to time and time again. Nothing beats it for speed, simplicity, and fun. When I say simple, I mean simple: you pilot your triangle between the cubes. Hit cube, game over. That's it. There's not much that can improve it, except perhaps handlebars.
- Face Melter - A cheesy bit of fun, but everyone deserves cheesy fun every now and then. Face Melter just lets you mess about with images, pulling and dragging facial features into amusing shapes. Hardly a new idea, but it's great fun to have in your pocket. Good for amusing kids while waiting in restaurants, and for amusing fellow geeks in the pub. I've also been exploring its potential for experimental photography.
- Weather - I'm English. Need I say more?
I should stress -- and I suspect I speak for all my TUAW colleagues in this respect -- that this list of faves is merely a snapshot. These faves might change within days, even hours. The App Store is still only an infant, and holds many surprises for us in the future. I'm looking forward to discovering new faves as time goes on.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kie said 7:49AM on 8-28-2008
First! Yay!
Totally disagree, I think the SMS app is awful, well I say the SMS app, I mean the whole onscreen keyboard thing. Awful for if you are on a bus or in a car. it's much easier to wrap your hand around a n95 and writing messages and emails is easier.
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My Ipod beats your computer said 8:53AM on 8-28-2008
sigh*
Go to engadget to write about your crappy nokia phone, this is an apple weblog,
Please and thank you
glad said 7:56AM on 8-28-2008
I am in agreement with Giles, SMS is superb and it actually has stopped me writing things like l8r when Later will do. Also I love the way in which sms is listed to the person and that phone number.
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kie said 8:52AM on 8-28-2008
@glad
I do agree, the predictive does help with not sending text slang
and the listing is great
Just don't like the whole keyboard
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Michael C said 9:28AM on 8-28-2008
I find that I can type an SMS better with the iPhone one-handed than with my previous mobile, Nokia 6670. The text prediction helps eliminate alot of the accuracy issues if you're entering typical words. As another poster said, no need to type "l8r" when "later" is just as easy
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Amerist said 9:56AM on 8-28-2008
SMS is designed well with its conversation view. It's something that I was used to on the treo 650 that I am glad showed up on the iPhone. I agree with others here that say the on-screen keyboard needs improvement. I find that a lot of times I'm going back and forth from numbers to symbols to letters just to type in a URL into the browser. The "context sensitive" keyboard should be a little more "context sensitive" and show me the "@" and "//" symbols right up front on the main keyboard when I'm in safari.
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rrdmxjedah said 11:11AM on 8-28-2008
are yall crazy the SMS sucks on the iphone i hate the predictive and its only there because apple knows that you're going to mistype by pressing other keys. They don't even give you the option of turning it off. I hate that every message isn't timestamped and you cant erase certain messages as I could do all this with my old treo 650. This is iphones biggest flaw besides the typical copy/paste, MMS, etc.
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bbwinkle said 1:09PM on 8-28-2008
Just for future reference, if you use your device enough and look into settings, it does have an option for you to turn it off. Why you would turn it off, is beyond me as it helps me personally type messages much faster. Just learn to trust it.
rrdmxjedah said 1:52PM on 8-28-2008
Could you be more specific I cant find it
Maikel said 11:27AM on 8-28-2008
i think the SMS function needs improving. I would like to be able to delete single messages and not just whole conversations. Also, I would like to be able to see how many letters I have written in the text. And did anybody mention COPY/PASTE?
Cube Runner is for me as well, the only app I keep returning to. It's simply brilliant. Litterally!
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Maikel said 11:28AM on 8-28-2008
i think the SMS function needs improving. I would like to be able to delete single messages and not just whole conversations. Also, I would like to be able to see how many letters I have written in the text. And did anybody mention COPY/PASTE?
Cube Runner is for me as well, the only app I keep returning to. It's simply brilliant. Litterally!
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jsterry said 2:47PM on 8-28-2008
SMS still needs some work. I love the conversation view, but as others have said, it currently lacks a lot of the functionality that you'll find on most other phones, such as: ability to delete single messages, ability to save single messages, ability to forward messages, ability to send a contact as a text message. My thought is that they make it so that when you hold your finger on a message for a second, a list of options comes up (Save, Forward, etc.). It would work like MobileSafari's ability to save images.
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squipple said 6:05PM on 8-28-2008
What I can't believe is the amount of crap and duplicate crap that gets accepted into the app store. Only about 20% of it is worth looking at, and a significant amout less is worth having on your phone. Why does apple have such lax requirements for this? Just to say theres XX thousand apps in the app store?
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