Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Little apps I like for the iPhone
The iPhone can certainly make life easier on a number of levels, and that has greatly increased with 
the advent of the App Store. There are thousands of selections for every taste, even bad taste. In 2007 Steve Jobs told us web based apps would do the trick, but he finally relented and we all benefited from the tremendous success and variety of the App Store.
So, without further ado, here are some little apps you may have missed that have made my i-life better.
the advent of the App Store. There are thousands of selections for every taste, even bad taste. In 2007 Steve Jobs told us web based apps would do the trick, but he finally relented and we all benefited from the tremendous success and variety of the App Store.So, without further ado, here are some little apps you may have missed that have made my i-life better.
- Backgrounds [App Store link] A nice little app that points you to large collections of wallpaper for your iPhone or iPod touch. You can select a category such as Movies or Nature, and browse away till you find something you like. When you are happy, download the image and it will show up in your camera roll. Do the usual tap, and select it as wallpaper and you are ready to go. The pictures are generally of very high quality, and are sourced from Flickr. The developers claim about 50,000 images are there for the downloading. The app is free, although some unobtrusive ads do show up on the margins of the images. There are a lot of other ways to find iPhone wallpaper, but this is quick, easy and free. I like it.
- Open Table [App Store link] Using your GPS (if your iPhone has one), or simply by giving your location, find the nearest restaurants that have, you guessed it, open tables. Then click on the time you want, and you have a reservation. It doesn't get any easier than that. It works in many U.S. cities, and in London, Toronto and Vancouver B.C. I gave it a go here in Southern Arizona, and found many restaurants with tables available You can set up an account at the Open Table website, but it is not required. Without an account you can select the restaurant, the time you want, and give your name, email, and phone number. Then click on 'confirm' and you are good to go. If you do sign up for a free account with Open Table, you can collect 'Dining Reward Points' when you book a meal at a member restaurant. Collect enough points and you can get some hefty discounts off your next dinner. Open Table also works on the iPod touch. Things that should be added are search by type of cuisine, and I think there should be a direct link to restaurant websites. Open Table is free.
- Distant Suns [App Store link] I love to star gaze, and here in Arizona we get about 300 clear nights a year. There are several nice star map programs for the iPhone, but I am very partial to Distant Suns written by Mike Smithwick. This program goes way back to a PC version in 1985, and there have been Mac ports for OS9 and now there is an OS X version. The iPhone/ iPod touch version is scaled down from the big computer versions, but has excellent graphics, location awareness, and does the math to tell you what is visible at the moment and what is not. It is an impressive way to explore the universe above you. Distant Suns is $5.99 and well worth it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ack154 said 12:17PM on 12-22-2008
Anything dealing with any wallpaper for the iPhone/Touch is absolutely useless until they allow the home screen wallpaper to be changed. I see that unlock screen for all of about 2 seconds whenever I use my iPod Touch.
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Gazoobee said 12:25PM on 12-22-2008
Nice article, but ....
"Backgrounds" is an app that I actually hate with a passion. It's the perfect example of what an app in the app store *shouldn't* be IMO.
It's not really an application at all, it's an advertisement for a web site.
The app store is already full afloat with absolute junk everywhere and it's almost impossible to find anything unless you already know the name of the app. I stopped searching there a month ago for this reason. The only apps I buy now are ones I hear about on sites like this and go to the app store and specifically search for. Even this is unusually hard because there are five or ten apps with very similar names for every type.
Apple should not be allowing junk like this in the app store, the app itself would function far better as a "web-app," and the developer should be pushed to that model.
Let's get some order and sense to the app store and keep the crap out so that what's left is actually useful to normal people.
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David Hildreth said 12:33PM on 12-22-2008
When it comes to finding something to eat I'm not sure anything beats Urbanspoon.
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Conor Kenny said 1:04PM on 12-22-2008
Can you post prices for the first two? It would be really helpful if you guys would do this for all the iphone/ipod apps you review or talk about. An impressive $0.99 app is a laughable $9.99 app, you know?
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Swimatm said 3:27PM on 12-22-2008
Um... it says they're free at the end of their respective paragraphs.
Conor Kenny said 4:35PM on 12-22-2008
That was an update, which Mel did with great speed out of dedication to his readers.
Joe Simon said 12:56PM on 12-22-2008
One of my favorite apps as of late has been iAltimeter. I do a lot of hiking and it's always interesting, to me at least, to see the different elevations. The app needs pretty decent GPS reception, so it's a little off when trying to use it indoors.
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JKL31 said 12:59PM on 12-22-2008
When it comes to concerts/bars/raves/whatever, Audio Scope has a pretty cool oscilloscope that can be fun.
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zach said 1:08PM on 12-22-2008
Is there an application that acts as a shortcut to call a specific person? ie "Call Home" application?
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Steve said 1:17PM on 12-22-2008
Yes,
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=293175808&mt=8
That is a free one. Just search 'call home' in the app store and there are plenty. I've also seen a bunch of free ones that have '1' '2' '3' ect. on them that act as speed dials. Do some searching. There's lots of good stuff.
Steve said 1:20PM on 12-22-2008
Also search speed dial. The 1 2 3 4 speed dials are right on top. Those may work better and they are free.
Galley said 1:09PM on 12-22-2008
Gas Cubby gets my vote
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Jaboojoo said 2:26PM on 12-22-2008
Try favorites for a nice speed dial app. I'd also recommend Ken Burns Slideshow for a pan and zoom effect in your slideshows.
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Tripp said 3:33PM on 12-22-2008
I'd like to throw a little app called bloom into the mix.
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Planeten Paultje said 3:56PM on 12-22-2008
The OSX version of Distant Suns is still some time away. BTW, don't forget StarWalk. I think both programs are complementary in approach and I have them both on my iPhone.
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Olga said 11:34PM on 12-22-2008
Have you tried StarWalk for gazing stars ?
This is a really great experience. It works smoothly and contains a great number of celestial bodies and info about them. Check it out here: http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk.html.
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Dixie said 10:44AM on 12-23-2008
I fondly remember Distant Suns as an Amiga program, and I believe it was on the Amiga platform before PC, IIRC.
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Joe Russell said 11:05AM on 12-23-2008
Best app I've seen of late: Taxi Magic
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299226386&mt=8
Holy cow it's badass...
Used it here in SF 3 times over the weekend... everyone is flabbergasted by how well it worked.
We were able to fetch cabs out front of the house in less than 5 minutes, and it took a fraction of the time to call a cab (from unlock to request, I'd literally say it was like 30 seconds).
J.
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David said 11:15AM on 12-24-2008
I second the recommendation for Star Walk. A MUCH more refined and beautiful astronomy program compared to Distant Suns.
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