I know.  I know.  Everyone has an iPhoneiPhone App list.  Besides, new Apps are coming out so fast, there’s no way a list can have the newest, greatest thing.

 

Fair enough.  I concede the point actually.  But, there are two things that push me over the edge and make me come up with this list anyway.

 

1.  The lists I found were not very helpful to me.  Every third or fourth list I might see something that got me interested enough to go look the App up at the store.  They either didn’t tell me anything, told me everything on and on and on, or said, “Get Lightsaber!  Get Lightsaber!”  On any given list of ten or twenty Apps, half of them were bubble wrap, or RemoteRemote, or Drink a Beer, or what the hell ever. (Remote is cool, but get over telling me about it) Eight different kinds of Make My iPhone A Freakin’ Flashlight.  Is it just me, or is this sort of like Make My Ferrari A Drum With This Simple AddOn?  Flashlight.  What the hell are you talking about?

 

So, if I can go through dozens and dozens of lists and not find anything very interesting until I go through them all and then just search through the App Store myself anyway, then it seems like a list is needed.  Plus, who cares, get your own blog and don’t put up an App list.

 

2.  Lists are SEO gold, and mine goes to 44, which is a full four times better than 11.

 

3.  Lists can be monkeyed with monkied with changed around, and just because I say two things doesn’t mean I’m not going to put three.

 

The order of this list is fairly random, and is somewhat based on where things have ended up on my iPhone pages.

 

Now, an obvious reaction to this list is going to be that, even after I complain about other lists all having the same things, some of those things will be on here as well.  I agree with those general sentiments, but what am I going to do?  Pretend PandoraPandora sucks just to keep it off my list?

 

 

Right so…

 

Here we go!

 

 

30.  Air Sharing.

I’m not even going to include much information here, or any pics, or whatnot, because it’s Air Sharing for crying out loud.

 

Air Sharing is an App that lets you link up your computer and put files on your iPhone, and so on and so forth.  Everyone has it already, and it is forever in the top Apps, so you can find out all about it.  It’s a cool App, and I’ve not heard many complaints, but it’s like having a list of iPhone features in general and listing… ummm… it’s a phone.  You’re sort of obligated to put that, but you don’t want to really explain it.

 

 

29.  Ultralingua German-English Translation Dictionary.

Well, that’s a real interesting choice.  I’m basically going to have to call this the whole Ultralingua line, and you can pick your language.  Now, the App Store reviews had several complaints about this one, but none of them made much sense.  I suspect they were either made by competitors, or people who are going to make nasty complaints about everything that isn’t free.

 

If you want something really complex that is going to teach you a language from scratch, or serve as your translation dictionary for higher college courses, this is not what you’re looking for.  I feel the need to add that if you are in either of those camps and thought this was what you were looking for, then you’re an idiot.  Luck with the college thing.

 

This is a sleek, streamlined App that just delivers what it should without a lot of bells and whistles complicating things.  As you can see in this screenshot (by the way, be careful what you’re looking at in the App Store… I once saw an App for $1 that would let you take a screenshot on your iPhone — that’s built in if you aren’t aware — hold menu and push on/off) you can look up what you generally want to talk about, and you will get a list of a wide variety of possibilities.  This list on “drink” must go down something like 30 or 40 suggestions.  ”Mix drink of cola and lemonade” sounds fascinating, and if you had this App you could scroll just a smidge and know how to say it.  ”Fizzy Drink.”  Oh, if only I had known how to say “Fizzy Drink” back at that bar in Berlin.  Ahhhh, things would have been different.

 

It’s quick and easy, and does a great job.  The numbers thing is pretty goofy, but whatever.  Switch from German-English to English-German with one touch, type something in, and get a relevant result.

 

 

28.  PhoneFlix

 

Now, there isn’t really much to explain here.  It’s your own little Netflix world on your iPhone.  It works great, and it’s pretty handy if… well, I guess you’d really just have to try and imagine if this would ever be handy for you.

 

Really trying to browse around to any serious extent would be a pain, but if you know what you’re looking for, or just want to check New Releases, it’s great.

 

Perfect for when you come across a movie, and don’t want to forget it.  Bam, it’s in your queue.

 

And, well… yes, those are my movies.

 

 

Stalker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

27.  AirYell 

 

Just because it doesn’t make sense to take up two spots, call this WhitePages too.

 

There are several versions of Yellow Pages available, and I’ve played with a few of them.  The only thing that makes this stand out for me is that it was faster.  It has given me good results after a few weeks of randomly testing it out once in a while, and what else is there?  Look something up, get a list of choices, pick one you like, touch to have it on a map.

 

 

 

26.  Twitterrific

 

Once again, add in TwinkleTwinkle as the same spot here.

 

I could show you a screen of either of these, but I can’t see the point.  It looks sort of like TwitterTwitter, use your imagination.

 

Here’s another one where there are many choices for doing the same thing.  I get them all so you don’t have to.  TwitterrificTwitterrific won (although minus points because I just had to check to see if I was spelling it correctly) only because it seemed quickest and never crashed on me.  It’s just Twitter on your iPhone, that either sells itself or it doesn’t.  This one worked best for me.

 

Twinkle, on the other hand, is Twitter with a spin, and yes there are lots of spins available.  I think Twinkle is sort of cool though, and I think the others are mostly lame.  Twinkle will also just give you completely normal Twitter access, but you can also tab over to (what I guess is officially Twinkling) see what Twitters have been Twittered recently near where you are right now.  Thus, one more way to jump in on Twitter conversations.  (If you go way down this post you can Twit This and/or you can just say that every so often)

 

 

 

25.  AOL Radio.

 

Here again, you have many options.  This is radio in the class of not trying to be your personal radio station, but just a way to get stations.  There are several options of both classes.

 

AOL Radio is my pick because it works pretty fast, and has a lot of choices.

 

Among other similar Apps, most of the others would hang on me with some regularity, but I’ve never had any problems with this one.  It’s simple, and has a few features that make it interesting, like Locals and Favoritesfavorites.  Mostly it just does the job with plenty of selections for everyone.

 

(I am subliminally getting you to stick around for the next posts)

 

 

 

 

 

 

24.  Facebook.

 

It’s like FacebookFacebook, but on your iPhone.  I could give you a screenshot here as well, but why?  Just go look me up on Facebook.

 

 

 

23.  Stitcher.

(Frickin’ half a little bar right inside my house)

 

Stitcher is actually far beyond the coolness I can even relate, mainly because I just don’t get a chance to use it as much as I’d like.  It’s Pandora (hang on if you don’t know what that is) but for talk and news radio.

 

Now, I love the idea of getting a lot of these shows, and you have a lot of options for getting content here.  The topics go on and on, and then who knows what’s coming within that topic.

 

What I find really engrossing though (and try not to hold it against me) is seeing what this will try and recommend to me.

 

 

 

 

It actually just sort of cracks me up to give a thumbs up to a news show or something on NPR, and see what the algorithm is going to do with that information.

 

 

This is also, by far, the best working anything that has to do with radio that I’ve used so far.  No matter where I am this thing loads the content up and moves around (pause, play, skip) faster than all others.

 

And, seriously (cuz look at it), it’s very shiny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22.  Sportacular

 

Now, I’m going to say this right up front —- MLB has its own App…  I don’t know what it does, and I don’t care.

 

Sportacular is free, has every sport but Cricket (and that has its own App… knock yourself out), and works like a charm.  Pick your sport, and there are all the scores, and like it says, it updates every 30 seconds.

MLB, NFL,NBA,NCAA FB & BB, NHL, MLS, PGA, LPGA and PGA Champions (and uhh… I don’t know what that last one is)

 

Get the standings, Player Stats, Newsnews, and well… it says More, but there isn’t much more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21.  AdLibs

 

Now, okay, you’re thinking this is a game.  But, I have kids.  Ahhaaaaa…

 

I’m not sure what sort of copyright things are going on here, but this is the pencil and paper game everyone knows and loves that ends in AdLibs and starts with a letter around the middle of the alphabet.

 

You’ve got about thirty story choices, and once you touch Next the thing is going to ask your for a bunch of nouns, and adverbs, and adjectives, and you know the drill.

 

 

 

Once you put all those in it will generate your story, and you get something like………..

 

 

 

 

And your choices are all underlined there.

 

It’s also got a random feature, the use of which sort of eludes me actually, but there you are.  I mean, if you pick your words sure, but completely random story generator?

 

 

Whatever.  Don’t forget now.

 

KidsKids reviews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ve made it to the end of part 1, and you’ve probably guessed that you haven’t made it to the really fantastic and terminally useful Apps yet.

You will get to them in two following posts on the serious stuff, and two on the games, which will be coming in the next few days.

 

Continue to The 30 Best iPhone Apps + 14 Games – Part 2

 

Are You Screening?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tagged as: Apps, AppStore, iPhone, iPhone App, IpodTouch, Smartphones