Bed’s Top Five Essential iPhone Apps
There is so much crap in Apple’s AppStore. My pet peeve is all of the “Days until…” apps. These are all the same, you set a day and it tells you how many days there are left until your nominated date. Of course there’s a seperate paid app for every occasion, days until wedding, days until school, days until vacation etc etc.
However there is also some of the best software I’ve ever seen for a mobile internet device. Here are my top five, best value, most essential applications that I use regularly.
NetNewsWire Feed List
The best RSS Feed reader for the iPhone – this will sync with a free NewsGator account. Using the identically named NetNewsWire for OSX – this combination is the ultimate in automatically synchronised news reading. Read some items on your computer, go on a train, and keep reading – without worrying about coming across articles you’ve already read. And best of all, its all free.
Forecast
There are alot of sources for weather forecasts on the internet. However, if you’re in Australia, there’s only one source that is worth a damn – The Bureau of Meteorology. The weather app that comes with the iPhone doesn’t use the bom – and because of that its often very wrong. Pocket Weather AU does use the bom – and not only that, it exposes all that the bureau has to offer, and does it in awesome iPhone style. View animated rain radar images with ease! This app costs $2.49AU, and is easily worth all of it. I would pay way more if I had to.
Notes
The default iPhone notes application is pretty crappy. It doesn’t sync with anything and I hate that font that it uses. The Evernote iPhone app works hand in hand with the Evernote Web Service - which also syncs to the Evernote OSX application too. This means I can write a note on my iPhone, or snap a photo and attach it to a note – and then access this on the web while at a friend’s place – or on my computer directly. This kind of automated syncing is the way of the future and is what these portable internet devices are all about. All of the evernote components (account, iPhone & OSX apps) are free – with a 40MB a month quota. This quota is counted as data uploaded to their servers. Now so far I’ve maxed at about 2MB per month, and thats only because I took photos of stuff and added them to a note. You can then upgrade to a paid account if you’re going to use more data – which I think is damn fair enough for such a useful service. This is internet 2.0 at its finest.
Secure
I have a gazillion passwords – for web forums – for bank accounts, for on-line billing and more. I keep all of these stored securely with 1Password. Like most of my favourite things, 1Password syncs my secure database with my computer – of course it does this directly with my computer via wifi, not over the open internet. The 1Password iPhone app syncs directly with the 1Password OSX application (which also integrates with Safari/Firefox/Opera for secure password filling). On the iPhone side you set a master 4 digit unlock code to access your searchable list of secure items. When accessing a secure item, you can then configure especially secure items to require entering a secodary alphanumeric master password to view the secure details. Then you can do funky things like use the built-in browser to go to a webpage and automatically log in. This way I can access my online banking securely and quickly on my iPhone anywhere I am. 1Password for iPhone is free and can be used standalone. The OSX application costs $39.95US, a free trial is available, and is IMO absolutely worth it.
Convert stuff!
There are heaps of conversion utilities available for the iPhone – but this one is extremely comprehensive, with every measure of unit you can think of and the ability to convert between them. Its not fancy, and it doesn’t need to be, it couldn’t be simplier to use. Plus its free! And its got a bonus ruler too. There is no reason not to have this app, and every reason why it can be useful.
See also… Bed’s Top Five Useful iPhone Apps, Bed’s Top Five Jailbroken iPhone Apps
Still to come… Bed’s Top Five Useless iPhone Apps and Bed’s Top Five iPhone Games.
