Hello, today for a change I won’t speak about complicated computer stuff. Take this as a relaxed, leisure weekend blog post 🙂 Although this article has been written by thousands of people, everyone’s mileage may vary and this is why I am sharing with you my ten favourite iPhone apps.
First of all, some prerequisite information: I own a 16gb iPhone 3G with 3.1.2 firmware which was jailbreaked blackra1n. About a third of the apps below are available only on jailbreaked iPhones, I will mention it specifically.
N°1 : SBSettings (For Jailbreaked iPhone)
This is the number one must-have app. I cannot believe that the smart folks of Cupertino didn’t came up with this! SBSettings allows you, by a simple finger swap on the time bar to access to advanced controls allowing you to change screen brightness on the fly, enable/disable 3G / GPS, kill processes, free up memory and so on.
N°2 : MxTube (For Jailbreaked iPhone)
MxTube wins where Youtube fails : you can download your favourite videos and watch them again and again, without having any connectivity to the interwebs. MxTube offers you to download videos in Hi-Fi or Lo-Fi. It’s really a must-have for any decent iPhone user.
N°3 : Cycorder (For Jailbreaked iPhone)
Got 3G? Got Camera? Install Cycorder and start recording videos with sound! I couldn’t believe that only the 3GS supports video recording, and Saurik, the creator of Cydia shows once again some master skills! Videos can further be exported to your desktop by using WinSCP (Providing that you have installed AND secured SSH on your iPhone). Videos are compact, the quality is good, and the output format is Quicktime Mov.
N°4 : Skype
If you have WiFi at home (I’m sure you do!), just discard your operator calls and use Skype instead for long hours of chatting with your friends and family, I’m certain you’ll empty the battery before you’ll be done talking! It combines the power of Skype with the ease of use of a mobile phone. Really recommended!
N°5 : Echofon
As of now, Echofon is my favourite Twitter application on the iPhone. It has a sleek, easy to use and intuitive interface. Despite lacking the “in your face” looks of TweetDeck, I find it faster and easier to use. It also allows you to view links in-site and that’s making Echofon supplant my use of the Safari browser.
N°6 : Jizdni Rady
Now that’s more of an application for people based in Czech Republic, but for me it’s a must-have, it connects to the state bus and train lines database to check which is the next bus/train connection to bring you from A to B. Working 30 meters away from one of the main Prague train stations, it allows me to check whether I’ll take the bus or the train to get home quicker. What? My Saab? Well… I’ve got to get my driving license first, until then it’s Mrs. who’s driving it!
N°7 : Multifl0w (For Jailbreaked iPhone)
Another major flaw of the iPhone is the lack of multitasking. Like if it’s conceivers where refugees from the original MS-DOS development team… Multifl0w is a great app allowing you to background applications (by holding the Home button) and then switch between apps by scrolling through a selection of running application screenshots (like in Windows Vista). You access this through a double-click on the Home button of your iPhone. Once again, Jailbreak is a must for this nifty tool to run.
N°8 : Photoshop Mobile
I’ve always enjoyed Photoshop ever since version 4 and the mobile version, although very light, honors the family. It is linked with the Photoshop Mobile service which allows you to update your photos on several online albums. If you’re a photo maniac, this is also needed.
N°9 : Charlie
Even if Flickr have finally released a mobile application for the iPhone, I think it’s very slow and lacks many features, this is why I’ve bought a long time ago Charlie, which allows you to conveniently browse on Flickr from your mobile. It’s a paid application, but it’ll cost you maybe a buck or two, and for this price it’s well worth the effort.
N°10 : X-Plane
My last must-have application is a leisure one … or in fact more of them. It’s the X-Plane series. I own X-Plane Airliner, Extreme and Shuttle, the first two are airplane simulators and it’s really one of the “in-your-face” killer apps of the iPhone. I really enjoy the precision of the simulation, and landing a Boeing 777 or an Airbus 380 by night is something to do at least once in your life. If you can’t do it for real, do it on your iPhone 🙂
There’s of course more but these are really my favourite ones. I hope you’ll enjoy this post!