The 25 Best iPhone Applications

It’s been over a year since Apple launched its iPhone application store. There are now more than 60,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Over 300 new applications are released almost every day!

 

How can the average iPhone user find the best applications?

Make it Better decided to do it for you. We did what we always do—we asked our friends. If you have a question just ask a North Shore woman, they always have the answers.

Below you will find our list of the top 25 iPhone applications. Sorry game lovers; although our list does include some fun diversionary applications, we are saving games for another day.

But our list is sooo good that once you’ve tried them you’ll have a hard time living without them. And don’t miss these holiday apps!

Search/Travel/Entertainment
Never use 411 again! No need to buy a city travel guide before your next trip. Maps? A thing of the past. Find a phone number, address (and get the driving directions) for a friend, doctor, restaurant or pharmacy—at home or when you are traveling. Type it in or use voice recognition. These applications are my favorite and are invaluable!

1. Google Mobile
Search. Using speech recognition technology, users are able to search using only their voice and the app will turn it into text.

2. Dragon Search
Search. Does the same thing as Google Mobile, but instead of searching just Google, users can immediately search Twitter, Wikipedia, iTunes, YouTube, Yahoo and Google.

3. White Pages
Search. It has a people search, business search, and a reverse phone number search.

4. Yelp
Search. Want to find a restaurant, gas station or bar? Yelp uses the GPS in your phone to find nearby places to eat, shop, drink and play. What makes this application special is the reviews from locals “in the know.”

5. BlackBook Guide
Search. Same as Yelp, just hipper. Get cutting-edge lowdown on the hottest shops, restaurants, bars, clubs and hotels.

6. Around Me
Search. Especially good for the practical traveler. Quickly search for banks/ATMs, bars, coffee, gas stations, hospitals, hotels, movie theaters, pharmacies, pubs, restaurants, supermarkets, taxis, theaters and weather.

7. Movies by Flixster
Search. This one is all about movies. Find what is out, where it is showing, when it will come out on DVD and most importantly, what the reviews say. You can read reviews (choose from hundreds: Variety, Entertainment Weekly, Chicago Tribune, The Onion, The New York Times, RottenTomatoes.com, just to name a few), play the trailer and map the theater all from your phone.

Utility/Organization/Productivity

8. AppBox Pro
The only utility you really need. By downloading this application, you can delete at least five other apps. AppBox Pro includes a currency converter, a calculator, a flashlight, a tip calculator, a translator, a unit/measurement converter, a sale price calculator, a leveling tool and a systems tool. It is the swiss army knife of applications!

9. Business Card Reader
It is simply amazing! It scans business card information in seconds and places the contact information directly in “Contacts” on your iPhone.

10. ZBar
Take a photo of a product’s bar code. ZBar will identify the product and then link you to Google Search, Amazon Search or a Internet UPC Database so that you can quickly make a price comparisons.

11. Qik Video
Records smooth video with high quality audio.

12. Dragon Dictation
Dragon Dictation makes dictation and transcription a snap! You just launch the app, press the record button and start talking. Your dictation can be a short sentence or a much longer treatise. Once the text has been created, you can email it, send it as a text message or put it in your clipboard. After recording your message, you can also edit the resulting text before you send it off for others to read.

News

13. News Desk
Always feel well informed. While waiting in a carpool line, skim the most important news stories of the day. Surf world news, tech news and entertainment news. News Desk allows you to choose from a multitude of sources: BBCNews, The New York Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, even Al Jazeera.

Music

14. Slacker Radio
Listen to unlimited free music on your iPhone. The free Slacker Radio App gives you access to the entire Slacker music library. You can also listen to 100s of programmed radio stations or create a custom station based on your likes and dislikes.

15. Shazam
Listening to a song on the radio but didn’t hear the title or who was singing it? Just point your iPhone toward the music to identify the artist and song. Then you can immediately buy the song or just share your discovery with your family and friends.

Fun

16. Stachetastic or ultimate stachetastic

Fun “photography” application. Take a photo (or get one from your photo library) and add a moustache, a beard, resize it rotate it, re-color it or flip it. With the new ultimate version, add 80s hair, a mullet, a hat, sunglasses, a suntan or even turn into a zombie…you get the idea.

17. iEmoji
Apple has ranked iEmoji one of the Top Selling Apps of 2009. Want a keyboard that lets you type expressive messages with pictures & icons? Trust me you do!! Use iEmoji and get the smiley/emoticon keyboard on your iPhone or iPod Touch. To use the iEmoji keyboard in SMS, Mail, Notes or any other application, when you are typing on the keyboard, tap on the world/globe key (to the left of the space bar) to bring up the iEmoji keyboard. Then have fun using the 450+ iEmoji icons provided.

18. Faces Wild
Fun “photography” application. Take a photo (or get one from your photo library) then choose a scene and add a face.
Next email, save or post on facebook.

19. People Flash
Fun and potentially handy tool. You can use PeopleFlash anytime to communicate across the room, across the street or around the world. Particularly useful in a foreign country. Imagine you are in Paris and need find out where the closest bathroom is. Even if you have a translating program on your iPhone, you’d probably have a difficult time pronouncing the correct phrase. PeopleFlasher can help. With this fabulous application you can turn your iPhone into an easy-to-read flashing sign that will be impossible to ignore. PeopleFlasher even knows what country you are in and will then flash your sign in any one of over forty languages.

Reference

20. Web MD Mobile
Gives you trusted medical information when you need it most. Look up symptoms, drugs and treatment information.

21. My-Cast Weather
This award-winning application gives the user comprehensive and intuitive weather information. View an uncluttered map that displays radar, clouds and storm watch. You can check your current weather and see drifting clouds. Accurate seven-day forecasts enable you to plan your week’s outdoor activities.

22. Schmoop
Fun study guide and teacher resource. Impress your teacher, friends and book club. Schmoop includes easy to read/lighthearted summaries, explanations of themes, plot analysis, plot overview, chapter summaries, quotes and study questions. Note to parents of high school freshmen currently reading the Odyssey: three words: “Download Schmoop Odyssey.”

23. Litt Chartis
Traditional study guide and teacher resource. Similar to Schmoop: less lighthearted more serious. Nice feature: Theme Tracker.

24. Cliff Notes To Go
Traditional study guide and teacher resource with a fun twist: Short of time? Try the “Cram Plan” which includes an audio cram cast (great for those just too tired to read) and a character map.

25. Audiobooks
Stuck in traffic? Sitting though your third softball game of the week? Listen to “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austin or “The Art of War” by Sun Tau. The creators of Audiobooks have taken the time to identify the most popular books with the best readers. Our only job is to enjoy high-quality audio books at the touch of a finger. Books include: “Anne of Green Gables,” “The Art of War,” “A Christmas Carol,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Gulliver’s Travel,” “The Invisible Man,” “Jane Eyre,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,” “Treasure Island” and “Wuthering Heights.” All this and it is free of charge!

To download any or all of these apps, just click on the “App Store” application on your iPhone. Did we skip your favorite application? Please let us know! We’d love to hear from you. Add a comment below or email me at Joan@makeitbetter.net

You may also like to read Google Phone Beats iPhone.

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