Mac Corner: Some essential iPhone apps
By Larry Grinnell, Palm Beach Phoenix Apple Users Group
The iPhone (as well as the iPad and iPod Touch) have access to hundreds of thousands of applications at the iTunes App Store, which is accessed through your iTunes application on your desktop machine (Mac or PC). Aside from the dozens of fart applications and other timewasters, there are a great number of apps that come under the category of essential. This week, I’ll be covering a few of them, and have provided links when they’re maybe a little hard to find.
Everyone needs a flashlight application. It’s just the thing for getting around in a darkened movie theater. Usually, these apps just set the brightness of the display to max to light up the immediate area. If you have one of the new iPhone 4 devices, * Flashlight * by Henri Asseily uses the led, normally used for a flash for the camera, to provide a pinpoint of light that can be shown steady or as a strobe, which may ease the load on the battery a bit.
Amazon Mobile gives you a distilled view of the mega retail website. All of the searching capabilities are there, making it a real convenient way to shop when you aren’t near a computer. The app is free.
The Facebook app is amazingly close to the full desktop experience of one of the most popular websites on the planet. Of course, it is also free.
Need to find out where the cheapest gas or diesel fuel is available wherever you are? GasBook uses your location information to plot stations on a map with prices. It comes in a free and a 99-cent version. The only real difference is the 99-cent version has no ads.
The business-oriented social networking website LinkedIn now has a real useful iPhone app that lets you easily manage your presence on this site, which I can tell you from personal experience, is the place to find your next job. It’s all about networking.
There’s plenty of time for fun and games, too. I’m not a big gamer, but do enjoy the Klondike variation of Solitaire. Klondike Solitaire Pro from Noisemaker Apps is well worth the 99-cent download. You can also download an ad-supported free version.
Househunting? I’m sure there are still a few of you out there who aren’t underwater in their current mortgage and may be looking around for your next home. Realtor.com has a great little app, called, not surprisingly, Realtor.com. This free app can be set up for city, zip code, and regional searches. You can set up a high/low price range, number of bedrooms/baths, whether you want a single family or condo, and so on.
The Weather Channel has a terrific app that goes way beyond the weather app provided with the i-devices. Forecasts for anyplace in the world, with options for viewing current weather, hourly forecasts, 36 hour forecasts, and the ever-popular 10 day forecast. It can also grab video forecasts for major cities, and provide a visual alert when severe weather is in the area.
For pure fun, it’s hard to ignore Google Earth, which has an i-app. Enter the city and even address of nearly anyplace on the planet, and you are presented with a satellite view that you can zoom in to a very detailed look. It also integrates street view, so you can see things at street level, including a 360-degree view. Lots of fun, and free.
eBay Mobile gives you a condensed view of the massive online auction site. You can bid, check on bids, or just look around for things to buy, or dream of buying. Dreaming, like this app, is free.
These are just a few of the many, many apps available from the iTunes App Store, and ones that I use nearly every day. Have fun and happy downloading!
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About Larry Grinnell: Larry has been working with Macintosh and Windows PCs for over 25 years and worked as a senior technical writer and IT support professional for a major midwest-based consumer electronics and telecommunications equipment manufacturer here in South Florida. His musings on a wide variety of topics from computers to jazz guitar to strange foreign cars from the 1950s can be viewed at the MyMac.com website. Click here to reach him by email.
Writers of this column are members of the Palm Beach Phoenix Apple User Group, a nonprofit organization for Apple Computing Device Users, recognized by Apple Inc., with the purpose of providing educational training and coaching to its members (students, professionals and seniors alike) in a cordial social environment. The club meets the second Saturday (1-4 p.m.) and fourth Wednesday (6-8 p.m.) of each month at the Fire Station #2, 4301 Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach (just two block south of Southern Boulevard). Click here to visit their website. Click here to reach them by email.
