The shame of it… I had my brain surgically removed by a very nice man in the shop and he gave me a shiny new iPhone 3GS in exchange. In case you’ve not heard of the iPhone, it’s a bit like an iPad only it is not only conveniently pocket-sized, but all models come with 3G internet access and it includes a camera and something called a telephone. This is a point-to-point mobile voice telecommunication technology that, due to high take-up, could give Skype a run for its money.
Anyway, get an iPhone, you got to get apps. Five days in, here are my favourite free ones:
Gorillacam – camera that includes a spirit level, zoom, self-timer, time-lapse, anti-shake mode etc.
BBC iPlayer – I got confused by this as it’s not an app, it’s not in the Apple App Store – it’s a web page. But the iPlayer works on the iPhone!
Calendar – okay, this is built-in, but it syncs beautifully with iCal on my Hackintosh and my Google calendar.
iCarRadio lite – it’s an internet radio app. Not sure why you’d pay for a radio app when this seems to work just fine.
Stanza – free eBook reader. Lovely.
FileApp – allows you to get stuff on your iPhone like Word documents and browse them. Needs a computer on the same wireless LAN as the iPhone and an FTP client on the computer. It does not allow you to transfer files by USB (to be fair I think Apple do not allow this). But it’s free and it works.
TVCatchup – like the iPlayer, this is a web site not an app: http://iphone.tvcatchup.com. It allows you to watch live Freeview-type TV. Brilliant! Already used this to catch the top of Newsnight while snoozing.
I also bought my first two commercial apps this morning – the rather stupidly-named iSaidWhat?! (it’s marketed as a toy but is infact a sound recorder and editor) and The Grauniad. The Grauniad app is nice but I was listening to their tech podcast happily on my way to work, about two thirds of the way through, needed to snap a photo and then went back to The Guardian and I seemed to have to start downloading it again – so I’d have been better off downloading the podcast in iTunes and using it as an iPod…
Also good for the price are the Freeview HD TV Guide (non-HD listings are there too) for when you’re in full on couch potato mode, and Ebay (I don’t Ebay much, but when I am buying or selling I put this app back on my iPhone).
Update to iTunes 9.1 and use the option to Convert Higher Bit Rate Songs to 128 kbps AAC. I saved just over 1GB on my 8GB phone.
(Audiophiles need not use that option, or berate me for suggesting it. Thank you.)
Top tip!
I just made Suppertime iPhone-friendly, by the way. Check it out.