Austin Improv

So, I just got a shiny new iPhone this weekend and I've been searching around for the best apps available. I've read several "Top 10" lists and I've downloaded a few cool things. I know that several of you already have iPhones and have been using them for a while. I want to know, what are some of your favorite apps so far?

i dont have an iphone, but i love snatching others and playing around with the brian eno application bloom

To be honest... INeedStuff is great for shopping ($9). Neat fun, free app for list sharing is Zenbe. iProv is a free (or was free when I got it) repository of improv games and formats that you can randomize by shaking it. MapMyRun is also a good app, especially for free, for recording your run workout--automatic upload to the MapMyRun Web site where you can keep a record of your training.

I'm trying to void buying tons of games, because I need to be, erm, uh, productive.

Of course, you gotta get Shazam so you can find out names of songs that are playing whenever you are out. (It is also the most fun app to show off your iPhone with)

There is another fun app called Midori which allows you to sing a song into the phone and it can usually recognize it.

The app that I talk up most though is AroundMe which finds your GPS location and then tells you what the closest place to you is to go for gas, or coffee or whatever. It has been a lifesaver as far as traveling.

I like these apps, because they are free:

Stanza (e-book reader, great for classics)
TapDefense (tower defense game)
Labyrinth
LuxTouch (Risk knockoff)
Zippo Lighter
Trace (platform game)
The Facebook app is handy as well

Ironically, I just shared some of these tools with Shana about 30 mins ago.

If you are using it for business purposes at all:

XpenseTrkr - utilizes the camera to take photos of reciepts
MileBug - Track mileage

Others:

Klick - the best Flickr app, I think
Newsstand - RSS subscriber, works really well

Loopt- this one is kind of creepy. You can set it up so your friends know where you are based on GPS. It's only working when you want it to, you can disconnect it. But sometimes it's interesting to know where Shannon McCormick is having dinner ( I say that b/c he's only person I have on my list so far. I hope he reads this post and laughs).

I'd have to think about this for a while, but Kerri is definitely right about Bloom - it's ridiculously awesome, especially if you enjoy anything Eno's done.

bradisntclever wrote:I'd have to think about this for a while, but Kerri is definitely right about Bloom - it's ridiculously awesome, especially if you enjoy anything Eno's done.

You to should check out Thursday Afternoon. You have to put your TV on its side, so be forewarned...but it's beautiful.

HerrHerr wrote: You to should check out Thursday Afternoon. You have to put your TV on its side, so be forewarned...but it's beautiful.

It looks like the DVD version (which I can't find anywhere) has both portrait and landscape versions, for those of us without pivoting screens.

What The Font is a great little applicationt that lets you take a photo of some words, and it will tell you what font you've got there. (As well as possible, anyway.)

There's an iPhone version of Rogue that's pretty cool if you're into that, and a version of the Atari 2600 Adventure game that takes me back. There's also a semi-automated Werewolf game moderator that I haven't tried in the field yet.

Others have mentioned Trace and TapDefense. Rolando is a charming rolly-platformy game that takes full advantage of the iPhone as a gaming platform. There's also a fun shooty Zombie game, DizzyBee, MazeFinger, Virus, Trism, Motion X Poker, and Knots.

There's the Demoniak brand puzzle games like Bridges and Untangle, and I like the Tangram Pro for brainless timekilling. If you're into text adventure games, Frotz will give you the business.

Bloom is awesome. RjDj does some fun stuff with sampled sound, and there's another music generator thing out there that looks like ripples on a pond or something, but I can't remember what it is. I also get a bit of use out of the Oblique Strategies generator.

I've actually used one of the free Level apps on the iPhone to set something straight on my wall. I've used Remember The Milk and ToodleDo for todo lists. There are some good Color Picker apps out there, if you use that kind of thing. Lightsaber is fun, and Freebird is essential.

I also map my walks/runs with MapMyRun, and every once in a while use stuff like iWant or AroundMe or UrbanSpoon to find stuff nearby, but I haven't found them super useful in a city that I already know. GasBag is pretty sweet for finding the cheapest gas nearby.

CameraBag has some fun stuff if you're into using the camera. The Google Earth client is fun, but not much more useful than the built in maps app. Evernote and Instapaper are great for clipping stuff from the web to read later. Stanza is decent, too. There's some voice recorder apps that I've used but none that really stand out.

I use Twitteriffic constantly.

I've also started getting into making my own iPhone applications and games - one is up on the store now, Concentrate, and more should trickle out under the Gizmet Mobile brand as time permits. Ideas and feedback are always welcome.

That's a lot. Whew.

This will mostly ditto what other people have said --

On my iPhone, I typically use a grand total of four apps:
1. VoiceNotes -- one of the free voice-recorder apps Marc mentioned.
2. Stanza -- the e-reader app Matt mentioned. I use it to copy giant text files from my PC to my phone, so I can read them there.
3. Tweetie -- I actually prefer this quite a bit to Twitterific. YMMV.
4. ... and the free facebook app.

~ hth ~



--
peter rogers @ work | http://hujhax.livejournal.com

Wasted day. Wasted life. Dessert, please.
      -- Steven Meretzky

I have now downloaded almost all of these. Thanks for the tips! Keep 'em coming!

Nadine and I use Now Playing to get movie times.

I have Urban Spoon, AroundMe and Yelp for restaurant info, but I find I don't use them that often and will probably delete one or more pretty soon.

Sudoku is a decent time waster, and Enigmo is a great puzzle game that you have to check out.

I have iProv, but it just makes me want to make a better improv app.

There's a Shakespeare app that has everything Shakespeare and searchable no less.

Mint is an app that coordinates with their website and let's you see all your bank accounts. Secure and super-useful so far.

And reQall lets you dictate up to 30 seconds per message and emails the text to you -- and has a website for task management. I'm not wild about their task-management software, but I love the dictation to email feature.

And of course the Google app search is sweet. And Say Who will use voice recognition to call anyone in your contact list.

And you can now synch your google calendar with your iPod Calendar.

Simplify Media. Can turn your home computers into a streamer for your entire music colletion, rendering your 8 or 16 gig iPhone into a limitless memory music player. Pretty damn sweet. Works over 3G, not just wireless.

I've only downloaded free apps.

• (utilities) Flashlight -- iHandy Level
  (news & media) NYTimes -- Stanza -- Pandora -- Shazam -- Movies -- Showtimes -- Urbanspoon -- Yelp
  (games) reMovem free -- Dots Free -- FourFree -- FSS Hockey -- Spore LE -- Sol Free -- DizzyBeeFree (for kids)
  (goofy) Magic 8 Ball -- Bubble Wrap -- Lightsaber

Check out Foursquare (playfoursquare.com). It's THE breakout mobile app from SXSW interactive and pretty fun. It launched in something like 10 cities, and thanks to SXSW, Austin is one of them. Essentially, you earn points and badges for traveling to different locations around Austin. You can leave tips for other people on what to do at each location and it's a fun way to keep track of where people are.