Neat iPhone apps
 

I know a good many of us have iPhones - what interesting or fun apps have you found on the app store? There's a ton of good ones, but right now I'm fascinated by Distant Shore, by the group that made last year's popular Koi Pond. It's really simple, you walk around on a beach, picking up shells. When you get 5 of them, you get a bottle. Then you can write any note you want, and throw the bottle into the water, where it washes up on some other person's shore who has the app. They discover the bottle while walking, read your note, and can reply to you.

It's so basic but so neat - I just find the message in a bottle theme very interesting, and I've already building some neat pen pal relationships with a couple people. It's so old-fashioned but I'm hooked. 99 cents on the app store.

I actually review iPhone apps and have come across quite a few very neat ones. I actually reviewed Distant Shore a few months ago. It's quite the interesting and fun app.

-If you play Yahoo fantasy sports, check out MyFantasyTeams (formerly called Y! Fan).
-Emergency Radio turns your iPhone into a police/fire/EMS scanner for the whole country.
-Phone Flix lets you access Netflix and your account on the go.
-The X-Plane series are iPhone versions of the popular Mac and Windows flight simulation software. Pretty cool but very difficult.
-ComicZeal lets your read comic books right on your iPhone.

Fieldrunners is my favorite game right now. It's really addictive.
Pandora is a must if you're into music.

Wow, I am messing around with the Emergency Radio app - that is very cool.

Thanks for the pointer to Emergency Radio, that's pretty cool!! My top apps are:

• MLB.com - Great for following the days action and each day you can watch 2 games live. Best part is being able to listen to the home or away radio broadcast for every game. Must have app for any baseball fan.
• Baseball Slugger Homerun Race 3D - Best game on the iPhone right now IMO. Play live HR Derby games against other people over the Internet. Great fun. The more you play, the better gear you earn for your player.
• DrawRace - Fun "light" racing game where you draw the path for your car with your finger and compete with other people for the best time on one of about 20 tracks.

For golf, It's not free but ViewTI is amazing and I use it when I am on the course.

I use the following regularly:

NYTimes
Buster (Chicago city bus tracking)
Yelp
Facebook
Linkedin
Textfree Lite (to text freely with my wife)

The Apple Remote app is pretty sweet and I'm considering getting an Apple TV and moving all my media into that model largely because of how nice it is.

As far as games go, I really liked Tiki Towers ($2). SimCity ($5) is really well done, but it gets old pretty quick if you're experienced with the PC version.

I picked up iTopoMaps before our camping trip, and I was very impressed.

Things I use on a regular basis:

MLB At Bat
Facebook
Shazam
Flight Control (verrrrry addicting)
Sol Free (solitaire)

I also use MxTube a lot to download youtube videos but your phone has to be jailbroken.

Resurrecting this thread as with my thumb messed up, I've been searching for something to kill time I usually spend playing video games, so I recycled my old 3g Nano and got an 8 GB Touch.

I picked up the Canabalt app (CANABALT) which has good music and is dead simple and entertaining.

Also bought Homerun Battle 3D which I think is like the game mentioned above. Between this and the Canabalt game, I have plenty of time-killers for when I'm in the doctor's (or physical therapist's) office.

Got the Kindle app. I love my Kindle, it's a nice extension of it especially for when killing time in grocery lines, etc.

Using Twitterific for Twitter and the Facebook app.

Any other suggestions, especially for games/productivity? Any good free tower defense games?

/tk

Dola,
Also got an app called White Noise which I like for when I'm trying to sleep (ocean sounds or chirping sounds) or work (heavy rain sounds, usually). It's got a ton of different sounds and can be set to run for a specific period of time or go indefinitely.

/tk

Homerun Battle 3D is the game mentioned above (Baseball Slugger 3D). they renamed it in one of the updates for some reason.

Ah. Well, it's hella addictive. I was sitting at PT getting ice on my ankle and the therapist just told me to hang out for as long as I needed/wanted. 15 minutes later, I looked up from the game and realized that I had to be back to work in 15 minutes for a meeting. I'm quite enjoying it.

/tk

Absolutely, I love that damn game, and even after fully upgrading my home run hitter I still play it, online is so much fun also to battle people. great great game.

dragon dictation lets you just speak an email or text, then copy it into the program you want to send it in. even facebook. very useful, pretty accurate

Although the AI is really poor, the Monopoly game isn't a bad re-creation. I held out for the "full" version of Monopoly and I didn't try out that other one.

1Password is a highly useful app. I have two different passwords to get on a classified computer and they both have to be 15 characters: letters, numbers, symbols, etc.

iTrade is a free stock market game where you start with $100k at the beginning of the month and try to make as much money as you can. The best I've done is $124k at the end of the month.

At my new job i have been given a 32Gb Iphone 3GS and i'm starting to learn why it has been hyped as much.

I'm also playing a lot of Monopoly, it's exactly like the boardgame and the only thing you miss are other humans in the negotiations, but the AI is good enough.

I have also downloaded a few MORPG games like Vapires and iMob that look more or less like omerta, but not sure how fun they will be in the iphone.

I'll second the Pandora recommendation.

I got a wild hair today, and tried something with Pandora, Bluetooth, and my car stereo. I was able to connect to Pandora with my iPhone, then make an A2DP bluetooth connection to my car receiver, and stream the Pandora stations to my stereo. It was pretty sweet!

My kids and I play Bubble Wrap quite a bit. I use the 12C emulator also. Not quite as good as using the real buttons on the 12C but it saves me the need to carry the real thing.

I love the Pandora on as well.

I am intrigued about the MLB app in regards to the streaming audio. Is there an additional charge, etc...

Here's the ones that I find I use the most:

For recipes:
Epicurious and AllRecipes

For find a good place to eat or for finding entertainment:
Yelp
Local Books
Movies Now

For home entertainment:
instantwatcher (to find the newest and hottest movies/shows on Netflix and add it to your instant watch queue)
Scrabble (to defeat the spouse)
Trivia Wars (to defeat the spouse again)

And when I have trouble relaxing and/or sleeping:
BrainBaths
Pzizz relax and Pzizz sleep (I swear by these two)

For getting through the day at work:
ooTunes (AM/FM radio)
Slacker (Customized Music)
RSS Player (for listening to podcasts)
RSS Feed (for catching up on any blogs/sites I am subscribed to)
Facebook
TWIT (Tech shows)

And for trying to get into better shape:
Nutrition (I like this one a lot. It shows you the calorie count of the foods you eat at most Fast Food places if you didn't make your meals.)
iFitness (not using it much now since I am in the middle of the 6 week course for EA Sports Active, but will use again when it is over.)
PushupFu and CrunchFu (bought at the beginning of the year and same deal as above).

I used the MLB app this past season, and it is excellent, there is no additional charge and you have every home and away feed for every single game. You can also watch usually 2 games for free every day, and have the option to buy single games for 99c (I think thats the price) The quality on that and the audio is excellent over wifi, and decent enough over 3g.

IMO probably the best single app experience there is on the app store.

FWIW I'd pay up to 40 or 50 bucks for it, but instead its 10 bucks!

It's also worth noting that if you're a MLB.tv subscriber (you pay to watch out of market games on your computer) then you can also watch all games for free on your iPhone as well. They started with just one or two games a night and then made all games available to MLB.tv subscribers and gave everyone else two free games per night. Yes, the MLB app costs an extra $10 but it's worth it to be able to watch a game whenever or wherever you are.

MLB app is free. I just added to my phone.

I just got the touch a couple days ago, and have spent about 3-4 hours just playing TapDefense, a basic Tower Defense game. Highly addictive, like most tower games.

yea they made it free since the season is over, they will release a 2010 version for 10 dollars :D the free one you have now , you won't be able to listen or watch anything on, sorry !

Bah, I knew it was too good to be true.

Thought I'd bump to stir up some interest. I had my Blackberry go kaput and the iPhone was a cheap option to upgrade, so I got one. Really liking these apps.

Baseball Superstars 2010 - It's a big-head baseball game with RPG elements. They have a career mode similar to RTTS on MLB 10: The Show. It's somewhat limited in comparison, but you can finish games very quickly and it keeps your career stats. Got a ton of play out of this one for $4.99.

3D Sun - This is a free app for the astronomy geeks. Provides a current view of the sun in addition to updates when there are any large flare events, explosions, new sunspots, pictures of auroras caused by sun events, or even a comet heading for a demise in the sun. Both pictures and videos.

Planets - Another free app for amateur astronomers. Provides a real-time 3D view of the sky that allows you to quickly pinpoint exactly where the planets/stars/constellations are located currently in the sky. Also has a great little chart that tells you when you can view any given planet that night (if visible). I've taken this little app outside on a clear night and been really surprised how easy it is to spot the planets and stars. I'm thinking about getting a basic telescope now to use with this app.

Stuff I've been playing with lately:

Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap game, well done on iPod Touch/iPhone)

Sailboat Championship (free game racing sailboats, using finger to control sail direction--there's also Sailboat Championship Pro which has more courses that are also tougher, but it's not free)

Wild West Pinball (99 cent pinball game that's surprisingly fun)

And the old standbys, Homerun Battle 3D and Canabalt.

Non-games include the Kindle app (reading Infinite Jest now), White Noise (which has many different types of noise, not just white), Errands (a free task manager that is really useful for grocery lists and such), 1Password (password manager).

/tk

The planets one look cool MBBF

I'd add that Saturn is about to enter a three month period where it has some of the best naked-eye viewing it will have in quite awhile. Should be able to easily spot it with this app.

I find 1Password very useful as well. I'd highly recommend that one.

I seem to buy some apps every couple of weeks and here are a couple of quick reviews:

1. AllRecipes - meh, but the wife likes it.
2. iFitness - I like this one. I especially like the graphs from your workouts and weight.
3. West Point - Free app. Not too bad for the alma mater. I wish my son's prospective colleges had an app.
4. LogicPuzzle - Good game, just wish they had more puzzles for free. I'm not a fan of the micropurchases.
5. Zombiefarm - Free app, but you're really forced to buy things if you want to play. I deleted it after about a week.
6. Tilt to Live - Not a bad game. I got pretty good at work today.
7. SnoCross - On my 3G iPhone, it's a little choppy. I'd recommend a newer iTouch or iPhone.

The games I play most frequently are Lux Deluxe (Risk game), BJ Run (Blackjack game), and Word Warp (essentially TextTwist).

I'm curious to use it outside at night. Of course, I live in the cloudiest city in America, so we'll see.

If any of ya'll are into Rogue-like games, RogueTouch is a good buy. I'm yet to get past level 18, it's a tough little game.

Here are a few apps I have installed that I have not seen mentioned:

1) Espn Scorecenter
2) Bump - hold your phone, bump fists with another iphone user and automatically trade contact info.
3) Swords & Poker - Just buy this game and thank me later.
4) Cribbage Premium - If you like cribbage. Even on expert it is a bit earier than I hoped, but still a fair game.
5) Jewel Quest - sort of like Where's Waldo crossed with bejeweled. Sounds weak, but I had fun for a week with this addictive little game.
6) In general, if you like slot machine games, you can't go wrong with any of about 10 slots that are made by Pokie Magic.

Awesome, just bought an IPhone about a month ago. This thread will make for good reading later tonight.

All the following are free apps. Great website to check for daily free apps is FreeAppAlert - Free iPhone apps that were paid iPhone apps yesterday


Appbox lite: date calculator, level, tip calc, conversion
USA Today
NY Times
RotoWire, ESPN, Scoremobile, Fanball Fantasy news, Sporting news (can you tell i use this for my sports fix?:) )
MLB at Bat (not free, but best app I've ever bought by far)
Directv
Remote (can control itunes on computer from iphone through wifi)
google earth
Dictionary

Games:
Papertoss
WSOP Poker free
iBomber
Boxed in
TapDefense

Okay, after playing Tilt to Live at work today it's my new favorite game.

+1

It's a great game.

Price is Right game is marked down to 99 cents.

Can someone recommend an app for.....

Video- I have a 3G S, but when i take videos of soccer games it would be nice to have some sort of zoom. is that possible? i don't care much about price, willing to pay for something good....

GPS- Should I get AT&T Navigator for $9.95 a month, Tom-Tom for $59.99, or something else? I am constantly in need of something like this, but currently don't have anything.....

thanks, people....

Navigon is supposed to be real good.


Navigon yesterday rolled out a series of three regional U.S. GPS turn-by-turn navigation applications for the iPhone at an introductory price of $24.99 each, significantly cheaper than its more comprehensive MobileNavigator North America currently priced at $79.99. The three regional applications divide the continental United States into three overlapping segments, permitting customers to purchase discounted versions covering their area of the country. Additional regions are available through in-app purchasing currently priced at $12.99.

If you are into outdoor adventure and fun, the Geocache.com app is cool, especially if you don't already have a GPS.

I don't know if anyone else has seen this over the last couple of days, but several of my iPhone apps have received upgrades recently with the notes saying that the update is to allow iPad compatibility.

Keep an eye out for a new iPhone top-down racing game called "Deliverance" due to be released this month. Looks great. Here's the trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffNtj...layer_embedded

Tilt to Live

My two minute review after reading about the game here and buying it.

Damn it's hard. Too twitchy for me with my turn based strategy game tastes.

It is fun though.

Swords & Poker is a blast.

Babo Crash is a fun twist on the bejeweled formula, but not if you don't like to be rushed into decisions.

Reiner Knizia's Money is an interesting little card game that I've wasted a lot of hours on.

I'm not much of a tilt game person and I'm not much of a twitcher either. That being said, the controls are very responsive (I've heard there are issues with the sleepy and custom positions of holding the phone/touch so I play in the regular position) and it takes a little bit to get the hang of it. Once you get the shields, black hole, buzz-saw, and electro-thing it's a lot more fun.

I'd probably rate this game as the best one I've ever played on the iPhone.

I just saw this list of recommendations on another forum, and thought I'd share. The post was essentially great iPhone apps that aren't Plants v Zombies.


Some of these have been talked up here in this thread. I'm going to be doing some research on those with intriguing names.

The Marvel Comics app that came out recently makes me happy in my pants. That thing is awesome.

Tilt to Live is far-and-away the best game I've played on the iPhone.

I just happened across Battle of Wesnoth. There are a number of Wesnoth fans around these parts. I haven't even played yet, just downloaded.

Got that one when it was on sale for 99 cents. It's pretty much the same as the same as the desktop version (which is good). In the last update, they finally made it more user friendly because the buttons were way too small for a portable device. Very good strategy/RPG.

I guess I better update my apps of ones I have been making a lot of use of lately:

Instantwatcher (yes I know I recommended this before, but I guess I need to elobarate on what this is/does): Highly recommend this app if you are always trying to find stuff to watch on Netflix Instant Watch. It shows you new movies/shows that came out, which are the most popular, which are highly rated and which are about to expire. Plus you can filter out results by their rating, if they are family friendly and if you want to see only movies or TV shows. Once you find the show you like, just add it to your queue for later viewing.

Dropbox: Very, very, cool app. You can install this program on your PC and a variety of other mobile devices and sync all the files you place in the drop box. It works by sending your files online to an account that you sign up for. There is basically a 2 gigabyte limit for free. Lorena uses it to send me and my family members the latest photos. I use it primarily to share links, files and software that I have to install on other computers. You can set up folders to share with specific people. And it is free.

WootWatch: Well you pretty much have to be a fan of Woot to like this app. Simple and clean interface that displays all the woot related sites.

Zenonia 2 is out and fricken awesome, best action rpg and it works well. check it out.

Did you ever play Inotia 2? If so, how does it compare? If you haven't played it, you should try it too.

Crush the Castle for iPhone/iPod Touch is free today (5/5/10). It's a fun catapult game where you destroy formations of people/castles. :) I had the Lite version for awhile, but free for the full version was good enough for me to upgrade.

Still playing way too much Sword and Poker, though I wish I could listen to my own music while playing that one. That's the only drawback to it in my opinion.

/tk

Well, thanks for wasting half of my evening. :D

Picked up Sword and Poker 2. It's an interesting fun game. Thanks!

Any difference from the first one from a gameplay perspective?

grr i just bought SaP 1, and now theres a 2?

I don't know. I just got 2 instead of 1.

Hopefully you've all noticed Football Manager Handheld by now, if not apologies I should have posted here when it came out (second update for this will be out in the relatively near future also - its in QA now).

Aside from that if you haven't tried Angry Birds obviously please do so - great time waster and the 'Battle for Wesnoth' iPad app rocks also ...

Haven't played it yet but Sword and Poker 2 is $1.99 right now, so I bought it. I started it up to try something, one definite improvement is it lets you play your own music in the background. That was a big pet peeve of mine with the original.

/tk

Thanks for making an update that finally told me why I couldn't play my game.

Hopefully this means you're now playing? -- if you ever have any issues with a product I've made please PM or email me ([email protected]) and I'll do my utmost to get you up and running asap.

I figured it was just a glitch with the initial release. That's why I waited till the update to see if it continued. Thank Marc! :)

I'm looking for an app that I'll be able to use Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet. Anyone have this app or any other app that is compatible with Excel?

How much do you need it to do? I just use Google Spreadsheets.

My work uses excel and I will only need to be able to bring up spreadsheets on the iPhone from my computer. Not to familiar with Google spreadsheets. Can I take a ss from excel and transfer it to Google ss?

You can import an excel spreadsheet to good spreadsheets and as long as it does not have too much fancy, it will open just fine there for you. If this is work related though, you probably should verify that you legally are allowed to do so however. I am not legally allowed to put work proprietary information (such as spreadsheets) on an internet site myself.

FYI the iPhone and iPad game maker Gameloft is in the midst of a promotion in which they give away one of their games for free during a two hour window every day. Yesterday's game was Real Tennis. It was still free this morning so check it out.

You only have the single two hour window to grab the free game each day so I recommend following Gameloft on Twitter.

Tap Fish- Free game where you manage some fishtanks. Buying Fish, Breeding Them, Selling them.......

And then buying better ones.... Sounds dumb, but is quite addicting.....

How do you guys transfer photo/video from your Iphone to your PC?

Either email them or sync with iTunes.

Anyone here a iPhone App developer. I'm really interested in getting 4.0 installed on my iPhone early to see if it resolves some glaring issues with my Ford Sync on the truck I just purchased.

Stupid question, but I know somebody here will have the answer.
I subscribe to MLB.com audio only. If I want to listen to games via iPod Touch instead of my computer, I have to also buy their $15 app?

/tk

Is there a "Don't get lost in the ocean" app?

Yes.

Not sure, but, I can think of at least one person that could use it though.

Absolutely. It won't be of much help, if your mast falls down though.

Only about another week until the real deal launches. Supposedly it includes a bunch of bug fixes. I am definitely ready to get my hands on it.

BTW, if you guys are looking for some good games - Bird Strike is pretty great. I had a lot of fun with Bowmaster as well.

So I finally got around to getting Angry Birds and I've been loving it. Very addicting.

FIFA 2010 (world cup 2010 I mean) is .99 this weekend. Got it and it seems like a decent game.

I'll have to check out Wesnoth and Football Manager. After that, I should be set for the summer.

I really enjoy:

Plants vs. Zombies
Bloons

and I just downloaded TapDefense. Seems good (it's free) but prefer the others I mentioned above (which aren't free).

Oh dear. Vuvuzela apps showing up on the iPhone now. :D

I know what I'm doing at the bar tonight... :D

A word to anyone upgrading their iPhone 3G or 3GS to the iOS 4 today. I'd recommend doing the required backup and OS install overnight. The backup of my 3G is taking hours and a quick search on Twitter reveals that I'm not alone.

Weird, I do backups almost every time I sync my phone. Is iOS4 out today?

Yup

I'm sure you already know this, but if you have a jailbreaked iphone you may wanna wait a few days and make sure there is no problems with the jailbreak and iOS 4.0

Didn't see it mentioned, but Carcassone is available for the iPhone, and my roommate and I have been playing a bunch lately. I think it's $5.99.

Heads up, since I didn't realize it - if you do a "Play Now" internet game with a random person, you've got to sit and play the whole thing, or it gives you a loss. Games that you invite others to or are invited to will hang between turns so you don't have to stay there the whole time.

Here is an odd question.

How do you un-jailbreak your iphone?

Got it, but also got Sudoku 2 at the same time. I play Sudoku 2 a lot more. Maybe it's because I don't get Carcassone.

Does Carcassone have a good AI system? I don't have too many friends that are nerdy enough to play Carcassone (and those that are don't have iPhones, they have Android devices). And, really, I'm probably not smart enough to play, but I'd like to try...

/tk

Carcassone has no AI - it's strictly PvP in the traditional sense. They have a solitaire version where you get a tileset in a specific order, and try to score as many points as possible. I'm not too thrilled with the Solitaire, but then again I tend to enjoy playing someone else more naturally. If you aren't going to be able to play versus others much, I'd probably pass if I were you.

It only took me about fifteen minutes to upgrade on my 3gs

Whoa what? That's not right, Carcassone has a really strong AI opponent. Normal Game / Local / New Game then add some computer players... Great, great game!!

You are amazing! I need to play around with my apps some more before I go making broad statements like that.

Just do a restore to an iOS , and then choose the option set up as new phone. you should be fine. I've gone back and forth for a few diff people, even a couple who had to take it back to apple and get it replaced and it was no problem.

PS you don't have to set it up as new phone if your not taking it back to apple, if you are just un jailbreak to un jail break then just a restore should be fine.

Too bad I don't get iOS 4 :(