iphone apps, part 1
So, right. I got an iPhone. Among other things, this means that I will now start writing about what apps I like, once in a while.
I’ve had my phone for three or four days now, and here’s what I’m using so far:
I’ve installed Exposure and ShoZu for interacting with Flickr. Exposure is basically a Flickr browser and ShoZu is an uploader. ShoZu actually can upload to all kinds of things, but the only one I care about is Flickr. Getting them set up was a little annoying, mostly because typing a 20+ character password with letters (in both cases), numbers, and punctuation is a real pain. I wish there was a “do not hide password as I type” option so I could compare passwords before hitting “save” and finding out they’re wrong.
I installed TouchRPN, a really cool little units-aware RPN calculator. I think it needs more work, and I need a bit more practice using it. It’s the only application I’ve felt interested enough to spend any money on, though. A few of the other RPN calculators on the iTunes store made the same moronic mistake Apple did with their previous version of an RPN calculator: only one element of the stack visible, ever. Errr…
I’ve installed NetNewsWire, which means I’ve more or less had to start using NewsGator syncing. I don’t like it. NNW for iPhone also bugs me in a lot of ways. It’s time to start filing bugs and feature requests! Still, NNW for Mac is great, so I’m not about to switch to something else that doens’t sync between iPhone and Mac. I’m a captive audience!
I installed Pandora, which has worked well, so far. I’m a big fan of Pandora, so I’m not surprised. I hear some people like AOL Radio better, but I don’t see a reason to switch, yet. I did install AIM, but mostly as a stopgap until there’s some sort of libpurple-based IM client with some kind of system for acting backgrounded.
I installed the Jott program, which will probably be sort of useful, but not extremely. Why can’t I use it to send things to my Jott Feeds? Also, a visual interface to Jott with Jott Links would be fantastic.
I installed Twinkle, but I still don’t see much microblogging in my future. Mostly I find the whole concept annoying. I installed Banner Free and More Cowbell, both just for giggles. I installed the Evernote client, but it seems really slow and buggy so far. Again, I’m wishing that Evernote was built-in to my systems, rather than being a separate app.
I installed the Apple Remote, which seems like it might be more useful than I was expecting. It makes me want to get an Apple TV and some better speakers for home, though, which is dangerous. I also installed the music app Shazam, which identifies recorded music by listening to a twelve-second clip. So far, it’s been really impressive. I haven’t had much use for it, though. It’s just neat.
Finally, I installed Aurora Feint, despite the recent hoohah about their privacy problems. The game looks fun, and so far it is.
I look forward to even cooler apps over the next few months. Maybe I’ll even try to write one myself.