Looking for some great free apps to load on to your iPhone or iPod Touch? Read on for some of our favourites.
Got an iPhone or iPod Touch and looking for some great apps? We've
sampled some of the over 250 free apps and come up with ten that we
like so far. But, remember, with the App Store growing quickly (there
are already over 1000 apps available, this list is likely to change
quickly.
Moonlight Mahjong LiteIf you want to see the graphics power of the iPhone but don't want to shell out for a game, this version of
Mahjong
is perfect. Pinch your fingers to zoom in and out of the board, and
rotate two fingers to rotate the board. The Lite version comes with
four free levels, but you can upgrade to the
paid version
to get an extra eight levels.
Zenbe ListsThere are lots of to-do and list management applications available from the App Store, and
Macworld has a great
review of some of them. I've chosen
Zenbe
for my iPhone for two reasons; it's easy to use and it syncs with
lists.zenbe.com. While the syncing stuff isn't glamorous it works well.
I've been using it for the past week with my wife to share shopping
lists and other home to-dos and I think we're finally ready to get rid
of all those silly sticky notes that end up on the fridge each day.
AIMOne of the most highly anticipated apps to arrive. It's a basic implementation of
IM for the iPhone and lets you view your buddy list in groups or specify favourite contacts to
IM.
Chat works well and conversations look visually appealing. However,
this app is hampered in its current state by not being able to run in
the background which means if you want to use it, you've got to leave
it open. Apple will be addressing this shortcoming in September when
they update the
SDK to include a background notification service. (No doubt we'll then see a flurry of new instant messaging apps released, hopefully including Adium.)
Here I Am A
very simple app that lets you send a link of your current location to
any email address. Great if you're lost and need somebody to find you. (And yes, the screenshot is very boring...)
RemoteThis
app (designed by Apple) really highlights the value in keeping
everything within the iTunes universe. Remote lets you control iTunes
or an Apple TV over WiFi. The interface is similar to the iPod app on
the iPhone but you can also search through libraries (something that's
not possible on the iPhone). I've been using this with my Apple TV and
its more flexible than the standard IR remote as you can skip between
modes without backtracking through the menu system. You can also use it
to enter text on
AppleTV, useful when you're searching YouTube or the iTunes store.
FacebookFacebook
reported that this app has already
got over 1 million users, impressive
considering it's only been available for 18 days.
I'm not the biggest
Facebook
fan but using it on the iPhone just makes it so much more personal. The
interface is logical and responsive and you can even use the flick
gesture to move been photos. Look out for location based features soon
which might just make this THE killer app.
Labyrinth Lite Edition A favourite game of mine since the old Jailbreak days (less than a month ago, mind you). Use your
iPhone's motion sensor to navigate a small ball around a maze.
NYTimesNew York Times already has one of the best mobile news websites out there, but with this standalone app you can browse
NYTimes even when you're offline (like on a plane). When you launch the app it connects to the
NYTimes and downloads news, and you've got an option (in Settings) to access news for between 1 and 7 days.
BloombergIf you're interested in business news (US focused)
Bloomberg is a must-have. Along with a news reader (similar to
NYTimes)
there's also a 'My Stocks' tab that lets you track your stocks (and
quantity of stocks too). Clicking through to information about a
particular stock gives you the latest news for that stock and rotating
your iPhone gives you a full screen graph over various timescales.
ShazamHave you ever been listening to a song and wondered 'what is that tune?'. If you've got an iPhone and
Shazam installed you'll be able to answer that in about thirty seconds.
Shazam samples the music and sends it off processing. If
Shazam
finds a match it returns track information plus gives links to purchase
the song through iTunes and search YouTube for a video. Very impressive.