We upgraded from our stupid phones to smart ones very recently and Melanie chose an iPhone 4s. She loves it and is quickly adapting to life with the internet in her pocket. Checking around with friends and various websites revealed a few of the best apps for the iPhone 4s.
Our criteria: free, available through Apple’s app store, useful
Overdrive – This one is required to by our local library to download e-books and audiobooks. So far we like it.
Redlaser – Bar code scanner. This one seems to be the defacto standard for scanning products for more info and price comparison when shopping.
Runkeeper – Turns your phone into a GPS running watch.
Shazaam – Identifies songs by listening to them.
Web MD – For viewing the website. I don’t know if this one will work out to be any better than just going through the browser.
Wikipedia – For viewing the website. I don’t know if this one will work out to be any better than just going through the browser. Oftentimes what you want to find out is info from Wikipedia so this a quick way to get to it.
Yelp – For viewing the website. I don’t know if this one will work out to be any better than just going through the browser. Great for finding local establishments. When looking for my barber shop I could not find them even using a Google search but they were on Yelp.
Mapquest – Turn-by-turn directions. It is tricky to find a free Garmin-style navigation program it seems. Mapquest has worked for Melanie so far.
Gmail – Melanie wanted a separate app to view personal email. It keeps labels intact unlike the built-in email app. It is supposed to be able to do searches much faster too.
Dataman – Can set up a warning as you approach your monthly data limit.
Flixster – Movie app. Haven’t tried it yet.
iHandy Flashlight – One of many flashlight apps. This one also allows the light to strobe.
Grocery IQ – For making grocery lists.
Pandora – For streaming music.
Geocaching – This app by Groundspeak is the only app on this list that costs something. It is $10 but it is an all-in-one geocaching app. You can look up, find, and log geocaches all from this one app. It makes geocaching a zero-prep event so you can just focus on playing.
Many of these apps Melanie has only had a chance to try out once or twice so I don’t know how robust they are.
Here are a few more that were recommended but she didn’t want:
Wunderlist – To do list.
Seesmic – Puts Twitter and Facebook stuff in one place.
Peak.ar – Tells you the height of nearby mountains just by pointing your camera at them.
Olive Tree Bible Reader – The only app on this additional list that costs money. There are free ones available but this one is supposed to be very good. Of course, I like the website http://www.biblegateway.com very much.
What other apps do you highly recommend?
Jason Patz 