Tipping Pitches: Technology: The 10 iPhone Apps I Use Most

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Technology: The 10 iPhone Apps I Use Most



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Updated 10/20/09 (Tweetie 2 replaces Simply Tweet as #6)

First, let me get this out of the way early. I don't have an iPhone. I have an iPod Touch. However, to be accepted with the cool kids, I'll just call these iPhone apps. They are. They're also iPod Touch apps, but no one seems to care.

Something to keep in mind, though, is that any apps that utilize GPS or a microphone (not that this adds all that much to apps) won't be found on this list.

I also have a Blackberry, but come on. Those apps are terrible. Just installing an app or accessing one ends up being a chore. Poor graphics, poor performance. Would be nice if it were 2001. It's not.

So, following are the top 10 apps that I currently use. You'll notice some themes here.  Not surprisingly, I like sports apps -- there are three in the top 10 and five in the second group.  I also like casual games -- two in the top 10 and eight in the second group.  The apps with staying power, though, tend to be those that have utility.  The Facebook app isn't going anywhere.  Same for TextFree, and I'll likely always have a Twitter app in this list (which one it is may change).  Hopefully, the More Birthdays app will also have the same level of utility.

This list is always in flux, so I've also included the apps that may have recently fallen out of the top 10. I'll try to keep this list updated on the home page as often as possible -- or as often as I start favoring other apps.

1. More Birthdays - Great app from Welikesmall (the company that built the Magic Coke Bottle) and American Cancer Society. I may be a little biased on this one (just a tad) because it's my baby. Will be released soon. Awesome birthdays manager with solid graphics and push notifications to remind me to send birthday greetings through the app to my friends.

2. Facebook - Pure genius. I can't stand a web companion that doesn't offer you all -- or close to all -- of the tools available on the web. Beautifully designed, nice organization, great performance, everything I need. And don't get me started on the Blackberry Facebook app.

3. Textfree - Beautiful. I don't have a favorable texting plan, so I was thrilled to discover that such an app exists. Saved me a lot of money.

4. Euchre! - Am I the only one who wasted hours upon hours in college playing Euchre? Even played in the Yahoo! Lounge back in the day as well. You don't play live players, but you can kill a lot of hours playing this game. AI is good overall, but it drives me crazy when my partner will lead with the big dog when it's their only trump and our opponent called it. That's my biggest beef.

5. Yahtzee Adventures - Yahtzee! I have perfected the game by playing this over and over again. Lots of strategy involved in this mathematician's classic. Can play friends, or play in an "adventure." In the end, I usually just play quick games. Only complaint is that they should keep track of ALL of your best scores, not just your very best score. I have a score in the 600s that I know I'll never beat, so it's tough to keep motivated to play.

6. Tweetie 2 - Alright, so I had Simply Tweet here in this spot last time, and then Tweetie came out with their second version.  I still wish that Tweetie (man, I hate saying "tw" words) would have push notifications, but the beauty is that I keep my Simply Tweet notifications on and use Tweetie 2 for updates and whatnot.  And I find Tweetie 2 to be much deeper in terms of types of information that can be accessed than Simply Tweet.

7. Sportacular - The fellas at Citizen Sports put this one together. For whatever reason, good sports scores apps are hard to find, but this one seems to do the trick.

8. MLB At Bat - My favorite app of all time, but the regular season is now over so my time using it will diminish greatly. Not much the people at MLB can do to make this one better.

9. ToDo - Nice little utility. Pretty steep price, but I found it useful when I was putting together lists of things to do around the house.

10. Yahoo! Fantasy Football - Still a bit buggy, but it's a new app. Very clean interface, and Yahoo! is always ahead of the curve. They'll come around.

Former favorites that have fallen off the list:

The Weather Channel
Tweetie
Simply Tweet
Echelon
Monopoly Worldwide
Scramble2
Sudoku
Flight Control
Flick Fishing
100 Pushups
200 Situps
CNN
MyFantasyTeams
Price is Right
MLB Power Pros
Rotowire
ESPN Scorecenter
Home Run Battle 3D

So what else am I missing?  Let me know what apps you're using.

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