iPhone, what apps do you use.

[acropolite]

OK I couldn't resist, just got an iPhone, what apps do you use and what apps would you consider "must have" downloads??

Also any tips would be gratefully recieved, we Technicians are notorious for not reading manuals....

[Octane]

Allrecipes AU - recipe suggester
ABC - optimised site for iPhone
APOD - NASA's official APOD app for the iPhone
AroundMe - using GPS, shows you what's around (food, entertainment, etc.)
AusPostcode
BigOven - recipe suggester
BOMRadar - shows the radar loop for your location (and others you can choose from a list)
CashFlowFree - simple spreadsheet
Chronometer - awesome app with loads of different watch faces and different complications -- excellent for astronomy
CommBank - link for NetBank
Currency - XE's iPhone app
Domino's - one of the best app's for the iPhone -- Chris got me onto this
eBay - official eBay app
FREE Wi-Fi - using GPS locates the nearest free wireless Internet hotspot
Google
Google Earth
GPSLite - a way cool GPS application -- excellent for orienteering
HeyWAY - Hey Where Are You Now? At the press of a button you can send your location to someone else, and request their location; shown on Google maps
iHandy Level - inclinometer and bubble level
Mapkats - shows you where parking inspectors are lurking
myConvert - awesome conversion utility
NASA - official NASA app
OneTap - using GPS, locates your nearest cinema and shows you what's on, and, at what time, with links to watch trailers
PayPal - official PayPal app
Planets - very cool app which shows the locations of planets and their visibility -- now has a 3D mode
PS Mobile - Photoshop on the iPhone
QuotaLite - after you've provided your account information, you can keep track of how much data/calls you've used up
RunKeeper - an excellent fitness application which charts your running, cycling, walking, etc., and overlays the data over Google maps; you can log in and share your activities with others and monitor your fitness progress
Road Trip - an excellent app which I use daily to keep track of how much petrol I've used and trips I've made, servicing performed on car, etc., and it also draws charts and graphs your fuel economy
Shazam - this is awesome; press "Tag", it listens to a song that might be playing on the radio, television or even in a shopping centre; after ten seconds it sends the recorded snippet off and returns with the artist, song, the album it's from, and a host of other links to more information and YouTube video of the track
SixPack App - an excellent fitness app which allows you to find exercises and keep a record/log of your activities
SkyGazer - a cut down SkyVoyager
SkyVoyager - an excellent planetarium application; you can point the iPhone around in the sky and it will show you what you're looking at
Stanza - en eBook reader -- has hooks into Project Gutenburg
Take Me To My Car - park your car, load the application, mark your spot, go do whatever it is you're having to do; if you get lost, load the application up, and it will direct you to your car
Trapster - phenomenal application relying on the wonder of distributed computing over the 'net; as you drive along, it will alert you to where the speed cameras, red light cameras, combo cameras, hidden police units, etc., and give you ample warning. If they're there, you vote them up, if not, vote them down. If you find any of these items that aren't already being broadcast, you can report your own by tapping on the screen and choosing the relevant item
VNC - remote computing
White Pages - official White Pages app
Wikipedia - official Wikipedia app
X-Plane Extreme - awesome flight simulator, uses the accelerometer of the phone to fly the aircraft; can even fly others over Bluetooth
Yellow Pages - official Yellow Pages app
Envivo Tennis - daily tennis news, calendar, upcoming events, etc.

I didn't list any games in there, but, for a fun time, try Geodefence.

Plus 140,000-odd more on iTunes.

H

[allan gould]

Starmap pro. CAll me a minimalist

[kustard]

That's a lot of apps there Humayun!

I have a few as well but these are the ones I use most:


Quota - Let's you monitor various usages ie ISP, Phone, Tolls, etc.
ABC - News site.
Weather - This one comes with the iPhone.
BomRadar - (Written by a good friend of mine).
eBay
Facebook
NASA
Battery - monitors battery usage.
Forums - Let's you view forum based websites, like IIS and Whirlpool.
Snarl Traffic - View traffic reports and RTA cameras.
iSSH - SSH client, useful for me to log into my work servers.
FlowChat - IRC client.
ST.George & Westpac - iPhone banking apps.
Foxtel Guide - Great for setting up your IQ/IQ2 on the go.
SoundHound - I prefer it over Shazam, but Shazam is just as good.
mSecure - a password safe for your important stuff, can be synced with your computer.
FlashFiles - Allows you to share files between the iPhone and your computer.
NoteTaker - Write freehand notes.
Level - Spirit level.
PCalc - A really useful scientific calculator, great for programmers.
Armory - A World of Warcraft app *go the addiction!*
Dicenomicon - An electronic dice app for when playing D&D.

As for astronomy apps, I have:


Compass - iPhone compass.
SkyVoyager
Starmap Pro
pUniverse
Planets
iMoon
Moon Atlas
Mars Atlas

The only game I have is a port of Dragon's Lair.

Not all those apps are free, especially the astronomy ones.

[dugnsuz]

Try Dark Nebula - addictive and only $1.19

[acropolite]

Thanks guys, I think I'll start with Starmap pro.

[allan gould]

The latest version of planets has rotating spheres for the planets (earth, mars, mercury, venus - etc) and the moon. Very cool

[Omaroo]

In addition to the standard 3GS iPhone apps as loaded, I've gone somewhat "minimalist"..... ;)

Aera
Allrecipes.com.au Dinner Spinner
Angle
Anonymous Web Browser
Apollo 11: The Game
Astronomy Torch
Audiobook-Treasure Island
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Oxford Dictionary
Australian Postcodes
BeatMaker
Bento FileMaker
BOMRadar
Camera Zoom 2
Clock Radio!
ColorSplash
Convert (Unit Converter by PBF)
Convertbot — The Amazing Unit Converter
Currency Exchange
Darkness - Sun, Moon
WordWeb English Dictionary
Digital Clock
Documents To Go®
Domain.com.au
Domino's Pizza Enterprises Limited
EAT. Sydney - Sydney dining guide
eBay Mobile
eCurrency - Currency Converter
Emerald Chronometer
Facebook
Find My Car
Free Wi-Fi Finder
FTP On The Go
Galaxy Collider
Geared
Google Earth
Google Mobile App
HDR Camera
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Home Delivery & Takeaway Menulog
HP 12C Financial Calculator
i41CX RPN Calculator
iEphemeris Pro
iKana touch
iSecret
iSSH - SSH / VNC Console
iStellar
Jaadu Remote Desktop for Windows
Kindle for iPhone
Layers
LCD Clock - Clock & Calendar
Linux Cheat Sheet
LookUP
Mobile Maps Australia & New Zeal…
MobileNavigator Australia
Moon Atlas
Moon Globe
Moon Map Pro
Mortgage Saver - Home Loan Calculator
MotionX GPSMyst Myst Cyan Worlds
NASA App
Nebula Clock
Nikon D40 Guide
Noise.io™ Pro Synth
Now Playing
On The Origin Of Species by Charles Darwin
Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy
Oz Geodesy
Oz Weather
Perpetuum - Moon Phases
Pocket Data - SQLite Database
Pocket Tunes Radio
Pocket Universe: Virtual Sky Astro
Pocket Weather AU
pTerm - SSH, Telnet Client
Ragdoll Blaster - A Physics Puzzler
Roget's II: New Thesaurus
Shazam
Shazam Encore
Shopping List Helper
Shopping List Lite
SketchBook MobileX
SkyORB
SkyScan
SkyVoyager
Snarl Traffic
Speedtest.net
SqlSchool
Star Walk - 5 stars astronomy guide
Starmap Pro
TakAlign
The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells
Tips & Tricks - iPhone Secrets
TouchTerm Pro SSH
Trails - GPS tracker
TripView Sydney
Urbanspoon
Vector Tanks
Where To? - GPS points of interest
White Pages Australia
wikiHow: How to and DIY Survival
Wikipanion
Wikipedia Mobile
X-Plane Airliner
X-Plane Apollo
X-Plane-Trainer
Yellow Pages Australia
3-Axis Plum Bob
12C Lite RPN Business Calculator
12C Platinum ALG/RPN Calculator
20 Minute Meals - Jamie Oliver
170,000 Recipes - BigOven
200 Great Books

[Davros]

Wow there is even a Takalign app. Now i just need a Tak mount.

[acropolite]

I've just loaded Tapatalk, one word........ fantastic. I've downloaded but yet to try Starmap pro.

[acropolite]

A bit of a bump here, I've loaded many of the suggestions, and found a couple of extra apps, one is Navionics Marine, a Marine GPS chart program complete with tide predictions, equivalent GPS charts cost hundreds of dollars, the app just $14.99

Thanks Chris for the Pocket weather au tip, absolutely fantastic.

I also installed Runkeeper Free as suggested by Humayan, I was so impresssed I decided to pay for the full version.

Another interesting app I found was Columbia WhatKnot, a how to on knot tying.

I had a recommendation from one of our suppliers to try Acrobits Wi-Fi softphone. It's a Wi-Fi/3Gdata SIP phone. I can confirm it works with Engin and other sip providers (tried it today with some parameters from one of our SIP trunking PABX's), it can also be used as a sip phone extension on an IP capable PABX.

[Tilt]

Another one for Starmap Pro :)

[Analog6]

I don't use many, they eat into the data charges to quick (I am prepaid). Can anyone tell me how you take them OFF?

I did purchase Sygic GPS for Aust & NZ and it is great and just $59.99. And once you've downloaded the maps it does not use any data at all.

Is starmap pro 'offline' or does it chew through your data $$?

[Octane]

Odille,

Rather than download the apps via your phone, use iTunes and use your Internet connection to download the apps. If you have a wireless network at home, connect to that and use that to download the apps. Then, run a sync in iTunes and it'll install the app for you.

Planetarium software will not use any data, as all the skymaps and objects are built-in.

To uninstall, connect to iTunes, go to the Apps link on the left. It will now bring up icons for all your apps. Simply right-click and delete (or uninstall, I can't remember).

Hope this helps.

H

[Louwai]

NONE !!!!!

I don't have an iphone :shrug:

[Satchmo]

So why do you respond to this thread ?:sadeyes:

[Omaroo]

To answer the earlier criticisms concerning enterprise-level security and multitasking... OS 4.0 is nearly here.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/

It's a pretty long review of some of the new (100's) features, but is well worth the watch. I think that Blackberry had better watch out in the business sector.

[Satchmo]

I love my Ipod Touch but I will not take this Apple device 100% seriously until they allow Java and Flash applets top run on my Ipod web browser. So many things I use on the internet , like ABC Iview and Online Chess use Java and flash ...I would love to use these on my IPOD . Its advertised as being a full blown net capable, but that is far from the truth .

( Just a minor whinge to make my 1000th post :lol: )

[Omaroo]

I believe that the major reason Flash is not part of the iPhone, Mark, is because Apple place a huge priority on it being a fast, stable and unique user experience. In an effort to protect this I guess that they forbid third-parties to use non-Apple APIs such as Flash to develop apps because then they cannot guarantee known quality to their user base. I can see the business sense in it, if not the practical. Adobe Flash is a pretty stable platform these days, so maybe one day.



The software company that Mike Salway works for develops for iPhone, and I'm just taking my company down that route too. I've just been pouring over the rules and regs today and there are many. Apple runs a tight ship and does not want bad code running around because the phone would obviously suffer in popularity if apps started failing all over the place. As a developer, I would certainly not want to see my own app out there clashing with something that wasn't up to scratch. External API's not under the control of Apple are a risky thing to Apple. One thing that the Macintosh has always had the luxury of is a very stable OS and application suite because of this very mantra.

[Satchmo]

I think the market is mature enough to distinguish a software crash due to an online accessed program Java or Flash , and a native Apple application. I'm very disappointed with the poor compatability of my Ipod Touch with the interenet. I think Apple are just keeping an incredibly tight reign on control over what the punters have running on their machines. I will never buy a Mac , but the Ipod/Iphone hasd enough going for it for me to dabble :)

[Analog6]

Thanks for that. It wasn't the download time, I was meaning when you run them, do they use data $$ or am I mad? Since I put some on the data seemed to run out incredibly fast so I stopped using them.

I'll hook up and take a couple off, I think.

And I will buy starmaps, just what I want.

[gbeal]

What, "never buy a Mac", you gotta be winding me up Satch, LOL. You really need to get out more often,
Gary
Sorry, I am a down and out Mac-Freak.

[gbeal]

Try Voyager for the iPhone, it really is nice, and to be able to control an mount (most mounts) via wifi is an incredible experience. Great software package as well.
Gary

[Omaroo]

I take it that you have your new SkyFi working Gary :) Great, isn't it?

[Tilt]

Sensational! Finally, multitasking :thumbsup:

[gbeal]

"Great" falls a bit short for this old fart, "Incredible" springs to mind, almost magical. LOL.
I am about to build up a cable though, the current method is a bit archaic to my mind, but I suppose it is the "fits all" system.
I am looking to wire straight from the RJ12 that fits into the SkyFi, to the Din that fits the EM200.
Marvellous though.
Gary

[Satchmo]

Ouch .....Gary, I think you mean you are an 'enthusiastic Mac product user'. Real computer freaks revel in constantly upgrading their components and getting the fastest machine for the smallest amount of money, not `cooing' about how `user friendly' their operating system is.

Real computer freaks don't sit in front of off the shelf boxes that the company forces into redundancy as they don't let you upgrade components. Anyway by that definition , real computer freaks use PC's . Its as simple as that :D

[gbeal]

You are likely right Mark, did the down and out part give it away, LOL?
Gary

[luminary]

anyone else got the iPad yet?

A friend brought me the 16gb wifi from the us 2 days ago and its an amazing device. Just need an amber gel for the screen and its good to go.

[Chillie]

It will be available in Australia late May according to Apple Australia.

[astrospotter]

Have a droid but I bet these are on iPhone as iPhone was earlier. I am going to mention some tools that I enjoy that help in planning observing sessions and will not be diving into this thread's 'flame' but it is both amusing and informative.

MoonPhase shows the full month with phases and is 'cute' and handy to plan ahead a few weeks.

SunMoon: This is a 'real' (valuable) app that tells me actual moonrise/set and sun rise/set that I think is appropriate for astronomy.

I use them both because MoonPhase is good for a quick glance all at once to see what the weekend will be like ahead of time and SunMoon is to be used on the day you are going out OR you can bump forward or back the days to get times.

Now back to our regularly schedule 'flame'. As of yet I have not 'drank the kool-aid' for Apple products but I recognize why many people have 'religion' in this age-old debate. In the end, ya just gotta pick and go with the one that works for you (Even if you are wrong, you will be happy :rofl: )

[avandonk]

The battery in my phone is dying or close to death. It is a prepaid and costs me $49 per month. It looks like I can get an iPhone for the same monthly costs on a 24month contract. What are the hidden costs if any?
I never had the $49 prepaid run out unless I did it deliberately.

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Bert

[Steffen]

Hi Bert,
I don't think there are any hidden costs, the carriers are required to disclose everything upfront. Basically, if you sign up to a 24-month contract the carrier will subsidise your phone. Depending on the contracted monthly spend they may cover part or all of the purchase price of the phone.

You can adjust the contracted monthly spend upwards during the term of the contract but not downwards, so be careful what you sign up for. You'll also want to check what data allowance is included in the phone contract (if any) and buy an additional data pack on top of that. You cannot use an iPhone without adequate data allowance (at least 100MB per month I'd say).

If you want to leave the phone contract early the carrier will make you pay for the balance of the phone subsidy plus any fees they deem proper, an amount that has to be disclosed before you sign up.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Omaroo]

Agreed with Steffen Bert. Data isn't a biggie either, as 99% of my data traffic to and from my iPhone is carried out inside my home or office - where both are fitted with 802.11 WiFi networks. The phone preferentially and automatically uses these for data transfer of any kind when available. On the road - the only applications that may consume part of your 3G data allocation will be the built-in Map software, which downloads adjacent maps as you move. If you buy and use TomTom, Navigon or Sygic Mobile Maps that pre-store the entire country's worth of maps when you download the app you won't download anything while you're on the move.

[iceman]

I recently got a (work) iPhone.. thank goodness to be rid of the blackberry!

Haven't downloaded many apps yet -
- TiltMeterE (spirit level thingo)
- Weatherzone
- Angry Birds (fun and addictive)

The lists here have given me some good ideas. I didn't realise some of the astronomy ones were so expensive ($17-$25) (SkyVoyager and StarMap Pro).

[White Rabbit]

for all those out there about to get an iphone on th $49 cap be warned that it is an 8 gig model and is only 3g not 3gS. If you want the 3gs you will need to fork out another $300 for the 16 gig 3gs mode.

I nearly got the wrong one, if you want to use if for astronomy apps you need to get the 3gs as the 3g does not have the built in compass.

Here is a comparison chart between the two models.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/iphone-3g-vs-iphone-3g-s-the-tale-of-the-tape/

Thanks
Sandy

[Steffen]

It's not quite that bad. I've got a 16GB 3G and run Sky Voyager (as well as a few other astro apps) on it. The compass is not used by all of them and not required by any. It's a nice extra but not absolutely necessary. Heck, the PC and Mac versions of astro software have done fine without compass all these years.

The 3GS is much preferable over the 3G regardless, since it has twice the RAM and a faster CPU. With Sky Voyager and similar apps that really shows.

After almost 2 years with the 3G I'm looking forward to swapping it for a 4G this winter :2thumbs:

Cheers
Steffen.

[gb_astro]

3 has the 3GS 16 Gig on a $49 cap + $5 month.
Roams on to Telstra outside the big cities.

gb.

[that_guy]

You could always jailbreak!

[Omaroo]

Here you go Mark:. Looks like Flash isn't a "gimme"... make up your own mind. Gotta love big business. LOL!

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/microsoft-we-dont-like-flash-either-20100503-u2bk.html

[M_Lewis]

do a google search for 'iphone explorer' - very small program, and just install it onto your computer. You plug your iphone to your computer as per normal, and open up iphone explorer (close itunes), and it lets you use your iphone as a USB drive, copy music, ringtones...anything to and from it. You dont' need to jail break your phone to do this.

[avandonk]

Thanks for the advice all. I ended up getting a prepaid phone with a screen almost as big as the iphone. I really only want a phone that makes phone calls. If I want to do some heavy stuff I will use my i7 920with 12GB of ram. I got very suss when after I asked 'could I buy the iphone up front and forget all this contract stuff?' The young bloke was flummoxed 'no one does that!'. He could not even offer me a price.

Bert

[Satchmo]

Nah I don't buy that . All those sites I want and expected to work on my Ipod don't , so its a simple case of a flawed product not giving me the internet experience I expect that I have on my PC .

Its about Apples greed in not allowing applets to run on its platform that you haven't paid for in the app shop. I don't care if the odd flash experience is flaky. For that matter I have a number of Apps on my Ipod that are pretty flakey..so much for the Apple quality control

( I'm being a little cheeky there ) :D

I would love to own an Ipad neverthless , I have a few apps that would be worth the cost of an Ipad alone to run touch them on a big touch screen. :)

[Wavytone]

Mark I think you're being a bit cruel there... it's the developers who have made shoddy s/w, not Apple per-se.

OTOH StarMap Pro on an iPhone 3G is the ducks nuts as far as I'm concerned...

[Satchmo]

Nah I wasn't being that cruel :) Chris tabled that the reason Apple didn't support Flash was that it wanted supreme quality control over the Applified `internet experience'.

I just pointed out that a number of sites I use a lot like online chess don't work on my Ipod which is a travesty. If as many flash sites were as dodgy as some of the Ipod apps I'd be surprised. Remember, Apple first screen and approve every app that appears on there site free or not. Hitler would be impressed.

[Omaroo]

Hi Mark - I've just been involved with a mammoth task (here, USA, UK & Russia) developing Flash-based apps with an eye to eventually replacing our suite of high-end publishing workflow applications with said Flash versions. Over the past 3 years we've had so many problems with it that we have recently decided to dump the new developments due to their general inconsistency across multiple guest environments and incapacity to be easily modified prior to specialist deployment. It can be and was at times very slow and clunky for our users, the majority of who just gave up testing in a beta program. As an enterprise-level platform it just doesn't cut the mustard - especially in the high-pressure, time-critical newspaper and magazine business where new quad-core machines are definitely not the order of the day. It could have been a real panacea, but just wasn't. Admittedly, Flash works just wonderfully for low-end games and for corporate presentations and such. I recently had a look at Pizza Hut and Dominoes corporate Flash offerings, and while they work, you can hear the grinding noises going on in the background as they try to do the best they can and keep you interested.

We're an iPhone developer as well, and at this juncture are in agreeance with Jobsie I'm afraid. I'm actually working at this coalface, not observing from afar. I'm not sure why you mention Hitler. Yes, Apple wants its users to have as unified an experience as they can offer - because fewer problems mean better performance of the platform in general. This has always been mis-understood by most, as some prefer to work in an environment where anything goes, and good luck to them.

[Omaroo]

Take it as you will. If you have a pre-determined dislike for the guy then I guess that your reaction will be predictable.

[Kevnool]

Sorry fellas i just like a phone i can ring people on.
Cheers Kev.

[Octane]

Kev,

You can ring people on an iPhone. But, you can do a whole lot more, like read IIS on the dunny.

H

[Omaroo]

You can make calls to other people? :question: Cool! :thumbsup:

[Satchmo]

Hi Chris

I do appreciate all you say..and I even waded through Steve Job's piece on Flash. That being said I still find it frustrating that I can't gave the same Internet experience with the Ipod as do on my PC. My PC makes no exceptions about what content I can view and interact with . For me , the Apple experience is still a `censored' experience. I haven't gone over to 'the dark side' but will still be getting a 16gb Ipad this year..I can't wait.. :)

Mark

[acropolite]

I found another few good ones, if you're a technophile with a short memory, SchemRef is an excellent app that shows resistor colour codes, capacitor codes, Led series limiting resistor and an Ascii code chart( very handy at times). mSecure is a neat password storage app, comes complete with PC backup software.

If you have a collection of DVD's, MovieScan will allow you to catalog, it even scans barcodes and retrieves cover icons etc where possible. I found the Barcode scan to be of minimal use as most of my Australian Movie title barcodes aren't listed but most of my Music DVD collection scanned and entered directly from the barcode.

The retrieval rate for manual entry is pretty well 100% for Icons and decriptions, if the Title is entered exactly as it appears on the cover of the DVD.

Moviescan is very handy, in the event of loss through theft or fire I have a list of all my collection, plus I have on more than one occasion bought a duplicate DVD's I already have the title, having the collection on phone will prevent that.

[stephenb]

Whatever works for you. Yes, those young sales staff are sometimes all hot air.

Mine plan is a $49 plan with Optus. I pay $6 per month for the phone - over 24 months contract. With that I get $330 of included calls (voice, SMS texts etc), and 250MB of data to access the internet. I use the Optuc App to check my daily usage and I have never reached anywhere near half of my limits. I use it now more than the home phone. Which is becoming a waste of money. I know I could have found a cheaper plan but this one is convenient for me.

Back on track... I have the following Apps....

- Sky Voyager
- MoonPhase
- Soho
- Astro Cast
- Weatherzone
- NASA
- GPS Motion X
- Astronomy (an astronomy quiz/trivia game)
- Astronomy Jigsaw puzzle
- Geocaching
- Unit Converter

- ABC
- Rage (Rage playlists)
- Tunein Radio - The best internet radio in this country :thumbsup::thumbsup:
- eBay
- Optus My Account
- PayPal
- Shift Worker
- Wikipedia



Stephen

[iceman]

I recently downloaded "Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior". Very cool fighting game :)

[Kevnool]

Your a funny man H
Cheers Kev.

[Kevnool]

Here we go has it got the rural tick ?

I cant buy a phone because of the gov phone which is so cheap to ring.
Cheers Kev.

[AdrianF]

Just discovered SpaceGeek. NASA live TV on your phone plus more.

Adrian