Steff.me

Just to jump on the bandwagon of all those “Top X” iPhone applications, I figured I’d give my two cents… for what it’s worth. I have a first generation iPhone (still debating whether to bother upgrading or not) and as such only have EDGE connectivity. I’ve noticed that using the App Store through EDGE has not been a problem; downloads are very quick and I have no other issues. On my list of apps, there was only one that I couldn’t download via EDGE, as those downloads are limited to 10MB.

So, without further ado, I present my favourite apps to come out of the store:

Shazam

Listening to a song and can’t remember it’s name? This “free” application is there to the rescue. With Shazam, you can hold your iPhone up to the music and within seconds you’ll know the artist and track name (if Shazam knows it).

Shazam has been a pay service operating for some time, where you could dial 2580 from your phone and then hold it up to the music. After twenty seconds, the call would terminate and if Shazam knew the song, it would text you with the answer.

The application seems like a nice wrapper for this service, however while the iPhone app is free to download, the service is a limited demo and after a while you will have to pay in order to successfully tag a song (currently £0.50). Still, it looks good and works well.

Note: This application requires an iPhone, as it has a built in microphone. Do not attempt this with a normal iPod touch, like a friend of mine, who couldn’t quite grasp why it wasn’t working.

midomi

This is an alternative to Shazam. midomi allows you to search for songs through a number of different methods: you can say the name of a song or artist, hum or sing your version of the song or hold your iPhone up to the music, or you can just type the name of a song in. midomi will then attempt to grab the song information and allow you to listen to a preview of its results.

midomi is completely free to download and use.

Tap Tap Revenge

A music game very much in the vein of Guitar Hero, Tap Tap Revenge challenges you to tap the screen as beats reach the bottom of it. You’ll also have to shake left or right as arrows fall.

This game was a reason why I jailbroke my iPhone in the first place; it’s basically a must have game and it’s completely free. Go and download this now. Still reading? Why haven’t you gone yet? Shoo. Go get the game. Got it? Good. Let’s continue.

Remote

This official application from Apple lets you use your iPhone as a remote control for iTunes. It allows you to play, pause, skip, shuffle, view songs, playlists and album art right in the palm of your hands. Remote works by using your Wi-Fi network, allowing it to control playback for any computer with iTunes or an Apple TV.

Remote is a free application and, as you’d expect from Apple, it’s elegant, simple and easy to use.

TyroTuner

This is a utility that allows you to tune standard six-string guitars. Been as I had lost by guitar tuner, I thought this would be a good application to purchase; this was the first app I actually paid for from the App Store.

TyroTuner is very simple to use – you just touch the string you want to tune, then play the guitar string into the iPhone microphone. The needle tells you whether you need to tune that particular string up or down. Done!

TyroTuner costs £1.79 to purchase.

Aurora Feint The Beginning

Aurora Feint The Beginning is the first episode in what is to became an MMO for the iPhone. It’s a simple Bejewelled-style “connect three or more blocks” game, but with an RPG element. The aim is to level up and unlock different skills and items as you go. A meter keeps track of how many blocks you have successfully matched; when this meter is filled, you gain a level up.

The controls are intuitive and make the game simple and fun to play. The game makes great use of the accelerometer. You can move any brick left or right in the axis you are holding the phone. So, if you are holding the phone vertically and need to move a block up, simply switch the phone horizontally and move the block left. I’ve spent hours playing this game, and enjoyed every minute.

Due to its size (23MB), this application cannot be downloaded via EDGE.

This is a completely free game, so I would definitely recommend picking this up. This is probably the best thing that has come out of the App Store, for me.

NetNewsWire

An RSS reader for the iPhone. NetNewsWire syncs with NewsGator, so if you use a desktop version of the application, whatever you mark as read is automagically marked as read everywhere. You can also save items via the Clippings feature, which allows you to save items for later. Clippings also sync with NewsGator, so they can be accessed no matter what version of the app you’re using.

I read some nonsense on Wired about this application being slow. While it may take a few seconds on start-up, this is due to NetNewsWire pulling in the feeds. Other than this rather trivial complaint, I have no issues with the NetNewsWire app. It’s a nice way to browse your feeds while away from the computer, especially if you use the desktop application too.

NetNewsWire is a free application.

For updates on this app, check out Brent Simmons’ blog over at inessential.com.

Where To?

I purchased this application just out of curiousity. The application has a tagline of, “Make ANY iPhone or iPod touch behave more like a real GPS device…” What this entails is allowing you to search for places to eat, shop, things to do and more in your area, just with a few taps. Credit where it’s due, it helped me remember an Italian restaurant nearby that gave me food poisoning and will never go to again.

It has a very nice interface, however I do have one complaint. If I decide I’d like to eat at an American restaurant, the application is quit and it brings up Google maps with all the American restaurants around me… great! If I then change my mind, I have to exit out to the home screen, go back to “Where To?” and do my search over. I would prefer a back button, but as the app is just using the integrated Google maps, I can understand. It’s just frustrating.

Where To? can be bought for £1.79; it was the second app I purchased.

Twitterrific

A Twitter client that allows you to read and publish Tweets. Much like the desktop app, this iPhone app is very good looking and easy to use. There’s not much to say, other than if you use Twitter you should download this.

Twitterrific is available in two versions: a free “ad-supported” version and a Premium £5.99 version with the ads removed.

Other apps I have installed:

• Last.fm
• Cube Runner
• Bloomberg
• ShoZu
• Facebook

These are apps that I didn’t think were worth talking about; not because they aren’t any good, just that I’m not really using them. I’ve installed them purely because they were free.

Downloaded something you love (or hate) and want to share your thoughts? Leave a comment below.