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What else is on my iPod Touch
April 4, 2009 | 12:27 pm
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By Chris Meadows
Given that the iPhone or iPod Touch is as close as many people have yet found to the perfect e-book reader, I expect there are a lot of TeleReaders who use them. With that in mind, I thought I would diverge from my usual strictly-e-book coverage (heh) to talk about some of the other applications that have found a home on my device.
I do have e-book apps aplenty, of course: BookShelf, BookShelfLT, Stanza, eReader, iPhone: The Missing Manual, Shortcovers, Kindle, iSilo, and Instapaper Free all live on my first screen, and Air Sharing is on my second. But there are other apps I use frequently, too.
I considered putting these in alphabetical order, but decided to leave them in order of what screen they are on. Generally, the ones closest to first see the most use, but that is not always true.
These are far from all the apps I have on my iPod Touch, but just the ones I felt were most worth mentioning. Most of them are worth having (except for the few that I mention specifically because they really aren’t).
First Screen Apps:
As an addicted Twitterer, I have tried the free apps Twitterrific and TwitterFon, but the $2.99 Tweetie beats them both. It has a number of useful features, such as using the wider horizontal keyboard to type tweets, some handy geographical-location-service based abilities, and a handy searching interface.
You can also add a bookmarklet to Mobile Safari to let you tweet links directly from the browser, and there is even an option to send tweeted links directly into InstaPaper without having to visit Safari first.
If you must stick with a free Twitter app, I recommend TwitterFon. But Tweetie is well worth the $2.99.
This app lets me see the desktop of my windows box. I don’t use it a whole lot, but often enough that I want to keep it where I can get to it easily. I mainly use it when I’ve forgotten to start my Shelfserver, or for remote-controlling a movie playing through my computer when I’m across the room on the sofa.
There is also a paid version of this app for $5.99, but I’ve never seen the point to upgrading when the Lite version does all I need. The one problem with it is that it needs a lot of memory to run, and will often complain that you need to reboot your device to get more memory if you have low memory when you run it—which is to say, almost any time you run it at all. (Of course, you don’t actually need to reboot to free up memory—just use MemoryInfo, which I will cover below.)
Second Screen Apps:
This convenient little app pays for itself the first time you use it. (There is a free “lite” version, too.) It tells you what applications are currently on sale (including an entire category of apps that are on sale for free), and lets you set “watches” for specific applications you’d like to buy if they go on sale.
For example, if you think Bookshelf costs too much at $7.99, but would buy it at $5.99 or less, you can set AppSniper to let you know if and when the price drops to $5.99. Each time you open AppSniper, it will check the price for you automatically, and let you know if it’s come down.
The one downside is that this app can lead to you filling up your iPhone with all sorts of junky little random apps because “it’s on sale for free.” But then, deleting an app is always just a touch away.
Evernote is a sort of mobile notepad tied to the Evernote service, which you can access from your iPhone/iPod Touch, desktop, mobile phone, the web…just about anywhere. You can email in notes, clip articles from the web, or even send in pictures snapped with your phone or another camera. Evernote will OCR any photo you send in, and allow you to search it by keywords.
Evernote is invaluable for keeping track of things, and definitely makes up for the lackluster nature of the iPhone’s included notepad application. Never worry about losing someone’s business card again. Take photos of people you meet for the first time and tag them to Evernote with their names so you don’t forget who they are. The possibilities are endless.
The basic service level is free, and it’s more than enough for me; there are higher-usage paid levels for people who really need them.
You probably already know about this one, but it’s so convenient and handy I felt it worth a mention anyway. Remote will let you control your iTunes via Rendezvous from elsewhere on the same wireless network. Search, start, and stop music from the next room. The controls work just the same as the controls for playing music off the iPod; it even has cover flow.
This is the one true movies-now-playing-in-your-area application for the iPhone. It uses the GPS or Skyhook wifi-locator to find your current location (or you can give it your zip code), and pulls down what’s playing at the nearest theaters to you. Links within the program allow you to see reviews, watch the trailer, or even purchase tickets on-line. Never rummage through your newspaper or call a theater answering machine again!
There are also free and 99-cent versions of this app—but when the “ultimate” is only $2.99, why settle for less? This relaxation sound loop and binary beat generator pretty much saved my sanity when I was in the hospital recently. Its soothing white noise helps me ignore pain from my leg and get to sleep even in the direst of situations. I wish I’d found it sooner.
An ssh terminal emulator that I use to log into my Linux box. (I may move it to the first screen if I get around to axing BookShelfLT.) It’s a little awkward, but it’s the only free terminal app I’ve yet found that doesn’t do something stupid like reserve control keys for paying customers. There is also a “pro” paid version—but for the ungodly sum of $15 it would have to do everything but brush my teeth before I even considered it.
It’s hard to know what to call this app. It’s not really a “game” because you don’t “play” it. There is no skill or chance involved, and no goal. It is, in fact, a random, anonymous, global communication application, using the “message in a bottle” metaphor.
You walk along a beach picking up sea shells. When you get five shells, they magically transmute into an empty bottle which you can use to send a message to a, well, “distant shore”—a random other user of this application, somewhere else in the world.
When that person finds it, he or she can reply to you for free, no sea shells required, and you can then reply to him or her in the same way. Likewise, you will also find bottles from other people on the shore as you look for shells.
The communication is totally anonymous: nobody you speak to will ever know your name, age, gender, or location unless you choose to tell them. Most messages come in English; I’m not sure whether that is because there is some kind of filter that detects language or at least character set, or just that mostly English-speaking people use the app. However, I have gotten a few messages that were partly or completely in Chinese, and I had to get someone’s help to translate them.
I have gotten messages from a number of different places in the world: China, England, Australia…just last night I got one from France. It is a great way to start talking with a lot of different people.
Some of the messages you will find in bottles are kind of lame, obviously written by someone just wanting to clear some space in his bottle tray by whipping up a fast message and sending it out. “Hello” or “What’s your favorite color,” for example. But there are also people out there who will send the most inspirational messages, and can brighten your entire day when you get them.
Be warned: if you make a habit of sending lots of bottles, and replying to every bottle you find, you will soon discover yourself logging in every day to find a dozen or so missives waiting for you! Another drawback is that the app currently only supports the narrow portrait keyboard, not the wider landscape mode. Hopefully they will fix that sometime.
If anybody knows of any other similarly themed apps of global communication, I’d like to hear about them. It’s hard to find other things like something that so handily defies classification.
Third Screen Apps
This app provides a simplified interface to Wikipedia, reformatting the on-line articles to look better on the iPhone’s small screen. I don’t really need it, I suppose; I could look articles up on Mobile Safari just as easily. But the reformatting is nice and it is useful to have a dedicated Wiki search at hand instead of having to navigate the extra steps through Safari or Google.
There is also a $4.99 paid version that supports some off-line browsing. I’ve never felt the need to upgrade. (To note, if I wanted to keep the entire Wikipedia on my phone, there are other apps I could find that would let me do that. It would only take a couple of gigabytes of storage. I’ve never felt the need, though—and I have too much music to be able to lose a couple of gigabytes to that.)
Of all the mobile weather websites, Accuweather.com is the one I keep coming back to. Likewise, when I want forecast information and radar images that the built-in Weather application just can’t give me, I turn to the Accuweather app. Current conditions, radar, severe weather warnings, National Weather Center alerts…it’s all there. (Even if, for some strange reason, it thinks that Springfield, Missouri is actually “Downtown, Missouri.”)
This app is an interface to the Yelp.com local reviews site. I’ve written a number of Yelp reviews myself, and when I’m in a strange town looking for a good place to eat or visit, I will often turn to Yelp to help me out. This app provides a good clean search interface to Yelp’s review database, including an interface to Google Maps to locate the object of the reviews. I find it very convenient.
This silly little app is an example of the kind of cruft that might fill up your iPhone if you spend much time with AppSniper. All it really does is pop up random quotes from people like Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Alexander Hamilton, Henry David Thoreau, etc. when you tap a book on the bookshelf.
It’s a diverting way to waste a few minutes, and it is probably worth noting that it is multilingual—you can get quotes in English, French, German, and other languages just by changing the settings in a menu—but I would never have gotten it if I hadn’t seen it free on AppSniper. It doesn’t strike me as worth paying 99 cents for.
Hands down, bar none, the best streaming music app you will find for the iPhone. (Desktop versions available from Pandora.com.) You “seed” a Pandora station with songs or artists you like, and it will play other music similar to those songs and artists. So far, it hasn’t guessed wrong with me.
The future of the Pandora service is uncertain, given the ongoing discussions concerning what the proper streaming fees for Internet radio stations are. At the moment it is only available in America. Enjoy it while you can.
The one downside to the app is that, unlike playing regular music from your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can’t do anything else while listening to Pandora—Apple’s limitation on backgrounding apps strikes again. (The version for the Palm Pre notably does not suffer from this limitation.) If I ever do jailbreak my iPod, a large part of the reason will be to let me listen to Pandora while doing something else.
Not to be confused with a similarly-named 99-cent app from a different developer. This app allows a random draw from the “Oblique Strategies” deck, a set of flash cards originally developed by a musician to help him break creative blocks. It’s never really done much for me in that regard, but it’s an interesting curiosity—sort of like a “Magic 8 Ball” with more faces.
The closest that the iPhone has right now to a useful multi-IM client. Includes all the usual suspects: AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, etc. Even Skype (though it seems to take forever to connect to the Skype servers, sometimes preventing usability of the app at all). Also has VOIP capabilities—though I’ve never had the opportunity to test those, not having a mic. I’m basically only keeping it around until OS 3.0 brings push notification and a stand-alone Meebo.com app (which I already use from time to time in Mobile Safari).
Back when I had my Palm Pilots, one of the apps I used the most was a little free self-balancing check register program called MicroMoney (which was later revised into Pocket Quicken, which cost money). Checkbook is the one app I’ve found that emulates and even exceeds MicroMoney’s most useful features—the ability to track transactions for multiple accounts. None of the free check register apps I tried could compare.
It is one thing to write a lot of checks and have a check register to record the transactions in—but another if you mainly use debit cards and PayPal, and do not even have a checkbook at all. Checkbook, if bought and used religiously, will pay for itself and more the first time you avoid a $25 overdraft fee on your checking account.
Fourth Screen Apps
A fun little take on the “Concentration” card game, billed as an exercise to help you build memory skills. It’s a timed game, with the timer getting successively shorter and some penalties that kick into play in later stages, but with cards that reveal all the cards around them if you tap fast enough. Surprisingly addictive.
There are a number of die-rollers out there, but this is one of the more amusing. It actually simulates rolling dice against a felt (or other selectable background) surface, complete with sound effects. Shake the iPhone to roll. Worth the fee just to show off to your friends.
Fun little multiple solitaire games app. (I generally just play deal-one Klondike.) There is also a 99 cent version.
I’m not generally a fishing kind of person, and at first I thought it would be boring—but this game is actually kind of addictive. There are several fishing environments, competitions, challenge levels, and a “quest” path where you have to catch certain fish in certain places to advance. All in all, this game is pretty neat.
You “flick” your iPhone to cast the line (be careful not to do this with sweaty hands!), then spin an on-screen crank to reel back in. You have to learn when to release line and how fast to reel back in. You have to judge the tension and fish strength gauges carefully; some of the bigger fish can take a couple of minutes to pull in.
I know I’ve gotten a lot more than 99 cents’ worth of enjoyment out of this game.
Fifth Screen Apps
As close as the iPhone currently gets to real-time strategy games like Starcraft or Command & Conquer. Strictly-land-based strategy game of mineral-mining and tank-building. Quite fun if you’re into this kind of game on the desktop or console. Currently one-player only, but multiplayer is reportedly in testing.
I expect this game to benefit a lot from OS 3.0’s ability to sell expansion packs.
Another Freeverse game. Not quite as addictive as Flick Fishing, to my mind, but worth a buy for the diverting graphics, sounds, and fun little easter eggs like holiday decorations on the bowling alleys at certain times of year. Also fun to play with friends.
I’ll be honest; I’m not entirely sure what possessed me to buy this when there are other free cocktail-recipes apps (like this one and this one) as well as paid ones that are cheaper. All the same, I have to admit Cocktails+ does have an awful lot of recipes, and a pretty good interface for reading and searching. If I ever have to stand in as a bartender, I’ll be well-equipped.
Sixth Screen Apps
The full name of this app is actually “MemoryInfo w Free Memory and Battery Level” but that’s a little unwieldy. What it does is display charts of how much memory is currently in use, what apps are running, and what percentage of battery power you have left. And that’s not all.
There is a button at the top of the screen labelled “Free Memory”. The iTunes writeup claims you can “touch to free more than 35 MB of memory.” This is a bit of an exaggeration, as how much memory you will actually free up depends on how much is currently in use.
However, there is no denying that under most circumstances it will free up an impressive amount of RAM. (In the picture above, I’ve just freed up about 20 megabytes.) I’ve gone from 4 megabytes free (after a lot of Safari browsing) to over 40 by tapping that button, and app responsiveness has gone right through the roof. Especially useful before running VNC or Easy Relax Ultimate (see above), as both those apps are somewhat sensitive to running with low RAM.
It is well worth 99 cents not to have to reboot so often.
I actually got this app free through AppSniper. I can’t really recommend it, but I bring it up as a great example of an app with a fascinating concept that fails through not having enough willing users.
The idea of Idle Chat is that it is a geographically-based chatroom. It divides the world into “zones” based on how many people are logged into the chat. The more people logged in, the smaller the chat zones shrink. In theory, this means that you would be able to talk only to people who are, say, within just a few city blocks of you if enough people are logged in.
The problem is, so few people ever log in that the “zones” encompass pretty much half of the entire world. And as long as the app costs money, this probably will not be changing.
It’s a great idea for an app, in theory, kind of along the same lines as “Distant Shore” above. But it fails because it lacks the sufficient user base to make the network useful.
Another app I got free through AppSniper, though I think this one could actually be worth it. This app displays the most popular “retweets,” or tweets that other people found interesting enough to “retweet” (that is, pass on) during the last 30 minutes, 3 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours. Along with each tweet, it displays the number of times it has been re-tweeted.
This is a neat way to put a finger on the zeitgeist of the Twitter network, if I may go all high-falutin’ for a moment. You can find out what’s on people’s minds enough for them to want to repeat it (and repeat it and repeat it). The app even includes a browser function, so you can follow retweeted links and see what they’re about.
The problem is that, unlike Tweetie’s browser, Retweet’s does not include an “open this page in Safari” option, so that I could send longer articles to Instapaper with Instapaper’s Safari bookmarklet. (For that matter, Tweetie supports sending links to Instapaper directly.) Until it has that, it will be of limited usefulness to me.
Another fun and addictive game. This game is kind of like Boggle in that you roll a set of letter dice (using Mach Dice’s die-rolling mechanic), then have a time limit to make as many words as you can out of them.
By making longer words, you score more points and also more seconds on the clock, and can get special utility tiles that will stop time, double your score, or allow you to change out one letter for another, potentially allowing a whole new host of words.
Of particular interest is the way you register and clear words by flicking your device forward. It’s a lot of fun to get that kind of feedback to a manual gesture—but again, don’t do it with sweaty palms. Neat music and sound effects round out the experience.
Another fun letters-make-words app, though not quite as exciting as Word Fu. You get a specific set of letters and have two minutes to make as many words as you can out of them. You have to use all of them in a word in order to be able to continue to the next level.
Seventh Screen Apps
I downloaded this app mainly to try it out. It’s from Square, makers of the Final Fantasy franchise. This app includes the first few levels of the full Crystal Defenders game, which costs $7.99.
It’s a fun little game. You are given a set number of points with which to buy and level up defenders who you place along a twisting path, and those defenders have to defeat every member of a chain of monsters who run along that path. If any escape, they steal crystals from you, and you lose if you run out of crystals.
The game is all in the placement of the defenders; once the wave starts, their behavior is automated (though you can place more defenders mid-wave, if and as you get the funds from defeating existing monsters).
The game is fun, but I don’t know that I would call it eight dollars fun. I’ve set a watch on the full game in AppSniper to see if it ever goes on sale.
AppSniper Apps
These are apps that I do not yet actually have, but that sound fun enough to put a watch on in AppSniper.
Crystal Defenders ($7.99): (see immediately above)
Metal Gear Solid Touch ($7.99): From the reviews, this shooting-alley game looks like fun—but it does not look like eight dollars worth of fun.
The Oregon Trail ($5.99): I remember playing the original version of this on Apple IIs back in elementary school. It was a lot of fun, and it looks like the new version of the game has been somewhat improved. Still, from the reviews, I don’t know if I would say it’s worth $6 just for nostalgia. I may change my mind when I have more money.
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