This is a list of my current favourite iPhone Apps. Most of these are free and where they aren’t, they’re almost free. I use each of these regularly and can highly recommend them. Just thought I’d share the love…. 

Tweetdeck 

Cost: free

Category: Social Networking

Multiple accounts, multiple columns to segregate your groups & searches, synchronization with your desktop version, Facebook integration (if you like that sort of thing), choice of picture services (twitpic, yfrog, tweetphoto), geo tagging, In-app browser. I could go on. It’s my app of choice for Twitter. Follow @iandodsworth if you want updates from ‘the horses mouth’. 

Qik 

Cost: £1.29

Category: Utilities

Video recording on iPhone 3G anyone? No limits on length of recording, wifi sharing, 200×152 or 400×304 resolution (higher resolution means slower frame rate though), on-screen settings for zoom | brightness | resolution | audio boost | special effects (normal, Black & white, Red only, ‘Avatar’). Size of files only limited by size of your device.

I had tried iVideoRecorder for a while but the 1 minute recording limit kept catching me out, especially when it then takes another minute to save the video you’ve just recorded. I will say this however, iVideoRecorder’s video quality is better. Both apps are the same price.

Smart Record 

Cost: £0.59

Category: Utilities

Way better than the Voice Recorder that comes standard with iPhone (3G). Records for as long as you want (caveat – the most I have attempted was about 2.5 hours). App is quick to get started, is simple to use and quality of recordings is good, if not great. Syncs with Box.net, SyncDocs & over wifi, sharing via email, takes pictures during a session (remembers place in conversation when the picture was taken), appending to previous recordings. It also has a great help section if you do get stuck, which is rare.

Todo

Cost: £

Category: Productivity

Getting Things Done anyone? If you’ve read the book you’ll know what you need. This is the ‘electronic device’ that you’ll be wanting to play with all the time. It syncs to Toodledo, an web-based version of the app. This is the single most used app on my phone. The one thing I feel it is lacking though, is geo tagging of your to-dos (which is a feature of Remember-The-Milk). So if a future update of the app gets this feature it’ll be complete.

Amazon UK

Cost: free

Category: Online shopping

It’s amazon.co.uk in the palm of your hand, need I really say more? My only gripe with this one is that it took so long to come out (in the UK).  

National Rail  

Cost: £4.99

Category: Travel

Up-to-the-minute updates on your trains whereabouts, location aware, set a ‘home’ station, next-train-home router planner, journey planner, live departures & arrivals, platform information.

After debating over the purchase price for a while I finally cracked and bought it. I still think £5 is steep for what you can do via their website for free, however, they have managed to make their site so unusable (from an iPhone) that you don’t have a lot of choice. A while ago a chap named Malcom Barclay developed an app that showed all the train information (route planning, etc) and gave it away for FREE. Sure enough, National Rail decided this was too much of a good thing so took away his license to publish information and created their own application. Make what your will of it.

Is it a good app? Yes, for all the pain they put you through (on purpose in my opinion) on their website (via iPhone), they make up for in the usability of this app. If you travel on British rail I think that it’s something that you can’t do without (Well, you can, but this makes your life a LOT easier). For the price of two high-street coffees you get an app that is stable, user friendly, intuitive, and (in my case) the information provided has been spot on.

Ping!

Cost: £0.59 (+ in-app purchase of £0.59 for picture messaging – worth it)

Category: Communication

You pay £0.59 for the app and you text for free. Add to that an in-app purchase for picture messaging and you are good to go. Any messages that you send or receive are free of charges – just make sure you have an internet connection. Only one other thing with this is to say that it only works between Ping! apps. So, in order to send a text/picture, your intended recipient will also need to have Ping! installed.

With the growth in application-based mobile devices nowadays it won’t be long until many more handsets/Mobile OSes are supported.

Dropbox 

Cost: free

Category: Utilities

Sign up for a Dropbox account and sync all your files to the cloud and with any other computer you want. This is the app version, so now you can view all your files right on your iPhone. Sharing is by way of a link to the file in your Dropbox (which is placed in a email for you). In order for you to quickly view files you need right away you can select any number as favourites. These then are downloaded to your phone for when you don’t have a connection to the tubez. What would make this more of a killer app? Being able to attach the files directly to an email.

WhiteNoise 

Cost: Free

Category: Utilities

When I was growing up I always had a [desk] fan going (it was helluva hot where I used live and it kept away the mosquitoes), so I’m used to having some sort of drone whilst I am sleeping. White Noise does this wonderfully. It has loads of background sounds that help to immerse you in audible bliss. I find that the ‘Brown noise’ works brilliantly in drowning out all other sounds – and on the rare occasion that we have a party we use this to help our son sleep. It works wonders.

Let’s Golf 

Cost: £1.59

Category: Games

Golf fan? This might make you one. A simple little game with great graphics and good challenges. Play a course at Fiji, USA, Scotland & England at varying levels. Earn a few prizes and get your name in lights along the way. A great way to pass the time waiting for trains….

NetNewsWire 

Cost: free

Category: Utilities

Get all your RSS feeds into one place on your iPhone. Download the feeds whilst you have an internet connection and you’ll have something to read where ever you go. That is unless some blogs only give an excerpt in their feed, which narks me off royally. For those of you that don’t feed the whole post go read this post.

Units 

Cost: free

Category: Utilities

All your conversions in one handy place. For free.

Absolute 

Cost: free

Category: Entertainment

Absolute radio. Absolutely awesome. Absolutely Free. Internet connection required.

Angry Birds 

Cost: £0.59

Category: Games

Because it’s addictive. Apparently some Pigs stole eggs from the Birds and now the Birds are pissed. Your aim (‘scuse the pun) is to destroy the pigs by flinging different [angry] birds at various structures housing the bacon pigs. Loads of fun and fairly simple, what more could you ask for to waste away the time?

London Tube Deluxe 

Cost £0.59

Category: Utilities, Travel

This app is another must for those in London. Covering all of the underground lines, London Tube Deluxe has an up-to-date status for each line (including a description of the fault, if any), a map overview (PDF), journey planner, departure times and locates your nearest tube station.

That’s my list for now. I’m always on the lookout for more great apps so if you have any recommendations let’s hear about them!