Tryphoon’s Lair

It has now been a month since the release of the firmware 2.0 (and subsequent 2.0.1) for the iPhone and I have over this period of time had enough time to install, uninstall, reinstall several of the new applications available for the Jesus Phone. As everybody else seems to have done on the Interweb and helping my buddy Miles who just bought his own iPhone, here is my top ten of the apps I have been running on my phone… And I mean not just seating there but being used at least once a day!

1 - AOL Radio

No doubt about this one! I use it every day when I go running, I use at home in the morning (to not wake the while family up) and even sometimes at night. All of the CBS and AOL Radios on, including KROQ as well as several stations only available today on HD Radio (such as KROQ2). The beauty of it is that if I hear a song I like on KROQ, I can simply purchase it immediately on the iTunes store or on the AOL Music store.

2 - Twinkle

As much as I can rant about Twitter, I am still hooked to the damn thing and Twinkly is probably (for now) the best Twittin’ client on the iPhone, adding geolocation and finding other users twitting around you, which is fun and can lead to discovering interesting people living just around the block.

3 - Jott

This is the new best thing since sliced bread! I am pathetic with names, places or simply short term memory. I see and hear a million things a day about things I’d love to read, listen to, buy, visit, eat at, etc. So the only way for me to remember all these names, albums, addresses is to note them as I hear them. Sadly, I am not such a fast typer or often, I hear these suggestions on the radio while driving. Jott simply lets me dictate to my iPhone any sentence and will transcribe it and send it back to my to do list within minutes.

The beauty of it: It even works if you speak Franglaise…

4 - Evernote

Similar to Jott except that this one works with images and diagrams. Jott does speach to text. Evernote does OCR. The beauty in this one: It recognizes hand writing (even mine), making any search extremely easy.

5 - Shazam

10 times per day I hear a song I like but I don’t know or can’t remember the name of it and am hence unable to buy it. Well, Shazam does this for me. Place the phone close to a speaker, wait for 10 seconds and “Shazam”, it gives you the name of the song, the album and a direct access to the iTunes store to purchase it. Welcome impulse buy!

6 - Pandora

More music. More music… This one is the iPhone version of the now famous Pandora online service, based on the Genome Project. Ask Pandora for a play list based on a song, an artist, a mood or a variation of these and Pandora Radio will create youe little radio station, just for you. Then vote “I Like” or “I dislike” when ever a new song is played and your playlist gets even better, matching your musical taste even better…

7 - Wordpress

Well, you’re on my little Blog. I run a couple of other ones (one about my baby girl and and another one (already started) about our second baby, for our friends and family abroad). Wordpress on the iPhone is a blessing. There are soooo many things I’d like to post but only so much time to write about it…

8 - Super Monky Ball

Game. Fab. Stuck at level 5 (Easy mode). I know, I suck!

9 - Exposure

Why oh Why Flickr haven’t released an iPhone app yet… Oh wait, their management might be busy trying to avoid hostile take over or major board fight. Well, someone else did and Exposure is a a simple Flickr viewer, making use as well of Geolocation, letting me find pictures taken around my location. Pretty neat!

10 - The New York Times

Well, that’s it. It is the NYT, available in my pocket! I eat news whenever I can and this helps me find these precious seconds…

11 - Bubbles

I know, this is a top ten, but I couldn’t not include Bubbles in this list! This little app gives us minutes of peace when at the restaurant with Thia. She can pop bubbles and create more bubbles on the screen and pop them, and create more, etc…

Any parent should have this app on their iPhone.

So this concludes my Top 10. What is yours?