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My Favourite iPhone Apps

At a recent Mobile Marketing event I was asked by a journalist what apps I had on my own iPhone and which ones I find most useful.  I must admit that when it comes to an app, I tend to only download those that I will use again and again.  What we don't see enough of, outside of gaming apps, are free demo apps.  Personally, I prefer to play around with an app and test to see if it adds value to my life before committing to buying it, even if it only costs a few quid.  As such, a quick flick across my iPhone apps reveals the following that I would recommend to anyone:

Camera & Photo Editing
I was frustrated with the pre-loaded iPhone camera app so I now use an app called Camera+ from taptaptap.com.  This provides, even on the 3GS, a 1.0x digital zoom and some nifty editing tools including photo cropping and enhancements.  You can upload your photos to the popular Social Networking and Cloud storage sites as well.

Social Networking
I use IM+ for instant messaging and Twitter access, but find it a bit clunky.  What I really want is an IM app that works properly in multi-task mode and notifies me of new messages as they pop in.  Facebook is my social networking app of choice and I love the Places feature on it.  I have LinkedIn's app but rarely use it as I don't find it user friendly and find I can rely on the laptop browser version of Linkedin for managing my account and contacts.  I've yet to find a really useful Twitter app, so if anyone can recommend one... 

Navigating
I use the TomTom W.Europe app for navigating in the car, but find this clunky when on foot. When walking I revert back to the built in Google map app which is much more sensitive for a slow moving pedestrian.  TomTom is great though and rarely fails to find the best route.

International and Non-Bundled Calls
In my line of work I have to dial into many audio conferences or make international calls.  I don't have a land line anymore and the tariff I'm locked into with Orange charges an astronomical amount for international calls or for calling 0870, 0845 and even 0800 numbers, which most of the audio bridge services use.  Therefore I use Skype for iPhone to dial into these bridges as 0800 numbers are free and 0845 etc cheaper.  International calls are also much less expensive via Skype and if you're attached to a wifi network with reasonable bandwidth then it works just fine.

Finding Hotels, Restaurants and Things to Do
I use TripAdvisor and Qype for this.  I find the former more up to date and the reviews more useful.  Last time I used Qype to find a Chinese restaurant in Stratford-upon-Avon, I visited four derelict buildings or clothes shops as most of the restaurant entries were no longer in existence...  I also like TripAdvisor's links to social networking sites and also sites where you can make hotel reservations etc.

Leisure
The apps I use most have to be Guitar Tuner and Guitar Tabs, the latter from GuitarTabs.com.  For gaming the only app I really re-use is Flight Control which is infuriatingly simple and yet addictive. 

News & Sport
The BBC News app is the best free news app I've found so far with an intuitive interface and great video media links.  I also use FT.com for business news and forex rates and Yahoo Stocks for share prices.  For footy scores I use the Sky Sports app which seems to be the quickest and most frequently updated.

Shopping
Not really doing much of this from my iPhone at the moment but sometimes use Amazon's app and the eBay app is useful to keep tabs on auctions I'm bidding on.  The Trainline app is great now you can buy tickets via the app as well as plan your journeys.  Shame they can't make the trains work better!!!  RedLaser is a brillian app that allows you to scan any product's barcode and get price comparisons via the web.  Only problem with this is that I always forget I've got it when I could use it... I use the Tesco Clubcard app but really only as a way of displaying my barcode for scanning when in their petrol stations.  The app I'm waiting for is a Quidco app so I can get my cashback when shopping on the move.

The Missing Killer App
I would really love an app that synchronizes my iPhone with my Outlook Tasks.  Failing that a good Time Management app that can also synch with Outlook would be useful. 

Hope you find some of my recommendations useful, let me know if you have any for me...
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