Cool iPhone Apps

Every blog everywhere seems to be doing something like this, so I figured I'd do it too: Here are my impressions of various iPhone apps, and iPhone apps in general. So first, the apps I currently have on my iPod Touch (they're all free).

Remote: Cool, and very well made, though I have yet to actually "need" it.

AIM: Seems pretty well done, though until September when the update allowing apps to run in the background comes out, it's relatively useless...

NetNewsWire: Not really that much better (or worse) than the web app (except for the icon, which is cool), but hopefully in September there will be a badge showing your unread count.

Last.fm: Since I don't really use Last.fm to listen to suggested songs, I don't really use this either, but hopefully the September update will allow scrobbling.

Twitterrific: Seems the same as the Mac version, except this one crashes my entire iPod when I open it, so that seems like kind of a downside. Update soon?

NYTimes: I guess if I read the news more this would be cool, but maybe this will make me read the news more...

WritingPad: Really cool idea, and the actual "writing" works well, but the layout/execution of the rest of the app is lacking, and it crashes semi-frequently... hopefully an update will come out soon.

Zenbe Notes: Pretty cool, and well constructed, I just hate the home screen icon. And the name is kind of weird too (especially since it just shows up as "Zenbe" on the actual iPod).

Loopt: Cool idea, works pretty well, but I don't know anyone else who uses it so that sort of blows half the point of the app.

Banner: Technically called "Banner Free," which my only real gripe with it, this is actually something I've been wanting to do for a while.

Yelp: Kind of like Loopt (since Loopt uses Yelp's servers), except not as cool.

To Do: A very simple to do app, which is cool, except it's kind of hard to use. For example, you have to make a blank to do, and then edit it. Everything is laid out somewhat poorly also. The icon is also way too light, not to mention boring.

Aurora Feint: Neat graphics, and pretty addicting, but the actual game isn't that interesting/fun (kind of like WoW). Also, it's around 30 megabytes. I'll probably be getting rid of this soon.

Morocco: Also known as "Othello" or "Reversi," you can play against the "computer" or another person (not over wifi though). I've never really played this before, but the app is well-written, and the computer beats me easily every time (on easy) so I must suck.

Overall, none of the applications I've gotten (even the ones I like) are really any better than web apps, with the exception of Aurora Feint which, as I mentioned, is kind of boring anyway. Without the ability to run in the background, most of the things I want to be able to do on my iPod (like IM, use Twitter, and read RSS feeds) will be somewhat limited. Hopefully the update in September will fix all this, but until then I'm very underwhelmed.

Sometime in the future, there will be a Spore game for iPhone, which I am varyingly excited about, as I am with all things related to Spore.

EDIT: This post ended up being a lot longer than I imagined it would...