Michael John Fransen

On July 11th of last year I got my iPhone after spending a couple of hours in line early in the morning. It has proven to be worth the wait. That is not to say there haven’t been a couple of issues though, like it’s obsession with disconnecting from exchange a couple of times a week. With the iPhone the App Store was released. This has proven to be an excellent business model for Apple and consumers. Although, it can be challenging at times to find the good apps because they only account for 1% of the apps in the App Store. The other 99% are crap. So to help distinguish the excellent apps I have decided to post my top 10 list of best apps of 2008. These may not be the coolest apps, but they are the ones that are cool and that I actually USE. There were others like the google app and Vlingo, however they are just to show off and haven’t proven to be useful on a day to day basis.

10. Shazam – This is one of those novelty apps, however, I did find myself a few times actually needing this app and I discovered a few songs because of it. Essentially this app enables your iPhone to listen to music on the radio, in a bar or wherever and then sends a clip of the song to Shazam’s servers. They run some recognition algorithms on it and send you back the information on the song including the title. It also includes a link to iTunes to purchase the song on your phone. If you have ever been somewhere and heard a song you really liked but couldn’t get it because you didn’t know the name, this app is for you.

9. WordPress – This one I could not wait for. I haven’t used it very much, but it comes in very handy if you want to take a picture and put it on your blog remotely. It is very easy to write a blog post or edit an existing post. A new version is suppose to be coming out soon. It will allow for a lot more functionality such as moderating comments, creating and editing pages, photo resizing and most importantly, landscape mode. For anyone that has an iPhone, you know you can type much more efficiently when apps have landscape mode.

8. SimCity – This is a classic game that was made for the iPhone. Time flies when you play this game. It is quite challenging as well. The dragging works very well on the touch screen. There are also starter cities if you don’t feel like starting one from scratch. There are nice tutorials as well that help you remember how to play the game if it has been a couple of decades since you have played like me.

7. iFitness – As of late I have been lifting weights along with the cardio that I usually do. Since I am new to this, I didn’t know many of the exercises. This application allows you to pick a body section and shows you exercises. You can see pictures or you can read how to do the exercise. It also has logging functionality that allows for easy entering in between your reps. It also allows you to see the amount of weight you lifted the last time so you can ensure you are increasing your limits.

6. AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner – I have used AllRecipes.com for years now when trying to find something to make for dinner. This application actually is easier to use than the website. You select different criteria and the application makes suggestions. If you like what you see you can view the recipe and read user reviews.

5. Mint.com – I am a heavy user of Mint.com. It is one of the best free websites around. I use it for keeping up to date with my checking account, savings account, credit cards and retirement accounts. It also allows has budgeting although the iPhone app’s budget part doesn’t work with my account. All of this can now be viewed using the iPhone application. It is great for when you are on the go and want to keep up with your finances. This screenshot is not of my accounts just in case you were wondering. Obviously, otherwise the investment section would have said a 30% loss.

4. Monopoly – This is by far the best game I have played on the iPhone. This game has every feature that the board game has plus some. You can trade, have auctions, mortgage stuff plus more. All the animations are a nice touch as well. You can play against the computer, otherwise, you can play others over a wifi network.

3. Twinkle – This is by far my favorite twitter application for the iPhone. You can manage your twitter account plus a few extras. It uses GPS to find people that are tweeting around you. If you would like to waste some time, turn the iPhone on it’s side and twinkle will show a full screen map and shows you the location of real time tweets around the world. It is fun to see what people in other countries are writing.

2. Pandora – When I got my iPod Touch when they came out, the first thing I wanted for it was streaming radio. If you don’t believe me ask Steve. I constantly was asking him if he had found streaming radio. It seemed so obvious that this was the platform for portable streaming radio. There were some that were web based, but they were hackish and didn’t work very well. I was thrilled when the App Store open and Pandora was released. It is a rea
lly nice app and has decent sound. It is great because it works well over 3G. How many people have streaming internet radio on their way to work?

1. Facebook – 2008 was definitely they year I started using Facebook. It is great. I stay in contact with people I thought I would never talk to again. I know more of what is going on in my friend’s and family’s lives than I ever have. This application allows me to do this while I am on the go. The second version of it pretty much lets you do most anything you can do on the website. You can update your status, view your wall, view your friend’s walls, comment on anything and more. It integrates with the camera very well also. You can take a picture and upload it to your Facebook in under 30 seconds.