And The Etymotic hf2 Goes To…

There were a few excellent submissions to our "My Top Apps Etymotic hf2 Contest".

It could just as easily been called the "Help the new iPhone user  figure out which applications to use first" contest since the recommendations were excellent.

They were so good, in fact, that we’ll share all of them over the next few days.

We know that there are many people who received an iPhone or an iPod touch over the holidays and I happen to think that all of the entries are "must read" posts. But, as the TV series used to say "there can be only one" and so it is that our panel read through all of the posts and decided that the new Etymotic hf2s  go to jnamcharg.

jnamcharg not only suggested an excellent selection of apps, but in doing so made some great points about HOW the iPhone can fit into your life. More-over, the suggestion that a new iPhone-user might best start off with some of the best free apps makes a lot of sense (writes the person whose iTunes app collection just blew past 450). The full post can be read after the break.

Congrats jnamcharg! We know you’ll enjoy the hf2s!. 

There are three things that I think you want to be able to do with your iphone right away: one make your life easier, two impress people with the new technology, and three make sure you are never just waiting around with nothing to do.

Really a lot of these functions are filled with the apps that come on your iphone, but I’m going to give you three in each category that I think you should get/buy.

Make Life Easier
     I truly think that the iphone is not just a toy or a good phone. I think it makes my life a better place to be in. These first three apps have a lot to do with this. Evernote is the first. Evernote allows you to save any webpage or portion of a webpage, any picture, any voice note, and any written note for ever. It does this in an ultra-serchable form, but scanning anything you give it including pictures for text that you need to find. For instance, take a picture of your dental insurance card, if you have time you tag it insurance, if you forget though Evernote scans the test and if you search for it when you at the dentist and your wife has the card you still have your number. When you get a business card from someone take a picture of it instead and have the info always and everwhere even if you lose the card. The iphone client is easy to use and makes it easy to get whatever info you want quickly. More of your info with you at all times- that makes life better. Love it and it’s free!
     Second, for me, would be the Facebook application. For you it might be a twitter application, or the texting or email or just a link to a newsgroup. In any case something that allows you to stay in contact with people more now that you have the iphone. I am a recent convert to facebook and love that it got me back in contact with high school and college friends in such a way that I did not feel like my privacy was compromised and did not hit me over the head trying to get me to send things to everyone in my address book. The iphone app is a pretty good interface with the webpage. It has a few kinks but none that are too annoying. (It gave a few of my friends 5 contacts in the address book- maybe I really need to get in touch with them) I know when my friends are feeling good or bad instantly- I am more connected and it is also free.
    My third app for this catagory actually leads in to the second catagory the Google Mobile App. This app is so central to my iphone experience that I sometimes think that it comes with the phone. It’s only with Chirstmas and the inevitable pullng out of the iphones that I realize that there are iphones without this app. Do not be one of those… I am an information junkie- I like knowing things. Whenever someone asks a random question, (The latest asked of me was "How far it is from New Zealand to Australia" and "What are the conditions at the Vancouver airport") I pull out the iphone and ask it the question. If you haven’t seen the app it’s like I am calling the mothership above me in space, and it has always given me the answer very quickly. It recognizes the words you speak and sends them to Google as a search request. It’s pretty good out of the bag, but if it gets it wrong you correct it and it learns your voice. Information at my beck and call and it’s free.

Impress Your Friends
     Iphone as performance art. If you use your iphone at all when others are there this will become a regular part of your life, even if you aren’t a show-off at heart. People want to see the iphone run through it’s paces, and they want it to impress them. Don’t let them down. This also ovelaps with the  last catagory- I’ll save some for the last three, but I’ll start this list with the only I’ve had the longest: Shazam. Whenever you hear a song you like, but don’t have, you just pull out the iphone and record a short segment. Shazam will tell you the name of the song and the group and further if you have wi-fi allow you to buy it right there. It also have has a link to the video of the song on Youtube so that you can see the group in action. This app takes something that was very annoying- not knowing the name of a song you liked- and easily fixes it. Plus it has made me my wife’s hero on more than one occasion. Now that’s impressive and free!
    Along these same lines is Snaptell. Snaptell allows you to take a picture of any book or movie and it scans in the picture and gives you a bunch of info about it including reviews, prices, and general info from Amazon, Ebay, Wikipedia and even find you the closest non-internet place to buy it. I’m not really obsessed with buying things but I love the intergration of the camera and a huge internet database that I can access anywhere. This one really gets people. They think it’s great and they try to stump it. My aunt did have one book that was a promotional copy not for sale that it couldn’t get, but that was the only thing it couldn’t get so far. It’s amazing how many of these top 9 apps are free, here’s another.
     My last impresser is a hard call. I really like the stream-from-your-own-computer apps, like Orb Live, and they can be very impressive, but they are a litttle buggy and there is nothing so horrifiying than trying to impress someone with something that doesn’t work, plus it costs something and I’m on a roll. So I guess I’ll go with Pandora/Last FM. They both let you create your own radio station based on your favorite groups. You put in a group and it plays one song by that group and then plays other groups that are similar. You get introduced to new music and always have an infinite list of great tunes even if you got the 8 gig iphone. If you like it again you can buy it instantly (if you have wi-fi) or just bookmark it to look at later. It is very interesting to me that all my impressives come back to a huge online database, but I guess that is the iphones strength- a very easy interface to a huge amount of data. All good things should be free!

Never Have Nothing To Do
     If you are carrying that great interface to huge amounts of data around with you, you should be able to entertain yourself pretty much indefinately. That’s that last catagory for me. Now games come quickly to mind, but I’m gong to start with a good book, or two, or a million. I love eReader! Simply said- read almost any book on the iphone any time you have a minute in your day. I read mostly science fiction and there is something very satisfying in reading it on the latest tech gadget. This is really what I do with my waiting time in the day. I fill it with fiction. If I ever finish a book I can get a new one off the internet quickly and easily. Continuing a theme- free!
     Games can fill your free time and then some. For that reason I tend to shy away from them. Also games are one area that you do tend to have to spend a bit of money to get a good product. I’ll include a free one that I love to play with and is one of the apps that the odd iphone admirer also enjoys. That is Labrinth LE. This is a version of that old wooden game with the two dials where you navigate a maze with a metal ball trying to stay away from the holes that would trap your ball. To control it in the iphone you tilt the phone away from level. It is a great example of how sensitive the accelerometer is and the sounds are very realistic. Extremely fun and if you want to pay more, you can get more levels. I have not, so it’s free.
      The last time filler I want to include is The NYTimes app. I have not really been a huge news hound even though I kind of always felt guilty about it. This app has helped me to get closer. I like being able to quickly get the latest news and the editorial and most emailed sections give some great opinions on the latest happenings. Strangely this app has caused me to go to their webpage in my large screen browsing time, but I have a hard time with the interface on the webpage. The mobile app is much better for me. Guess how much it costs?

     I didn’t start this out intending to write only about free apps, but as I wrote it that became the idea. I don’t think it’s a bad plan for someone who just bought the iphone to save a bit of cash on the starting apps. I certainly did so myself. For the longest time I wouldn’t pay for any app, but at a certain point I realized that the programs would cost about as much as a candy bar, and much less than a cup of Starbucks.