There is no doubt that the iPhone firmware 2.0 and all the new App Store applications are truly changing how use mobile computing. For the first time we start to get a real glimpse to the real potential of the promise of mobile computing.
So if you are new to the new iPhone App Store, here is a list of the top 10 free applications (from 10 to 1):
10. PhoneSaber - OK. So this is definitely not one of the most useful applications. But no geek will turn down the opportunity to transform his iPhone to a live Starwars lightsaber. Expect to start to see lightsaber wars on lines to the movies or the bank.
9. Spanish/Italian/German - Remember the days where you were traveling in a foreign country, stopping someone in the street and miserably trying to pronounce your question in broken Italian?
No more. The App Store now give you access to cool dictionary like applications. You get to not just see the translation for all the essentials sentences, but also play them out loud.
I can just hope that as time goes by, the number of words and sentences in those applications DB will grow... Maybe they should use a WIKI style system to add more translations...
Also note that there are more comprehensive similar applications at the App Store but they are not given for free.
8. Facebook - What would we do without our Facebook? The new iPhone application from Facebook gives you the easiest access to all your Facebook need on the go.
The killer feature is the ability to use Facebook chat from within the application. When the new Apple push server will open its access to applications, I can see Facebook chat becomes our new favorite mobile IM...
7. Shazam - How many times have you been in a bar or a club, listening to this great mix and wishing you knew what it was so you can download it later at home?
If you are like me - many times.
Shazam is one of the coolest applications out there. With one click it allows you to get a sample of a played song and tell you exactly which song is it.
Even more, you can get instant access to YouTube videos of the song, and see it on the spot (whcih actually works if you have 3G access).
Mind that Midomi is another similar application that actually provide more features, but from some tests I did, it seems that Shazam recognition engine works better.
6. Pageonce - I got to admit that I was never a big user of Pageonce. I can understand why it is a really great service for some people, but seeing all my services and bills on one place was never my cup of tea.
But when we talk about mobile, this is a all different ball game.
Pageonce iPhone app is a must have one. with one click, you get access to your email, social networks updates (like LinkedIn, Flickr, MySpace...), bank accounts, flights and many more.
Until all these companies will actually come up with their own application, Pageonce is the only easy way to really have your life with you at any moment.
5. Last FM - Last FM actually built a really cool application that has some features that Pandora is lacking. Besides accessing all the charts and listen to your radio stations, Last FM allows you to fine similar artists, see artists bio and more. But in the end I preferred Pandora as it always seems like you get better music there.
4. Twitterrific - On my hacked iPhone I used to use Twinkle as my default twitter app, but Twitterrific won my heart. It features a very sleek UI, allowing you to easily tweet, reply an send direct messages. Nice addition is the ability to choose to see twitter user names or the real names behind them.
But definitely the killer feature of Twitterrific is the built in web browser, so you can easily see links without going out to Safari and exiting the application.
One feature I would love to see is the ability to take a photo from the camera and tweet it directly (Currently you can just tweet photos that are already in your photo library).
3. AOL Radio - AOL Radio application solves one of the most lacking features of the iPhone - access to FM Radio. The application allows you to hear almost any local radio station, but even add to that with all of the AOL radio stations (including theme stations as well as today hits). And of course the real treat of listening to radio that way is the ability to see son and album information directly from the application.
One big bonus for this application is that they have their own volume boost, much needed for the weak iPhone internal speakers.
2. Yelp - With their new iPhone app, Yelp brings us the dream of mobile computing as we all talked about for years. Yelp uses the iPhone ability to get your location to brings you relevent information on what's going on around you.
No more wondering the streets trying to decide where to eat, where is the closest bank or the best place to spend your bonus in.
The really great feature is the fact that you can locate anything on a map without going out from the application.
The user interface is very sleek and the only thing I was missing is the addition of Yelp events into the application.
1. Pandora - Finally Pandora have a device that can fully realize its potential. With a sleek and simple user interface, you get the full Pandora experience wherever you go. Only caveat is the fact that currently applications can't run in the background. When this is solved, applications like Pandora will change forever how we consume music.
