useful iPhone apps -- post your favs

haven

Expedition Leader

Root Moose

Expedition Leader
I have "Topo Maps". Good little program and it does a good job of presenting the NRCan maps (assume same for US topos). Worth the money.
 

matt s

Explorer
I don't care for most of my gps/topo programs as they are clunky and don't work very well outside of 3g coverage.

GPS Kit is actually pretty good, but my garmin is far better so it doesn't see much use. As a back up, or if the gps was not along, it's a good alternative.

TopoPoint I really do not like. It's difficult to use and the map loading speed is dismal. Maps themselves are good, however the ability to scroll around is very limited.

I do like "aSmartHUD" it's a heads up display program that displays some decent information as you drive. You can use it in the HUD mode or like I do in normal display mounted in a ram type arm.
 
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LostSoul

Observer
This are some of my fav. Always looking for more :wings:

Pandora, Shazam, Yelp, Google Earth, Bump, Espn, Dictionary.com, Photoshop.com, Scrabble
 

emohn

Observer
MotionX GPS Drive ($1.99) - Turn-by-Turn voice assisted (but no text to speech, i.e. street names) navigation that seems to do a great job in most urban areas at a fraction of the TomTom app's cost

MotionX GPS Sport ($1.99, free for the lite edition) - GPS app w/ topos, waypoints, tracks that can be uploaded to twitter, facebook, etc. Nice little app. I use it primarily for my running and cycling around the neighborhood, but am anxious to try it out for dualsport riding once I buy a bike.

Mint.com (free) - Keep tabs on all of my bank accounts, credit card balances, mortgage, and retirement accounts in one easy to access tool. Also sends out alerts for over-budget warnings (I don't bother with the budget features) and large withdrawals or deposits.

Echofon (free) - Used to be called Twitterfon. Hands down the best twitter app that I've found, as it has photo and gps location attachments built in. A little buggy in the latest version, but still cheaper and better for my needs than Tweetie.

Lose It! (free) - Weight tracking and daily food diary. Unfortunately the food database isn't as comprehensive as some tools I've used in the past, but hey, it's free, and it's super easy to add new foods to the database.

Amazon.com (free) - Not much to say here, other than that it makes Amazon waaaay too easy to shop now. My impulse buys (particularly on books) have gone up quite a bit, as the one-click purchase button is oh-so-shiney and begs to be pushed.

Ragdoll Blast ($1.99, free for trial version) - Fun little physics based game. Some of the levels are damned frustrating, but its addictive enough that I pretty much played my way through all 140-some levels in the first day or two I had it.

Wordpress (free) - Update your wordpress based blog while on the move. Supports inline embedding of images. Sure, it's not as full featured as using the web-based editor, but it fits the bill for quick and easy posting - great if you're on the road.

Facebook (free) - Yeah, yeah...

Measures ($1.99 or 2.99, can't remember) - I lived in Germany for 18 months and having the currency conversion and unit conversion for everything from teaspoons to fl oz's to UK and EU shoes and shirt sizes was invaluable. It really is a fantastic program and the first one I ever paid for.

TheWeatherChannel (free) - Despite the ads, it's better than the built in weather app.

Pandora (free) - This alone was a life-changer. Hyperbole aside, it completely replaced the need for satellite radio for me and makes boring days at my desk behind a DoD firewalled internet connection much more tolerable. Even 8 gigs of mp3's gets old after a while, so the fresh mix of music is more than welcome.

-Erik
 

Root Moose

Expedition Leader
I'll clarify what I like about "Topo Maps": It is basically the hand held version of the real NRCan maps and it has an easy interface to download maps (do it via WiFi - they are big), zoom and it tiles the maps together on the fly nicely.

I haven't tried using it as a moving map display... although I suspect it would work.
 

rugbier

Adventurer
Google Voice App

Does anyone have a version of Google Voice App that is willing to email to me as it is no longer available on the App Store?

Thank you
 

AKRover

Adventurer
For navigation I'll second MotionX GPS Sport. With my iPhone plugged into a charger and an external GPS antenna on the car I can use it to record trips and mark locations. It's a great alternative to buying a standalone GPS unit but it isn't as good. I started using it because I couldn't decide on a GPS unit to buy and I still haven't seen one that I really like so this will do for now.
 

Mad Matt

Adventurer
Topo Maps is truly impressive, you can download 7.5 minute USGS quads in both low res (1-2MB) or high res (10-12MB) so you don't have to worry about having any cell reception. They are actually some of the nicest looking quads I have seen. I have been deep in the middle of a national Forest with no cell reception and I was getting better readings then all of the normal navigation units (think Garmin Nuvi), and on par with the hand held GPS units and dedicated rig based laptop mapping systems. I have every quad from the Sierra foothills to the CA/NV state line and from I-80 to Hwy 88 and it takes up roughly 700MB of space on my iPhone. Yes the screen real estate of a dedicated laptop is nicer for viewing maps, but I don't have that option and for $7 and unlimited quads, it rocks!

Gaia Lite (free) lets you check the accuracy of your GPS signal amongst other things, best I have seen with no cell reception is +/- 50ft which isn't bad given this is my cell phone we are talking about.

Weather Bug Elite is easily my favorite weather app that I have actually paid for.

As for streaming media I would say my must have apps are Public Radio, SomaFM, Wolfgang's Vault and Pandora.
 

matt s

Explorer
Alright you all talked me into topo maps. Is there anyway to do the downloading on your computer then upload to the phone? One by one is going to be pretty tedious.
 

dustboy

Explorer
Alright you all talked me into topo maps. Is there anyway to do the downloading on your computer then upload to the phone? One by one is going to be pretty tedious.

Not yet, it would be really nice to have a partner app on the computer to help you manage your maps, and not have to always have them on the phone. The developer is very responsive and I would guess that he has this in mind.
 

AKRover

Adventurer
Wow, that topo app looks pretty nice. I have a different one called TopoPoint and it's not that great. I might have to get that other one.

I just downloaded Morse-it so I could play with code a little bit. Maybe someday I'll learn it. My wife isn't too impressed though, she is rather annoyed by all the beeping. lol
 

Root Moose

Expedition Leader
Not yet, it would be really nice to have a partner app on the computer to help you manage your maps, and not have to always have them on the phone. The developer is very responsive and I would guess that he has this in mind.

I was actually complaining about this to my buddies in an oblique way... I think any iPhone app should be able to run on your Mac inside the iTunes ecosystem.

If this was the case then you could do all your map loading from within iTunes and then load up the iPhone when ready. Just treat the tiles like MP3s for all intents and purposes.
 

nwoods

Expedition Leader
My short list of useful apps for my walk of life:
(all my apps are free or only $0.99)

- Say Who
- Say Where
- SmugWallet
- SmugShot
- FlashForFree (software based fill flash for images)
- Clinometer
- INCHcalc
- Units
- RulerPlus
- First Aid
- The Weather Channel
- Olive Tree Bible Reader

My favorite game: MX Mayhem. Can't play it without giggling out loud.
 

greg mgm

Explorer
Alright you all talked me into topo maps. Is there anyway to do the downloading on your computer then upload to the phone? One by one is going to be pretty tedious.

Yesterday I bought a 32Gb 3Gs Iphone.....man.....now I see what all the fuss is about! A very cool device! Anyway I downloaded Topo maps to my computer, then it installed to the iphone....easy as can be.

Could we please delete this thread? I'm going to go broke buying applications and accessories for my phone!!!!!! :)

Has anyone used this for a computer trackpad? Wondering how effective it is.

I found this trackpad app-

http://www.mobileairmouse.com/
 
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