1. It's a great flashlight at night. No kidding. And there's even an app you can get for free called Just Light that will light your path even brighter.
2. The free app Google Mobile is the ultimate in, well, googling anything almost hands-free. I simply go to that app in my iPhone, click 'voice search', and then say what I want to search for. Isn't that cool?! The voice recognition has been about 98% spot-on so that I'll get my search info pretty much the first time.
3. The Maps app, which comes standard with both the 3G and 3GS, is GPS-powered and hooks up to your contact list. Driving to a friend's new house the other day I hadn't yet changed her info in my contact list. No problem. In the Maps app I added her address in the search line and set it to find a route from my current location (a stoplight near my home). Not only did my iPhone give me the route to take, but it also gave me a one-touch option to add this address to my contact list. Made my trip sooo much easier!
4. One of my least fave things to do is going grocery shopping. But with the $0.99 Shopper app that chore is now a breeze. I can make separate lists for different stores simultaneously, notate if I have a coupon by the press of a button, and it adds my list up beforehand. My kids can even go into the app and add an item we need to a list. Sadly, my iPhone does not go to the store alone while I relax with a pint of Ben & Jerry's at home, but it makes shopping go much faster so I can get home to my
5. About a year ago, I fell in love with the blogosphere. Reading other blogs, as well as posting on my own, has been a sheer delight! And now with the iPhone I can catch up on my favorite blogs while I'm away from my computer. If you already use Bloglines to collect your RSS feeds on the 'net, there is an iPhone-based view you can use. Point your Safari browser to https://i.bloglines.com/ to set it up.
6. Anyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE music. I love listening to it, singing, dancing, and signing along with it, knowing lyrics, and on and on. What I find frustrating is when I hear an awesome song on the radio or after a movie, but I don't know who the artist is nor the title. That's when iPhone comes to the rescue. One of the coolest free apps around is Shazam, a little gem that 'listens' to about 15 seconds of a song and then tells you its' title, artist, and album. It's spectacular! But don't try humming or singing the tune to Shazam - it only recognizes recorded music.
7. Here's another fave because of my love of music. The free app TuneWiki gives the lyrics to songs already in your iTunes catalog. While the song is playing, TuneWiki displays the lyrics so you can sing along with that new tune you love but don't quite know all the words yet. Neato!
8. Five years ago I never would have been interested in bird-watching, but studying certain subjects with the kids tends to change our interests. Now that we enjoy spotting our feathered friends, the iBird Explorer app is a perfect tool on my phone. We use iBird Explorer South due to our location, but there are other iBird apps for different regions of the U.S. The regional apps are $9.99, while the Plus and Pro versions are higher in cost.
9. Two of my new faves I'll combine into one {no, it's not cheating}. The free Facebook app lets you stay in touch with your "facey friends", and Twitterific lets you tweet to your hearts content. So convenient while waiting on your child's guitar lesson to finish.
10. This little gem, LiveCams, lets you view the feed from a camera you have set up in your home. We have a camera set up just above the tv in our family room. When hubby and I go out, the kids have happily planted themselves on the couch with pizza in hand and some parent-approved movies to lull them into carb-blissfulness. Hubby just clicks on the live feed on the iPhone and voila! We get to see that the kids are safe and little brother is obeying his big sis. It's great!
So those are my top 10. Some other apps I expect to be using more in the near future cover the topics of astronomy (Distant Suns; APOD), letterboxing (TrailsLite), and weather (WeatherChannel). I'll add reviews on those apps, and maybe more, at a later date. Until then, enjoy your toy!
