Kerkia

Background

The iPhone is the best-selling smartphone nowadays, and its related application store has a fantastic success. So much actually that there are literally thousands of applications available, a large number being free to use. We present here some of our favourites (free) applications.

Important note: GPS-related and chess applications are presented in a separate article.

Recommendations

Evernote: a notes utility; see our recommendation of the best notes tool.

TouchCalc: the best calculator for iPhone that we’ve found, adding scientific, computer and statistics mode to the standard calculator.

Flashlight: simulates a light from the iPhone by producing a white bright screen. Effective in the dark.

Skype: great Skype app from Skype themselves.

Facebook: great Facebook app from Facebook; almost nicer than the actual Facebook web site.

IM+ Lite: there are many free IMs for iPhone but this one is what we found works best and is free. It supports most accounts (yahoo, MSN, etc.) and includes push notifications.

Google Earth: like the desktop application; works very well on good connections.

SketchBook Mobile Express: a great drawing application from Autodesk.

WeatherEye: our favourite weather app.

Shazam: identify music you hear wherever it comes from; wondering what a tune is that you’re listening to on the radio? Place your iPhone next to it and it will tell you. You can also use this app to tag music and build up a kind of memory album.

iHandy Level: a great surface level tool. Wondering if something is really horizontal? Just place your iPhone on it.

Touch4: a great Touch 4 game.

Virtuoso Lite: a very nice piano app.

Guitar Tuner: a great tool to help you tuning your guitar chords.

UYH: a handwriting application that actually works. Typically useable to take short notes and make lists of words.

Millionaire Lite: the famous Millionaire game.

Dictionary: our favourite dictionary app.

Wikipedia: the best Wikipedia app.

Allcountries: tons of information and facts about all countries in this world; very complete and up-to-date.

Dropfox: see our review of the best file sharing and synchronizing software.

Units: our favourite unit converter.

MultiConvert: our second favourite unit converter, more complete than the previous one but slower to use.

Planets: a very nice planetarium application.

AlarmTLite: we tried many alarm and clock apps but really preferred that one. It is intuitive to use, very nice looking, and works very well, supporting both rings and music.

Speedtest: a nicely done app to test your speed connection.

CameraAngle: an app that helps you measuring the height of e.g. buildings by taking measurements at different points using the camera of your iPhone.

SUDOKUfree: a free Sudoku game; our favourite one.

XRay Xtreme: fake of course but looks real.

Labyrinth 3D: a very nice-looking labyrinth game that uses the motion sensors of your phone.

MMazeLite: another one of those; we could not decide which one of those two was best.

AtomicFar: clearly disgusting but so popular; the best one fart app we found for free.

Wivi Free: a superb trumper app; blow on your iPhone and press the keys to make music.

3D checkers: a nice-looking checkers game app.

FakeCaller: want to escape a boring meeting? This app will help you pretending you are being called; works very well.

LeafTLite: a trombone app; makes a beautiful sound when you blow in it; may make beautiful music too if you’re gifted.

WeatherEye: our favourite weather app; much better than the default one on the iPhone, with frequently updated and complete information (for Canada, at least) as well as a nice-looking user interface.

KAYAK: a very useful app for travelers, allowing you to look for flights, hotels, rentals, etc. I also informs you in real time about your flight status, airline fees, airport information, etc.

WiFi photo: when your device is connected to a WiFi network, this simple app gives you an url to browse to, from any computer on that same network; at this address you will see all photos from your device in a nicely laid out web page. Photos are a bit small but the app works very well nevertheless.

Free Mouse and JumiOne: those two apps are the best we found in order to use the iPhone as a mouse controller for any computer around you. You need to install the app as well as a software on your PC to be controlled. The app then detects that software and connects to the PC to allow you controlling its mouse. Both apps work about equally well for us.

iBooks: a good eBook reader for the iPhone.

RedLaser: reads any bar code and gives you information, including pricing, about the corresponding product. Works very well!

Talking Tom: a cat you can pet, feed, hit and, most importantly, talk to; when doing the latter it repeats your words back at you, with a funny voice. A very entertaining app :-).

Sonos: the app to be used in order to control your Sonos play zones. Obviously only useful if you own Sonos equipment, but a really great app if you do.