In this page, I will talk about my best iPhone
applications. Those
are the applications I personally use to accomplish many tasks that I
use in my daily life either at work, while driving, while walking or
while laying on bed.
Some of those applications require a jailbreak
to function the way I use them otherwise they might not be as useful
or productive.
I haven’t tested every single application in the App
Store, but I used many and picked the best most efficient iPhone
apps.
I will go through the list of my best iPhone
applications
installed on my device and will divide the list by categories. I might use
two or three apps in one category to do two different tasks. For example, One app
might be best in doing only
one task while another app is best in doing another task in the same
category.
Skype
For iPhone functions the same way as any Skype
installed on a
desktop computer. It uses VOIP
to make voice conversation with people around the world.
It is my best iPhone application for communicating with my friends and family.
For example, my parents in Egypt have Skype installed on
their PC, and since we
both have Skype installed, I can talk to them absolutely free.
The only disadvantage with Skype on the iPhone was that
it worked
only on wifi, but this feature is now enabled on 3G finally. Moreover, with 3G
Unrestrictor, which is an iPhone hack that tricks the 3G network into thinking it is wifi, I can talk to my friends and
families from anywhere over 3G or EDGE cell network with no
restriction.
Smart Caller allows me to assign a calling card
to my
contacts so when dialing any contact, the app will dial the calling
card number, enters the activation code, and then dial my contact.
It
saves me lots of dialing, and makes the process a one touch process,
besides the saving on long distance phone calls.
I use a company called tell3Vantage
that provides low
cost
international phone calls. I put their phone number, and activation
code in SmartDial. Then when I select any contact from my contact list,
it goes through dialing tell3Vantage, and then dialing my contact
saving lots of money this way.
iSip for iPhone is very good for making
SIP
(Session Initiation Protocol) calls.
Contacts is designed by apple to store your phone
numbers, emails, and everything about a contact.
I
use it as a data base in addition to the contact information. I like
the fast search this application has on the Mac computer.
Therefore, I
use the note area to store passwords, and other reminders and data
related to a contact.
I even use it to store any information about anything I want to store, and I use the first name and last name
to add keywords for that topic to remind me.
Since the contacts
application is always synced with my Mac, I get all my notes always up
to date on both my iPhone and my Computer.
For example, iPhone here is the first name, and you can see how I use the note portion of the contacts application to store information.
Translators:
WebDictPro is my best iPhone application to find a
definition of
any English word. It is a powerful dictionary in my pocket. It finds
words as you type them.
It also translates the word from English to
Arabic or other languages supported by the iPhone. Moreover, it has
voice pronunciation for most words as shown by the red circle.
Translator is an
iPhone application that translates from any language to another. It is
my best iPhone translator. It can translate a single word, or a
complete sentence from/to many different languages.
Jaadu VNC
is an iPhone VNC client and it is my best iPhone application to monitor and control my Mac or PC. It is simply
is the best iPhone application I have ever used on a mobile device to
control my Computer at home.
The touch screen works as if it was a touch pad on a laptop, when you tap on the screen you select the file,
double tap opens the file. If you tap with two fingers you simulate a
right click. It is a very creative application.
Jaadu RDP is
similar to Jaadu VNC but is an iPhone RDP client which is specially designed for the PC. This
is one of the best iPhone applications to control your PC. Once you access your
PC, the PC adjust the screen size to fill your iPhone 3.5 inch display.
You can run any program on your PC as if you were
setting in
front of your PC. The beauty of this app for the PC is that you can even access the sound of your PC just like running any Remote Desktop
Client.
In the app settings you can select the audio to either come
from the PC or from the iPhone, and you can choose the quality of the audio too. This is the best iPhone application for PC users to control
their PC.
Video Recorders:
Cycorder and iPhone Video recorder
require jailbreaking your iPhone 2G and 3G. They are hacks that allow you to capture video using your iPhone 3G.
Of course if you have an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, you don’t
need such applications as it can record video by default. Also, iPhone 4 comes with a front facing camera and a rear camera and both can record video.
Yxcoder is another video recorder for the iPhone 3G. The quality of those video
recorders is not that great, but it is better than nothing on the
iPhone and iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3GS comes with good video recording, the iPhone 4 records video in HD at 720P and can edit video with iMovie for iPhone. Read more in iPhone 4 features page.
Documents Readers and Editors:
GoodReader
is the best iPhone application for reading pdf files. I tried several
PDF readers. One common problem with most of the PDF readers for the
iPhone is low memory.
If the PDF file is too big, the app will
quit because of lack of memory for those large files. GoodReader is
good for any file size PDF’s and is very stable. You can bookmark any
page, and view the PDF in landscape in full screen too.
DocToGo
is my best iPhone application to modify a word or an Excel document.
The iPhone can read Word, Excel and PowerPoint files by default, but it
can’t modify those documents.
DocToGo allows you to sync the documents
between your desktop computer and your iPhone, so when you edit a
document on the computer or on the iPhone, both devices are updated. Of course for simple and quick notes I use the default iPhone notes app.
Internet TV and Video Players:
netTV is the best iPhone application for viewing
some internet
TV on your iPhone. Be aware that not all stations are available. The
quality of the feed is very good for most of the internet TV’s I tried.
ORBLive
is a media files streaming application.
It is one of
my best iPhone applications and I use it to
stream any TV station or video file from my PC to my iPhone on the fly.
There is a one time $10 subscription to the service, but
you can try the limited version to get the taste of it.
YouTube is one of the best iPhone applications to
search
and play video on line. It supports videos in different languages and
it also sync with your website YouTube account.
NuageTV is my favorite iPhone
video
application. I can watch recorded shows from many different TV stations
such as BBC, Aljazeera, CBC, CNETTV, Discovery channel an many more.
You can view or download any of the available shows. You can also add
your own url.
Aljazeera Arabic is one of my best iPhone applications. It allows you to watch aljazeera TV live on your iPhone.
It works on both wifi and 3G, and the quality of the feed is really good. The Arabic iPhone application is called AJA Arabic and available for free at the App Store.
AirVideo is one of best iPhone applications. It
is an on the fly iPhone
video converter
that allows me to stream any video I have on my Mac or PC to my iPhone
without the need to convert the file.
I don't have to download the file
as the conversion happens in real time on the desktop computer and sent
to the iPhone over wifi or 3G.
The iPhone 3G camera is not the best out there
with 2MP for iPhone 3G, and 3.1MP for the iPhone 3GS. There are many
cheaper and smaller phones with better camera than the iPhone. The iPhone 4 came with a 5MP camera with a light sensor and a flash that give an amazing still picture quality.
I always used my iPhone 3GS to take still pictures, and now I use my iPhone 4 to take both video and still pictures, and stopped
using my 8MP dedicated camera and my camcorder.
The reason seams to be the simplicity and
convenience of the iPhone camera. It is always in my pocket, and it is
very easy to take an iPhone photo and upload it to many social network websites
such as Facebook, Twitter, Flicker or Photon. And the quality of iPhone 4 camera is superb. You will also be surprised to know that there are iPhone camera accessories available out there.
The pictures for the iPhone 3GS are good in
daytime but no that good in the dark as there is no flash.
Camera Zoom is my best iPhone application for iPhone 3GS and 3GS as a replacement to the built in camera
app. It has a stabilizer while taking a photo which improves the
picture quality dramatically compared to the built in camera app. You
can touch anywhere on the screen to take a picture, and it has a slider to zoom in and out.
FaceTimeis one of the iPhone 4 features that allow audio and video call with other iPhone 4, iPod Touch forth generation, iPad and even Mac.
Music:
Last.fm is a music streaming application. You select
your style
and it finds and plays similar styles. It is my best iPhone application
for playing music online, as it has Arabic styles. You have to
subscribe to the service for free first.
If you like a song that is being played, you can add it
to your favorites. When you login to your account with last.fm website, you can access your favorite music that you selected on your iPhone. Then you
can purchase those songs from iTunes or Amazon.
WunderRadio is an internet radio app. It allows
me to
listen to different radio stations online. I use it to listen to Arabic
live radio feed, news and music, but you can try to search for any
music or radio you want. You can even add your favorite radio url in
the url area in the app.
Other Useful Apps:
Facebook is my best social network site. There are
many
different apps that serve different social networks such as Twitter,
Myspace and Flicker. Depending on what network you are subscribed with,
you will find an iPhone app for it. They all would allow you to take a
picture or video and send it to your site from your iPhone just like
the Facebook app.
Showtimes is an app that locates theaters in
your area, and what movies they are playing. It uses the GPS to locate
you and finds all theaters around you. It can play trailers right in
the app.
MyWeather is the application I use to check the
weather. It gives a live broadcast satellite images, with moving clouds
and rain all in real time. Just rotate the iPhone to landscape to get
full screen view of live satellite weather broadcast.
Bloomberg is a very easy to use stocks app that
gives you the trend of a stock in 3 or 5 years when you rotate the
iPhone to landscape.
Colloquy is an IRC client. There aren't many
options here, but this is a great IRC applications.
HiClac
is the best iPhone calculator if you are looking for more than just
simple additions and subtractions. HiCalc is for some complicated
calculations. It also has a unit converter that converts any unit you
might think of.
Smart Caller allows me to assign a calling card
to my
contacts so when dialing any contact, the app will dial the calling
card number, enters the activation code, and then dial my contact. 
I
use it as a data base in addition to the contact information. I like
the fast search this application has on the Mac computer.
WebDictPro is my best iPhone application to find a
definition of
any English word. It is a powerful dictionary in my pocket. It finds
words as you type them. 
Jaadu RDP is
similar to Jaadu VNC but is an 
The pictures for the iPhone 3GS are good in
daytime but no that good in the dark as there is no flash. 
Facebook is my best social network site. There are
many
different apps that serve different social networks such as Twitter,
Myspace and Flicker. Depending on what network you are subscribed with,
you will find an iPhone app for it. They all would allow you to take a
picture or video and send it to your site from your iPhone just like
the Facebook app.
