The Real Top 10 Free iPhone Applications
So, you have your iPhone 3g or you are keeping it old school and decided to keep your old iPhone and upgrade to 2.0. Either way, hopefully you have visited the App Store on your iPhone or through iTunes. On either your computer or phone you have probably seen the top 25 free applications for the phone. However, these applications are just the top 25 downloaded but not the 25 best applications. First, here is a list of Apple’s top ten downloaded free applications for the iPhone (this list changes pretty often, so the accuracy may be slightly off.)
Apple’s #10: Facebook - 3/5 Stars - 1108 Reviews
Apple’s #9: Urbanspoon - 3.5/5 Stars - 186 Reviews
Apple’s #8: AIM - 2.5/5 Stars - 1134 Reviews
Apple’s #7: iPint - 4/5 Stars - 249 Reviews
Apple’s #6: Shazam - 4.5/5 Stars - 999 Reviews
Apple’s #5: Break - 4/5 Stars - 189 Reviews
Apple’s #4: PhoneSaber - 4/5 Stars - 658 Reviews
Apple’s #3: Remote - 4.5/5 Stars - 1438 Reviews
Apple’s #2: Pandora Radio - 4.5/5 Stars - 1038 Reviews
Apple’s #1 Tap Tap Revenge - 4.5/5 Stars - 917 Reviews
Now the top ten best free iPhone applications:
#10: WritingPad - 3.5/5 Stars - 131 Reviews
When using WritingPad it really makes note taking easy. At first, I was skeptical about the accuracy of application where you draw the word you are trying to spell. Once you get the hang of it though, it’s a huge time saver. You can quickly draw out the sequence of characters using your finger and it actually works. For similar words it brings up a quick list of the most common and you simply tap the correct one.
#9: Google Mobile App - 3/5 Stars - 220 Reviews
Overall, most of the services it provides can be found with another application or the built in features of the iPhone itself. But it does provide a very nice interface for accessing your data in one place. It gives you a one-stop-shop for gMail, Photos, Contacts, Reader and provides location aware results. It’s a very nice application.
#8: vSNAX Videos - 4/5 Stars - 93 Reviews
This application is underrated, plan and simple. It provides up-to-date- content from CBS News, CNET News, VH1, Ford Models, Ripe TV and a host of others are on the way. I know that YouTube is already on the phone, but this provides some relevant content to keep you updated during the day.
#7: Tap Tap Revenge - 4.5/5 Stars - 917 Reviews
This is currently Apple’s #1 downloaded free application, but it falls way short. Why? Well if you have ever played Tap Tap Revolution on a jailbroken phone then you know the answer. In the original TTR, you could play along with songs from your library that other users have created beats to. Along with that, you could create your own beats to songs and upload them to the net.
The new App Store version does have a much better interface as well as the newly added combo system. This application is would be ranked a lot higher on this list if it had a star power or energy system that could be activated by the accelerometer.
#6: Mocha VNC Lite - 4/5 Stars - 169 Reviews
This is a great application. It lets you remote desktop into your Windows or Mac OS X computer. Provides a nice keyboard for input as well as a mouse and a scroll mode. One of the nicest features is the ability to zoom in and out using the pinch touchscreen command. Works in portrait and landscape mode on screens up to 1680×1200.
#5: Remote - 4.5/5 Stars - 1438 Reviews
Remote is a good application with some limitations. I found the application worked great for the iTunes controller, but for my use it wasn’t very practical. However, when using it as a remote for the AppleTv it worked amazingly better than the default AppleTv remote. The limitations with using it as a AppleTv remote was not being able to browse the rentals or movies for sale in the iTunes store.
#4: Myspace/Facebook - 4/5 & 3/5 Stars - 577 / 1108 Reviews
While these social networking applications aren’t perfect, they are a huge upgrade from the previous web versions. Both applications allow you to send and receive messages and Facebook allows you to chat live with online friends. Also, you can upload and share photos.
#3: Pandora Radio - 4.5/5 Stars - 1038 Reviews
With Pandora on the iPhone, you no longer need to even add any music. Why? Pandora is your personal DJ that utilizes a vast music genome database to select songs that it thinks you would like. After some fine tuning by rating songs, thumbs up or thumbs down it gets pretty accurate. Just start with a artist, song, or music category of your choice and let the music begin.
#2: Jamd - 4/5 Stars - 17 Reviews
Reading news can be fun with Jamd. Jamd brings the world around you to the tips of your fingers, literally. When a news article has multiple photos is lets you interact with the photos in Jason Bourne style. Rotating photos, expanding photos and pushing them around the stack is fun and a practical use of the iPhone’s touch screen.
#1: Shazam - 4.5/5 Stars - 999 Reviews
Shazam is a great application that I have been wanting for years. You click Tag Now and it begins listening. Then after it’s done listening it sends the sound bite up to the net and it returns with the song. It’s amazing. I knew this application would be #1 when I was eating lunch and this song came on, but was playing really low. It was able to detect the exact song and provided a link to the youtube video and links to buy the song in the iTunes store. It’s simply the best free application on the iPhone.
July 19th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Great post, I love those free iPhone Apps too!