January 21, 2009 7:29 AM PST
Six must-have iPhone freebies
Stream unlimited music to your iPhone or iPod Touch with the free Slacker Radio app.
(Credit: Slacker)How do I love thee, iPhone (and iPod Touch)? Let me count the ways. Hmmm. Well, space doesn't permit me to list all 12,503, so I'll settle for six. As in, six free apps you absolutely positively gotta get. (Note: as with my previous batch of iPhone freebies, all links go straight to iTunes.)
- Mancala FS5 I love the Mancala board game, and this iPhone edition is even better. It teaches beginners the basics, automatically moves your beads, and supports Internet multiplayer! (You can even play against your AIM buddies.) Consider splurging on the $1.99 full version to enjoy ad-free play.
- NPR Mobile Though not an official NPR app, it lets you browse broadcasts by topic, series, and even commentator, then stream to your heart's content. It can also do a location search, great for when you're traveling and want to tune the car radio to the nearest NPR station.
- Slacker Radio Best. Streaming music app. Ever. I know some folks prefer Pandora, but I've always loved the Web-based Slacker and its robust custom-station building. The new iPhone app (pictured) is just plain fantastic. Read my full review here.
- Sportacular At the risk of ruining my geek cred, I do follow (and even play) some sports. Sportacular gives you scores, standings, schedules, stats, and more. It also lets you designate favorite teams so you can track them more easily.
- Stanza Remember the nine free e-books I wrote about awhile back? Turns out you can download them directly from Stanza, arguably the iPhone's best e-book reader. The latest version can also tap your eReader and Fictionwise libraries. Right now I'm devouring Charles Huston's exceptional crime novel Caught Stealing.
- Topple Part Tetris, part Jenga, Topple challenges you to stack amusingly animated blocks as high as you can before the tower topples over. Great fun for kids and grown-ups alike. Again, here's my review.
OK, you've got my picks. Now tell me what freebies are rocking your iPhone/iPod Touch boat these days. Try to stick with new stuff--everybody knows about Shazam by now. (And speaking of older freebies, here's an earlier batch of killer apps.)
Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, is the author of more than a dozen books. In addition to writing CNET's The Cheapskate blog, he oversees BNET's Business Hacks. Rick is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. Disclosure. Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers. Follow Rick on Twitter at cheapskateblog. 
I've been a heavy PDA user since the original Palm Pilot a decade ago. After Palm lost its ability to produce compelling OS upgrades, I switched to Win Mo PDAs and eventually smartphones years ago and have used and championed them ever since as the most full-featured mobile devices. As IT director of my company, I even replaced all of our "Crapberry" devices (can only do email and phone well, not other PIM tasks) with Win Mo phones.
How did it go? The experience was a disaster as the average end users choked at the complexity and horridly non-intuitive Win Mo interface--a reality that became ever clearer with the release of the iPhone. After hating their Win Mo phones so much, several users went and purchased $400 iPhones out of contract and from their own wallets. I can tell you that they have been extremely happy with them and literally almost never need support from me--unlike the Win Mo devices that I receive a constant barrage of support calls for even over a year after the switch.
Fact is, the iPhone has the most elegant and user-friendly interface of any smartphone created thusfar, which should come as no surprise considering Apple's legendary GUI design chops. The iPhone may very well have one of the most elegant interfaces of any computerized product ever made. Yes, as a power user, I cringe over the lack of certain "features." (Copy/paste anyone?)
But you know what I've found? The average end user DOES NOT CARE like us techno-geeks. They want their smartphone to give them what they basically want, to look good, to be simple, and to just work. You want to know how Win Mo devices make users feel? This is what an actual end user of mine emailed me today about a problem he's trying to diagnose with his Win Mo phone: "Have you found that throwing the phone against the wall is a successful remedy."
Alas, poor Win Mo, I knew thee very well, and even defended you for years, but the next time we refresh our phones, everyone is getting an iPhone. Although I was planning to retain a Win Mo device myself, even I have been convinced to switch. (I'm still skeptical about Android, but Palm's Web OS admittedly looks quite interesting.)
Also, as far as Pandora vs. Slacker Radio goes, Pandora doesn't make you listen to ads. It has little ad banners underneath the album art, but that's about it. It has also added a CoverFlow view when turned sideways. I don't know anything that the Slacker App has that Pandora doesn't; from a pure music perspective they seem to be pretty similar in features.
Anyways, the only thing I might add to the list is Shazam, which I've found increasingly useful lately when I need to know the name of a song. It's even worked in a crowded restaurant, which I thought was impressive considering the background noise.
Oh, and Amazon.com's app is great when you're out shopping. You can take pictures of products and Amazon will find the item you were looking at on their site so you can easily compare prices (It usually takes a few minutes for it to fully process). It's also just a much better interface for the iPhone than their normal site.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10146978-2.html
I really wanted to like Sportacular, but gave up when I just wouldn't stop crashing when ads were loading (Pandora and a few other apps crash when waiting for ads, too). Sportacular is in my dust bin since they can't put a stable app in the App Store. I would rather pay for an app and not deal with ads anyway, even a small monthly subscription works for me if I can get a app that works!
Also Shakespeare for those of you who like the Bard.
Shazam lost some brownie points thanks to their latest release featuring ads, but still reigns supreme in the "who's this on the radio" market.
Then again, I've been fortunate that all of my various financial accounts load properly. Some people aren't as lucky. As far as I know, the majority of financial services work with Mint.com.
Try it out Rick, and if it works for you, you should post it!
As far as applications:
-Google mobile app. Being able to search google by voice revolutionary.
-Flixter. Being able to quickly view movie showtimes for theatres based on your current location is great. It also allows you to view theatrical previews.
-Live Poker. This is the only poker game I've seen which allows you to play hold'em against real people.
-Concert Vault. Depending on the type of music you like, there are some great live sets here.
-iTalk. Real simple voice recorder for people who make notes to themselves, or like to record lectures or meetings.
The last three levels of the free game are real braintwisters.
(full disclosure: I am the developer of Rabbit Run, but it's still neat, and I have to tell somebody :-) )
I have to agree with your first comment: How about other operating systems? I personally have a BlackBerry and I know they are finally *DUH* getting an application store set up and would love to hear your thoughts when it is.
Thanks
I wanted to chat with you about anew handheld game?Jenga!
Featuring a real ?Jenga Block? built in to simulate the actual game this electronic portable version is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year! The game also features a ?zoom-in? technology with split screen graphics. Play against the computer or with a friend!
To date we?ve sold over 4 million of our handheld games worldwide. Previous licenses include Disney, ESPN, Nickelodeon and Marvel. While many of our games over the years have either featured segment graphics or dot-matrix this is the first one to feature both.
Trace
Bix Lite
MiniPiano
I know these aren't the newest, but of all, and I mean ALL the apps that I download, play for a bit, and forget, these are continually in use
- by mclarensr January 28, 2009 10:02 PM PST
- Mint.com very useful was able to load all my accounts (including the ones Money and Quicken could not find), NYTimes, Amazon.com, Bloomberg, Handy level.
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