The Ultimate $2.00 iPhone App Guide
I have a friend who put out a Facebook request for suggestions of what to spend $2.00 on for apps for his iPhone. He specified that they could be paid or free, and could include $.99 apps as well. I went a little crazy, and came up with the ULTIMATE $2.00 iPhone App Guide. These are great apps that won’t break the bank, and are in my opinion, the reason that the iPhone is such a strong platform.
Here it is (organized by category, of course!).
Photography
AutoStitch Panorama – $1.99
Polarize – free
Photonote Lite – free
Video
QIK Video Camera Pro – $0.99
Air Video Lite – free
Utilities
Dropbox – free
Just Light Flashlite – free
Dictionary.com – - free
FreeSaurus – The Free Thesaurus – free
Siri Assistant – free
ZIPcodes – free
USAA – free (If you don’t bank with USAA this does you no good, but the app is great! By the way, if you don’t bank with USAA you are really missing out. They are awesome.)
Books
Stanza – free
Bible (YouVersion)- free
Social
Facebook – free
Twitterrific – free (I have used this, and it is pretty good for a free Twitter app, but for my pick, see the bonus section below for paid apps.)
Travel
BookMe – free
Tools
Electrical Toolkit – free
Units (Yellow icon with a scale) – free
Entertainment
Movies (Flixter) – free
iheart Radio – free
Shazam – free
AOL Radio – free
Slacker Radio – free
Pandora – free
CheckPlease Lite – Tip Calculator – free
Dove Family Approved Movies – free
Games
Ragdoll Blaster 2 Lite – free
Hearts free – free
Sol Free – free
Gamebox Classics – free
Word Warp – free
Games For Your Kids
Dress Chica – free
Whiteboard Lite – Collaborative Drawing – free
Preschool Adventure – .99
I realize that if you bought all of these you would actually spend $3.97, but you would have a pretty awesome iPhone for under $4.00 in Apps.
For someone without a young child, you could get away with only spending $2.98, and if you had an iPhone 3GS, you wouldn’t need the QIK Video Camera. That would bring the whole package under $2.00.
That’s a lot of value!
These are most of the apps I use all the time. I have downloaded hundreds of apps (free and paid), and these are the ones I have kept on my phone.
As an added bonus, here are my favorite paid apps, and the most expensive app on my phone.
Tweetie 2 – $2.99 (The best Twitter app, hands down.)
iCamcorder – $1.99 (The actual name of this app is “Record Video on iPhone 2G/3G – iCamcorder with 15+FPS, Zoom and more Effects!”, but if you search for iCamcorder, you’ll find it. I have bought most of the camcorder apps for the iPhone 3G. I keep this one and the QIK Video Camera on my phone. They are both good at different things. This is the one I use most, as the start-up time is very short, and it does a great job capturing clean video.)
Air Video – $2.99
Flight Control – 0.99
TowerMadness – $2.99
Ragdoll Blaster 2 – $2.99
CrewCard – $1.99
Film Slate – $4.99
Tap and Drill Chart – $0.99
keep reading to find what the most expensive app I have purchased is, and what I think of it.
Free Bonus!!! Check out http://www.pacificmotion.net on your iPhone. This is the website I built for work. I use the WPTouch WordPress plugin for the mobile site. Check it out on your computer to see the difference, and get an idea how the WPTouch plugin works. For web designers wanting to make iPhone (and most mobile browsers) compatible sites, this is the BOMB!!! and it’s free.
—- The Most Expensive App I Have Purchased —-
Navigon Mobile Navigator North America – $79.00
I bought it when it was $69.00. I would pay $99.00 for it. It is fantastic. This is the reason I bought my iPhone. I hate being lost. This is a GREAT gps app. I use this with a suction cup/gooseneck windshield mount [$10 from Amazon] and a car charger, and it is amazing. I have used it in the U.S. and Canada, and it always works. Every update has made it better. I can’t imagine not having this app.
By the way, many of these apps have iPad versions as well. I would suggest spending a few dollars and trying them out on the iPad as well.
Chrome for Mac Review – Google’s Browser Has a Bright Future… Keyword Future.
I have spent a few days with Chrome for Mac. I have a few observations. First, the negatives. Chrome is not noticeably faster than Safari or Firefox. I am running it on a 2.53Ghz Core2 Duo Mac, running Snow Leopard. This is not a hardware issue. The only site I have had problems with, on Chrome, has been Gmail. The problems have been regular and frequent. That’s irony. When Chrome is minimized, and I click on the Chrome dock icon, the toolbar opens, but the window stays minimized. I don’t like not being able to drag the favicon to the desktop and make it a shortcut. I don’t like the way downloads work in Chrome. I want to be able to set my downloads window to clear after downloads have completed. I also don’t want to see my downloads in the main window… even at the bottom. Give me my screen space back.
With the negatives out of the way, I will get to the positives. Overall, Chrome has been stable, easy to learn, and functional. Considering every browser has issues, Chrome is a worthy contender. Like most other browsers, Chrome makes Internet Explorer (any version) look pitiful.
So far, the negatives outweigh the positives, but I won’t give up yet. I will continue to use Chrome… along with Safari and Firefox. It is always good to have a few good browsers, and I think Chrome has a bright future.
“Radio Startup” Application added to Apple.com!
Apple has just added my “Radio Startup” application to it’s Automator Actions Download section. To view the download page at www.Apple.com, CLICK HERE!
Don’t forget to download your copy. I think you will really like it.
Good Morning Music! Updated – Version 1.0.2
My little application, iTunes Startup, has been really popular over the past couple of years. I got an email from a user the other day, asking if it could be used for internet radio. While it is possible to modify iTunes Startup for internet radio, it is a real pain, but I liked the idea so much that I wanted to make a separate version specifically for internet radio. I spent most of the day updating iTunes Startup to work for internet radio, and named the new version Radio Startup.
While I was working on Radio Startup, I noticed a few bugs that I had missed in iTunes Startup, so I fixed them, and updated the installation and setup directions. I also moved the download files to my new server. Check out the newest version of iTunes Startup here, and if you like listening to internet radio, check out Radio Startup here.
Big News!
Radio Startup was added to the Apple.com Developer site, for download! Also, in the interest of getting iTunes Startup published on the site, I am changing the name to Good Morning Music!. Same great product, new great name.
Free Download – Radio Startup
In 2006 I put together a little Automator application called Good Morning Music!, that has been very popular. I recently had an email from a user, asking if Good Morning Music! could be used for internet radio. I liked the idea so much, that I modified Good Morning Music!, specifically to handle radio, and renamed the program, here it is.
Radio Startup
Version: 1.03, 1.1.0 (FREEWARE)
System Requirements – Macintosh Computer
(c)2008 Garritt Hampton
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD for Power PC Macs
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD for Intel PC Macs
INTRODUCTION
Radio Startup is a simple Automator program intended to start your day off right. I like to start my workday with music, but I want it to start at a nice low-medium volume level. Radio Startup will set your computer volume and iTunes volume at a reasonable level, then begin playing a specified iTunes Radio Station for you, or if you would like, it will randomly pick a station from a list of stations you have chosen (For more information on this option, see the section entitled “MULTIPLE STATIONS” below).
Radio Startup will also work for podcast episodes, and stations not in the iTunes “Radio” menu. For podcasts, add selected episodes to the “Radio” playlist. For radio streams, just add the streaming MP3 to iTunes, then to the “Radio” playlist.
I have included the Radio Startup workflow to enable you to change volume or playback settings or to adapt this workflow to do other things.
Special Thanks goes to Mr. Umeno, for his suggestion to adapt the original “Good Morning Music!” application to work for radio as well.
SETUP (Single Station)
1) Place the Radio-Startup application, from the “Single Station” folder into your iTunes folder (Users/’you’/Music/iTunes).
2) Create Radio Playlist in iTunes.
- To begin using Radio Startup just create playlist in itunes (Select “File”, “New Playlist”)
- A new playlist called “untitled playlist” will be created and placed at the bottom of your iTunes playlists
- Name the playlist “Radio”
- Drag any iTunes radio station in to the “Radio” playlist
3) Add Radio-Startup application to Login Items
- Open System Preferences.
- Select “Accounts”.
- Select the “Login Items” tab.
- Click the “+” button below the list.
- Select the Radio-Startup application in your iTunes folder.
- Click Add.
- Check the box next to Radio-Startup to hide the application when it starts.
4) Enjoy.
MULTIPLE STATIONS
SETUP (Multiple Stations)
1) Place the Radio-Startup application, from the “Multiple Stations” folder, into your iTunes folder (Users/’you’/Music/iTunes).
2) Create Radio Playlist in iTunes.
- To begin using Radio Startup just create playlist in itunes (Select “File”, “New Playlist”)
- A new playlist called “untitled playlist” will be created and placed at the bottom of your iTunes playlists
- Name the playlist “Radio”
- Chose a few iTunes radio stations and drage them into the “Radio” playlist (note: if you don’t have more than one station in the playlist, it will not work. If you only plan on playing one station, use the instructions above).
3) Add Radio-Startup application to Login Items
- Open System Preferences.
- Select “Accounts”.
- Select the “Login Items” tab.
- Click the “+” button below the list.
- Select the Radio-Startup application in your iTunes folder.
- Click Add.
- Check the box next to Radio-Startup to hide the application when it starts.
4) Enjoy.
If you like Radio Startup please tell a friend, then check out Good Morning Music!. Good Morning Music! is similar to Radio Startup, but is geared toward music.
Version Changes
1.1.0 – (10/15/2009) Intel Mac Version
1.0.3 – (11/5/2008) First version of Radio Startup (Forked from “Good Morning Music! 1.0.2″)
Fixed “Shuffle” bug
1.0.2 – Corrected name of playlist, from “Strartup” to “Startup”
1.0.1 – Bug Fixes to “Good Morning Music!”
1.0.0 – (2006) Original Release of Good Morning Music!”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
Important Note!
This version of “Radio Startup” has been successfully tested on a PowerPC Mac running OS 10.4.11. I have included the Automator Workflow in case there are compatibility issues with Intel Macs. If you have problems with this program not running on later versions of OS 10, or on Intel Macs, please open the Automator Workflow, then re-save as an application. This should solve any compatibility issues. Also, the “Single Station” version of this program will only work with one station in the playlist, and the “Multiple Stations” version will only work with 2 or more stations in the playlist.
Update
Intel Mac version released!!!
Old News
I have had a couple of comments and emails saying that this program doesn’t work on Intel Macs. At this time, I don’t have an Intel Mac, so I am unable to update Radio Startup to be compatible with Intel Macs. This is where you come in! If you have an Intel Mac, and can get the program to work, and save the application as Universal Binary, I would LOVE to post it here. In return, You would get credit on this page, and on the Apple.com downloads page, and I would post a link to your site, on this page. Thanks in advance!