If you’re anything like me then you prance around with your iPhone glued to your hand 24 hours a day, but rarely attempt to make full use of it as a device for running such things as fun/informative/handy apps.
I’m impressed with the number of apps out there, but unlike some, I just can’t muster the enthusiasm to trawl through the lists until I find something that I like the look of, want to download and then actually play with for more than five minutes. I am somewhat app-athetic <boom boom> when it comes to apps.
Instead I prefer to swan around the studio pestering everyone to tell me what apps I should/shouldn’t have on my iPhone. Having done this fairly recently I thought I would quickly post a list of the top recommendations – from the folk at TP – so that you can also benefit from my app-athy.
So, in no particular order (although No.1 did actually obtain the most recommendations from the fattie food-junkies housed here)…
1. Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals – does what it says on the tin. Quick recipes with accompanying shopping lists so you know what to buy.
Our wee Jack, who’s renowned for her intolerance of swear words in blogs, made her own personal recommendation for this “My fav was called Tuna and Tomato Rigatoni, it was f*cking amazing! Also good that I’ve tried so far was Veg Jalfrezi, magic! Prawn and Pea Risotto, brilliant! Tonight I’m having the Cauliflower and Cheese Risotto… I’ll let you know how I get on.”
I think it’s fair to say she’s a fan.
2. My Fitness Pal - OK, so we’re all food-junkies but some of us like to think our bodies are temples too. <Warning – can potentially make you calorie-counting stinking bore – like me now. sob>
Our Miranda, the half-marathon running whizz-kid made this recommendation “You plug in your age, height, weight, how much you exercise, how much weight you want to lose etc. It then tells you your calorie limit per day. All you have to do then is keep a diary of what you eat (it does all the boring calorie calculations for you) and this wonderful app then tells you to stop eating like a glutton and get off your arse. It even provides little charts to tell you this. For free!”
3. Moodagent – I’ve yet to download this but I’m actually quite excited to.
Our gadget-daddy and all over tech-pimp Kev recommended this one “Neat little app that makes playlists for you based on your iPhone/iPod touch library. The app presents you with 5 sliders: sensual, tender, joy, aggressive, tempo, which you can pull and push, depending on your mood – and some how, as if by magic, it makes new playlists. Crikey knows how it works it out but the mixes are pretty good and you can save them to use when you aren’t using the app.”
4. My Pantone - yeah, yeah, yeah, what’d you expect? There ARE a lot of designers here after all…
Our guru and design-deity Greg Q made this (gushing) recommendation “Pantone - £5 and never used… But I know I will one day!!!”
Thanks Greg. Errrr…
5. Eliss – A ‘classic’ game on the iPhone apparently. Looks very unsophisticated in its design however I’m lead to believe it’s ROCK hard.
Once again, daddy of tech-cool Kev made this recommendation “This was one of the first apps when the app store launched, yet it still feels fresh and it’s still blooming hard. The principle of eliss is simple. Resize the coloured dots, either by merging them or by dividing them, whilst avoiding different colour dots. What at first seems like a two fingered treat (steady…), soon turns into a 6 fingered freak out, holding and moving dots together at a frantic speed. Don’t let its cute retro graphics and ‘plinky-plonky’ music lead you into a false sense of security – this game is very, very, hard but very addictive.”
6. TuneIn Radio – enables you to listen to (and record!) over 30,000 radio stations – As long as it’s got Radio 4 this blogger will be a happy lass. (plus it’s got a very sweet icon)
Another verbose and lengthy recommendation. This time from our Nick E “Internet radio – simple, looks good”
Nice one Nick. Nice one.
7. Dropbox - AT LAST! I finally have an app that allows me to store docs on my iPhone. Didn’t realise quite what I was missing until now.
Our lovely Tim brought this wonder to my attention with his recommendation “Saving files to and from iPhone is something they should have implemented in the first place. So this is nice and handy. Saving PDFs, movies, music etc, to your phone without having to go thru’ the painful mediocrity of iTunes.”
That’s it for now I’m afraid. There are more, but quite frankly the ol’ app-athy (ok, ok, I’ll stop) is starting to set in and I need to get back to staring out of the window. Do leave your comments and recommendations for any of your favourite apps and save me making the effort to find more myself. Thanks.
I probably should also note that all of these apps are available from the iTunes app store through your iPhone/iTouch or computer. Or click here to go to Apple’s website store.
Helen.
