iPhone Springboard

Below, you’ll find my list of apps I like and at the bottom are the also-rans.

All are free except Things and 1Password (which is dually noted below). I jailbroke the phone, so the hierarchy below are the categories (i.e. folders) I set up using the Categories app.

I jailbroke the phone. In addition to Categories, jailbreaking the phone let me change the way Springboard looks. I’ve also added an extra icon to my Dock. All handy. I used QuickPwn and had to give it three tries before I had the right firmware and finger timing to reset the iPhone. Third time was the charm.

dock - with 5 icons because I’ve jailbroken the phone

• Phone (default)
• Text (default)
• Things ($10 iPhone app that works with the $30 alpha-quality desktop app) – GTD todo list. Omnifocus is probably more mature. It’s more complicated. The Things folks plan to release a new mature version for MacWorld this winter. We’ll see how it compares at that point.
• Google – voice-powered search rules. Also: access to the whole Google suite.
• vlingo – voice-powered dialer.

frontpage – frequent use or best-of-breed apps. I only categorize them below (using the Jailbreak Categorize app) if I can stand the wait time while Categories loads a folder.

• 1Password (free with payware desktop app) – keep track of your passwords and account numbers. Much better than the freeware KeepassX.
• Calendar (default) – loses the date on the icon if you Categorize it.
• Earthcomber – location-aware everything searcher (bars, events, routing, restaurants; everything)
• Maps (default)
• SteadyCam – takes clearer pictures than the default Camera app
• Yelp – my preference of the location-aware restaurant apps

apps

• Facebook – solid frontend to the website
• Flashlight – though I hear the jailbroken one is better.
• Google Earth – I never use it, but it’s pretty slick.
• GPS – lists current GPS info
• GPS Tracker – tracks and displays travel route
• Perpetuum – slickly displays moon and sun phase (for equinoxes and solstices)
• ProgCalc – best free RPN calc I’ve found so far.
• TWC (The Weather Channel) – better than the default Weather app

consume – eating, drinking, driving, buying, and saving

• Amazon.com – buy or identify via Amazon.
• Citysearch – older restaurant reviews
• Drinks Free – extensive drink receipe db
• Drunk Dial – common drink recipe db
• Eventful – location-aware event listings
• Flixter – movie listings
• Mint.com – mint.com website. Mint is a simplified version of Quicken. In a few minutes, you can set all of your checking, savings, credit cards, loans, and investments. It’ll display graphs of your investments compared to baseline indexes. It’ll display your overall worth. It downloads your expenditures and automatically categories them. Very slick website. The only thing it can’t do it anything that requires moving money, like Bill Pay.
• Road Trip – track your cars mileage
• Rocket Taxi – location-aware taxi finder
• SnapTell – take a picture of a book, CD, or DVD, and it’ll automatically identify it. Slicker and faster than the Amazon.com version which uses real people to do the searching.
• Twitterific – Twitter frontend. I’d frontpage it if I posted more than once a week
• Urbanspoon – restaurant reviews

games

• Galcon Lite – real time Risk in outer space.
• Mandala – trip toy
• Romi – Rummikub
• Space Deadbeef – arcade game
• Topple – similar to Jenga

media

• Cycorder (jailbreak) – record live video
• FlyCast – streaming radio
• Media (default)
• Photos (default)
• Pick Quickr – upload pics to Flickr
• Shazam – listens and automatically identifies songs
• Stanza – download and read books
• Voicenotes – memo recorder
• What’s on – TV Guide
• WhiteNoise – plays soothing noise: waves, pink noise, etc.
• Wikipanion – clean Wikipedia frontend
• YouTube (default)
• iPod (default)

net

• Mail (default) – I actually don’t use this app much but it’s in the net folder for when I do.
• PdaNet (jailbreak) – use the iPhone as a wireless access point for your computer when your computer needs to be online but you lack a network.
• Safari (default) – loads automatically. Google’s a better frontend to web stuff and loads Safari on demand.
• Terminal (jailbreak) – another term window
• TouchTerm (jailbreak) – a term window
• VNC – control my computers from afar. I’ve tested it; it works, but I like requiring a username and a password for VNC sessions (OSX-only extension). Traditional VNC requires only a password; no username.
• fring – multi IM client. Doesn’t do facebook IM yet but still quite respectable

phone

• Contacts (default)
• Fake-a-Call – generate fake calls so you can graciously escape social engagements. “What? Oh, it’s my mom. I need to take this”
• flipContact – send contacts to other flipContact users. Cleverly uses the speaker and microphone to zmode-squawk your info to the other iphone.
• Friend import – import contact info from Facebook to Contacts/Address Book
• slyDial – call someone’s voicemail box directly, ignoring possible real communication

tools

• AppStore (default) – Apple’s app installer/updater
• AptBackup (jailbreak) – if you install anything with Cydia or Installer, get and use this. It’ll permit you to easily reinstall jailbreak apps from backup. Run this every time after you use Cydia to install/update anything.
• Backgrounds – download and install new backgrounds
• Categories (jailbreak) – drop app icons into folders. Mandatory.
• Cydia (jailbreak) – app installer for jailbroken apps
• If Found – create wallpaper that says “If found, please return to…”
• Installer (jailbreak) – like Cydia but older. Probably superfluous.
• Poof (jailbreak) – hide apps from Springboard (the default app launcher) that you never use
• Settings (default)
• Status Notifier (jailbreak) – turn reminders and notification alerts on or off
• Winterboard (jailbreak) – change Springboard looks (I like Deep and Deep HUD)

jailbreak – installed apps that don’t have icons

• Backgrounder – runs apps persistently in the background by holding down the Home button for two seconds. I don’t use this due to RAM issues.
• Cylay – track your phone if it gets lost. It can remotely delete stuff via Cylay’s website, if you find that necessary.
• Deep (Winterboard theme)
• Deep HUD (SBSettings theme)
• Five Icon Dock – self-explanatory. Might be superfluous – SBSettings may be able to do this by itself.
• MobileTerminal – I think this is the aforementioned Terminal app in net/.
• OpenSSH – install a ssh server on your iphone so you can ssh or sftp in. Awesome. Requires you to change the default passwords – don’t forget.
• SBSettings – Easily turn sshd, 3G, Bluetooth, and other services on or off by swiping across the menu bar. Can also access BigBoss prefs and Dock icons here.
• top – UNIX command that displays all running processes

Tested and discarded apps. Hello-goodbye.

• AIM – fring is better
• Alcohol Aware – attempts to provide your intoxification index. Fails.
• Alert Meteor 2 – Missile Command clone
• Amazing Maze Free
• Armado Lite
• Astro Pachinko – poor frame rate
• Bix Lite – Qix clone. Played through the demo. Didn’t want to buy the full version
• Bounce Trap Lite
• BubblePop
• CompassApp – the GPS programs handle this
• Darts – boring
• FreeContact
• iBricks Lite (Free)
• iCarousel Lite
• Lie Detector Adv (free)
• Max g force – utility displays the iphone’s gravity sensor status
• MazeFinger – played for a week. Now bored with it.
• MotionX Poker Quest Lite – poker dice. Played for two weeks.
• National Geographic: Herod’s Lost Tomb Lite – find objects game. boring
• Navizon Lite
• Parking Meter – doesn’t work when you turn off the iPhone
• Prison Breaker Lite
• Reign of Swords Free
• Remote – would be useful if I owned an AppleTV.
• SayNDial – vlingo’s better.
• The Snow Report – couldn’t figure out how to add new mountains. The ads were lame anyway.
• Songbird Remote – would be useful if I used Songbird (open source iTunes clone)
• Space Monkey – boring game
• Space Rage 3D – played for aweek
• Tap Tap Revenge – played for a week.
• Tap Defense – played for a week
• Trippin – trip toy. Mandala’s better.
• Turkey Hunt – boring game
• uSnap
• Voice Dialer – vlingo’s better
• 3Towers Lite
• 7Colors Lite – played for a week