Breaking news: it looks like the iPhone is here to stay. Sure its hardware is sleek and the one-button approach makes it intuitive to even the most technologically-challenged users in the world. But what really set the iPhone apart from the competition is its app store, which served as the precursor for most every smartphone and operating system on the market today.
Remarkably, many of the best and most accessible apps for the iPhone are still free, so if you haven’t scooped up these 9 apps, why wait? It don’t cost nothin’.
9. Skype
The Skype app debuted in 2009. It was the most popular app download the day it came out, and it has only gotten more popular since then. Skype allows users to communicate via voice or video through the internet rather than phone lines, allowing international callers to get in touch without paying exorbitant carrier fees. One of the most practical apps on this list, Skype shows no signs of letting up as carriers continue to plug away on fees, allowing Skype to swoop in and save the day for millions of users.
8. Bump
The first of only a couple apps on this list that aren’t mobile versions of existing apps, but rather apps that were designed with the mobility of the iPhone in mind. Users can, quite literally, “bump†their phone into another one, sharing through the air their contact info, photos and music just by bumping, rather than through all that pesky emailing and whatnot.
It’s also been developed so that users can share money with other Bump users, but it doesn’t seem to be included on recent versions. Perhaps because someone with a nervous tic could go bankrupt.
7. Google Earth
Google Earth is a handy app from Google that allows users to know where they are and what’s around them. Gas stations, tourist attractions, restaurants, and hotels are all just a quick search away, which means that you’ll never be too out-of-sorts in a new town. Also, it means if you’re like me and wait WAY too long to fill up on gas, you can find a nearby gas station before you run out of gas on a busy street.
Also, you can show potential love interests what the outside of your studio apartment looks like. SCORE!
6. The Weather Channel
Because looking out your window is overrated (and ineffective), our friends at The Weather Channel created this free app that allows you to check the weather in your area with just the touch of one button. No more entering www.weather.com, then entering your zip code. Who has time for zip codes any more? Now it’s all about your iPhone knowing where you are at all times.
Further, this phone can actually send you alerts that let you know when the weather is going to take a nasty, nasty turn.
5. Movies by Flixster
Sorry, Moviefone. There’s a new king in the town of iPhoneville. Movies by Flixster gets users not only showtime and movie info for all current releases, but also aggregates links and data from critical sites such as Rotten Tomatoes so the user can find out if they’re getting tricked into seeing a horrible Justin Timberlake comedy. You can also watch trailers for most films, so, essentially, it’s all you need to figure out what’s worth watching.
4. Shazam
This is one of the few apps on this list that is geared towards a mobile device, rather than just an adaptation of a desktop app. Shazam is software that uses the microphone on your phone to “listen†to any ambient song in order to let you know what’s playing. Even in somewhat noisy surroundings, even if the song is remixed, Shazam will often cut through the noise and let you know what song you’re digging at Cheesecake Factory. And it doesn’t even judge you when it finds out that it’s Rebecca Black.
3. Google Mobile
Since Google pretty much owns the internet these days, it would make sense that their mobile app, which streamlines the whole search process, would be at least the third most-popular app. The mobile app takes advantage of voice recognition so that you can just speak your search term into your phone, or even take a picture of the thing you want to look up.
I’m guessing that 90% of the photos submitted are rashes that people would like identified.
2. Pandora
This streaming radio site offers stations customized to your tastes using something called the music genome project. The music genome project posits that all music has a DNA based on many different criteria, none of which I understand. So if you like a song by Gin Blossoms, you’ll probably love this song by Tool. Or something like that. It’s a free app that does a pretty good job of playing music to your tastes, so as long as Pandora is around, you will have a party soundtrack on you. Just hope that it doesn’t wind up with a bunch of people sitting around a table while your iPhone plays on speaker. That’s lame.
1. Facebook
Surprise, surprise, surprise! The most popular website in the world has the most popular free app for the iPhone. Facebook has about 700 million users, so it’s no wonder that many millions will want a tailor-made app that allows them to navigate the site with out all those pesky “forward†and “reload†buttons. Load camera phone pics straight to Facebook from your iPhone, so now everyone will know exactly how crazy that line at the DMV is!
