My first iPhone app recommendations

After a week with the new iPhone 2.0 software and its wonderful third-party apps, I feel I’ve spent some good time getting to know some of the more popular apps. With so many friends with iPhones, I figure it would be good to share my favorite apps to help their search for the perfect iPhone app. The following are listed in no particular order.

eBay: While this is a must for any eBay-er, and it is definitely a snappy and productive app, I do have one complaint. Let me browse my categories. I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but I rarely navigate eBay by search, which is the only way to do so in the iPhone app. But, this app is great for checking your “My eBay,” and being able to see the seller’s custom HTML description is top-selling point for this app.

Remote: This is a must-have app for every iPhone. I’m suprised that Apple just didn’t include this with the iPhone 2.0 software. If you haven’t heard already, this app lets you connect (over wi-fi) to your iTunes library or Apple TV and use your iPhone/iPod Touch as a remote for those devices. I’ve used it many times already, and it’s wonderful. The controls work just like the iPod controls on the iPhone, with album art, cover flow, and more.

Twinkle: If you’re a Twitter maniac, you’ll need Twinkle. It combines Twitter with the location-based systm of your phone, so you can view everyone twittering (at least, on twinkle) within 100, 50, 20, 10 or 5 miles of your current location. The bad thing about Twinkle is that it requires a fast internet connection. The app works well on Wi-Fi, but it freezes when I try to use it on EDGE.

Cube Runner: I know the graphics on this game are lacking, but the ease of use and the accuracy of the gravity-based accelorameter blow Super Monkey Ball out of the water. And while I do recommend Super Monkey Ball, Cube Runner is nice when you want a free, quick-loading diversion.

Tap Tap Revenge: This Guitar Hero-like game is probably the best looking, most fun free game from the App Store. Not only does it use touch to hit each note, it includes actions like leaning your iPhone to the left, right or down to match up with beats. A quick run through the tutorial will provide you with much greater enjoyment of the game. (UPDATE: Evan just sent me an e-mail bragging about his high score.)

Pandora Radio: A great web-app moves to the iPhone. If you’ve never used Pandora before, you need to get this app and use the website, too. Unlike Yahoo Music, where music is recommended by pre-determing genres, Pandora recommends music based on information from the Music Genome Project – which covers everything from type of intruments used to beats per minute. For example, I have a “Joe Purdy” radio station on Pandora, so the program recommends music based on “folk roots, vocal sonority, major key tonality, a vocal-centric aesthetic and acoutsic rhythm guitars.” While the app isn’t too quick on EDGE, it flies on Wi-Fi (obviously, I can’t speak for 3G).

Evernote: Another Web 2.0service makes it to the iPhone. Evernote lets you upload just about everything you can think of to your account — basically, it serves as a central repository for organizing notes, photos, web site and clips, and more. Jot a note, take a photo or record a reminder and they’re uploaded to Evernote, where you can organize and tag to your hear’s content. I use Evernote to catalog inspiration for graphic design projects – if I see a cool poster, I snap a photo, send it to Evernote, and tag it accordingly. Evernote’s text-recognition feature for photos works well, especially with hand-written notes.

Shazam: Ever hear a song in a store or on the radio that you know you’ve heard before, but you don’t know who sings it? Open Shazam, let it listen for a few seconds, and… shazam, there’s the title, artist, album and album art for the song playing. After 30+ tries, Shazam has yet to be incorrect in its song-recognition.