Entertainment For Lively Minds
I-Phone apps
Posted by Steve Hill on 8 December 2009 - 9:45am.
I've just bought an i-phone and am looking for advice for good apps to download. Any suggestions? Doesn't have to be music based. Ta.
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Well...
Spotify, great if you are prepared to shell out £10 a month for the sub.
iCar Radio - all your standard & digital music radio stations - works out of the car too!
Shazam - identify that mystery track instantly.
Scrabble - top quality game - uses touch interface really well.
Stylophone - great fun, but not as playable as a real one (believe it or not!)
Lots of free / lite versions of things in the App Store - all neatly categorised. Just browse & have fun!
I second
Shazam. It sounds like such a powderpuff app at first, but it quickly becomes invaluable.
Every time I load up Shazam during mystery tunes on CSI or Radcliffe & Maconie or what have you I fall in love with the modern world all over again.
Some
Sky Sports News - free & speedy results service
TV Guide - simple & effective
Shazam, as mentioned
Do Not Press the Red Button
Makes me laugh anyway...
No-one with an iphone can really live without Pocket Alan either.
Drop 7
Drop 7 - a handy little game to fill in spare time whilst waiting for trains or whatever. Bejewelled is also good.
The Last.FM app is handy if you use Last.FM, and there are numerous Twitter apps for those who use Twitter (I like TweetDeck personally, but there are many options)
Loads
Wattpad - free book app; I've bagged Let The Right One In and Diary Of Anne Frank for nothing; takes a while to get through, but the interface is not bad at all.
Wikipanion - essential Wikipedia app, excellent
Flixster - brilliant movie app in that it tells you what's showing at the cinemas near you, showtimes, reviews etc; also links to the imdb.
TV Guide - does what it says on the tin
Various musical instruments - mini piano, drumkit and Ocarina, which are a lot of fun (if you have children, they'll go down a storm)
Sudoku and crossword ("2 across")
Dictionary/thesaurus - another really excellent app, based on the full Random House dictionary
Doodlebuddy - basic drawing, again essential for sprogs
Paper toss - reproduces the joy of screwing up a piece of paper in a ball and chucking it at the bin. I only just got it but I can see it could become addictive.
And so on...
I'm new too
I'm a relatively new ipod Touch owner and the free apps that are currently wasting my time are Traffic Rush & Paper Toss. After lots of reading and buying the wrong things I've finally settled on DataViz as my office package that allows me to open and edit Word & Excel files and view (perfectly) pdf files.
If you don't run to spotify then the Daytrotter app is actually an easier way of listening to stuff from the site than the actual site.
Another question for iPhone-ers
I have an iPod Nano as well and I'd like to upload all the songs from it onto my iPhone. My problem:
The iTunes for my Nano is on a broken laptop. iTunes for iPhone is on a different PC. It doesn't seem possible to upload to my iPhone iTunes from my Nano. Is it possible/simple?
You can't transfer stuff
You can't transfer stuff directly from your nano to your phone but there are loads of free PC applications that will allow you to take the stuff from your nano to your PC then you can use iTunes to put them on your phone. Alternatively you can just use your backup!:)
Backup, backup...
Yes backup... that rings a vague bell....
As you can imagine, feeling p-sick that I haven't got an up to date backup... Thanks for advice re:free PC apps, I'll take a look around.
Useful site
www.ilounge.com is a great place for ipod hints / tips / workarounds
Senuti is good for getting music back off an iPod
http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/
(I'm not going to mention the importance of backups...)
If you use iTunes...
... and you have wireless built into your computer, download Remote. It turns your iPhone into a wireless remote control and it's free!
some of my favourites
Virtual Pool - simple, good fun. There is a Lite version that's free.
Bloom - create your own ambient-ish music
iHop2 - Real-time UK travel information, centred on your current location. Includes accident info, what's on the Motorway VMS signs, and has just been updated for Rail info too - arrivals & departures at Railway Stations (Disclosure - I know the guys who wrote this)
Wolfgang's Concert Vault - loads of great free live shows
Uke - a ukulele.
IHOP?
International House Of Pancakes!
http://www.ihop.com/
I'm starving now.
That special kind of starving that can only be remedied by a munro of panckes, slathered in syrup, with crispy bacon, all sprinkled with sugar.
"Slathered"
Word of the Day.
'Slathered'
always sounds like it belongs in a dodgy porn-movie script, in connection with baby oil.
I prefer the concept of "a munro of pancakes" myself.
Similar to Bloom
... and also by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers is Trope - where Bloom has crystalline bell like sounds, Trope is more akin to the music on Eno's 'Ambient 4 - On Land' album
There is also "Air" (app not the French duo)
Which is more like "Ambient 1: Music for Airports."