1st Impressions

I have found a new must-have app. If you are a fan of Launchy on the PC or QuickSilver on the Mac, QuickGold on the iPhone will be an iPhone answer to prayer. It indexes your apps (visible or not), your contacts, and your Safari bookmarks. Launch it with a single tap of your home key from your Springboard, and type in a couple of letters of what you are looking for…then pick it from the list. No more trying to remember which screen something was on! It is a free app from Cydia. I counted and I have 250+ contacts, many with multiple numbers & email addresses, 130+ visible icons, and numerous bookmarks. Probably 500+ things total. This app handles them all!

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A very long name for a very cool app. What it does is take a picture or someting from your camera roll, upload it to a free account on their server along with your description and location, and if your selected album is public, forwards it on to your accounts on Picasa, Facebook, TwitPic, and a number of other services. It can optionally store your new photo in your iPhone camera roll. I am heading out on a vacation (4 days on the GA coast) in a few weeks. It has been years since I have had one, and probably several before I have another. This app will be perfect for sharing that with friends and family. And did I mention that it’s free?

iOrganiZ just went on sale for free in the app store. For a free to-do app, I was pleasently surprised at it’s depth of features. The app comes with pre-defined categories that you can enter items into. Items can have titles, descriptions, priorities, and due dates and times. The layout is not really the way I think, so I will probably not keep it. I tend to think more in outlines than categories. But if you think normally, you might want to check this free app out.

Faces Visual Dialer is the dialer app that I have been searching for. It is SuperDial on steroids. It incorporated everything I would expect from a dialer app, and is only $1. When you tap a photo, it automatically performs whatever default communication method you specified for them. A small icon on the top of their image indicates what that preferred method is. Tap and hold and you get a menu of ALL the different ways to communicate with them. It could not be easier. Custom backgrounds and titles for up to 10 pages are an available option as well. And if you rotate your screen, you can see two pages at once. Shake it (the iPhone) and it launches all your contacts. If that were not enough, you can also use it to send contact info to someone. Make my Must-Have list.

AroundMe is one of those location based apps that helps you find close-by banks, restaurants, and so forth. The distances indicated are sometimes off a bit, and I really like the Locations section that tells about nearby cities and geographic landmarks, but the app has a couple of drawbacks as well. I see no way to sort by distance, I would love to hide some categories, and I would love subcategories under Restatants.

AppSniper is another of my must-have apps. For a dollar, it minds the store for you. If something goes on sale, it let’s you know. When something is added, it let’s you know. And when a ‘sniped’ item drops below a set price or a ‘watched’ item gets an update, guess what….it lets you know! I do suffer from the ocassional crash, but the app developer is very responsive and is working to address those. As soon as they are addressed, this app gets five stars from me.

This is the most incredible free clock that you will ever find. The contrast between the tubes and the high-tech iPhone just adds to it’s appeal. Mix in a little nature wallpaper background, like the example below, and you have the perfect bedside alarm clock.  Available in the iTunes store.