The Actual Proper Grown-Up useful Apps Thread

mothermachine

mothermachine

mothermachine

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Hi folks,

I've struggled (and failed) to find a list anywhere online that lists "essential" iphone/ipad apps but that *doesn't* include any games and silly gimmicky apps. The sort of thing I'm after here is not just business-oriented apps but just nothing naff, basically. Seriously properly useful apps that you use regularly, essentially!

This will be a mix of iPad and iPhone/iTouch apps.

I'll start it off with my list:

Twitter (very useful for work, believe it or not)
Logitech Touchmouse - control your HTPC from your sofa - no VLC required!
Pulse News - my fav news reader
Flipbook - Awesome aggregated personalised "newspaper"
Tube Status - get to that meeting on time
London Tube - Great tube map
Google Earth/Maps - find that meeting
Light - useful for many reasons - use as a fill flash for photography!
iTeleport - the BEST (by far) VLC app - super smooth at high res
Dropbox - essential
Things - useful to-do and project manager
BBCNews - keep up to date
Skobbler Lite - it's free
AroundMe - quite cool if you're looking for something to do
TripAdvisor - hotels to stay in etc.
ZumoCast - the best streaming app i think
VLC - buggy as hell now but should be fine with update
Speed Test - useful every now and again to test your connection is ok
Skype - essential
Gfx Hotkeys - for us graphics/CAD guys - reference app
Movie Size - work out storage requirements for frames
CamScannerFree - useful
USB Disk - it's free and works ok
AutoCAD WS - not tried yet but useful for reading dwg etc on the go
RGB Trainer - great little app to test your colour perception
Wallpaper* - nicely put together app
Buildings - find cool buildings in your area (great for photographers)
FolioBook - make your own personalised image gallery - very cool

STAR APP:

Edition29 - for anyone vaguely interested in architecture, sport or films, these apps are just amazing. Awesome layout, super smooth interaction, embedded videos and interview audio, interactive elements, tonnes of information and images. Well worth the £1.79 asking price.

Over to you! (but please, no games, no fart apps, no gimmicky "tech" apps like Tesla toy etc.).
 
It's my wires iPad (unfortunately :p), but she's got some good apps on there:

Dropbox
Rightmove
Kindle
AirVideo (video streaming)
Flipboard
Skysports
BBC News
TV Guide
 
Great thread, the 'essential iphone apps' thread could really do with being renamed to 'general iphone apps discussion and daily freebies'.

Other than what has already been covered, I use the following reguarly:
Newsrack (RSS reader)
eBuddy Pro (multi-network IM client with push)
TuneIn Radio (Streams radio)
Slingplayer (Stream live TV from your slingbox)
iPicasso (Google picasa client, sync/upload/download photos)
Convertbot (Convert various units/currencies)
Listmaker (Simple list maker with no frills or bloat)
Notifo (Use with 'chrome to notifo' chrome extension to push webpages/maps etc from PC to phone instantly)
 
Logmein :- has to be my most essential app, they have handled the move to Iphone control really well and its works well even over a good 3G connection.
Firefox Home :- sync bookmarks with my home pc and laptop.
TV guide :- Does what it says and its good at it.
 
Reeder - Best RSS client by far
Osfoora - Twitter
aNote - Note taking, syncs with Evernote or Google Docs
1Password - Cant live without this, syncs great from Dropbox
Instapaper - Read later app
Goodreader - Better than iBooks for PDF's
Quickoffice - Probably the best document editor out there
2Do - To Do app that now syncs with MobileMe
Convert - One of the best looking conversion apps
Consume - Keep track of all sorts of usage data
Air Video - Streaming
WunderRadio - Radio app
Billminder - Not found a bill tracking app like it
Deliveries - Track shipments from plenty of online stores and couriers

Most of there are my most used apps on my iPhone.
 
iThoughtsHD - Mind mapper. Taken me a while to like it - but it has very solid export functions.
RadioBox - Music station streaming
IMDB - nice iPad front end to the site
The Times - I pay for the subscription. Get access to site + app £2 per week.
IP Reference - Ping, nslookup from iPad
Guardian eyewitness - News "picture of the day"
 
n-Stream - full remote for my hifi, well worth the 23 squid i paid for it.
Plug Player - not without its flaws but a useful upnp controller for the money
VLC remote, nice app that seems to have stopped working for me recently.
Sony BD player remote - useful when it works
Apple Remote - Self explanatory
Radio Paradise - Very good online radio station
Lotus Racing App - Good app and its free (less useful at the mo as F1 is over for the year)
Met Office Weather - A little slow but a useful app.
BBC news - don't need to explain that one
Tube Map
UK Map - Useful UK map for ipod touch owners as its offline mapping

Dave
 
Nice thread, I'll be checking out some of these apps for sure. I think I'd give it a bit of a bump for those who missed it and I'll also add some more:

Soundhound - like shazam but free and I've found it's able to works well with non-mainstream acts
MiniKeePass - Like 1 password, but I prefer it myself. Free also.
PhotoSynth - Great for making panoramic photos by stitching together many normal sized photo's.
 
Converter - Excellent unit conversion app that included calculator functionality.
Flashlight - What is says on the tin. Uses the IP4 camera flash as a torch.
GeotagPhotos - Creates a gps track log that can be used to geotag photos for any camera. Great for DSLR & Aperture users.
TomTom - Expensive, but the best satnav in my opinion.
Accuweather - Very well made weather app
Sky+ - Sky remote recording/schedule viewing app
F1 2011 - Official F1 app. Give live timing and tracking during F1 races & qualifying.
Natwest banking - Online banking app, with ability to see mini statements and transfer funds between your accounts.
 
picnic said:
Thanks for the heads up on this. I use KeePass on my computer and keep looking out for a iOS version. Shame the support/app website is so non helpful :(
Click to expand...
Do you have a dropbox account? I found it pretty easy to do using the dropbox method. :) I think MiniKeePass only came out last week, so hopefully they'll make it more easy to use in the future...
 
Reeder - RSS
Calcbot - Quick percentages and memory of previous calculations
Tweetbot/Icebird - The better twitter clients
Dropbox
Wolfram Alpha - Amazing search extremely powerful
Toshl - Finances
LocalScope - Whats around you
Wunderlist/Producteev - To do lists that sync with web and desktop versions
Cyclemeter - Cycling GPS
ContactsBckp - Email a backup of your contacts in case iTunes decides to hose your device
Epicurious - Recipes
Nike+ GPS - Running
1Password - Storing passwords and syncs with desktop version
HulloMail - Better voicemail and answerphone
iStudiez Pro - For students
Read It Later/Instapaper - saving articles to read later/offline
eBay
Quidco - Cashback offers
Amazon - Shopping
RedLaser - Scan barcode find cheaper prices
SnapTell - take a photo of a book cover find the best prices
Sizer - Store yours and families measurements handy when buying clothes for the spouse
Delivery Status Pro/Parcel - Tracking parcels
Zoopla - House prices
Guardian/BBC News/Yahoo - News
PayPal/Y! Finance/Bloomberg/Share Prices - Financial apps
woZZon - Find local entertainment
Birthdays! - Integrates with calendar shows your contacts birthdays and age
Movie Finder - Meta Critic for iPhone
 
Last edited:
A list of essentials that I have on my iPad 2

Instapaper - great for reading webpages/articles at times when I'm without a wifi signal
Chapters - good journalling app
Notes plus - excellent handwriting app for quick notes, works great with a wacom bamboo stylus
Wunderlist - great list making app which syncs to desktop and android
Timesheet - keeps a log of working hours, good simple interface
Dropbox - good for saving files that need to be accessed from different machines. Also used to backup my chapters journals.
Discover - by cooliris. A good wikipedia app
Pages - an excellent app for editing word files
Numbers - fantastic app for editing excel files and creating spreadsheets/keeping track of personal finances
 
My favourites:

Reeder - Best RSS reader out there, great to sync your news then get on the tube
Tube Deluxe - Tube map, status and push notifications for delays
Instapaper - Save web articles to read offline / later
VLC / Cinexplayer - DivX Playback
Splashtop - Remote desktop app that can handle video and sound
Air Video - Brilliant video streaming and conversion from your PC
Instagram - Fun picture filters

Games:

Cut The Rope / Cut The Rope Experiments
Feed Me Oil
Peggle
iBlast Moki
Plants vs Zombies
 
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