Tons of sites out there have their own top tens and twenty apps that you could use on your iOS device. The sad thing is that most of them are either outdated, or simply won’t work because of the transitions from iOS 1-4 or the fact that Apple keeps churning out new devices like the iPhone 4 and the iPad…
So, I thought that it might be helpful to contribute my own, while mentioning the useful stuff that you can actually use.
Status
This post is intended for iOS devices with firmware 4.2.
For maximum usefulness, jailbreak!
- For older devices (before iPod touch 2G MB model), use redsn0w to jailbreak your device.
- For newer devices (iPod touch 3G and 4G, iPhone 3GS and 4, iPad), use greenp0ison RC6 and above.
Oh and I’ll try to add screenshots later.
Suggested Apps
Flipboard – If you spend most of your time reading off articles, blogs and news on the internet, or you’d just want to see news in an entirely different and pleasing way then you’ll like this. It aggregates the content from the popular places and feeds that you want, then presents it in a newspaper/magazine style.
(iPad, Free)
Stanza – Probably one of the best reader apps, and it even predates the iBookstore. You can read the usual reader formats with it (epub, pdf, etc) and it has plenty of options to suit your reading experience, compared to the Kindle app and the iBooks app.
Even better is that Stanza has built-in support for some free bookstores and even the famous Project Gutenberg.
(Universal, Free)
Mover Lite / Mover+ – Mover allows you to transfer content between devices. What makes it different though is that you get to have fun with it as you literally flick items from phone to phone. It’s good for showing off, really.
The additional, rarely mentioned part about Mover is that it can actually recognize most formats for storage purposes. It certainly cannot run them, but it’s go od if you want to download a file beforehand with it. (Large files not recommended)
(Universal, Free with paid version)
Dropbox – Many have heard of Dropbox, so this one is fairly common. Dropbox allows you to have that one special folder in the cloud where you can store anything you like. With Dropbox, you’ll never have to worry about misplacing your files, forgetting to bring them along with you or grab the stuff you need when you least expect it.
(Universal, Free, optional paid subscriptions for more capacity)
Adobe Ideas – Perhaps one of the best drawing applications in the App Store. Adobe Ideas lets you draw with your finger as if it were a marker so you can spend your time fingerpainting on your device, or perhaps use it to elaborate your point towards a group as if it were a whiteboard. Additionally, the application supports VGA output so you can literally use it as a whiteboard if you have the connector and a projector.
(Universal, Free)
AirView – As Apple debuted the AirPlay functionality on its newest firmware, the AirView app lets you use your iOS device as AirPlay output (particularly, video). This means that you can stream your videos from iTunes, or a different iOS device to your current iOS device.
(Universal, Free)
TuneIn Radio – It’s Internet radio, but it doesn’t end there. TuneIn Radio breaks the bounds of distances as it lets you stream actual radio from other places in the world, while working from wherever you are. TuneIn is highly flexible as it lets you choose streams for slower connections, and even lets you record the streams right away, or on a time that you specify. Best of all, it’s cheap.
(Universal, Paid)
The iWork Suite (Keynote, Pages, Numbers) – For iPad users, this is a must have. It’s a full productivity suite for your word processing, spreadsheet and presentation needs.
(iPad, Paid)
AirVideo – AirVideo lets you stream videos from your PC. The notable part about AirVideo is that it can convert your movies live as you watch the stream, without the hassle of waiting for it to convert first before watching. The built-in converter does a good job as well if you want to watch movies normally.
AirVideo excels even further if you have a really good ISP and upload rates. With it, you could actually host the videos and let it stream for other people.
(Universal, Paid)
Comic Zeal – Enjoy reading graphic novels, comic books and manga? Comic Zeal works as a comic book reader that does its job well. It can manage your collection well enough, and supports the popular CBR and CBZ archive formats and can transfer content through iTunes. Looks and works great on an iPad as well.
(Universal, Paid)
OffMaps 2 – One of the annoying things in the Maps.app is that you are highly limited in what parts of a map that it can cache/save for you. Offmaps fills in this problem as it lets you save entire continents, with as few or much detail as you want it. It also features guides per country which you can purchase, complete with details and directions. It’s the perfect app for the traveler, without having to worry for an internet source.
(Universal, Paid, Paid DLC)
Splashtop Remote – If you want to remotely access your PC from your iOS device, and ever find it frustrating that the other apps out there are too slow, then this is for you. Splashtop Remote does its job as a remote client like the others, but it does its job well compared to the others. Everything is only slightly slower when using it, and you can even watch videos or even play a couple of games through it while keeping a considerable framerate. It also keeps the Aero style as well on Windows.
(Universal, Paid)
iDisplay – Ever thought of what would happen if your iOS display felt like it was an extended monitor of your PC? You can find that out through iDisplay as it does that. With this, you can drag off windows towards your iOS device so you could use touch with it, or if you want to free up screen estate. Perfect for use on IM applications.
(Universal, Paid)
Not Recommended: (a special mention!)
Wordpress – Funny, isn’t it? This is a WordPress blog and yet I’m dissing their app. The WordPress app has numerous features, but it lacks on two big essential things: Proper blog writing (enjoy writing your blog in plaintext with HTML tags put up manually) and a retarded save feature: Ensuring that your entries don’t get saved when you want it to, while crashing when you least want it. It’s the perfect app for making people not want to cite app recommendations because you’ve lost the hard-earned typing effort as it crashes to a grinding halt.
And no, saving just doesn’t work. When I did, it loaded the save before it the next time I relaunched the app. What a bummer. It’s so horrible to a point at I had to retype Stanza, Comic Zeal, the iWork Suite (notice how short it is? it’s because I already forgot what I typed in there.) and hadn’t had the effort to retype in TeamViewer, iTap RDP, and a couple of Cydia hacks.
