Indispensable iPhone Apps

Everyone has a favorite app or two that they can't live without. This is my list of apps that I feel should be installed on "every" iPhone.

1. Cydia - Jailbreak your iPhone to get this homebrew-ish installer. It is the gateway to all the "unapproved" apps and theme goodness. Unapproved does not mean bad or illegal; most of the apps below are totally legit, they just provide functionality that Apple does not make available through their SDK and by extension, the App Store.
2. QuickGold - an iPhone adaptation of QuickSilver for the mac, this app converts your Home button into an all-inclusive search that encompasses apps, contacts, phone numbers and web history. This makes it really easy to launch apps with just 2 touches, even if they are 5 screens away (or buried in Categories, see blow). Available through Cydia.
3. Categories - acts like folders for your iPhone. Instead of staring at 9 screens filled with 16 icons each, you group them behind a single icon labelled "Utilities". This keeps clutter to a minimum. You can still use QuickGold to launch commonly used apps instantly without drilling down through your categories so you get the best bang from your buck when using these to apps together. Also available through Cydia.
4. SBSettings - allows easy access to toggles for Wifi, 3G and other settings to help extend your battery life. It's activated by a simple swipe across the top of your home screen so it's much more convenient (and takes up less real estate) than icon-launched apps with similar features. As a bonus, it also shows your iPhone's memory and disk usage. Get it through... you guessed it... Cydia.
5. Clippy - a relatively new app that adds cut-n-paste buttons to your numerical keyboard. Lack of cut and paste has been an oft-lamented omission by Apple, and while Clippy doesn't allow, cutting from non-input fields (like Safari web pages), its still a huge step in the right direction. By now, you've probably guess where you can get it :).
6. Installo.us - a controversial app that lets you install cracked apps. While I don't condone piracy at all, I've found this very useful for evaluating an app that I'm considering buying to see if it actually works correctly (so many App Store apps are simply crap and App Store reviews are unreliable). Their web site has instruction for adding the repository to Cydia (its http://cydia.hackulo.us). Once installed, this somewhat clunky app can browse or search through available apps and then lets you download and install the app you want (assuming you don't get broken links).
7. Smart Dial (iTunes Link)- a 99 cent App Store application that brings some old-school and more mainstream behavior to the iPhone's dialer. In stead of browsing through Favorites to call your wife, you can assign her to a speed dial number so that holding down the number 2 will call her. I really missed this speed dial functionality when I first got my iPhone. It also lets you start typing a phone number and it will suggest contacts from your Contact List. You can even start typing the name (e.g. 764 for "Smi") and it will suggest contacts names Smith. Pretty cool. One caveat, it is an App Store app so it has to play by Apple's rules. That means it does not have access to Recently Called or Voicemail the way Apple's dialer does. It's still pretty awesome though.
   

Others may have their personal favorites but I tried to be objective here. These apps should be useful to everyone who has an iPhone. Do you have any favorites that make you iPhone even better than it already is?

I Like Technology

I like technology. I do. It has permeated every aspect of my day and life; whether its writing code and playing with servers at work or mucking with VoIP and Windows MCE at home. I'd like to share some of my thoughts and findings and hopefully show you a cool thing or two.

Quick background: I work for Aviary, a small startup that is doing amazing things with Flex and Flash. We also run Worth1000.com, a really cool Photoshop contest site. Check it out if you're bored and have a few hours to spare. I'm a jack-of-all-trades maintaining the internal network, test and staging environments, production environments and writing/managing server-side code. I don't have as much time for "fun" tech like I used to but I still try to keep up to date.