Ten Favorite iPhone Apps

I've installed over 200 Apps since I bought my first iPhone on Day 1 - June 29th, 2007. I gave a presentation at the Stanford-Palo Alto Users Group for PC on May 11th 2011 and was asked for my ten favorite Apps. I chose them because they are useful, fun or innovative.

	App	Vendor	Rev	US Cost	Usable in Airplane Mode	Location Aware
1.	Flashlight	John Haney Software	4.2.2	Free	Yes	No
2.	Cyclemeter	Abvio	5.0.8	$4.99	Some features	Yes
3.	DocsToGo Premium	DataViz	4.0.3	$16.99 ($9.99 basic)	Some features	No
4.	Evernote	Evernote	4.0.3	Free ($45/yr premium)	Some features	Yes
5.	Meetup	Meetup	2.0.1	Free	No	Yes
6.	Facebook	Facebook	3420	Free	No	Yes
7.	Shralp Tide	ShralpSoftware	1.2.3	Free	Yes	Yes
8.	iBird Pro	Mitch Waite Group	3.1	$14.99 ($29.99 list) Free and low cost versions	Most features
9.	Foodspotting	Foodspotting	2.3	Free	No	Yes
10.	CheckWord	Mick West	1.4	$0.99 (Free lite version)	Yes	No

The table below shows the App name, vendor, release number and US cost. The column "Usable in Airplane Mode" describes whether the App is usable in the absence of WiFi or phone network communications. Some Apps store data on the phone, but you can't access it if there is no network connection, which is very annoying. Location Aware Apps are those that rely on GPS (Global Positioning System) features.

1. Flashlight  This simple little App uses the iPhone 4 flashlight. The light can flash at intervals or be steady.
2. Cyclemeter  I've tried a few cycle tracking Apps and find Cyclemeter meets my needs most reliably. It tracks a route on Google Maps, shows height climbed with graphs and indicates average speed for each mile. It ranks regular routes by time taken and records them on a calendar. Highly customizable, it talks to you and sends email updates - giving you stats on your journey.  It also tracks other activities - skiing, hiking, running, skating, swimming and walking, as well as riding a bus.
3. DocsToGo  Read email attachments like MS PowerPoint slideshows and MS Office files. Computer software lets you transfer documents from an Apple Mac or MS Windows PC to your iPhone.
4. Evernote  When you find info for a trip, like travel itineraries and interview notes, put it on Evernote then sync it to the iPhone. If you print info as PDF files the service is free for a few documents.  The Premium Service supports more storage, more file formats and more documents. I haven't found it necessary to use the Premium Service, after all I can sync MS Office documents between my computer and my iPhone with DocsToGo.
5. Meetup  The iPhone App displays upcoming events in a list by date - much more effective than the web version.
6. Facebook  The social network makes it easy to keep up with folks, read personal news and share pictures.
7. Shralp Tide  I've used this on the edge of the San Francisco Bay and at the ocean side. When white pelicans flew into the Palo Alto Baylands to feed, a friend wondered whether they were following an incoming tide.  Sure enough, on whipping out my iPhone, they were. On a long beach walk, the App can tell you if there's going to be a high tide that could cut you off.
8. iBird Explorer Pro  This App helps you identify birds. It's superior to a bird book as it makes bird sounds and comes with a warning not to harrass the birds. The free version, iBird Lite, only lists 30 US birds. Regional versions are available for $4.99 and there's a backyard version for $1.99. There are multiple pictures of some birds, and I worry about the accuracy of a few.
9. Foodspotting  When you are at a restaurant, take pictures of your food and send it to the Foodspotting cloud. It shows pictures of food in nearby restaurants. 
10. CheckWord  This simple App helps you find answers to word puzzles, including crosswords. So if you have a word that has 4 letters and starts with "T" and ends with "R", it finds 9 possible words, such as "TAHR", "TOUR" and "TZAR".