A Dozen iPhone Apps to Watch

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Of the more than 25,000 developers who applied to Apple's iPhone developers program, 4,000 were admitted, according to a story in Fortune. We bring you now 12 interesting Apps to look for. Descriptions and screenshots after the jump.


Of the more than 25,000 developers  who applied to Apple’s iPhone developers program, 4,000 were admitted, according to a story in Fortune. Apple set a July 7 deadline for those accepted developers to submit their applications for inclusion in the inaugural launch of the iPhone AppStore, expected to coincide with the worldwide debut of the iPhone 3G in two days.

We bring you now 12 interesting Apps to look for. Descriptions and screenshots after the jump.


Apple already gave a sneak peak of 16 apps in a keynote introducing the AppStore, and both Businessweek and New York Times technology writer David Pogue recently posted on the Apps topic. Other sites, such as The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Apple iPhone School have also been posting blurbs on a number of interesting apps expected to be available soon.

With Apple dedicating resources to gaining market share in the enterprise and a host of developers hoping to produce a “killer” business productivity tool, we picked three apps that promise to help you integrate your iPhone with the way you do business.

Briefcase by Hey Mac Software will let you connect to, browse, and securely download files and directories – Mac apps, media files, PDFs and other documents – from any Mac that has “Remote Login” enabled. The app won’t be ready until September, but with it you’ll be able to manage local briefcase files, including viewing/playback support for some file types, and securely upload files stored in Briefcase to another Mac, as well as perform functions specific to the file type: set an image file as a desktop background or copy a file to the documents directory, for example.

Mariner Software makes a number of productivity tools for Mac, though the one many iPhone users are looking forward to is Mariner Calc, spreadsheet software that lets you open and edit Excel files as well as create robust, multilayered spreadsheets and export to Excel-readable files.

iSharephone is a version of Microsoft’s Sharepoint software that provides secure mobile access to corporate intranets, letting you access company files as if you were sitting at your desk in the office instead of chatting with a prospective client at the ballgame.

Location-based functionality promises to be one of the iPhone’s most innovative features and applications leveraging GPS technology among the most anticipated. Indeed, when Apple announced the formation of a $100 Million venture capital fund with Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers at the March keynote, Pelago Software’s Whrrl featured as the first such app to tap the funding pool.

Whrrl uses the iPhone’s built-in mapping functionality with information from your contacts to create a kind of personalized guidebook. Looking for the best sushi in a new neighborhood? Input the address, scroll through the results, and find which spots rank among the best in your social network.

Looking to pick up a few bargains in the tanking real estate market? HomeFindr from CodeMorphic uses the iPhone’s true GPS capabilities to locate homes for sale in the neighborhood where you are and shows all the listing details with pictures and Realtor contact information. Tap to call and start negotiating.

Buzzd is another GPS-enabled app that gives you real-time information on entertainment and events happening at any venue right now, and lets you rate events, and connect with friends and people in the area.

With social networking and location-based functionality driving a lot of the development leveraging the mobility of the iPhone, Loopt is another app to look for. Loopt uses interactive mapping and user-generated location updates to help you stay in touch with the people in your contact list and with friends in your online social networks.

The folks at Urbanspoon are dedicated to eating their way through the web and providing time-critical information on the restaurants and dining halls in your area. Their iPhone application leverages GPS to determine your location and give you recommendations on the best places to eat nearby.

Connected Flow makes a popular plug-in for iPhoto called FlickrExport. They have developed an iPhone app called Exposure that makes browsing your own photos, your contacts, or anyone’s photos easy, and lets you comment, favorite and share photos via email. The “near me” functionality of Exposure uses the iPhone’s GPS capabilities to show you pictures on Flickr that were taken near your current location. Exposure will be free if you don’t mind looking at ads and cost $9.99 for the ad-free version.

Finally, because everyone loves games and the iPhone’s accelerometer has given game designers a whole new paradigm to incorporate into game design, here are three iPhone games to loook for in the AppStore.

Morocco from Bayou Games developer Thomas Aylesworth lets you play the classic strategy board game Othello against the iPhone or against another person on the same iPhone. Three difficulty levels allow for casual play while still providing a challenge to experienced players.

Tap Tap Revolution was a popular game for jailbroken first gen iPhones and its developer Nate True sold the game to a company called Tapulous, which is bringing it out under the name Tap Tap Revenge on the AppStore. Should be sweet.

Last but not least is another game using the iPhone’s accelerometer to giddy effect, available via Installer.app to jailbroken iPhones and, we hope, coming to the AppStore: Raging Thunder, a racing game based on tried and true arcade values, from the developers at Polarbit.

So that’s our “dirty dozen,” as it were. With 4000 developers accepted into the Apple developers program, we’re sure to have missed a few, so let us know about your favorites in comments. See the gallery of screenshots below, and we’ll see you at the AppStore.

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8 responses to “A Dozen iPhone Apps to Watch”

  1. Vivek Prabhakar says:

    Hey its 100 Million.. Not 150 billion :)
    Still .. its HUGE !!

  2. lonbud says:

    Vivek – thanks for the catch. What’s several hundred million between friends, eh? :-)

  3. thatguy says:

    I can assure you that Evernote will be releasing an iPhone App Store app tomorrow.

  4. eldeejay says:

    So effectively I can take the iPhone to work instead of the Mac Book Pro and connect it to the projector and show Keynotes presentations on the big screen? What cable may I ask?