What’s Jim running…

No not that Jim… this Jim.  This is not the esteemed and eloquent Dr. Jim.  This Jim is just a soccer playing Software Engineer with too much time on his hands and has an almost obsessive compulsion with technology.  We are bringing you another installment of “What Mobility Digest is running” on their devices. 

A little background about me first.  As I have already stated I’m a .NET Software Engineer and former Chicagoan living and working in Salt Lake City.  My first smart phone was the first iteration of the Samsung BlackJack.  I did not do much toying with my BlackJack other than helping test getting Windows Mobile 6 up and working on it.  My second device was the first iteration of the Tilt.  With the Tilt this is where I dove more into the inner workings of the device and found the site that helped me do it, XDA.  It was through XDA that I met Doug Smith and started, albeit in a miniscule way, writing for one of our O.G. sites that was devoted to the Tilt.  After helping test many many cooked ROMs, to working on my own private ROMs I finally got burned out with constantly flashing my phone to get the most out of it.  In comes the iPhone 3GS and my first foray into the Apple world.  I was also the first of us here at Mobility Digest to own an iPhone.  I was also the first one who got all the ridicule that came along with owning an Apple product while being surrounded by these WinMoFans.  Now I find my self on my first full day with my brand spanking new iPhone 4.  So enough background now onto all the tools/apps that I love to use.

iTunes Store Apps

The defacto standard that all iPhone users have in common, the iTunes App Store.  Now I have nearly 200 apps in my iTunes and I’m only going to list the ones that I use on a weekly basis and give a brief synopsis of why I love them.

Last.fm I know a lot of people use Pandora and I did in the beginning also but I’ve completely switched over to Last.fm.  It has a lot of the same functionality that Pandora has but the big feature for me is that it works on my Xbox 360.

ToDo I really like the robust functionality that ToDo has.  I have it sync with my Toodledo.com account to sync my tasks with my Outlook on my laptop.  I need to be reminded of tasks many ways sometimes just ask my wife.

QuickCal This is an addition to the built-in Calendar app.  You can use natural language to create calendar events.  I.E. “Take the trash out tomorrow at 7 am”  And it creates that calendar event at the proper time for you.

DIRECTV As a Directv subscriber this is a must for me.  Just in-case I forget to set my Bears game to record while I’m away from my tv; like I’d be away from my tv on Sunday’s during football season.

iRentMovie Now until the official Netflix app comes out I’ve been using this app to easily manage my DVD and instant queue’s.

Instapaper If your a massive information consumer like most of us here at MobilityDigest.com then you need an app to save web pages that you don’t have time to read this second. 

Flashlight. Don’t forget the period in the name of this app.  It’s a free flashlight app and it works well.

Facebook Need I say more.

Twittelator A really awesome Twitter app.  Lots and lots of features in this app.  And the developer gives some of the best support that I have seen in the app store.

WhatsApp This is an SMS replacement app.  A great reliable data based SMS app.  It is unfortunately only available for the iPhone.  Think Blackberry Messenger.

Navigon What I feel to be the best navagation app out there.  It has all that you need Traffic, 3d Panorama maps, Google P.O.I’S and more.

WeatherBug Elite Excellent weather app for the price.  7day forcasts, radar, NWS alerts and more.

Archetype Awesome first person shooter action on the iPhone without the freemium model of Eliminate.

StarDunk Really fun cosmic basketball shooting game with amazing graphics.

Bejeweled2 My wife got me hooked on this and I can never beat her she is the Queen.

Angry Birds If you have an iPhone and haven’t heard of this game I’d be surprised.  Probably my most played game.  The audio alone while your playing will have you laughing.

Homerun Battle If you like Homerun Derby contests you’ll love this one.

LastPass This is how I keep all of my passwords secure.  This app syncs with your online LastPass profile.  I can’t live without it.

WolframAlpha If you work at all in a scientific field or you are just a geek like me this is a must for scientific reference.

BeejiveIm I wish I had this on my desktop.  A great multi platform IM client.  If it sends IM’s chances are Beejive supports it.

Pocket Universe This one is for star gazers.  Tons of features and top notch support.

HoursTracker A great time keeping tool for you contractors out there.

QuickOffice Connect Mobile Suite If you need to do anything MS Office on the go then this is your tool.

Scany Once again my engineering background shows with this one.  This is a great all around network diagnostic tool.

OffenderLocator I have kids that I care about need I say more.

Kindle A great alternative from iBooks.  It also syncs by Whispersync.

RedLaser Great for shopping and comparing prices.

Craigsphone Very nice app for everything CraigsList.

 

Jailbreak Community

Now there is another app market out there.  This is of course the Jailbreak scene.  Now we here at MobilityDigest do not condone jailbreaking any device.  However we will cover the community in order to better serve our readers and give you the most information possible.

Cydia This is by far the most widely used JB app store out there.  If you haven’t heard of it please check it out.

Rock Another very good JB app store with some built in functionality.

AptBackup This app will backup your Cydia installed app list.

qTweeter If you swipe in a downward motion on the home screen where all of your apps are this app will pop up and allow you to post quickly to your Twitter and Facebook accounts with text, videos and etc.

My3G This app allows you to use FaceTime and other apps over a 3G connection while making the apps think it’s over WiFi.

Reminder A great app that puts a visual reminder on the bar at the top of your homescreen for im’s, email’s, voicemail and any other’s that you want to set up.

Winterboard Before IOS4 came along this was the way that people changed their homescreen and lockscreen images.  It is still a great app because it allows you to change your icons and sounds.

ToneFXs This app allows you to set any notifications on your iPhone to anytone that you have installed for Winterboard.

vWallpaper Now this is one that I just came across today.  Visual backgrounds for our iPhones.  Need I say more?  All you need to do is add the source http://i.danstaface.net/deb/ to your Sources in Cydia and install the vWallpaper app and launch it to set up.  I did find a little bug where after setting your video wallpaper that you may need to respring.

 

Well I hope that wets your appetites for now.  Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the apps that I presented here or if you have any suggestions of your own.