I rely on my iPhone for every day from setting up reminders, writing notes, sending & reading email to listening to and finding music and taking & sending photographs.
Here are my top 10 favorite iPhone applications that I (or my kids) use almost every day. The prices and features of these Apps may change.
- Jott – Free. A really easy to use notepad that turns your voice recordings into notes and sends them to your email if you want. Website, desktop, and iPhone sync available, free!
- Grocery Gadget Shopping List – $2.99. Keep track of what you need, edit & delete items, and keep a running track of your total while shopping! Popular grocery items are included but you can manually add and delete items as needed. I love this app.
- FLEX Photo Lab – Free. A must have for parents. If you take photographs with your iPhone, you have to download this app. You can adjust the brightness, contrast, and saturation of your photographs and apply cool effects.
- Say Who Dialer – Free. Don't dial and drive! Just say a name in your contact book or a telephone number to connect your call. You can create an auto-dial list and even nickname favorite numbers like 'pizza' or 'babysitter'.
- Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab – This is a really fun collection of 5 puzzle games.
- reMovem – Free and paid version available. This is an addictive iPhone game. All you do is remove blocks of colors to get points. The bigger the block of the same color, the more points you get. When you clear the screen you get 200 bonus points.
- Preschool Adventure – .99. Madelyn loves this game. Toddlers will learn shapes, color, sounds, and matching with bright colors, and fun sounds.
- Shazam – Free. This is a great app that will recognize any song and tell you what it is so you can buy it via iTunes. Just hold your iPhone up to your radio speaker and it will tell you what the name of the song is in about 10-12 seconds.
- Easy Relax – Free and paid version available. High quality ambient and background noises to help you relax. Easy Relax is great for using for yourself or your kids at bedtime. The sounds are real and so relaxing! There are 7 preset relaxing sounds.
- Pandora – Free. Pandora streams music right to your iPhone. Create your own personalized music station that plays your favorite songs and artists.
I have to disagree with this list on several points. Don’t get me wrong, I love Shazaam, but Why for parents? My wife never pines at night over her inability to name that tune.
One app that I think every parent should have, however, is the Yellow Pages app. Parents have been using it for years and now there is a free version that works on the iPhone. It even sorts search results with contact info based on how far they are from you (really neat) and gives you directions on how to get there (super neat). It’s a lifesaver for when you are out and about and need to find food, a bank, a pharmacy or a toilet! My family and I just got back from Hawaii and it saved our bacon several times.
Here’s the (free) link to download, hope you like it as much as I have!
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284809790&mt=8
Cheers!
I saw your article and thought you might be interested in a new app that is coming to the App Store that is just for Parents. The app is called “My Kids Info” and is an Information Manager for all of your Kids stuff. With this app you can keep track of important information for each child like: Current Medications, Allergies, Clothing Sizes, Teacher contact info, Important Upcoming Dates, etc. Also you can keep track of the Doctors office and Dentist office contact information as well as keeping track of a complete Weekly Schedule for all of your Kids so that as a Parent you can quickly see where you have to take your kids each day. If you are interested in learning more about this app, please email me at info@mobilesimplified.com