The drive to become ever more productive both in work and in life has helped create a wide variety of mobile productivity apps. For the iPhone in particular, there are several useful task management or ‘to-do list’ apps that are doing quite well.
Two productivity iPhone apps that we have taken a look at include the popular Todo application from Appigo (iTunes link for Todo), and the ToDo’s iPhone app from Austin Bull Software (iTunes Link for ToDo’s).
The ToDo’s app is fine for a basic (and free!) list app where you do not care for extra bells and whistles. And while there’s a lot to be said for its simplicity, there sure is a lot to like about the Todo app from Appigo. Simply put, version 2.0 3.0 of Todo has so many more capabilities around managing multiple lists and prioritization. Of course, Todo is $9.99 on the iTunes App Store, so it’s not quite fair to compare the two directly.
As with any new tool, we’d encourage you to try them for yourself and see what works best for you. Below are the demo videos so you can see exactly what they look like without trudging over to iTunes to download them. Once you’ve decided, click the iTunes buttons or download links below to download.
How many times have you had to fumble around trying to dial a number on your mobile phone while driving? I’ve done it more often than I’d like to admit, though I am happy to say that I have completely stopped. If you own the iPhone 3GS, you can kick that habit too, and maybe even save a life in the process.
The new iPhone feature is called Voice Control. You can use Voice Control to dial a contact by name or by phone number, play a song on the built-in iPod, find out the song currently playing, or even create a genius playlist based on the current song playing.
To use Voice Control, simply press and hold the home button. At the tone, speak a command such as “Call Will Ferrell”, or “Call 408.555.1212″. To play a song, simply say, “Play Darius Rucker”. You get the idea.
So stop using your fingers to dial while driving and start using Voice Control on the iPhone 3GS. Who knows — the life you save may be your own.
Fire up the popular Rocket Taxi app on your iPhone, and it uses GPS or WiFi to find your location and list nearby taxi companies. This is handy when you’re in someone else’s house and need a ride (especially if you’ve had a few), or in some other semi-remote area where cabs are not roaming the streets.
Feature Suggestion: Automatically call the nearest cab company. That would be a logical next step.
Download it now and then check it out the next time you need a lift!
Many are singing the praises of Facebook 3.0, the latest iPhone version of the world’s most popular social networking site. Just released on the Apple App Store on Thursday, the application now allows you to view Events, view profile photos, and post video from your iPhone 3GS.
You’ll notice there are still a few bugs to be worked out, as you can see on the Facebook wall. But by all accounts it is still worth downloading.
Have you downloaded it yet? For all you SimCity junkies out there, the iPhone version of this game definitely helps you get your Sim fix. It’s not perfect – we’ve seen multiple reports of crashing and a bit of slowness ourselves, but that should not dissuade you from shelling out the $5 for this one.
SimCity image courtesy of EA Mobile
Take a look the next time you are loading up with games and apps on iTunes.
Anyone else take this game for a spin yet? Let us know your thoughts!
Online real estate resource Zillow now offers an iPhone App that might make realtors either excited or scared, depending on how well they market their properties. The feature we like best in this iPhone App is the ability to pinpoint the users current location via GPS, and automatically display nearby homes for sale. It’s nice when an app takes advantage of the functionality available on the iPhone platform, and does so in such a way that it adds real value to the user.
To see the Zillow iPhone App in action for yourself, check out the video below:
At this week’s Carnival #184 the team at idlemode.com guides us through a breadth of topics from convergence to apps to widgets and webs and the Pre — showcasing ideas from mobile’s top bloggers.
MM take #1: We hope the Pre is a Pre-lude to a better phone. MM take #2: There’s a great deal of talk in this week’s Carnival around the Mobile App Stores vs. the Mobile Web debate. Our take is, go where the growth is and don’t bet the farm on one side of this argument. Yes, mobile apps are seeing huge growth largely due to the iPhone App Store success, and Android will help push that a bit higher as well. That said, there will always be a need for the mobile web, and Dennis Bournique at WAP Review could be hitting it right on when he says that the mobile web could indeed be a better platform as these apps need to scale.
But at this point, you should simply position yourself to take advantage of where the near term growth is, knowing that both are going to be around for a long time to come.
The folks at Trailpeak.com recently soft-launched their iPhone Trails application now available through the Apple App Store. It uses the GPS feature to show you where nearby trails exist across Canada.
They are looking for feedback from early users, and you may even get some schwag in return!
Well, that was quick. Yesterday, Google announced it’s beta program for the Google Adsense for Mobile Applications.
Developers can apply for the beta program here. Before you rush over to apply, you should know that developers must agree to the following:
Participate for at least 3 months
At least 100k pageviews per day
Apps must be free
iPhone or Android apps only
Must be ready to implement now, and be live within 4 weeks
For marketers looking to get their ads on these mobile apps, it looks like they are already placing Adsense ads that are targeted to high-end mobile devices. According to Google, they will also open this specific program up to marketers as well.
Find out more in this testimonial video from Urbanspoon:
So what do you think of ads on these free apps? As a developer, are you excited about a new revenue opportunity? Or are you disappointed that your favorite free mobile apps will now have banner ads taking up precious real estate on your phone?
If you have not read or perhaps even experienced the success that mobile developers are having with the iPhone platform, I can only ask where you’ve been.
Now, if you’ve already convinced yourself you need to get started developing for the iPhone and are looking for some guidance in getting around the iPhone SDK, the Xcode IDE, interacting with a SQLite database, or just finding out where to start with your first iPhone app, you need to be reading Dean Collin’s material. He’s been on top of this iPhone stuff from the beginning, and now he and his colleagues (including Justin Roberts) are cranking out great information on dBlog.
dBlog breaks down the complex and makes it straightforward, and does it in an entertaining way. I know I’ve been reading their multi-part piece on the creation of the RSS Reader iPhone app, and it’s been key for me to better understand some key areas that I simply was not grasping before.
