Apps for my Touch

Posted on by PaulaO

As much as I initially disliked the concept of joining the iPod movement, I don’t regret getting my iPod Touch.

I’m always on the lookout for writer apps. Some stink, some rock, some hit the middle. I also have games and other stuff, too.

In the list below, I’m not putting links up. Just enter in the title your own dang self, ya lazy bum.

(and for those of you not in the least bit interested in this, I’ve done the “click here to read more!” thing so you don’t even have to bother loading it. I am so freakin’ nice to you. And yes, I am procrastinating writing.)

So here’s what I got, starting with the quick ones along the bottom:

  • Music – according to it, I have 106 albums on there. Wow.
  • Photos – mostly the dogs
  • Battery Status (free?) – I just looked and can’t find this one in the app store. I hate the app store, by the way. Can’t find shit. All utilities are lumped together. No freakin’ subcategories. Anyway, I like this app because it is so simple.
  • Clock! (free) – simple clock. You can pick backgrounds, colors, all sorts of options. You can set it to say on so you can use it like a bedside clock. It doesn’t have an alarm function, which is fine with me. The paid-for version let’s you set an alarm that goes off to music. Eh, I sleep through those. I use the Clock that came standard. It has some good, loud alarm sounds that I cannot ignore.

Screen 1: (most used)

  • Calendar, Contacts, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Safari – all standard and came with toy, er, unit
  • HandicappedFraud.org (free) – app that lets me enter in info on illegally parked vehicles and, if I had an iPhone with a camera, I could even take a photo of the car.
  • WordWeb (free; audio version is 4.99) – I use this on the computer and when I saw they had one for the iPhone/Touch, I grabbed it. Excellent tool. Dictionary and thesaurus.
  • Units (free) – conversion utility (ya know, how many feet does 45 meters equal)
  • iBird Explorer South (9.99) -cool bird app. It says it is for the Southern US but it has birds from all over the nation. Well worth the cost. Huge honkin’ app though that takes a long time to download and update. We’ve tried the Audubon version (19.99) and I really didn’t like it.
  • TreeID (3.99) – tree app that helps identify trees. Yes, I use it.
  • 10-in-1 Army Knife (0.99) – no iPhone/Touch is complete without it. Hardly ever use it but its cool when I do.
  • WoW Armory (free) – app for the Word of Warcraft Game.
  • GrammarGirl App (free) – not sure if I think this is useful or not. It basically is a downloader for her podcasts. It has a few extras in it and puts them all in one place but, eh….

Screen 2: (games!!)
Anubis, Bejeweled 2, Farm Frenzy, Horus, Pipe Mania, Construction, Minesweeper, Ranch Rush, Solebon, Trace, Westward, Authenticator (WoW security app).

I’ve tried a lot of games. Some are just not for me. Like, I loved Circuits but couldn’t stand the flashing. Trace and Pipe Mania I rarely play. Anubis and Horus are part of a computer game called Saqqarah. Lorna loves that game. Instead of putting all of the pyramids into one big app, they made each of the pyramids their own game for the iPhone/Touch. Farm Frenzy, Ranch Rush, and Westward are all computer games they’ve shrunk. Not bad but difficult to play in such a small format. Solebon is a whole bunch of solitaire games.

Screen 3: (where we get serious, finally)

  • QuickWord (8.99) – reads, writes, and edits .doc format. I have a lot of trouble with this app. It often won’t scroll, the keyboard randomly disappears, and, frankly, I’ve not used it much because I can’t get it to work long enough. I still have it, though, for the random time I may actually get it to work
  • Docs To Go (14.99) – similar to QuickWord except I think it will also view .odt, the format OpenOffice.org uses. It is okay. There’s no way I could do serious writing with it. Editing is difficult too since putting the cursor where I want it is enough to make me drink again.
  • FileApp (free) (formerly FileAid) – basically is a file viewer only. Which is cool. It views .doc, .odt, .pdf, and a bunch more.
  • Notebooks (5.99) – it’s one of those massive “thought” organizer things. I’ve not used it but once or twice.
  • Pattern Blocks (0.99) – cool app. it has these blocks like wooden blocks that you move around into patterns. It’s a zen thing. It’s a mandala thing.
  • iZenGarden (2.99) – ah. peace. It has sand, rocks, plants, rakes, sounds. Relaxing.
  • quickQRZ (free) – looks up the ITU prefixes around the globe. If I have to ‘splain it, you don’t want to know.
  • MorseKey (free) – annoying but fun practice tool
  • Stanza (free) – ebook reader and downloader. highly recommend it.
  • WriteChain (free) – literally just downloaded this puppy. You enter in your daily word count and it keeps track of it for you. It was free.

Screen 4: (internet apps)

  • Settings, Mail – standard apps
  • Facebook (free) – use it sometimes when I am really bored
  • Weather – is it a standard app?
  • NPR Addict (free) – lists NPR stations, shows, news, etc. according to your location
  • EDGE (free) – gay news reader
  • Google (free) – quick search w/out loading Safari
  • APOD (free) – Astronomy Picture of the Day
  • Wikipanion (free) – kind of a cut down version of Wikipedia. Just saw they have a paid version (4.99) that allows for offline viewing later. Nice.
  • WunderRadio (6.99) – app that hooks into the Internet radio streams. From WeatherUnderground (aka wunderground), a cool weather site.
  • Speed Test (free) – this is from Speedtest.net. I downloaded it back when I was having so much connectivity problems.
  • Wikipedia (free) – direct hook to Wikipedia website mobile version (less graphics).
  • WhitePages (free) – phone look up. Even does reverse look up.

Screen 5: (rarely use)

  • App Store – use it for updates and quick look ups
  • iTunes – never used (so moving it to the next screen)
  • Maps – sometimes use
  • Dog Diary, MiPets, and PetDossier – eh, tried them all to see if any clicked. They didn’t. But I’ve not deleted them ’cause I keep thinking one day I will try again.

Screen 6: never used, never gonna use, but can’t delete
Stocks, YouTube, VoiceMemo (my 2ndGen Touch doesn’t have a mic), Videos