mendax.iphone v3.0.

by WyldKard on January 27, 2010

With word-on-the-street that the iTablet will emerge from the Pandora’s Box that is ’s campus later today, and with all signs pointing towards the iTablet leveraging the ’s version of OS X (and with it, the AppStore), it makes sense to identify apps that no user should be without. That is to say, must-have apps for the could very well become must-have apps for the iTablet as well, so it’s high-time that we updated our ongoing compilation.

Perhaps the most important change to this update of mendax.iphone is clarifying its audience. Before, we included most apps that resided on our , with the exceptions being apps very specific to our personal needs. The change we’re making with this updated compilation is in removing niche apps, and focusing on daily use. The change is a practical one; our includes a hodge-podge of apps that simply aren’t useful for everyone. Our goal with this revision is to tailor our recommendations to the average user, whereby “average” we include not only non-nerds, but some overlap with more geeky computer users who can benefit from some of the more advanced features some of the compilation’s components offer. The name change also opens the possibility of us focusing in on niche app markets for future updates (i.e. creating a mendax. section for photo apps, or games).

The (major) revision coincidentally lets us drop a “3.0″ title to the compilation, mirroring the general release number for the current OS. We may or may not stick with mirroring the major revision numbers for OS releases, but we’re fond of the coincidence at the moment. If we do stick with it, it conveniently gives us time to evaluate new apps for inclusion at fairly regular intervals.

One last note is our philosophy on the compilation in general. Our goal is not to list every great or even well done app for the daily user. We’re minimalists at heart, so rather than list three apps that do different things extremely well, we’d rather list one app that does the same thing only fairly well. In other words, we’d prefer to have less apps on the springboard, even if it means that we don’t get the absolute best experience in one particular area. There may be exceptions to this rule from time to time, but regardless, we won’t list bad apps just for the sake of minimalism; we lean towards minimalism, but still seek to offer an above-average user experience.

So let’s take a look at what’s changed.

AppStore apps we decided to get rid of.

We removed some apps in the 3.0 mendax.iphone revision, because their functionality now exists in other apps, else we no longer think they’re that great in the first place. For example, we removed the Flashlight app, as we found launching it cumbersome when wanting, say, a quick red light, as the app wasn’t used enough to reside on our home screen, and even then, the bright flash of the home screen itself was adequate for most uses, and distractive if we then followed up with our intended red light for low-light reading use. In the rare cases where the home screen itself wasn’t bright enough, launching any app with a predominantly white screen/background worked just as well, and didn’t take up a valuable springboard icon slot.

DVR Remote was taken off our as well, since there’s a basic DVR remote built into i.TV now. i.TV isn’t as good as the many applications it’s replaced, but the fact that it does so much by itself is impressive. With Backgrounder enabled for i.TV when we’re home, it’s easy to jump over to the remote when we need it, instead of digging through sub-menus every time we launch i.TV just to get to the remote. Ideally, i.TV would make the remote feature easier to get to, but it’s fine for the limited use it gets at home.

We pulled HearPlanet from our lineup because we rarely used it. Maybe the paid-for versions are better, and we still recommend the free version if you’re in avid tourist-mode, but for daily applications, it’s not a must-have app. We pulled Urbanspoon also, because even though it’s a nice novelty, especially when trolling the same-old neighborhoods, we’re just as happy with Yelp, which does more even though it’s not necessarily the most elegant random-food-spot-finder. Both of these apps would be good nominations for a future tourist app section, however.

The MySpace app got the boot because, quite frankly, almost everyone worthwhile has moved onto Facebook, and keeping up with two social networks seemed pointless, especially when one of them is quite clearly dying. We also found the Weather Channel app nice, but ultimately rarely launched it; even though the built-in weather app was spartan in comparison, we rarely found the need for an in-depth weather forecast.

The AppStore apps we replaced.

With this 3.0 release, we replaced 1Password with 1Password Pro, though at the very least, we still recommend its non-Pro sibling. The application, primarily because of its ability to sync with the desktop component, is a fantastic tool not only for holding various online logins, but to securely keep track of all the various OS X licenses one has purchased, as well as the miscellaneous wallet items regularly filling up one’s, well, wallet.

We’ve temporarily replaced Air Sharing for Air Sharing Pro. The latter can handle larger PDF files, and has built-in FTP capabilities in case you need it.

The 2.0 version of our compilation included iHandy Level, but we’ve since upgraded that to the full iHandy Carpenter suite. In truth, we mostly only use the level and ruler components, but the other tools are nice to have in the rare situations we need them.

SnapTell, while quite awesome, is an app we replaced with Red Laser. It’s just way easier to scan barcodes than book covers, and Red Laser lets us look up items that aren’t books and movies, which has made it a much better shopping companion than SnapTell.

While we were fans of TwitterFon (now EchoFon) in the past, we spent some time evaluating paid Twitter clients, as ads in some of the free apps were becoming distracting. We used Twittelator Pro for some time, but eventually landed on Tweetie (and later Tweetie 2), and haven’t looked back since. We still recommend Twittelator Pro if one wants every feature known to man, but for slightly above-average features and a much nicer user experience, Tweetie 2 simply beats other Twitter clients within an inch of their digital lives.

The AppStore apps we added.

While we used to look up unit conversions using Google, there were times that we couldn’t, on account of not having any cellular access in certain locations, like in the back of our local grocery store. We looked into the various unit conversion apps, and Convertbot stood out. It sports a very nice UI, and has a pretty complete set of units to convert to and from.

We used Air Sharing for some time to view PDF files, but then the app crashed on some of our larger files. We found that because Air Sharing (and its Pro version) render the full PDF file at one time, it’s more limited by file sizes. So, we picked up Good Reader, which is designed to display much larger PDF files, because it only renders one page at a time. It also has more reader-friendly options than Air Sharing, so compliments Air Sharing nicely.

While Red Laser meets our price-comparison expectations well, we picked up Good Guide to scan barcodes and get product information. For example, one can scan an item to find out how ethical the respective company is, or how healthy the product is. Great for comparing items in one’s local grocery store without having to compare the often misleading nutrition information.

As Starbucks drinkers, we picked up Mobile Card, which lets us reload our Starbucks card of choice, and keep tabs on what the current balance is. When heading west, we can even pay for our drinks at some stores via the alone.

Finally, we have myWireless, which is AT&T’s auditing tool for looking at how many minutes were used on your plan. Also lets you check data use, et al. Also, you can pay your monthly bill, so for everyone not jailbroken and using T-Mobile, this app is quite handy.

Cydia apps we decided to get rid of.

We decided to dump categories after we started using the left-of-homescreen text-entry method of launching apps buried multiple right-finger-slides over. Categories is definitely useful in concept, but it still leaves something to be desired, and maybe that’s just a matter of better integration with the OS, which is likely not possible. It’s still a great app launcher but it’s simply caused us too many problems in the past to have to set up again and again.

While Winterboard is still the best customization app for springboard, we found actual customization arduous, since no theme has icons for every app out there, and such app icons tend to jibe with a theme’s atmosphere. Overall, still a great app, just not one we consider “must-have” anymore.

Cydia apps we added.

Not liking the fact that we couldn’t download files larger than 10MB via 3G/EDGE, we picked up 3G Unrestrictor, which tricks apps into thinking they’re on wifi. Great for downloading apps and podcasts while on the road.

Unsatisfied that still hasn’t approved a Google Voice app, we grabbed GV Mobile to take care of out virtual-phone-number needs.

Finally, to compliment Backgrounder, we grabbed ProSwitcher, which makes switching between apps easy and intuitive, without us having to jump back and forth to the springboard.

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