Jumped on the iPhone and iPod Touch bandwagon this Christmas? Hitting the App Store with a vengeance but confused about what apps to download? Well, then you have come to the right place to solve your dilemma. Here is our pick of the 30 most essential apps for new iPhone and iPod Touch owners. It doesn’t matter if you are a social networking nut, a shopoholic or even a foodie. As there is an app for practically everything under the sun.
A
must have for all movie buffs. Boasting of the latest collection of
movie, tv and celebrity database, the app is a great way to know what
is happening in Hollywood and other film industries.
Powered
by CBS Radio, the app lets you access over 200 stations from all across
the United States. iPhone and iPod Touch users can also opt for 128kbps
streams over EDGE or 3G.
Do you live, breathe and eat sports? Then the SportsTap may just be your new best friend. Know what’s going on in the MLB, NHL, IndyCar and other sporting events. You can know the latest scores as well as all the stats from all major sporting events.
The Bump app establishes a connection between two mobile devices and lets you exchange photos, videos and contact information etc. Just open the app, hold the two phones and then bump your hands gently to exchange data!
Typing is so passe. With the Dagon Diction app say the word and instantly see your test or email messages. It is definitely faster than good old typing.
Create text, photo and audio notes and synchronize them with the Web, a Mac or a PC. The app features an extremely intuitive voice recorder and all notes include geo-location information.
Who doesn’t love freebies in life? The Fring app lets you make free voice calls, video calls and lets you also indulge in live iM chats from your iPhone and iPod Touch.
No more guilt pangs for shopholics. The ShopSavvy barcode scanner is a great comparison shopping tool which provides a list of both online and local prices of a product.
The Mecca for all social networking fanatics is now on your iPhone and iPod Touch. Use Facebook Chat, update your status and access the newsfeed of your friends on the go.
Search anything under the sun (okay slight exaggeration here) using your voice or location. Speak your queries and avoid typing. The app supports accents like British, American, Indian and even Australian.
Access beautiful global satellite and aerial imagery of over a third of the world’s land mass and be stunned by Mother Nature. You can search for cities, places and even businesses.
Make free calls and send instant messages to other Skype users. You can also make calls to landlines and mobile phones at cheap rates.
Edit and share your images with friends and family. Create a free Photoshop.com account and store up to 2GB of photos online.
Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List
Cook delicious meals and show off your cooking prowess with this app. You can also create shopping lists,save and email your favorite recipes.
Access local tv listings, movie and theater guides and even schedule DVR recoding remotely! The app also gives you access to video streams, trailers and TV previews.
Ideal for music lovers, Shazam lets you discover and buy music tracks, share your Tags with friends on Twitter and Facebook and much more.
A must have for audiophiles, TuneWiki lets you groove to your favorite tunes while watching subtitled lyrics which can be translated into 40 plus languages.
Shop and buy books, music and even gadgets on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Amazon customers can also access their existing accounts and be privy to their existing carts, wish lists, shipping options etc.
Read Kindle books on your iPod Touch and iPhone. You can shop for them at Amazon’s Kindle Store and transfer them to your device.
Access all kinds of information regarding your surroundings, be it hotels,shopping centers, taxi services etc. You can also see your location on a Map and access routes to your destination.
Listen to your favorite artists and songs by creating customized stations. With the Pandora app, you have your own free personalized radio.
Read your favorite articles or blog posts whenever, wherever. The app lets you save web pages for offline reading.
A RSS reader for the iPhone, NetNewsWire also syncs with Google Reader and lets you read news from millions of blogs and websites.
Live the couch potato dream by controlling the music on your computer or Apple Tv from your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Forget your job or school (just kidding) by listening to unlimited free music on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can also access over 100 expert programmed radio stations or create your own stations.
Access files on your personal computer and view and share then on your iPhone. You can also stream entire music collections stored on your home computer.
With this app you can access a VNC server and connect to a home computer to see the files, applications and resources like you would on a desktop.
Waze is an 100% user generated social navigation app that lets you use live maps and gives real time traffic updates.Waze also provides turn-by-turn navigation and rerouting options as conditions on the road change.
Not all of us are blessed with killer vocabulary skills. However with the Dictionary app you can master the English language. The app also features audio pronunciations and there is a Thesaurus too.
With the DropBox app you can sync your files online and across desktop computers.The app only works with the main Dropbox service.
As you can see from this exhaustive list, there is an app from everyone and everything. Thanks to the sheer volume of apps out there, there is a never a dull moment in the life of an iPhone or iPod user.
Accessories & Apps: Beta Testers Wanted
iOS Firmware/IPSW Download Guide
Legacy iTunes Download Archive
App Store Top Charts
iPhone and Android Resale Value Charts
USA iPhone Carrier Plans Compared
Complete iPhone Jailbreaking Guide 
Complete iPhone Specification Matrix 
Wow superb list of free apps there! The shopsavvy app has got to be the best free one ever
I have to agree, great list!
I would recommend adding Yellow Pages though (perhaps in lieu of Around Me or Google Mobile)
I try not to let Google seep into every inch of my life and Around me only has limited functionality. Yellow Pages is a combination of both — Location based searches complete with reviews, GPS to your destination and contact info (which can be stored to your contact list)
My family and i just got back from a Hawaiian Christmas vacation and it save dour bacon when it came tie to decide where to eat, what to do and how to fill a lost prescription (phew!)
And, yes, it is free.
great list!
skype is definitely one to consider if you’ll be traveling abroad and are in need of phone service. paying their relatively low rates and having wifi access allowed me to turn my ipod touch into a perfectly functional phone while i was in europe for 3 weeks. i highly recommend it!
Great list.
I would also suggest ‘The New york Times”, “Mint”,”Weather bug” and “Yelp”.
Half of iPhone owners are NOT in America.
- Pandora doesn’t work outside America at all.
- the Kindle app only allows purchasing from the the American Amazon store.
- the sports app gives prominence to sports popular only in America?
Why the lack of recognition for non-Americans? There is life outside America – a billion people online in Europe alone.
Clearly Ian you’ve never been to Luton before?
)
I live very close to Luton
Good list though
Dragon Dictation – free on the App Store – dictate into your iPhone with an incredible level of accuracy. It also optionally uploads the names of your contacts, so that if you mention them (which is likely), it gets the spelling correct.
Suck it and see!
thanks buddy..
nice work done.
i live very close to luton and it works!