What are
the best free iPhone apps worth downloading right now?
Although there are a lot of great free iPhone apps to choose from, time
is money and here we are recommending the best free iPhone apps of all
time.
Used
to be that Skype was cool but not particularly useful. It allowed users
to make phone calls to computers for free, which was nice, but in many
ways it was a replacement phone service, with users buying minutes to
make calls to other phones. No more, however -- Skype received a massive
update in early 2011 that added free Skype-to-Skype video calling that
has totally changed the game. Users can use their iPhones to video
conference with users who are on their computers, or even other iOS and
Skype-enabled TVs. In fact, all Skype-to-Skype calls are now free, and
calls work over a Wi-Fi connection or using your phone’s 3G Internet
connection. Instead of being stuck finding a Wi-Fi connection to have a
video conference call, Skype lets you do it no matter where you are.
Free, streaming Internet radio is Pandora’s bag, but it’s set apart from other services, such as
AOL Radio,
because Pandora generates “stations” based on your specifications and
preferences. The more time spent with Pandora, rating songs and making
stations, the better the service gets at predicting songs you’ll like
and playing them. It’s a good way to get turned on to new music and an
alternative to eating up iPhone hard drive space with music files.
There
are services with a Dropbox account you can pay for, but the bare bones
– an online space in which you can drop files from your computer and
retrieve them on your phone – is all free and works great. It’s an
especially handy way to upload items that get saved on your phone (like
photos) to free up memory space. Add music and movie files to your
online Dropbox account and you can retrieve them, and play them, on your
phone too.
If
you only choose one news app, make it NPR’s well-rounded, overflowing
offering. Not only does it include standard text stories like you’d find
in other apps, you can stream the radio network’s broadcasts. The app
also links up to various NPR programs and blogs, and lets you save your
favorite local NPR stations so you can listen to them anywhere and stay
up-to-date on national and world events.
Speaking
of shopping, Amazon’s app easily condenses everything cool about the
online marketplace into one handheld, easily navigable place. The app’s
search feature is especially handy when you see something in the real
world and want to order it immediately, but you can also save items for
later consideration. A home page that links you up to daily Gold Box
deals is a thoughtful touch, and it’s all blessedly simple.
You’ve
got your iPhone with you pretty much all the time, right? So if you
have an idea or need to remember something, what better item to use to
document it? Evernote makes taking and keeping notes ludicrously easy,
and in several forms: as lone text, as voice recording, or even coupled
with a photo. Notes can be saved and searched, as well as synced online
with a web-based Evernote account.
Users
of the social media website will find everything necessary to stay
connected with this app. Its home page is your Facebook news feed, but
posting status updates or searching for friends’ profiles each require
touching only one button. This app offers a ton of social connectivity
and continues to get regularly updated to include new Facebook features
like the Timelines, integration with Places so you can check-in when
you're out and about, plus better photo sharing capabilities.
You’ll
find yourself jumping into the Yelp app every time you’re considering a
new restaurant or wondering if a service or store is worth your time.
Especially in larger cities, this database of reviews for businesses is
enormous and will save time and energy determining things like where to
take your car for a tune-up or where to get a delicious and cheap meal.
There are also lots of ways to interact with other users to find and
keep track of the best businesses in your area.
Amazon’s
e-book business doesn’t require the use of the company’s Kindle
e-reader if you’ve got an iPhone -- it just requires the free Kindle
app. With it, users can purchase books straight from Amazon’s book store
and read them right in the app. Even better, all the books you purchase
are downloaded from Amazon’s digital locker stored online, so you can
use the same Kindle account on multiple devices, including an actual
Kindle reader, an iPad or an Android device. The app also keeps track of
your progress through your books over all your Kindle apps.
The
winner of Apple's coveted "best app of 2011" award, Instagram is a huge
hit which has revolutionized sharing photos via iPhone and iPad. While
the regular camera on your iPhone does a decent job, Instagram helps
spruce-up your images by applying lots of cool filters and lens effects
to give your images a unique look and feel. But what makes Instagram a
success is its sharing capabilities. Once you're happy with your
retro-looking shot, it's easy to upload it and it share it quickly with
friends. Instagram makes the whole process simple and seamless, offering
unlimited uploads for iPhone users who love to document their day with
pictures.