7 fabulous free apps for showing off your iPhone 5

“What’s so special about the new iPhone?” I’ve been hearing that question over and over in the past few days, and here’s my stock answer: it’s thinner, lighter, faster … and wait ’till you’ve seen the bigger screen.




Indeed, it’s amazing how quickly my eyes got used to the taller, four-inch display on the iPhone 5—so much so, in fact, that my old iPhone 4 screen now looks stubby and cramped in comparison.
Unfortunately, just a handful of apps have been optimized to take advantage of the extra space—well, besides the core iPhone apps from Apple, that is.

A bigger screen means more “pins” to peruse in the Pinterest iPhone app.

The rest are plunked in the middle of the screen, with black bars above and beneath. Sure, they still work perfectly fine, but what a waste of space!
So, which super-sized apps should you try when you’re showing off your new iPhone to your friends? Here are seven of my favorites—and yes, they’re all free.

1. Facebook

Facebook recently rebuilt its iPhone app from the ground up to juice its performance, and a just-released update zooms the interface to fill the entire iPhone 5 screen—perfect for browsing all those status updates and baby photos in your news feed.
Download: Facebook

2. Flipboard

This eye-catching “social magazine” takes headlines and photos from your favorite sites and social networks and turns them into gorgeous, flippable pages. Already one of the most impressive iPhone apps in the App Store, Flipboard looks even better now that it’s been optimized for the bigger iPhone 5 display.
Download: Flipboard

3. Pinterest

You still can’t “pin” anything from the Pinterest iPhone app like you can on the iPad, but Pinterest on the iPhone makes for a great way to browse the latest pinned goodies from your fellow Pinteresters—and on the iPhone 5, you’ll see even more pins in a single glance.
Download: Pinterest

4. Brushes 3

Unleash your inner artist with this free painting app, which lets you paint on a virtual, widescreen canvas with 14 different brush shapes. Customize your brushes, “record” your brush strokes and play them back later, or share your creations via Facebook or Twitter.

The addictive “Bejeweled Blitz” looks even more beguiling on the four-inch iPhone 5 display.

Download: Brushes 3

5. Pocket

Sit back, relax, and lose yourself in a lengthy online article with Pocket, an app that takes long text stories from the web, and saves them on your iPhone, all formatted for easy reading. Yes, the new-and-improved “Reading List” feature in Safari will also save web pages on your iPhone, but the iPhone 5-ready Pocket app does Reading List one better by letting you flip through pages like a book, just like on a Kindle.
Download: Pocket

6. Hipmunk

Here’s an iPhone travel app with a difference. Instead of just spitting out a list of available flights, Hipmunk (pictured above) creates a color-coded chart that lets you compare departure and arrival times, as well as pinpoint flight with on-board Wi-Fi. And thanks to the iPhone 5′s longer screen, you’ll be able to view up to 10 flights at a glance.
Download: Hipmunk

7. Bejeweled Blitz

The addictive, ever-popular “match-3″ puzzler is now enhanced for the bigger iPhone 5 display. The game itself is free, but expect to pay extra for score-boosting power-ups.
Download: Bejeweled Blitz

5 Free Apple iOS 6 Maps for the iPhone 5

Now that we all know Apple's new Maps app in iOS 6 is, shall we say, the next obvious question is whether there are worthy alternatives. 

You can't download the old Google Maps app separately in the App Store. Rumors are flying back and forth about whether Google is about to release it as a standalone app, but even if they're true (which it looks like they're not, at least for the time being), Apple could still refuse to let it through the way it did with Google Voice.

So what are your alternatives now? A lot of people have pointed out that you can still access Google Maps via the iPhone's built-in browser. That's true, but it's a pain, and you don't get live GPS location that way, so you can't use it to walk around and see what's around you. Native apps are still better.
Here're the best free mapping and navigation apps available.

Bing 3.03 (Free)
Bing is more of a general search app than the others, but it also delivers solid maps and navigation. It has a comprehensive POI database, and delivers walking, transit, and driving directions (at least without voice prompts, like the old Google Maps app). It also includes traffic conditions, movie showtimes, and robust Facebook integration.

Hopstop for iPhone 2.0 (Free)
The public transit-focused HopStop gives you GPS-enabled directions, transit schedules, and maps that include subway and bus stops for 62 cities across the U.S. You can set it to prefer a certain kind of public transportation, such as to take the subway whenever possible. It also estimates taxi travel times and cost and lets you call for one, and it can deliver biking directions in four major cities as well as wheelchair accessible and stroller-friendly routes.

MapQuest 3.0.3 (Free)
We didn't like MapQuest's driving directions in our review, as it felt grafted on and in some cases was vague enough to be dangerous. But on foot it's excellent, and is a great option if you're looking for a pure Google Maps replacement with a moving, overhead 2D view.  The latest version features live traffic cameras and gas prices in addition to walking and driving directions.


TeleNav Scout 1.2.1 (Free)
TeleNav has a variety of iOS apps already out there, but Scout, its latest one, is the most compelling. It offers free visual directions, point-of-interest search, and a nicely laid out dashboard UI with traffic, weather, and commuting times. It also accepts voice input for navigation commands. A $9.99 per year in-app purchase adds voice prompt-based navigation (for while driving), offline maps that work without cell coverage, automatic traffic-based rerouting, speed and camera trap alerts, and lane assistance.


Waze 3.2.2 (Free)
Waze (pictured right) delivers free, crowd-sourced GPS navigation with strong social networking and community tie-ins that deliver unusually accurate, real-time ETAs and optimized routes. It also alerts you to upcoming police speed traps, and with proper voice-guided navigation, it's a great stand-in for a portable navigation device, even though it doesn't always deliver the most sensible routes overall. It's getting better and better at that, though—by design.