Well … we’re finally into February, and the (in)
famous iPhone SDK is due to make its debut later this month – and we’ll all finally get the low-down on how Apple plans to deliver applications.
Hopefully their delivery system will be fairly open to developers and publishers of all shapes and sizes. I have heard several very pessimistic views on this lately, and really hope they are wrong and that Apple will encourage and embrace a large iPhone developer community.
Lots of us are hoping we’ll see some real live ‘approved’ apps at the time of the SDK release or very soon after – and even that many of our current Installer favorites may make it across to the new delivery system.
So now that new apps are finally just round the corner, this is a great time to start whiling away the remaining days of waiting with lots of talk about what our most wanted iPhone apps are …
I’ll get the ball rolling – with my quick top-of-the-head list, one that will no doubt have me cursing what I left out within minutes of posting it, and a few brief comments on the state of play in various application categories …
My Most Wanted iPhone Apps:
Password Manager – I like eWallet Web (and its pretty webclip), but I’d really like to see a local app that offers a sync-to-web option. There is only one native app that I’m aware of in this area – Lockbox – and it is very basic and has not been frequently updated.
Search Utility – with system-wide search capabilities preferably. The native Search app – which currently searches Contacts and Calendar – is quite good.
Video Recording – there have been two native apps released in this area recently. I’ve not tried them – as both sounded like very early releases with little or no ability to do much with a video file once it was generated, and other limitations. On top of that, the two apps appear to have come from the same source, and there has been bitter feuding between the two sets of developers.
Notes Program – a much more powerful one than the in-built app – with some ability to format text, categorize and group notes, sync with something / anything. Don’t recall seeing any native offerings in this area. My best friend in this area of late has been Google Notebook.
Task Manager – still a surprising leave-out to me on the initial set of in-built iPhone apps. I am now a big fan of the online to-do list app Remember The Milk, but I would give a serious look to a local app, especially if it has a good sync partner on Windows PCs. MobileToDoList – the first native app in this area – is very basic, and has been very infrequently updated.
RSS Reader – Google Reader is excellent, so a local app really needs to offer a good sync option to be anything more than an occasional offline Plan B sort of app, but I’d still like to see a good one. MobileRSS is a fairly impressive native app already, and has seen a good number of updates and enhancements. Would imagine it may well cross over.
Screen Capture Utility – Robota Softwarehouse’s Screenshot is a great app. I expect this one will be a cross over for sure.
RDP / Terminal Services Client – to connect to Windows machines running terminal services. There are a few options for remote connection out there already, but I haven’t found any that are more than tolerable to work with, although I have not yet tried the VNSea native app – have installed it and just haven’t got round to giving it a go.
Voice Dial – there is a native app called Voice Dial from Makayama (which I will review very soon) that will definitely cross over and is already a purchasable program.
OK, that’s my quick list. I’m not mentioning things here like copy&paste or MMS, as I feel like these are best provided by Apple as OS updates, not as someone else’s kludge for them.
What have I left out, and what’s your Most Wanted list?
Share it here and help us distract ourselves a little bit while we wait on some of these apps finally arriving …
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