140,000 iPhone apps. That ‘s the latest crazy big number Apple has given for the number of iPhone apps in the App Store, announced at the recent iPad launch event. So of course it ‘s getting harder to wade through all the ‘sexy bikini girls with pumpkins on their heads ‘ type apps and find the good apps we ‘re on the lookout for.
Luckily, there are more and more good discovery and recommendations apps for the iPhone. As I ‘ve been trying out quite a lot of these apps and services lately, I thought this might be a good time for a quick rundown on some of the good apps out there to help you discover iPhone apps.
Here are some of the ways you that you can boost your ‘discovery powers ‘ for iPhone apps:
Finding Bargains & Seeing What ‘s New – apps ‘Gone Free ‘ (formerly paid apps that are now free), apps on sale, and generally what ‘s new in the App Store:
AppMiner: This one has long been one of my favorites for seeing what ‘s new, what ‘s on sale, what ‘s free and so on. Nice UI makes it easy to find good information quickly.
Bargain Bin: Good for seeing what ‘s gone free and discounted, even does push notifications for specific apps you choose to track or for apps gone free etc. Very busy interface, not as nice as some of the others.
Store Extend: Very nice UI “ another good one for finding discount / free items and new things.
iPhone App Recommendations: – getting recommendations on apps, and making them / sharing your views:
Genius: The App Store ‘s own built-in app suggestions feature. I ‘m glad to see the iTunes music genius idea come across to the apps arena, but so far it has not done much for me. I can ‘t recall a single occasion where I ‘ve discovered an app through it yet.
*** Quick thing to note on most of the apps below: you ‘ll need to create an account with each of them to be able to use them. This is always free and mostly quick and painless to do (no demands for any great amount of information about you).
Appsfire: An easy, fun way to share your app recommendations with friends. Or to make a number of sets of suggested apps by category or purpose. Shows off your picks in an iPhone home screen framework, via an iPhone app, free desktop apps for Windows and Mac, and a website. You can share your sets by email, Twitter, Facebook, widgets, or simple URL links. You can also discover apps of course via Top 15 lists, recommendations from app ‘experts ‘ and more.
Appsaurus: app recommendations iPhone app. It ‘s meant to have a more sophisticated, advanced recommendations engine than Genius, and learns from your choices and usage of it. Lets you filter by price, categories, or keywords. Does not have an ability to import your existing / installed apps to kickstart its learning process.
Appolicious: Very good looking recommendations app. Via its companion website, you can import your library of installed apps to give it a headstart on getting to know your tastes. You also help it learn by your response to its recommendations and by choosing categories you ‘re most interested in. You can see recommendations based on your likes as well as from people you choose to follow. Also has an Advisor section with some good articles on apps and app trends / categories.
Apptizr: Another recommendations app plus website. Again, this one doesn ‘t recognize your current installed apps “ but learns from what you tell it about your general tastes (by selecting categories and similar) and how you respond to its suggestions. I ‘ve found this one provides quite strong recommendations to me thus far. You can also choose to receive a weekly email with its latest recommendations, a feature I quite like.
Chomp: One of my current favorites. More for sharing reviews than for the quality of what it is suggesting to me right now (see my post on it HERE for some details on why). It feels kind of like a Yelp/Twitter hybrid for iPhone apps, but even more ruthless on the character count. You have to keep your reviews to 60 characters or less. Despite, or perhaps because of, that limit, I ‘m finding it a lot of fun to bang out quick reviews of apps I know, both good and bad. For instance, it was nice to be able to sum up my feelings on the WordPress app in just one word – ‘disappointing ‘.
So those are some of the apps I ‘ve been trying out, and some I now find myself using quite often “ and in the case of Chomp, daily.
Have you all tried any / most of these out? What do you think of them and which are your favorites? Which other apps of this type have I missed?
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TAGS: iPhone app discovery apps, iphone apps
