Today we ‘re continuing our series called Desert Island Apps. It ‘s based on a very long-running and brilliant BBC Radio show called ‘Desert Island Discs ‘. The premise of Desert Island Discs is simple and wonderful “ a guest is invited to choose the eight musical pieces (originally records) they would take with them if they were stranded on a desert island.
In our case of course we ‘re not interested in our guests ‘ choice of music. What we want to know is which six iPhone apps they would take with them if stranded on an island. We ‘re leaving the playing field pretty wide open for them “ letting them assume they ‘ve got WiFi and full connectivity on their island.
Today ‘s guest is a very close friend and a recent entrant 
into the hectic world of iPhone app publishing, Scott Greenwell. Scott is co-founder and principal at American Apps, Inc., (AppDudes). Founded in 2009, the company develops and markets socially compelling software applications for the iPhone. Its first app, DangerZones, (www.ExploreDangerZones.com), shows 5 years of traffic fatality locations across the United States and promotes safer driving through education and risk factor awareness.
Read on to see Scott ‘s picks
This app turns your iPhone into a mobile planetarium. From my view of the heavens lying on the beach, I ‘ll be able to see billions and billions of stars, and with the help of Pocket Universe, I may just be able to learn the difference between Alpha Centauri and Antares! Macworld gave PU 5 Mice out of 5 I don ‘t always agree with Macworld ‘s ratings, but they got this one right.
OK, I admit it, I ‘m a weather nut. And nobody does a better job of accurately forecasting the weather than The Weather Channel. I ‘d use the hourly forecast just to know wind speed and direction so I could figure out the best times to launch my desperate ‘Rescue Me! ‘ notes in a bottle. The app comes in two flavors: Free and Ad-free. You can take your pick, but the free version may be the better way to go, especially if you ‘re looking for added distractions to help you pass the time while you ‘re waiting to be rescued.
If the criteria is to pick the apps I use most often and couldn ‘t live without, this one probably should be #1. Its speech recognition and ability to separate my voice from background noise and correctly process a request is unbelievable. I once used this app in the middle of a Springsteen concert with success! Google Mobile gives you the power of the entire Internet in the palm of your hand. Pretty handy if you ‘re stranded on an island and looking for ways to stimulate your brain.
#4 Sportacular 
I might as well get this over with now. In addition to being a weather nut, I ‘m probably a bigger sports nut “just ask my wife and kids! For my money, Sportacular does the best job of putting ALL of the sports information I want/need right where I need it “in the palm of my hand. The latest version includes customizable alerts to show game starting, score changes, and more via push notification. Even current betting lines are available, although I ‘m not sure this feature matters that much if you ‘re cut off from the rest of humanity. One note of caution: On any given Saturday afternoon, the alerts coming from this app can make more noise than a Las Vegas casino on a Saturday night!
Weather nut, sports fanatic, and you guessed it: former pilot. There. I think I ‘ve got all the skeletons out of the closet. If you love flying like I do, Flight Control is one of the most addictive games you ‘ll ever play. Mind you, it ‘s not like I ‘m the first person to notice how fun this game is. I think I read somewhere that more than 5 million people have downloaded it, but don ‘t they say misery loves company? And if I ‘m going to be stranded on an island for God knows how long, I want my favorite game and the ability to compete with 5 million of my closest friends.
#6 Mockup 
Last, but certainly not least, is Mockup. This brand new app allows you to convert your latest idea for a new iPhone app to a visual prototype in minutes using a drag and drop approach from their robust (and hopefully growing) image library. This could be a pretty handy tool for an app developer stranded on a Desert island, desperately needing to communicate half-baked ideas to his development team back home. Truth is, it ‘s a pretty handy tool anyway. = )
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Huge thanks to Scott for doing Desert Island Apps with us! I hope this series will help all of us to discover some great new apps.
If you ‘d like to see all the previous entries in the Desert Island apps, just go HERE “ and if you feel like sharing what your Desert Island Apps picks would be, please fire away in the comments 🙂
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