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Last time I gave you ten of my favourite free iThing apps, this time it's the turn of the ones you have to pay for. The App Store model is that people pay a small amount and the store sells tens of thousands of copies. Most phone software sells in tiny numbers and costs twenty or thirty dollars a time if my experience of Windows Mobile is anything to go by. Because the App Store is part of iTunes and reaches a huge audience, the model of apps starting at $1 and rarely going beyond $10 has generated huge revenues. Most apps are under $5 and this equates to £2.99 (which seemed ungenerous when the App Store launched six months ago but now seems like we're getting a good deal over here). The most I've ever paid for an app is £5.99 and most of the ones I've bought have been 59p. Buying an app is as easy as buying a song from iTunes and installing an app is as easy as letting iTunes copy a song into your library. ~~~~~ (1) App Sniper is useful for those of us who just can't get enough of the apps. Essentially, it displays all the apps that are either new or have recently reduced in price. The App Store is far bigger and far more diverse than Apple ever imagined it would be and neither iTunes nor the onboard App Store front end can really cope with what's on offer. There is nothing in App Sniper that couldn't be discovered with extensive browsing but why spend an hour doing something that this app will do in seconds? I've picked up some good stuff through it and, as the blurb says, it pays for itself the first time you use it. You can even pick apps that you fancy and tell App Sniper to flag when they are reduced (or become free). Many price reductions are only applicable for hours or days as special promos and it is very easy to miss them.
Cost: £0.59 Does it need live data? Yes. ~~~~~ (2) CSV Touch is a database application which lets you load large tables of data in CSV format (easily done using Excel or a similar spreadsheet program) and search them on your iThing. Shown is part of my enormous DVD catalogue with each row displaying multiple columns of data - the title, disc number, additional notes and (off screen) genre and key words. It's easy to scroll through the entire list or use the magnifying glass icon to do a word search to find data which matches the search term(s). For small lists you can use one of the many document viewers to display it but anything which needs to be searchable is infinitely more useful in CSV Touch.
Cost: £1.19 (there is a free version available which is limited to 75 records) Does it need live data? Only for getting the file onto the iThing in the first place. Once it's on, it doesn't need data. ~~~~~ (3) Weather Pro is a weather application - duh - and one which has far greater detail than the default iThing weather app. It's been a funny old winter and Weather Pro has been spot on throughout. It gives you a lot of info on each screen and yet it's surprisingly simple to use. Each day is broken down into 3 hour chunks and it tells you temperature, wind-chill, likelihood of precipitation, overriding condition and what the wind will be like. It updates constantly so you don't have to remember what Rob McElwee said after Newsnight any more. It even has some pretty radar pictures which you can animate so people will be impressed. They aren't very useful. The rest of the app is though. It is quite expensive by App Store standards - £2.39 - but that's a cup of coffee and this will go on being useful long after your intestines have absorbed all the caffeine, sugar and protein (I'm guessing now) from the coffee and sent the rest to be evacuated in the usual way. It's not as pretty as Laura Tobin but it's still good to have with you.
Cost: £2.39 Does it need live data? Yes - it caches data but to be up to date you need a data source. It downloads minimal data though so even a weak iPhone signal is enough. ~~~~~ (4) Classics is an e-book reader with a fantastic interface. The screenshot below looks nice but it doesn't show that you can pick the books up, move them around and generally pretend your a giant until you get bored. It's by far the most comfortable e-reader I've used on the iThing and I got through "The Time Machine" and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" without any of the eye strain or frustrations that I've heard can bother people when using such programs. It comes with fifteen books - enough to get going with - and more are added when the thing is updated. It's about once a month so far. Compared with what's available in Stanza (see the free apps column) this looks a bit feeble but for ease of use, appearance and little things like an overall progress bar I'm glad I spent the £1.19 - one public domain paperback if you're lucky - on Classics.
Cost: £2.99 - I paid £1.19 but success has obviously gone to their heads. Does it need live data? No - the books are stored locally. Only updating the app (and thus getting new content) requires data and that's almost always done through synching with iTunes anyway). ~~~~~ (5) iBlueSky is a mind mapping application which probably won't be of interest to many people but I've found it useful when planning things like an audio play, Christmas presents and a fortnight's holiday. If you're not familiar with mind mapping then either click here for Wiki or look at the screenshot below and think "Oh yes - that thing - I don't like that". You start off with a central idea and build branches from it. Then you build branches from the branches and so on. The resulting mind map can be emailed as an image file or a PDF so you can diddle away in a meeting and have it waiting in your inbox when you get to your desk.
Cost: £4.99 - expensive by App Store standards and perhaps not worth it but I do like it and it's still only £4.99 which isn't that much in the real world. Does it need live data? None at all. ~~~~~ (6) TV Plus is a television listings service. It has channels I've never heard of - that's how comprehensive it is. It has a week's worth of listings for every channel along with a brief summary of each programme. It runs really quickly even in poor signal areas and it's just a really fast way to find out what's on. It has two main weaknesses - you can't hide or reorder channels so there is a fair amount of scrolling to find things like Setanta or some of the lesser documentary channels, and you can only view one channel at a time so it isn't possible to see everything that's on now or will be on in prime time. There are other TV apps available - I've got two others on my iPhone at the moment - and they both give the summary view with multiple channels on one page. They, however, are far slower than TV Plus, have far fewer channels in them and don't show a single channel's listings for the week nearly as well as TV Plus. A combination of all three apps would be ideal but if I had to choose one I would pick TV Plus every time. For Sky+ users it even lets you set recordings through your iThing. Sadly, Virgin aren't so advanced and V+ boxes can't be set the same way.
Cost: £2.99 with no subscription for ongoing listings downloads. Does it need live data? Yes but not much and it runs quickly even in low signal areas. ~~~~~ (7) Word Book is a dictionary and thesaurus. Some have quibbled that it's American English but it handles proper spelling too so that's a minor niggle. It's a really quick and easy way to look words up and once you've found it you can easily switch to a thesaurus or Wikipedia page on the same word. It lets you jump from word to word (in blue) and even has audio pronunciations of words which are fairly pointless as words are very short and the buffering while it downloads the audio file means I always miss it and have to play it again. After a couple of goes I find out I can't make out what the computer voice is saying anyway and give up. The real greatness of this app - in my rather absurd opinion - is that it is now on its third edition (upgrades being free) and each upgrade has significantly improved it. When I first downloaded it I wasn't sure I liked it. It seemed awkward and clumsy. The second version was better but still not quite right. The third version is fantastic. It really makes it feel like an application the makers care about getting right. It's up against some heavyweight competition but it is a fraction of the price of the OED apps and I don't think they will be improved as Word Book has been when feedback has been negative about something.
Cost: £1.19 right now - a bargain as I paid £4.99. Does it need live data? Only for the audio clips and web links. The full dictionary and thesaurus text is stored on the iThing's hard drive. ~~~~~ (8) My Football is the other great football application. It has (as you can see) the ability to view a whole fixture list in one go and features leagues from across Europe. It also features domestic and European cups so it's unlikely your team will play a game that isn't covered in My Football. It also provides the basics that you would want to know if you come to the game part way through. iFooty - though comprehensive about what is happening - doesn't give you the names of the goal scorers and when the goals went in. My Football is akin to Jeff Stelling's Soccer Saturday but without the demigod himself.
Cost: £1.19 Does it need live data? Yes. ~~~~~ (9) 2 Across is the app which got me into crosswords and showed me that I could actually do them under the right circs. It has puzzles from around the world and lets you download all the new ones each day, free of charge. It does support some premium puzzles but they are American and I tend to do badly at American crosswords because they're full of things Americans know about. The selection of British newspapers is small - I think the latest version has four - of which only the Independent is from a national paper. The woman behind 2 Across says she's working on the Guardian which will be a nice addition. The strengths of 2 Across verses a regular paper crossword are (a) it checks your answers if you want it to, (b) it will give you letters if you want it to and (c) it doesn't get messy even if you want it to. So basically you can treat it as if it were a paper one and not use the help or (if you're like me and thick at times) it is there to keep the game going.
Cost: £3.49 but there is a Lite version available which carries the Independent crossword so you can download that instead if you like. Does it need live data? Only when you're downloading new puzzles. ~~~~~ (10) Zenbe Lists - I'm in two minds about this. Although I use it a lot and it is a great app, when I downloaded it it was free and now it isn't. I'm not sure I would've paid for it as there are plenty of free list making applications. The strengths of Zenbe are (a) you can have multiple lists which can be edited, reordered and reused as much as you like (many list apps are limited to one list) and (b) it will sync with Zenbe's online cloud so you can edit lists on your computer and use them on your iThing and vice versa. You can even share your lists with your friends so they can buy you stuff for your birthday.
Cost: £1.79 (at the moment but was free for months) Does it need live data? Only if you want to sync your lists with the server. ~~~~~ An honourable mention should go to Mind Wave which is a binaural beat generator which makes various claims about making your brain better if you listen to its strange whistles and crackles. I've tried a few of the sounds and the "Mental caffeine" one actually does seem to work for me. It lifts the numbness from my brain if I use it for quarter of an hour. I don't know if binaural beats have any validity to them or if it is more unscientific mumbo jumbo which has (at best) a placebo effect. I like this app though and I'm inclined to say it does something good.
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