Some of you are brand new iPhone users. Welcome!
Take it from me, you’ll be very happy with your new toy!
As an iPhone user from day 1, here are what I think are the absolute essential apps:
Star Walk. This is one of the coolest apps ever. It uses the iPhone’s compass and accelerometer to show you the night sky live. Hold it up to the sky to easily identify stars and planets. It’s for the astronomy geek (I admit, I’m one), and anyone who is interested in, “What’s that bright star up there?” I use it on night flights to identify stars and planets.
Aero Weather. A great aviation weather app. There’s a free version, but don’t be cheap, get the paid version. It lets me check on the METAR’s and TAF’s for all of my departure stations, ETOPS alternates, and destinations. I download the weather before departure and can view them offline any time I like.
Flight Track. A great flight tracking app. Live flight status.
Skype. Of course you need this. Now with video calling!
Alien Blue. You do Reddit, don’t you?
AutoStitch. The best panorama photo app by far. Get this one.
Pro HDR. Get this one too. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range photography. Very cool photo app.
NetFlix. If you have NetFlix, you need this one.
Pandora. Streaming music. If you subscribe to Pandora, get this one.
Soma FM. Cool ambient music, Free app. Get it.
X Plane. Absolutely the best flight simulator available for the iPhone. Ten bucks, but worth it.
Doom Classic. It plays Doom. I’m twitching in anticipation.
DropBox. Sync files between computers, iPhones and iPads. Two GB of storage for free.
Good Reader. The best way to view PDF’s and documents on the iPhone. I use this to view my flight manuals on the iPhone and iPad.
Kindle. Amazon’s Kindle app for the iPhone. A better selection of titles than Apple’s iBooks app.
Fractals. A cool Mandelbrot and Julia set viewer. Beautiful images for the math geek.
Right now I have 134 apps on my iPhone and a grand total of 588 apps in iTunes. Believe me, I’ve tried them all, and these are the best of the best. You should consider getting all of these apps.
Enjoy your brand new Verizon iPhones!
bobhodgen 