8: Carminder
Do you have multiple cars, each with a different oil change and tire rotation mileage? Or, are you just sick of remembering all of the maintenance that you need to do? Well, Carminder is the perfect application for you. Carminder remembers everything, for every car that you own. Tire rotations, radiator flushing, brake pads, and even windshield wipers – all of these, and even more, are kept on your iPhone or iPod Touch to help you remember. This is the perfect application for anybody who has too many cars to keep track of, or simply too much information to remember. And, at only $1.99, Carminder will not break your bank.
7: Rest Area
There is something about road trips that just makes you have to go to the bathroom way too often. This, of course, is most noticeable when you have children in the car with you. This is where Rest Area comes in, an application that uses the iPhone's GPS chip and will tell you where, and more importantly, how to get to the closest rest area. Even further, Rest Area will provide you with all the information that you want, from what food they have to the picnic area size. At just $.99, Rest Area is a perfect add-on for your road trip.
6: Congress, Congress Pro, and various State Pro
The applications from the Cohen Research Group are interesting and very informative. Congress and Congress Pro will give you all sorts of information about various congressional leaders, members, and the laws they pass. Georgia Pro, California Pro, Name-Your-State Pro will give you information about the members of the state government and their laws. All of these applications are informational, useful, and great for, well, anybody. Though they are intended originally for Blackberry devices, the port to the iPhone and iPod Touch is flawless and well done. The price, however, might hold you back, as the applications range from $.99 to $19.99, depending on which you want.
5: Tap Tap Coldplay
Continuing their placement on my top 10 lists, Tap Tap came out with yet another iteration: Tap Tap Coldplay. Just like with all of their previous games, Tapulous has created an amazing rhythmic music game where all you do is tap your iPhone screen in time with the music. While this might sound stupid and boring, it actually is quite entertaining and enjoyable. This time, however, instead of featuring various bands, Tap Tap Coldplay only plays Coldplay music, which is something I love. Take it from me, a Coldplay fan, all other fans of the band will love this application. At $4.99, Tap Tap Coldplay will give you plenty of playtime and amusement.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
CarMinder looks interesting if you have to be "on the cheap," but I'd also suggest users look at Car Care, which is what I used after doing a lot of research. I find it has a LOT more detailed information, doing everything Car Minder does plus displaying graphs of both gas price and gas mileage, plus a breakdown of stats such as total cost per mile, carbon footprint, best/worst/average fuel economy, etc. It's a great app - I haven't been disappointed yet.
On the "Iphone zoom" issue, this is almost a moot point. Given Apple's general attitude, I can see why they chose to leave it out. Digital zoom is a lossy process. Despite what people want to have us believe about the Iphone camera, it is actually surprising good for what it is. It takes very nice, colorful, sharp pictures for such a tiny little camera. I get consistently decent images from it, to the point that I use it all the time. Adding digital zoom would sully the quality of the camera - zooming simply means cropping the image, then enlarging it, which significantly lowers the quality of the image. When we're talking about 2 megapixel images to begin with, that's not a real good idea. The best results are going to be done on a computer in Photoshop or something equivalent. That said, I can see the use of something in camera for those moments when you just have to have it.
I just wish I could get all my camera apps in ONE app, as I now have several, the most used being Mobile Fotos (for Flickr upload,) Darkroom Pro (utilizes the Iphone's accelerometers to take a shot when the Iphone is perfectly still - great for dark places,) and iFlashReady (which applies one of three different sets of levels to add contrast to images - it really works great as long as the image isn't already too light.) If Adobe could come out with an iPhotoshop, I would happily pay a premium as a long, long time user of PS. I haven't found one that does it all, unfortunately. Hmm, maybe I need to learn to program for the Iphone . . .
2 - Tom Johnson
I have to rescind my support for iFlashReady based on the update that the developer put out, and that's based on one big problem: IFR now overwrites the original image rather than making a copy with the changes. A HUGE no-no. Incredibly stupid change. Until this functionality is reinstated, I suggest everyone look elsewhere, unfortunately.
3 - Adam
For self-learners, I've come across an extension list of 100 iPhone apps that can be used by self-learners.
4 - Robert M. Barga
@Adam
please don't link to something that really isnt that useful in my article
5 - Robert M. Barga
the thing is that the phone should have had a physical zoom. The digital works well, as it simply blows up using less megapixels, and it actually results in good image
i will check out car care, that one missed me.
6 - iFlashReady developer
Hello, Tom,
iFlashReady is not, and is not authorized to overwrite any source images. The only thing IFR can do is create new images in "Saved Photos" folder.
iPhone OS forbids any application to overwrite the source image. If you load a photo from another folder, say, "Photo Library", the result after IFR is written to "Saved Photo" folder.