Periodic Ramblings

I have seen quite a few articles about the best iPhone applications of 2009, so I figured I would do a post on the applications that I can not live without.  This does not necessarily mean that these are the best applications out there or that everyone will find them useful, it just means these are the applications I use all the time.

Echofon – I have tried a number of Twitter applications, but have constantly preferred the Lite version of Echofon.  The only drawback that it has for me is one account, but since I only have two Twitter accounts (determan and periodicramblin), I just use the web interface for one and Echofon for the other.

Evernote – As I have written before, I love Evernote.  I have all sorts of notes pertaining to all aspects of my life in here.  The iPhone app lets me take pictures with camera or just take a note whenever I want and adds geographic specific location to the note.

Reqall – Instead of just being a simple interface for the web based reminder system, the iPhone application adds additional features, such as allowing me to speak my reminder/task and having it transcribed.

Facebook – Nothing much to say here.

Linkedin – Same as Facebook.

1Password (Lite Version) – I use the Lite version of this program to store my userids and passwords for work/web/personal needs.  I have no need to sync to a desktop application, so the web based application is all I need.

The Weather Channel (Lite Version) – I am a weather geek, and this is probably one of the best weather applications in the store.

Google – I like the one-stop application for all Google services on the iPhone.

ESPN ScoreCenter – I am a sports nut, and this application provides me a single place to get all the scores for my favorite teams and sports.

So, those are the applications that I use every day.  There are others that I find nice to have, but these are the ones that I would miss.  I have my phone organized to have these all on the second screen right after the home screen for easy access.

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia will begin in about 44 days.  I remember as a kid having to watch events either on tape delay or at odd hours when they were in countries around the world, but as the Bejing Games showed, the Internet makes the games more accessible for all.

I ventured over to the Olympics site for NBC and can see already that a number of events will be online and there are links to a number of Twitter and Blogs for the athletes that are competing.  No longer will the fan of the Olympics need to wait for the evening news or the next day’s newspaper.  This is one of the benefits of the Internet that is overlooked a lot.

Lifehacker posted a link to a web page by Tom Scott that will display a Star Wars location based on the current weather conditions of any location that you put in.

According to the site, here in Racine, Wisconsin, it is currently Hoth like.  Hopefully, the Empire will not find me in my secret hideout.