Archive for category Free iPhone and iPod Touch Apps

Free Apps We Like: To Do’s List

We’ve seen a lot of to-do apps, but To Do’s List (link) is the best free one we’ve come across yet. And despite including powerful features like local notifications, password protection, and exporting tasks to the iPhone’s calendar, the app never loses sight of its purpose: quick and easy creation of a to-do list.

The first requirement for any good to-do app is that it let you create a to-do as fast as possible. To Do’s List lets you do this in a minimum amount of steps: open the app, hit the plus sign, write your to-do, tap Done. That’s it, the item is added to your list.

From there, you can do the typical organizing like adding priorities and additional notes if you’re so inclined. But what’s special about To Do’s List is that it takes advantage of new iOS features like Local Notifications, which allow you to set alarms for your various tasks that will run in the background and alert you even while running other apps.

The app also lets you add to-do list items to your iPhone’s calendar. If you want to turn a reoccurring to-do like “Get a haircut” into a monthly repeated task on your iPhone’s calendar, you can do so without ever leaving the app.

Some may also appreciate the password protection to keep your to-do’s private. Who doesn’t have an embarrassing task to do now and again, or maybe Christmas shopping for the husband and kids? A setting in the options menu lets you require a password in order to access the app when its launched.

The app has many other settings and tweaks, like various ways to change the app’s appearance. All-in-all, it’s a pretty good deal for free, although it is ad-supported, so you’ll have to deal with an annoying ad (when the ads are working). There’s also a paid version that removes the ads.

To Do’s List is a free download from the App Store.

Free iPhone Apps We Like: Retina Wallpapers HD

Retina Wallpapers HD (link) is a free app for finding high-res wallpapers for your iPhone 4′s Retina Display. You can browse or search through over 10,000 wallpapers in 640×490 format, and the developers say they’re adding more “daily.” I prefer simple dark backgrounds, but the app has a little bit of everything.

When you find a wallpaper you like, the app will save it to your iPhone’s Photos library, where you can make it your iPhone’s wallpaper.

Retina Wallpapers HD is a free download from the App Store.
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Free Apps We Like: Alarm Tunes Lite

Alarm Tunes Lite (link) is a free alarm clock app that takes advantage of iOS 4′s local notifications, letting you set alarms that run in the background and play your own music to wake up to.

The app comes with a few other nice features too, including letting you have multiple alarms (up to 3 with the free version). You can specify whether those alarms go off everyday, weekdays (perfect for those in the 9-to-5 crowd), or weekends only. Other features are a night mode with a dimmed screen, and in-app volume settings for the alarms.

And for iPhone 4 owners, the app comes with nice high-res graphics that look crisp on the 4′s Retina Display.

The Lite version app is ad-supported, so a bothersome iAd appears at the top. But there’s a $0.99 paid version that gets rid of it.

Alarm Tunes Lite is a free download from the App Store.

LED Light for iPhone 4 Free Instantly Activates iPhone’s LED Light

While the iPhone’s screen has always been a convenient if somewhat weak light source, the introduction of the LED flash has made the iPhone 4 a decent little pocket flashlight. Light for iPhone 4 Free (link) is a an app that automatically turns on the LED light when launched. Simple and fast. And free.

The app also has strobe light capabilities for those late night rave parties. A tab at the bottom lets you alter the frequency of the strobe’s blinking.

Light for iPhone 4 Free is a free download from the App Store.

The 175 Best Free iPhone Apps

One of the best things about owning an iPhone is the amount of good and useful free apps available. But it’s tough to comb through the 200,000+ apps in the App Store to find them, so here is a list of our handpicked 175 best free iPhone apps, in no particular order, loosely grouped by similar apps. Did we miss any? Mention them in the comments and we may add them.
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Seesmic iPhone App Combines Twitter, Facebook, And Every Other Social Network Imaginable

If you juggle multiple online social networks, Seesmic (free, link) is a solution for controlling all your favorite social networks in one place. It is a fully functional client for Twitter and Facebook, and can access dozens of other networks through ping.fm.

The app configures your online accounts as “spaces,” which can moved about the main screen.

Official app description:
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Free App: Top 100 Songs from 1947-2009 by Bing

The Top 100s by Year by Bing app (link) is currently on sale for free (was $1.99). The app streams the top 100 songs for every year from 1947-2009. Simply choose the year, and the app will randomly play songs from the top 100 of that year.

The app is a good way to discover and rediscover old classics (my favorite spans are late 50s to mid 60s). There are some complaints that the app asks you to download the Bing app every once in a while, even if you have it installed. The app limits you to selecting the year only, you can’t play specific songs shown on the list—they are selected randomly for you. You can, however, buy the songs in iTunes.

The songs listed aren’t the official Billboard top 100 songs, but rather songs based on popularity and that have “stood the test of time.”

Top 100s by Year by Bing is a free download for a limited time in the App Store.

American Express iPhone App Now Available

The American Express app (free, link) gives iPhone users mobile access to their American Express credit card accounts, allowing you to check balances, see recent transactions, pay bills, view membership award points, and manage multiple accounts.

The app supports 18 different American Express card types (see official description below for list). It even supports the super-exclusive, invitation-only America Express Black card (aka, the Centurion).

The app is super useful for keeping tabs on your credit card account. Need to know if you have enough credit left to pay for something? Whip out your iPhone and check. I personally use another credit card app, the Discover Card app (link), to keep constant vigil on my credit card balance and the Chase banking app (link) to pay it off. If you have the right cards and banks, you can run all your finances on the iPhone. And of course it’s the mobility of the iPhone that makes these apps come in handy so often.

American Express is a free download from the iTunes App Store.

Official app description:

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Review: MyFitnessPal Calorie Counter App for iPhone

MyFitnessPal (free, link) is a calorie counting and tracking app that uses an extensive online database to simplify finding the calorie counts of foods. It helps you lose weight by displaying a suggested calorie total for a desired weight loss pace, then subtracts your actual calorie intake against it. For a free app, MyFitnessPal offers some powerful features, and it syncs with the excellent MyFitnessPal website.

While keeping a calorie journal up-to-date on a daily basis can be difficult in the long-term, the conveinence of carrying around the journal in your pocket or purse makes it a little bit easier. Even if you can’t keep up the calorie journal for too long, using MyFitnessPal is worth it simply to clarify the total calories of all the food you eat in a single day, as you may be surprised how calories can really build up.

There is one important thing to note about the app: it requires an Internet connection (a recent updated add offline functionality)—there is no offline mode. Essentially, it is an extension of the MyFitnessPal website, which the app saves your data to. The first time you launch the app, you’ll be asked to create an account as well as set up your dieting goals. For example, if you want to slowly lose weight, you can set a desired weight loss rate of 0.5 pounds/week, or if you want to move faster, 2.0 pounds/week. Then the app takes over and tells you how many calories you can consume (or have left to consume) in order to be on pace to lose weight.


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iDaft Turns You Into a Daft Punk DJ (Free iPhone App)

iDaft 2 is a free musical app that puts you in control of the Daft Punk’s sound effects for their songs “Harder Better Faster Stronger” (better known for being used in Kanye West’s “Stronger“) and “Technologic.”

The sound in the app is excellent—you could plug the iPhone into your stereo and pump out a version indistinguishable from an mp3—of course it doesn’t sound so great coming out of the iPhone’s speakers. The app features the entire background beats and bass line for the songs. You control the various sound effects via a soundboard by simply tapping the squares at any moment you want.

The app is a lot of fun to play with. Even professional DJ’s have put it to use via an iPad, as seen at around 11:45 in the video below (press play to jump to it):

iDaft 2 is a free download from the iTunes App Store.