The Best Free iPhone and iPod Touch Apps

So, you just got your brand new iPhone or iPod Touch; congratulations. Now you need some iPhone and iPad apps. You were drawn to the iPhone and iPod Touch because of the diverse and plentiful app store. Unfortunately, it is the wide variety of apps that is probably overwhelming you right now. How do you cut through the garbage to find out what is actually worth putting on your new device? More importantly, how do you sort out the quality apps without wasting your money.

There are a few indispensable apps on the Apple App Store, and some of the best ones are free. Here is the list of the best and most useful free apps for your new Apple iPhone or iPod to get you started out right in the new year.

The Best Free Games for the iPhone

Words With Friends
If you have played Scrabble, then you have played words with friends. The concept is identical, but the gameplay is more casual and convenient because you get to play over the internet with other people. The game will patiently wait while you take your turn and send the board back to your opponent. Words With Friends has been a great way for my friends and family to keep in touch; we may not have time for a complete conversation, but we always have time to place a few tiles and play a turn.

The Free version of Words With Friends is ad supported, but the ads are not too obtrusive, and they do not break game play. It is easy to play and very easy to enjoy.

Temple Run
Temple Run is an old-school style platform game that is basic and endless. The premise is basic; you control a man that is running through the jungle being chased by crazy monkey men. You use exceptionally simple controls to guide your runner over and under obstacles while avoiding being caught. It sounds ridiculous, but it is really quite mindless and enjoyable. Temple Run is the epitome of casual gaming on an iPhone or iPod Touch.

The Best Free Photography and Creativity Apps for the iPhone

Hipstamatic
Hipstamatic is a free camera replacement for the iPhone or iPod Touch that allows you to take photos using stylized films, camera bodies, lenses and flashes to achieve a wide range of artistic or antique looks. The photos from Hipstamatic are often quite beautiful and unique; they capture a moment is a way that will be both memorable and “hip”.

I tend to spend hours doctoring my photos using Photoshop Elements or iPhoto, but Hipstamatic allows me to edit the images at the source. There are so many options and combos of camera parts that may never take the same photo twice. When a photo is taken via Hipstamatic, it is saved in your camera roll like any other photo, so they can be shared or saved to your iCloud for sharing.

PhotoFunia
PhotoFunia is “Photoshopping for Dummies”. Using PhotoFunia, you can take a photo that you have taken and apply specific treatments to it that radically change the photo. These aren’t just color filters and such; PhotoFunia allows you to make billboards of your photos, Christmas Frames, or even attach your friend’s head to Superman’s body.

The treatments in PhotoFunia are diverse and varied enough to stay interesting, and new ones are being added all of the time. I have been able to make some pretty unique and interesting wall papers for my iPhone using PhotoFunia. In minutes, I was able to do what I needed hours to do in Photoshop.

The Best Free Productivity Apps for the iPhone

Evernote
While no one is going to write the next, great American novel on their iPhone or iPod Touch, it is handy to keep a few important notes or lists at your fingertips. The Notes App that comes standard on the iPhone exists, but it is far from useful. Evernote, however, allows you to create notes online, on your PC, or on your iPhone and iPod touch and keep them all synced. Not only can you make notes, but you can snap photos and sync those to Evernote as well. Evernote will index any readable text in your photo so you can search for it later.

Personally, I love the fact that I can email a document or PDF to Evernote and it will be saved, made searchable and synced. On more than one occasion, I have needed a list or shipping information that I received on my laptop, and I simply forward it to my Evernote account. Instantly, it is synced to my iPhone; brilliant. Evernote does require an external account be created.

Dropbox
I don’t have near enough storage on my 16GB iPhone, and while that is a first world problem, it is easily solved with Dropbox. My personal Dropbox account is 10GB which has effectively nearly doubled my usable storage space on my iPhone. The best part is that anything I save in my Dropbox on my PC is instantly saved, if I need it, on my phone. Likewise, anything I upload via my iPhone is ready when I need it on my PC. I have no need to sync or carry cables around. Dropbox does require an external account to be created.

The Best Free Utilities for the iPhone

Dolphin Browser
Safari on the iPhone is pretty good, but Dolphin Browser is better. The inner workings are quite similar, but Dolphin stands out because of visibly tabbed browsing, gesture control, and the ability to switch back and forth from the URL keyboard and the general keyboard at will. Dolphin Browser also has a single text entry field, so it doesn’t matter if you are entering a search term or a URL, you use the same text area. This is very intuitive, smart, and it speeds things up quite a bit. So far, I have yet to run into a website that looked or worked differently on the Dolphin Browser then it did in Safari.

Google Search
Google Chrome is not available on any iOS device, but Google Search is the next best thing. Not only do you have the ability to search and browse the internet through the app, it has specific pages and web apps that support all of Google’s apps. GMail and Google Docs both look much better through the Google Search app then they do in the regular Safari Browser. When you combine the support for Google Apps with a very accurate and intuitive voice search and the power of Google Goggles, you have a very well-rounded and powerful browsing and searching app on the iPhone.


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